Radar Men from the Moon (1952) User Reviews

Corny, but Fun

[Mike-764 · 6/10 · 6 February 2001]

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.

See "King of the Rocket Men" first

[David Elroy · 5/10 · 10 February 2008]

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!

introduces the recurring character of Commando Cody without much background

[AlsExGal · 6/10 · 23 December 2022]

George Wallace stars as Commando Cody, a scientist and inventor who uses a jet-pack and special helmet to fly around and fight bad guys. He must thwart the efforts of Retik (Roy Barcroft), Ruler of the Moon to spearhead an invasion of the Earth so that the dwindling population of the moon can move here. Retik tasks his lackey Krog (Peter Brocco) with using the advanced weaponry of the moon to weaken the Earth's defenses. Cody and his team of helpers fight Krog at every step, so Krog enlists Earth criminals Graber (Clayton Moore) and Daly (Robert Stevenson) to help out.

This serial introduces the recurring character of Commando Cody, but it doesn't give much background, and we jump right into the middle of the action. The movie reuses a lot of footage from earlier serials, most prominently King of the Rocketmen and The Undersea Kingdom. Chief villain Retik is wearing the same moldy costume previously used in The Purple Monster Strikes and Flying Disc Man from Mars. The action is typical serial stuff, with lots of fist fights, and shoot-outs where no one is actually shot. I enjoy how the villains often continue to punch Cody in his metal helmet. One would think that it would quickly become apparent that that was a bad idea. Future Lone Ranger Clayton Moore was said to have been very exuberant in his fight scenes, and even broke leading man Wallace's nose. Commando Cody shall return!

Ludicrous, but groundbreaking

[redbeard_nv · 17 September 2001]

O.K., let's forget about all the little inaccuracies of the series, from clouds on the moon or the fact that Commando Cody always escapes from the deadly peril in a scene we didn't see in the last episode's cliffhanger.

Let's remember that fabulous flying rocket suit, which spurred the imaginations of both scientists at Bell Labs who tried to recreate it, to the imitators, such as the graphic novel turned movie, "The Rocketeer" or several episodes of "Star Trek:Voyager" spoofing the classic Republic serials.

Add to it the incredible work of brothers Howard and Theodore Lydecker, whose expert flying rigs made all the amazing flights so realistic (I dare you to find the wires attached to the models!). Their work became the industry standard long before computerized digital effects. They were responsible for the smooth flights of fancy by famous fantasy crafts such as the Flying Sub in "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea", the Proteus in "Fantastic Voyage" and the Jupiter II in "Lost In Space" (Look to the third episode of the series, where the Jupiter II crash lands on the first alien world, as the saucer emerges from the fog over a ridge. Irwin Allen knew he had a winning effect, so to save money (He was Mister Cheap), he shot it in color, to be used again two seasons later when the series upgraded from B&W).

Strangely Entertaining !!! 1950's Serial Style !!!

[cshep · 5/10 · 4 March 2007]

If you can remember when outer space was so near and yet VERY far away, then you might want to view this Republic look at good vs. evil fantasy science fiction . Commander Cody(George Wallace) is asked to investigate mysterious bombings, that are destroying vital transportation venues, and buildings.

He has this flying suit that goes up when you turn the dial to up and vice versa, great technology . and a space ship too !

Graber the Henchman(Clayton Moore) is using a secret weapon delivered from the MOON, to create havoc, and make way for an invasion.

This ray gun he is using is very powerful ans can destroy anything aimed at .

For 13 Chapters, Commander Cody and his cohorts Ted Richards(William Bakewell), Joan Gilbert( Aline Towne) along with Hank(Wilson Wood) Cody's pilot, battle the forces of evil, in dramatic fashion.

O.K., O.K., these plots don't always make sense, but in the 1950's , it was fun Saturday afternoon entertainment!

The truth is Clayton Moore(THE Lone Ranger) steals the show as the bad guy !!! He kicks Codys ass more times than I can count .

Which is worth the price of admission !

Every Chapter ends on a Cliff Hanger and solved the following week .

