Zombies of the Stratosphere

12-chapter science fiction action serial from Republic Pictures and director Fred C. Brannon features a Martian invasion party, including Marex (Lane Bradford) and Narab (Leonard Nimoy), with a plot to detonate H-bombs powerful enough to knock Earth from its orbit, after which Mars will be moved into its place, strengthening the Martian atmosphere and allowing life to flourish there once again. It's up to Larry Martin (Judd Holdren), equipped with his incredible rocket suit, and his compatriots to stop the Martian menace and their earthly criminal henchmen.

Original planned as another Commando Cody offering, for some unexplained reason Republic changed the lead character's name to Larry Martin at the last moment, despite leaving the supporting cast, not to mention the rocket suit, the same. The filmmakers relied heavily on stock footage, and re-used a lot of action scenes and effects shots from earlier serials and movies. There are a lot of fist fights, plus a killer robot. This particular serial gets mentioned now chiefly for being the first screen performance by Leonard Nimoy. The future Spock was already playing an alien, only this time not one nearly as cool as the Vulcan.

Solid followup to RADAR MEN, this fast-paced Republic serial pits federal agent Larry Martin against Martians hell-bent n blowing the Earth out of the solar system and into oblivion. Larry often dons the rocket suit to fight them, so we get lots of shots of him flying, and these scenes are quite realistic. The special effects team rigged a dummy on a wire and flew the thing several feet above the ground. The only catch is, Larry's not exactly a superhero and manages to get beat up and knocked out several times by his much tougher opponents. Also, he's a lousy shot with a handgun. So's everyone else, for that matter. No one ever gets shot. Also, everyone -- good guys and bad guys -- wear the same suits and fedoras, and they're all thin as rails, so at times it is hard to tell who's who. When they fight, they almost never lose their hats, the better to hide the stuntmen. Only the Martians are dressed differently. They wear what appear to be costumes from some old King Arthur movie. And they're green, of course. The amazing physical stunt work was handled by three of Hollywood's best stuntmen. It's wise not to watch this all in one sitting, by the way. Too much repetition of the flying scenes. There is a condensed, non-serial version from 1958, if you prefer. Regardless of what you're heard about colorization, make sure to watch this in computerized color. And watch for a young Leonard Nimoy as Martian No. 2.

Okay, so this is corny to the max. But I get a kick out of this stuff anyway.

I can't figure out why they called this "Zombies" as there aren't any zombies (except maybe the robot built by the guys from Mars). Zombies aren't even mentioned except in the last episode.

I do know most everybody in the cast had to get wet at some time or other in this production. They had the entrance to the bad guys hideout go thru an underwater tunnel. Sorta goofy eh!. Speaking of goofy---Larry Martin's rocket pack never fired (although he flew in it a lot---maybe it's invisible rocket blast).

The story is really simple: Guys from Mars want to set off a big H-bomb to deflect Earth out of its orbit so they can put Mars where the Earth was---to warm it up more I guess. They go thru all sorts of contortions to get materials for this project with Larry Martin foiling them at every stage. Lots of cars, boats, trains get wrecked in the process too---Usually at the end of each chapter. Many gunfights occur, along with the usual hokey fist fights in which everyone involved gets up and walks off with no bruises, blood, or even rumpled clothing.

Oh yeah. Mr. Spock was in this, but he didn't do much of anything except say "Yes, sir" to the big shot Martian goon. I think he attacked Larry Martin a couple of times in the underwater passage. Or maybe it was the other goon. It was sorta hard to tell with the goofy, sparkly costumes on that covered most of their heads.

Luckily I didn't have to buy this as I downloaded it from that www.archive.org site (I think all their movies are copyright expired or something so it's legal to download from there). Actually a friend referred me to that site saying "This stuff is your style." I think I'm getting a bad rep here! But I do watch a lot of this old, corny stuff. It amuses me and that's what I watch movies for.

Don't dis this too bad as it's good for a laugh or two. Outlandish costumes and goofy electronic gear will make you chuckle.

I didn't see any zombies in this movie (outside of the viewer....), but I did see Leonard Nimoy in one of his first screen credits. This serial style program which centers on the exploits of a rocket powered hero is a horrible movie, at least by modern standards, but it's so bad, it's funny and although I gave it only a 2 rating, it's campiness could almost make this one a cult classic! One of the funniest things is the control panel on our hero's chest. To go up, he rotates a knob to a spot labeled "up". To go left - you guessed it, he rotates the knob to a spot labeled "left". At the end of each scene, our hero is left in an impossible situation, only to have a slightly different take on that scene showing how he got out of it at the start of the next scene. Pretty funny! We sure hope he saves the damsel in distress and the Earth from those nasty Martians and the future Vulcan.

50s Republic Studios serial that very much resembles other 50s Republic work like Commander Cody and Radar Men From The Moon.

Firstly, I was not a child of the 50s, I was a child of the 70s, so perhaps I have a different take on old time B&W movie serials than older viewers? My take is this...I turn to Columbia serials for Batman, I turn to Universal serials for Buck Rogers and I turn to Republic serials for this kind of frantic spacey action with spaceships and rocket men flying around the place! So basically, I love Zombies Of The Statosphere! Mainly the first four chapters...

The first few chapters will put a smile on your face. You will not be looking at Leonard Nimoy (and this is coming from a Trekker like me) but rather you will get totally sucked into the style-over-substance look of this production. From the alien costume to the Lydecker miniature flying effects, to the full scale ship model, to the outstanding vintage cars, and the train rooftop fights. This has the works.

I know a few of these old time serials had fights on train rooftops but I found such footage most pleasing in Columbia's Batman And Robin (1949)...so you might wish to see that as well.

Now onto the bad news. Because the first four chapters put me on such a high, I was not ready for what was to come in chapters five and six when the painfully dated tin-can robot appears! Yes, I know, with the exception of Robby The Robot (Forbidden Planet, The Invisible Boy), 50s robots just looked like this. Even the odd 60s robot looked much like this (see that first season Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea episode with a robot). But the sight of a walking garbage bin put a damper on what was a knockout start.

On top of this, the extensive underwater footage did not look so good on my faded print of the serial. Maybe you had a better print and could make out what was going on underwater?

In a nutshell, this is well worth watching as the flying effects and general look of the production is outstanding. Lydecker would go on to do more "real-daylight-filmed-flying-scenes" with TV's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964) and Lost In Space (1965). Some viewers (like me) will struggle with things once tin-man enters the scene but he does not get much screen time and he does only very limited damage to the 12 chapters as a whole. Enjoy!