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.

One of my all time.... SO BAD IT´S REALLY GOOD FAVORITES! What is there to say about Movies like this one??? On just about every imaginable level... And in about every single production area you can name... This one is truly a STINKER! Everyone has heard of LOW BUDGET.... In this case... It is more like..... NO BUDGET!

Dozens of untintended laughs guaranteed!!! ..... If...Of course ... You can manage to sit through the ENTIRE 1 Hour and 15 Minutes!!!! ENJOY!!!

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.

This one (so to speak) is for lovers of the old Republic Serials, those incredibly silly (by modern standards) episodic films that kept our parents or grandparents coming back to the Saturday matinée week after week. Produced on budgets not much larger than Ed Wood ever had, and on sets sometimes recycled from film to film, they still offered a weekly dose of action and adventure in the days when those terms were not synonymous with earth-splitting explosions, computerized special effects, and "I'll be back." The plots were straightforward; of course, most a/a genre films are simple of plot even today, but there is something about these old cans of cheeze that satisfies more than constant viewings of "Terminatorsaur" and "Predatalienator". The goods guys wear white hats (so to speak) and smell good; the bad guys wear black hats and stink of cigarette smoke; and the simplicity of the 'fex are lovely in themselves. Yeah, things still blow up and burn down, but that is still a function of a/a films, I guess. The logic is, bigger isn't always better, and the serials prove the point.

In this Saturday-morning peanut-gallery special, the plan is for the aliens to blow up Earth, so that Mars can take its orbital place and get warm. Out to foil them is Larry, a "security agent," armed only with a .45 and a miraculous suit that lets him fly through the air just by twisting knobs (and jumping on a hidden trampoline for the initial takeoff). Can he stop the terrible zombies from completing their dastardly scheme before the train runs off the track, he gets burned in a raging inferno, or the movie runs out of reels? Return to the theater next week for the next exciting chapter...or just keep playing the tape. Get plenty of popcorn, settle in for a Saturday with the kids to introduce them to what film really was like, and keep your eyes open for Leonard Nimoy, sans ears and "Live Long and Prosper", in an early film appearance!

One of the best-remembered of the serials, as well as one of the last ones (Republic stopped producing them in the mid-Fifties or so; check a specialist film-history Web site). Warmly recommended to all, unless you have no tolerance for cheesy sci-fi. I only hope it comes out on DVD eventually, and with Nimoy to comment on it or do a special feature!

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!