So , if you like to be amused by a glimpse of the supposed future, 1950's style, try Radar Men from the Moon , and get your flying suit on, it is quite a ride . I gave it a 5 out of 10.

Great character design, good flying effects, and that's about it...

[lemon_magic · 3/10 · 17 June 2006]

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?"

Cody Goes Commando

[flapdoodle64 · 5/10 · 5 April 2011]

(Or: 'Republic Recycles Rocket Man') In 1949, in one of their last bursts of inspiration, the thrill engineers at Republic produced 'King of the Rocket Men,' which capitalized on the popularity of the flying hero Superman, from the eponymous 1948 Columbia film serial. Although Rocket Man flew, he was in fact an ordinary human scientist who happened to have a helmet and rocket pack, and who battled the terrorist Dr. Vulcan.

King of the Rocketmen premiered 6-8-1949...3 weeks later, on 6-27-1949, the DuMont TV network premiered Captain Video, another science fiction hero who became one of the 1st bona fide superstars of early TV. After Rocket Man and Capt. Video, a number of science fiction heroes were popular on TV up through about 1955, when other trends began to dominate.

Capt. Video's creators had been inspired by the movie serials. In turn, Columbia Pictures obtained the rights to the Capt. Video character, and produced the super-cheap but super-profitable 'Captain Video Master of the Stratosphere' serial.

During this craze for quasi-military science-fiction heroes, Republic re-purposed the splendid Rocket Man flying footage and mixed in additional stock footage from about a dozen other serials to create Commando Cody. The name Commando Cody, BTW, was surely designed to capitalize on the popular TV character 'Commander Cory', of the hit TV series 'Space Patrol.' Thus it came to be that Republic was in the position of trying, late in the game, to jump aboard a trend that it inadvertently helped create! (But by the end of 1956, both the movie serials and the TV space heroes would be gone forever!)

One of the ways you can identify the re-used footage is when people in 1952 suddenly all hop into 1938 or 1946 automobiles for a car chase. You have to remember, cars from this era were fortunate to last 50,000 miles, so the idea that the streets of downtown Los Angeles of 1952 are suddenly filled with 1938 cars is not plausible. I lost track of how many times the characters all jumped into these automotive anachronisms...

Recylcing old footage is not necessarily a crime...in fact, some of Republic's best serials featured loads of reused material. But this serial shows a seriously uninspired writer, and it all seems kind of forced. Not to mention, Rettik the Moon Man is not a particularly menacing villain, with the other Moon Men and their Earth gangster stooges also lacking in menace and brain power. The Moon Scenes are pretty bad, even when compared with the stuff from Flash Gordon, and there is not a lot of emotional energy.

George Wallace is physically unimpressive as the titular hero, but in the action scenes he does a surprisingly good job of conveying urgency. He is actually OK, as are his companions.

Probably the best performance is by Clayton Moore, as one of the Earth gangsters inexplicably selling out his own planet for chump change. The performance is fun for everyone who saw his Lone Ranger performances and wondered what the guy actually looked like...well, here he is, and a he's a good actor, it turns out.

There are plenty of fight scenes, but nothing as inspired as the stuff from the early 1940's. Worst of all, the final chapter resolves the conflict without Our Hero getting into a suitable physical confrontation with the villain. This is rather unsatisfying.

By 1952, serials were fading fast, in terms of popularity and quality. This one is typical for that era. There are 2 other Rocket Man serials besides this one, the aforementioned 'King of the Rocket Men,' and 'Zombies of the Stratosphere.' Both King and Zombies are superior this serial, although this serial is an amiable waste of time.

The great Lydecker Brothers created some new FX for this serial, some nice shots of a rocket ship taking off and flying...these shots were reused in Zombies, as well as being used in the amazingly strange Republic quasi-TV series 'Commando Cody, Sky Marshall of the Universe.'

So-so stories about a so-so hero.

