Radar Men from the Moon

This first Commando Cody adventure ain't bad, but the rocket suit, and most of the flying footage, was straight from Republic's first rocket suit serial, King of the Rocket Men (1949), usually considered the last of the great classic serials. Everything good in Radar Men (and there's plenty that's good) is better in Rocket Men! Please see it! The hero and villain have more personality, the action is more hard-hitting and extreme, the plot is more focused, and - perhaps most importantly - there is much mystery and subterfuge. In Rocket Men, our hero must keep his identity secret - no one knows it's him in that suit. And the villain too has a secret identity - we see him only in silhouette. Here, in Radar Men, everybody knows who everybody else is. Enjoy Radar Men (I know I did), but first, enjoy Rocket Men!

This is a great example of the B&W serials from the 50's. If your interested in seeing what the old movie serials from the 50's looked like, this is a perfect example, and it is fun to watch.Sure by todays standards the special effects and acting are a little ham-fisted and archaic, but remember this is from 1951 to 52 before TV even took hold.

Radar Men has a good story that keeps you interested episode after episode. The special effects are great for the time period. Cool space gadgets, a full size rocket ship, modeIs galore. You can't ask for more. The acting is passable with some great emoting on the close- ups. I recommend catching it if you can. It is out on dvd now. I picked it up in a box set of hokey sci-fi from Platinum disc corporation.

..say Star Wars. Comparing a 1950s serial with what many think is THE movie ? Think about it-how scientifically correct is Star Wars ? How many familiar images does it use ? The bad guys wearing black or gray uniforms, they have "Storm Troopers" do their dirty work? Where have we seen THAT before ? it In both cases the producers were trying to tell a story and sell tickets. And remember, 1952. The space programs were just getting started, the USSR orbited Sputnik in 1957, the US sent up Vanguard in 1958, 1961 when Gagarin orbited the Earth is still nine years away. I remember watching the Commando Cody series on TV in the 1950s, those special effects looked pretty believable, the scenes where the rocket takes off and you see the car and the building that you saw when the actors arrived-the Lydecker Brothers did that all long before CGI. Roy Barcroft, Republic's Villain in residence as Retik. I read that Barcroft took his work in the serials very seriously because he knew how much they meant to the kids, he insisted the other actors do so as well-it shows.

Moon ruler Retik assigned one of his people to go on Earth and cripple its defenses to a point when the Moon people could go down and invade it. The defense department gets a hold of the idea, and assigns Commando Cody, with flying rocket suit and all. Cody, along with his assistants, journey to the moon, are nearly killed and go back down upon Earth to stop the sabotage in progress in order to force Retik to come down and strike himself. The only Republic serial that did a good job trying to parody the 50's science craze, is at times ridiculous but still a lot of fun to watch. Sort-of sequel to King of the Rocketman and later inspired a kiddie TV show. Clayton Moore ( the Lone Ranger himself ) plays one of the Moon Men's hired guns. Just a little above average serial at best. I never saw the MST3K version, but they would have had a lot more fun doing Zombies of the Stratosphere or Flying Discman from Mars. Rating based on serials- 6 out of 10.

I saw most of the episodes of RMFTM as a teenager on "Cliffhanger Theater" running after midnight on a local station some years ago, and then again when Mystery Science Theatre riffed on it in the early 90's. Time has not been kind to it.

I can certainly make allowances for the special effects, which were quite impressive for a low budget 50's serial (IMO Commando Cody's flying scenes were better than George Reeves/Superman's in his TV show). And I can also make allowances for the ahem, "acting", and fight choreography -. except for the guy who plays the ruler of the Moon Men. He is incredibly miscast. He looks and acts like the fellow who comes to fix your plumbing, not the despotic ruler of an alien race. Even the corny dialog works all right - everyone rattles off their lines like strings of firecrackers, with no wasted time or pauses for things like "thought" or "introspection". Since everyone does this, the viewer finds it immersive after awhile, and even to my modern sensibilities, it doesn't bother much.

What really irritates me is the writing and the plotting. I'm not talking about the sunny weather on the moon, or baking soda powered rocket ships, or a flying suit that has controls labeled "up/down" and "fast/slow". I'm not even bothered by the cheesiness of the resolutions to the cliffhangers that end each chapter. I'm talking about the fact that our supposed heroes are dumber than fence posts and have no cumulative memory. And by the fact that although that the dialog clips along like an express train, the plot goes through the same motions again and again.

Dig it: Commando Cody and his pal are the spearhead of a top secret hi tech science lab charged with protecting Earth (or at least the USA) against an insidious alien invasion. But his office has no guards or security checkpoints. They don't even have locks on the front doors. So the bad guys walk RIGHT IN and beat the crap out of the Cody and his staff ...not once (perhaps understandable) but SEVERAL times. They even kidnap his female assistant on the second try. And they never get any smarter. To further prove my point, allow me to point out the way that Cody jumps in his flying suit and flies around getting into trouble and never actually seems to succeed in catching anyone. He does this over and over and over. Cody also flies his ship to the Moon (the woman assistant comes along to cook), stays for about 30 seconds and immediately turns around and comes back. Cody captures one of the Atomic Ray guns...and immediately loses it again to the bad guys because he couldn't be bothered to lock it up. And so on.

And you would think that if Cody's efforts were so vital to saving the USA from the Moon Men, that he might ask for a few soldiers with carbines, a few helicopters and a tank or two to back him up, instead of just working with the local police all the time. This was supposed to be a military operation, but they act like it's another episode of "Gangbusters".

It's all rather hard to stomach. I appreciate that the creators were severely limited in the scope of their story by budget and time constraints...and I appreciate that Cody is actually a reasonably tough hombre (even though he loses half of his fistfights). But I just can't help yelling "DOOR! LOCK THE DOOOOR!!" when the gangsters simply walk into his lab, or try to blow up the ship and there are NO security measures at the landing site in place...not even a fence (!).

Still, it's OK. Of the three Republic serials I've watched, "Phantom Creeps" had a better plot, and "Undersea Kingdom" had more atmosphere (hah!) and a better hero than "Radar Men", but it's an OK time-waster.

BTW...why "Radar" men? They didn't use radar, they used Atomic Ray Guns. Shouldn't the title have been "Atomic Ray Gun Men From The Moon?"