Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe

I'm a sucker for all of Republic's "Rocketman" adventures. There were three Rocketman serials before this: King of the Rocketmen (1949), Radar Men From the Moon (1952), and Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952). Next came these 12 episodes of Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe (1953) which are like chapters of a serial only without cliffhanger endings. It's an entertaining hybrid of a serial and a TV show. This series uses plenty of stock footage, but that doesn't bother me one bit. It adds to the fun! I wasn't alive back in the 50's, but Commando Cody never fails to provide me with enjoyable escapism in 2005. All of Republic's Rocketman adventures are a blast!

Being fully familiar with Republic's "Rocket Man" trilogy -- "King of the Rocket Men," "Radar Men from the Moon" and "Zombies of the Stratosphere," I ignored the Commando Cody TV series for years only because I mistakenly thought it was just a repackaging of what I already owned and enjoyed on VHS and DVD. Seeing a still from the show on Facebook, though, made me realize that it might be something different -- and it is! Not a cliffhanger, the series proceeds through 12 self-contained episodes and probably would fit best between the first two serials. There's plenty of plot, fewer fistfights than in the serials, and more imaginative use of Cody's rocket, which even travels against the star-studded blackness of space outside of Earth's atmosphere, unlike its lunar voyages in "Radar Men" or rocket dogfights in "Zombies." Yes, there may have been too much reliance on stock disaster footage, but there's also some decent model and miniature work in evidence. To really enjoy the Commando's adventures, just don't sit down expecting modern CGI-quality special effects or sparkling dialogue. Put yourself in a '50s frame of mind and go with it.

Cody and his spaceship protect the earth from outer space dangers.

This has now been remastered with a wonderfully clear print which makes it ten times better than it was before. Much the same sort of thing as Radar Men from the Moon but with longer episodes and no cliff-hangers at the end of them.

The key to watching this show: don't think about it.

Just look at the wonderful Howard Lydecker flying effects (of Cody and the spaceship), listen to the wonderfully corny closing lines heard at the end of some episodes...and that is it.

There is a pre-Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea TV series feel to this production. Lydecker also worked on the flying scenes of VTTBOTS's "flying sub" and the endless bang, bang explosions also happened in VTTBOTS season's three and four.

I have seen Commando Cody panned as crude, stiff, simplistic, etc but in my youth this was pretty exciting. Republic had the best special effects thanks to the Lydecker brothers while actors in B-movies and low budget productions get the raspberry simply for appearing on screen while performers in big budget productions have their failings overlooked. The scenes where Cody and crew pull up to their space ship, get in, then you see the rocket start to move with no obvious cuts-back in 1955, you thought you were seeing the Real Thing. Likewisethe flying sequences (using the same model they originally used for Captain Marvel (1941) here clad in the Rocketman costume also a very well done, well edited, I think they hold up even today. I also recall a scene where Cody in his rocket is pursuing the Bad Guys rocket, the latter had a dorsal turret with ray guns, for those of us growing up in the Afterglow of WWII, that was something familiar and realistic. For the budgets they had, they did a good job, the actors deserve more credit than they have gotten.

"Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe", was a half hour TV series that ran as a replacement series on NBC during the 1955 season. If the series looked familiar...it was! "Commando Cody..." shows its Republic Pictures/matinée serial origins as the title character appeared once under the Cody name and twice under different character names in three different Saturday matinée cliffhanger serials from the late '40's thru the early '50's. Although there were 12 TV episodes (as there were nearly always 12 chapters of a serial), none of them ended in the inevitable cliffhanger ending. All episodes were complete in themselves yet there was a definite continuing story arc week-to-week. The 12 episodes were first shown in theatres in 1953 but by this point in time movie serials were fast becoming extinct due to the growing popularity of network television. Republic Pictures, along with Columbia Pictures, were the last two studios to produce theatrical serials. The "Commando Cody..." series was, along with most of the last of Republic's serial output, very cheaply and quickly produced so as to include tons of stock footage at Republic's disposal from nearly 20 years of serial production. Judd Holdren, who had played the Cody character (under a different name) in the second of the "Rocketman/Commando Cody" theatrical serials, starred as Commando Cody. Aline Towne played his assistant Joan, William Shallert played his assistant Ted for the first half of the series and Richard Crane replaced Shallert as assistant Dick during the second half. The Cody group was battling Gregory Gay as the Ruler who was attempting to destroy the Earth from his base on the Moon. The Ruler was assisted on Earth by Baylor (portrayed by veteran actor Lyle Talbot) and assorted other Earth gangsters looking to "clean up" after Earth's overthrow.

Sci-Fi that seems "hokey" by today's standards but entertaining for its' time in the much simpler '50's.