[quamp · 3/10 · 10 May 2002]

The Radar Men from the Moon is a pretty typical fare of 1950's serials. The special effects are pretty cheap, the lunar rovers are obviously World War II surplus jeeps with painted plywood over them, and the like. The acting is only so-so. It does inspire the imagination of children, to whom I believe this was directed to. By today's standards, it's boring, cheap, and bad. There's also a hefty amount of stock footage in the first 9 episodes of natural disasters.

Dated, but compared with those shorts that were basically commercials this one had to be fun back in the days.

[Aaron1375 · 5/10 · 25 March 2012]

First off, it is absolutely dated. There are so many scientific inaccuracies mainly because we had not gotten to the moon as of yet. However, if I were a kid from this era I would much rather see this action short proceeding my film rather than say one of those century 21 shorts or the ones featuring the correct way to do posture. This one features a man who flies through the air with a rocket back pack, and must of been the inspiration for "The Rocketeer". It most certainly was the inspiration for a Mad TV skit featuring a team of guys with jet packs. In this one the hero of the piece, one Commander Cody, must battle a group of people from the moon bent on destroying things with their atomic ray gun! I think that was the plot, it is so hard to say seeing as how the story is broken up and they are always focused on some dangerous cliffhanger that gets quickly resolved in an anticlimactic way at the beginning of the next short. Still, for the time it had to be a lot of fun, I just wish I could see the conclusion to this one. I encountered this serial on MST3K and I do not believe they ever finished it, basically leaving us hanging!

Great 50's Serial

[Lathe-2 · 7/10 · 14 March 2004]

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.

So, what exactly is a 'Radar Man' anyway?

[DPMay · 5/10 · 10 March 2019]

Having enjoyed several viewings in the past of Republic Pictures' 1949 serial 'King of the Rocket Men', I had long been intrigued by the supposed existence of a follow-up serial using the same type of 'Rocket Man' character and finally got around to seeing it.

And what a let-down it proved to be!

I was prepared to cut this production a lot of slack. Firstly, it was a story about space travel made before such a thing became a reality, so the science was expected to be somewhat off the mark. Secondly, the requirements of the chapterplay format was always going to be a handicap to the progression of the plot. Some of the old film serials still managed to work extremely well in spite of the need to cram action set-pieces and the all-important cliffhanger into each individual 15-minute segment, whereas others suffered from turgid repetition.

Radar Men From The Moon has enough of an expansive plot for it to avoid the pitfalls of such repetition and at least gives the sense throughout most of its individual chapters that plot is actually progressing. But only just.

The main storyline is a simple one, yet bold: Earth is under attack by the inhabitants of the Moon (I said I'd cut it some slack), who are preparing for a full-on invasion of our world.

Yet despite such a broad canvas, the limitations of the budget mean that this interplanetary battle is actually played out between three small groups of protagonists, each in their own private headquarters.

Firstly there is our group of heroes, a team of crack scientists headed by Commando Cody (George Wallace) whose achievements include building himself a rocket suit which allows him to fly in the air, and also the construction of a rocketship capable of travel through space.

Which is very handy, as this allows Cody and his pals to travel to the moon to investigate the cause of a series of mysterious attacks on major installations on Earth.

There Cody discovers evidence of an advanced civilisation in the form of a vast city, and on further investigation he just happens to wander into the main laboratory where the first person he meets is the ruler of the Moon, Retik (Roy Barcroft), who in perfect English reveals that the attacks from the moon's advanced ray guns have the aim of softening up man's defences prior to a planned invasion. Retik explains that because the moon's atmosphere has become so thin, his people now need a new home, and intend to make the Earth their own world. In this incredibly low-key portrayal of mankind's first ever encounter with an alien intelligence, Cody responds in rather deadpan fashion by telling Retik that he won't find the Earth so easy to conquer, and rather than seek a peaceful resolution by offering help to the endangered civilisation, he pulls a revolver on him and initiates a fight which ignites an action-packed runaround between the Moon and the Earth as he and his team seek to thwart the planned invasion.

The third group who play a major part in the proceedings is Retik's agent on Earth, Krog (Peter Brocco). Hiding in a cave which he has converted into a makeshift laboratory, Krog is assisted by two petty thugs, Graber (Clayton Moore, before his Lone Ranger fame) and Daly (Bob Stevenson). It is Graber and Daly who prove to be the biggest thorns in the side of Cody as they drive around the countryside using their alien ray cannon, or generally just turning up somewhere (including at his office) to try and put him out of action. Why two Earthmen are so hellbent on assisting an alien takeover of their own world is never addressed.

There are many of the expected set-pieces present, such as cars going over cliffs, planes going into a crash-dive, heroes seemingly trapped in a dead end inside an underground cavern as a deluge (of lava, in this case) approaches... And sadly far too many are cheaply resolved with the insertion of a previously unseen shot of the hero escaping the situation before the deadly climax.

Of the other action, again as might be expected there is the obligatory fist-fight in virtually every chapter, and a plethora of shoot-outs in which the hero Cody often shows a blatant disregard for the safety of others - for example, at one point he's shooting at a plane knowing full well that his pretty assistant Joan (Aline Towne) is held captive aboard it, and in another sequence he's shooting indiscriminately at Graber and Daly's car as it speeds along a city street full of innocent bystanders.

In fact, although he's meant to be the hero, Cody cuts a very questionable figure. His objectives often end in failure (for example, his insistence that his colleague Ted leave the vital alien ray gun behind so that they can save their own necks ultimately places the Earth in greater peril) and he's not even very chivalrous, failing on every occasion to check that Joan is okay whenever she suffers some mishap such as when she is rather brutally slugged unconscious on the rocketship by their unwilling alien passenger.

I struggled to be convinced by George Wallace in the leading role, he looks decidedly unlike a typical action hero when not dressed in the rocket suit. Though I gather he was a tough cookie in real life and suffered for his art in making this serial by performing many of his own stunts.

There's plenty throughout the serial that just lacks sense. Whether it's the moon ruler's lab or Cody's lab, the enemy can just walk right in unchallenged, and not just once but repeatedly. Graber and Daly, with a weapon in their possession capable of reducing a whole building to rubble in an instant, instead go to the ridiculous lengths of trying to kill Cody by feeding a deadly gas into the air conditioning of his laboratory. Realising the room is filling with this gas, Cody doesn't think to throw a chair or something to smash the window.

Then there's Al's Diner, a place where Cody learns that Graber and Daly sometimes hang out. Sure enough he finds them there and engages them in combat. So, knowing that they might no longer be safe to frequent the place, Graber and Daly continue to go back. And the proprietor, knowing that last time Cody turned up there his place got trashed and his customers were all scared away, calls him back and suffers the same outcome.

Oh, and I can't post this review without pointing out that this invasion of Earth also relies on the moon's Earthbound agent Krog raising necessary funds by organising a bank robbery!

Some of the special effects are very good, but the best ones are generally pieces of footage lifted from earlier productions. The rocketship looks quite unspectacular compared with the ones that populated the Flash Gordon serials many years earlier, likewise the alien laboratory lacks the kind of visual impact that the labs of Ming the Merciless or Doctor Frankenstein could boast back in the 1930s.

Yet in spite of being utterly ridiculous, Radar Men From The Moon is good solid fun in the best tradition of the old film serials. It certainly never gets dull!

Scientists Vs. Gangsters : Long Live Retik R.O.T.M!!!

[rabmstr · 10/10 · 1 February 2007]

This show is awesome!!! Never did I believe that a fight with scientists could be so hilarious. Almost every three episodes the gangster-like henchmen break into Commando Cody's lab and an all-out fist-fight ensues. The great thing (and funniest) is that the fighting is so unrealistic. Everybody takes a punch to the face without even being phased. Awesome!!! Of course, the gangsters always win because Commando Cody's sidekick gets knocked out and the gangsters start double-teaming. If only they used the same technique they use to get out of the dramatic ending of each episode. By this I mean jumping. NO JOKE...75% of the time they jump to get out of a tight spot.

These points aren't bad...in fact they make it all the better.

Less is more

[keith-moyes-656-481491 · 7/10 · 24 September 2010]

When I was a young child in the mid-Fifties, I saw episodes from a number of serials and they made a stronger impression on me than any of the feature films I saw at that time. Certain images have been imprinted on my memory ever since: the whining spaceships spiralling to earth, the Clay Men oozing from the cave walls and the pointy-headed Rock Men in Flash Gordon; the golden scorpion with its crystal lenses being aligned to melt rock in The Adventures of Captain Marvell; and the rocket ships, space suits, robots and ray guns in Captain Video. As a result, I look on these serials with an affection that cannot be justified by any objective critical analysis.

Radar Men from the Moon was not one I saw as a child and it isn't regarded as one of the best because it recycled too much material from earlier Republic serials. However, it has survived in an almost pristine print so it captures the look and feel of the classic serial better than most of the others that are still available today. What you see now is what it looked like then.

Like other serials, it was intended primarily for young children and was made on a tight budget to a very strict formula. All the main plot elements are introduced in the first episode and the story then just chases round in circles for another 11 weeks. Each episode is essentially the same. It starts with the resolution of the previous week's cliff-hanger (usually an outrageous cheat) has five minutes of plot to set up this week's action and invariably features a fist fight, a chase and a new cliff-hanger. As was often the case with these serials, there is one chapter towards the end that merely re-caps previous events and reuses old footage.

I don't want to pretend it is any better than it really is and I understand the negative responses of younger IMDb reviewers, but I must challenge some of their criticisms.

Within the constraints of its budget and its formula it is not badly acted, it is not badly written and it is not badly directed. On the contrary, it is a highly efficient piece of film-making and many contemporary producers, actors, screenwriters and directors could benefit from studying its economy of means.

Because it is intended for children, the characters are inevitably one-dimensional (the goodies are good and the baddies are bad) so all that is required of the actors is that they avoid the furniture and say the lines needed to set up the action sequences its young audiences had come to see. The acting in Radar Men may be minimal, but it is not bad: it is appropriate.

Actors today feel they have to imbue every line in every dumb movie with maximum emotion: they glower and snarl; pause and hesitate; smoulder with barely-contained rage; their voices quiver with suppressed passion or drip with treacly sincerity. Unfortunately, people are so used to this scenery-chewing that if it isn't there they think nothing is happening on the screen at all.

Because this type of acting is so common, we can no longer see how stylised and unreal it is. Show it to an audience from the Forties and they would probably howl with derision. Sometimes, the best thing an actor can do is just say the lines and let the situation supply the emotion. Less really is more.

Nor is the dialogue in Radar Men bad. On the contrary, it is beautifully crafted to convey the maximum information in the minimum words. Few writers today could set up plot developments as economically as this.

It is the same with the action sequences. Cars roar along roads and skid around corners and generate plenty of excitement. All that is required is to choose the right camera angles, cut in a few studio close ups, and speed up the film slightly. The fist fights just have good stunt men charging around the set, throwing punches and smashing chairs over each others' heads, while the camera sits there watching it. Today, sequences that Republic could knock off in an hour would take days to shoot. Every scene would require a dozen camera set ups and weeks of preparation by a stunt coordinator.

I would also commend the special effects. The miniatures in Radar Men are generally pretty good (although the tabletop Lunar city is far too small), the full scale props are well constructed and highly evocative and the flying effects were not surpassed for decades.

Today, CGI and animatronics enable producers to do things that Republic couldn't even dream of, but effects are often over-elaborate and over-used. We have lost sight of the simple truth that special effects are there to support the story, not dictate it.

I am not proposing that movies should revert to the low ambitions or the poverty row budgets of these old serials. However, I do believe that the big action movies of today are often over-long, over-blown and over-the-top. Actors and directors take their simplistic characters too seriously. For example, comic book superheroes, designed for the amusement of eight-year-old boys, are treated as if they were characters in Greek tragedy. Every special effect, every action sequence, every stunt and every explosion has to be bigger and better than anything that has gone before, but to rapidly diminishing effect.

Seeing how much Republic could achieve with minimal resources, in a serial like Radar Men, would be a useful corrective for many of today's film-makers who seem to think it's impossible to make an exciting action picture for under a hundred million dollars.

In fact, I suspect the reverse is true. If budgets were routinely cut in half we would probably get better movies.

Really, truly, abysmally, garishly, awful.

[pangraz · 1/10 · 7 March 2005]

Really, truly, abysmally, garishly, awful. But actor Clayton Moore (the movie Lone Ranger) acquits himself competently as an actor. He's the only one.

A rare treat, for five minutes, if you want to plumb the depths of grotesquely transparent special effects, southern California as "the moon" (again and again and again), and acting so woodenly inept that it may be a spoof . . . except that it's clear that it isn't--no humor here, except unintentionally.

The dialogue may be worse than any of these other aspects, and the costumes . . . well, enough said. Plot? What plot? Bad guy (well, head bad guy) and his henchmen, including his earthly agent called Krog (listen carefully or you'll suspect it's a spoof on the name of McDonald's founder Ray Kroc)and his unbelievably inept gunsels (who, however, have handguns that never need reloading; as does Commando Cody, so there are numerous firefight standoffs).

Enjoy.

My Favourite Republic Movie Serial

[StuOz · 8 February 2003]

In 1936 Republic made a very boring serial called Undersea Kingdom. But it had some fancy aircraft effects. In 1941 Republic made an okay serial called The Adventures of Captain Marvel. But it had amazing flying footage of Marvel. In 1949 Republic made a reasonably good serial called King Of The Rocketmen. More amazing flying effects. This was all a lead up to something. In 1952 Republic would make a true comic book classic.

Republic Studio effects man Mr Howard Lydecker is the most under-rated effects man in Hollywood. His work in Radar Men (and the above mentioned serials) steals the show. We have full scale spaceships, miniature spaceships, rocketman flying in the sky, fancy sci-fi hardware all over the place (including an early model of that female robot from the Lost In Space episode "Ghost Planet"), it is all here!

I also like looking at 1950s cars race around country roads and there is no shortage of that here. All great stuff! The cast? I don't know any of them but who cares? This is just screen comic book entertainment and nothing else. In the 1960s Howard Lydecker would do effects for TV's Lost In Space and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

Republic's Last Gasp.... It's Really Bad

[florida87 · 2/10 · 21 January 2007]

This serial is interesting to watch as an MST3K feature, but for todays audience that's all it is. I was really surprised to see the year it was made as 1952. Considering that fact alone makes this a solid (lowly?) 2 in my book. The cars used don't even look contemporary, they look like stuff from the 30's. It's basically Cody (the lone world's salvation? Sheesh talk about an insult to everyone else, like the military), anyway it's Cody in his nipple ring flying suit against Graber and Daley two dumb*ss henchman who sport handguns and an occasional ray gun thats pretty lame in its own right, enjoy. If you want to watch a really good serial see Flash Gordan, it's full of rockets that attack each other and a good evil nemesis and also good looking women, this has NONE of that. And Flash was made 15 or so years before this crap so you can give it some slack. Something made in 1952, this bad, deserves a 2. Nuff said. give it a 6 if your watching it as a MST3K episode, those guys have some good fun with it; a tweak of the nipples here, a tweak there and I'm flying! And now as an added bonus, I bring you the Commander Cody Theme song as originally sung by Joel and his two character bots Tom Servo and Crow aboard the satellite of love for episode eight The Enemy Planet:

(Singing at the very beginning credits);

(TOM SERVO SINGING) YOUR WATCHING COMMANDER CODY.... HE IS THE NEW CHARACTER FROM REPUBLIC,

HE GETS IN TROUBLE EVERY WEEK... BUT HE'S SAVED BY EDITING,

JUST A TWEAK OF HIS NIPPLES... SENDS HIM ON HIS WAY,

A PUMPKIN HEAD AND A ROCKET PACK.... WILL SAVE THE DAY,

(JOEL SINGING) HIS LABRATORY IS A BOXING RING... WHEN BAD GUYS COME TO MIX IT UP,

SOMEBODY ALWAYS GETS KIDNAPPED... AND CODY HAS TO FIX IT UP,

HE DRINKS HIS TEA AT AL'S CAFE... AND FLIES ALONG ON WIRES,

HE BEATS THE CROOKS AND FLIES WITH HOOKS... AND PUTS OUT FOREST FIRES,

(CROW SINGING)

BAD GUYS BEWARE... CODY IS THERE,

YOU'LL LIKE HIS HAIR IT'S UNDER HIS HELMUT... AND BECAUSE WE CAN'T THINK OF A GOOD RHYME,

THAT'S THE END OF THE COMMANDER CODY THEME SONG... SO SIT RIGHT BACK WITH A WILL OF GRANITE,

AND WATCH CHAPTER EIGHT, CAUSE THAT'S THE ENEMY PLANET

A Real Howl: Radar Men From the Moon

[arthur_tafero · 4/10 · 26 May 2019]

There are more holes in the plot of this film than in a chunk of Swiss cheese. For example: how do you explain a trip from the earth to the moon done all in daytime? No space, just daytime. Pretty funny. There are two gunfights and two fistfights in just the first episode. It felt more like a bad Western than a sci-fi film. The antagonist, Commander Cody, is a pugilist, a gun enthusiast, and a brilliant scientist, who occasionally likes to play Superman, but without Superman's strength or other powers. He does jump very well before he takes off, however. Does one have to jump before taking off in a personalized rocket suit? I guess so. Watching one or two chapters of this cheese is more than enough for you to figure out completely what will take place. It is a less imaginative version of Flash Gordon, but without the intensity.

Pretty Sily Stuff

[gavin6942 · 5/10 · 11 November 2017]

Strategic targets on Earth are being destroyed by an unknown weapon. Government security head Henderson (Don Walters) suspects it's an "atomic ray" originating from the moon! This serial is heavily padded with rocket-suit effects footage first filmed for the earlier "King of the Rocket Men", to which some believe this was a pseudo-sequel. A repainted Juggernaut vehicle from the much-earlier "Undersea Kingdom" serial is also reused here as Retik's lunar tank. All spaceship footage was filmed new for the serial.

As silly as this serial is, it has successfully been influential on popular culture. I mean, "Commando Cody" is still remembered many decades later. And some say it was an influence on later films like "The Rocketeer" (though that is not confirmed to my knowledge).

Wet!

[JohnHowardReid · 4/10 · 5 October 2016]

One of serial king, Fred Brannon's later efforts in which he was forced to make do with an extremely bottom-rung budget. Despite some wonderful explosions and other rescued-from-the-archives special effects work by the Lydeckers, nearly all of the cliff-hangers are of the hero-jumps- out-of-car-just-before-it-plunges-over-cliff variety. Production values are so minimal in fact, they are even insufficient to pad out the feature cut-down, "Retik, the Moon Menace", without endlessly repeating the same shots or the same sets. Perhaps, the feature film needs to be cut down even further, though as it is, the continuity is rather jerky. At least the non-action scenes with their comic strip dialogue exchanges are bustled through at a great pace... I must admit the heroine is mildly attractive, though the rest of the cast is pretty wet. Roy Barcroft's scenes look as if they were all filmed in a couple of days and then judiciously interspersed throughout the film. Understandably, he can do little with the title role of Retik.

You don't watch Republic serials for production values

[charlesadamek · 3/10 · 12 September 2020]

Just a quick note for people of a certain age. When you hear the character "Graber" speak you will immediately recognize that voice, but not the face. It's Clayton Moore, TV's Lone Ranger. Now you know what he looks like without a mask,

Two-fisted action all the way

[Leofwine_draca · 7/10 · 17 April 2014]

Who doesn't love an old-fashioned serial? These are episodic films, typically divided into 15 minute "chunks", that were often played at matinée cinema showings before the main movie. They're the film equivalent of the classic pulp magazines of the 1930s and '40s, offering spectacle and excitement and inevitable cliffhangers to keep you coming back week after week.

Made in 1952, RADAR MEN FROM THE MOON is a rather late addition to the genre but one which effectively captures the fighting spirit of the oldies. Yes, it's two-fisted action all the way in this one, and the twelve chapters (running for approximately three hours, no less) fly past thanks to the emphasis on fights and chases. Forget boring dialogue and characters sitting around endlessly - that's all jettisoned here in favour of excitement.

And boy, do I miss the days when children's entertainment wasn't afraid to get its hands dirty. George Wallace's Commando Cody isn't the kind of hero you'd expect in a modern-day setting that's for sure; he's thick-set, mid 40s, no dashing good looks, just an ordinary guy. And yet his face fits, and somehow he inhabits that role just right.

Each and every instalment is packed with fiery death, long fights with multiple opponents slugging it out, ray guys and atomic bombs and interspace travel. The special effects are remarkably good, especially of Commando Cody flying on his jetpack, and have actually dated less than the awful-looking back-projection effects of, say, the SUPERMAN films. In short, there's nothing to dislike here, and this is one of those films you watch and can't help thinking that "they don't make 'em like this anymore"!

One Of The Very Last Of The Republic Serials

[StrictlyConfidential · 5/10 · 21 May 2020]

I believe that for any viewer to get any real entertainment value out of watching "Radar Men From The Moon" they are first, and foremost, going to have to be willing to cut this vintage presentation a helluva lot of slack.

And, if you can forgive this 12-chapter serial for all of its low-budget inadequacies, then, you are certain to find yourself quite amused by all of the straight-faced, unintentionally hilarious visuals, corny dialogue, and preposterous situations that prevail.

And, with that said - I have to admit that I certainly got quite an amused kick out of watching Commando Cody's flying sequences, as well as the ridiculously laughable look of his primitive jet-pack and comical headgear, too.

a Man Of Action!

[winner55 · 10/10 · 30 July 2006]

From my review to The Rocketeer (1991): This serial made an easy transition to television, and was played every Saturday - some years every day - on television throughout the early 1960s. I sat glued whenever it was on. Commando Cody actually did look like he was flying! - But more importantly, being the last of the great serial heroes, his writers had learned from previous mistakes, not to let Cody or his friends - or his enemies - do any much talking. The serial was just one fist-fight, shoot-em-up-explosion after another; but, what made this important is that Cody thus had no time to doubt, to question, even to pose - he had to take decisive action at every minute - and he did! - this was no typical wimp (which by the mid-'60s were cluttering up comics, books, and films), this was a Man Of Action! And the second I recall ever seeing from popular culture (after Eliot Ness in the Untouchables).

Accept no imitations.

Proof we are not alone

[Bernie4444 · 7/10 · 16 January 2024]

A mysterious set of explosions leaves Commander Cody to the conclusion that we are under attack from an unknown force. As we guessed from the title of the series it must be the "Radar Men from the Moon".

They have left nothing out and get to read the credits and even get to see the last chapter and find out what happened. Unfortunately, if you only bought volume one you will not find out what happened in the last chapter. Volume two may not be available.

The series should not be too violent for today's youngsters as most of the time everybody is just slugging each other and when they use guns, they cannot seem to hit anything other than other guns. If you are young enough, this series is very suspenseful. Otherwise, you spend most of your time thinking how dumb why did they not do this or why did not they do that. Anyway, there is a lot of staying in the car scenes or stay in the Rocketship scenes or do not fly to close scenes. The good guys consistently insist on being outnumbered in fisticuffs and get the snot beat out of them every time; when will they ever learn? And we know why; if you listen closely, you will recognize Clayton Moore (alias The Lone Ranger) without his mask. Still, they are persistent. Will it pay off and can Commando Cody save the day, or will the bad moon leader Retik rule the Earth?

I rated this 5 stars to bring up the rating from 4.9

[weegie-38730 · 5/10 · 8 October 2021]

If you have a sense of humor and enjoy looking for hokey outfits and implausible outcomes this movie series is for you. If Commando Cody had a lick of common sense (but he doesn't), he probably could have foiled the bad guys in the first episode. Lots of fights and classic endings where it looks like the good guy is done for, only to see an expanded clip in the next episode to show how he miraculously survived. A hoot!