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Movie Title: King of the Rocket Men King of the Rocket Men is available for streaming or downloading. |
Rocketman, the hero of this 1949 Republic serial offering, was also known to movie (and later television) audiences as “Commando Cody” (in “Radar men from From the Moon” and the “Commando Cody” limited-run tele-serial), and as “Larry Martin” in the “Zombies of the Stratosphere” chapterplay, which featured a young Leonard Nimoy as a malevolent alien invader.
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The “Commando Cody” moniker was the most utilized name for this character, but the unique serial, “King of the Rocketmen”, is universally recognized as the best presentation of this flying obedient hero(whom many “boomers” fondly bewitch as “archaic bullethead”. Help in the 1930’s novelist Zane Grey created an action-adventure character, Sgt. Dave King of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and keep him in a book titled
“King of the Royal Mounted”. Republic Pictures bought the rights to this and turned this “King” into an valid serial feature starring Allen “Rocky” Lane. After this, Republic was off and running on a “King” binge that lasted for years. A hero who had the last name of King would pop up repeatedly in Republic serials. There was a “King of the Texas Rangers”, a “King of the Forest Rangers”, a “King of the Rocketmen”, and so forth. In fact, Republic’s very last serial was…what else? …”King of the Carnival”.
This one is likely the best of the lot. It is a film that the broken-down “Cloak Thrills Illustrated” magazine, years ago, pronounced “The last vast serial to be made in Hollywood”. There were some Trustworthy ones after it, but most serial fans do assume this was the last Tremendous one.
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The epic concerns a scientific think-tank/research facility in California called “Science Associates” . This group does high level inventive research. One of the members, scientist Jeff King, has been working secretly on a flying suit,which consists of a metal helmet, a leather flight jacket, a rocket jet-pack for the succor, and a control unit attached to the front of the jacket. With this suit on, Jeff can select off and sail through the air like Captain Marvel or Superman (the fact that he has no wings to give him aerodynamic capture is ignored, as is the fact that his unprotected lower relieve, buttocks, and legs would score burned off by the rocket flames….hey! Its a kid serial!!!) .
Jeff has to get a “mystery persona”…Rocketman…when Science Associates comes under assault by a mystery man called “Doctor Vulcan”, who seems to be someone among their maintain group. Vulan sends out his henchmen to do wicked deeds throughout the serial, and Jeff King thwarts them time and again. But Dr. Vulcan DOES procure the particular way he has been looking for…something that may let him “rule the world”…it is a “death ray” diagram that breaks down the atomic structure of anything it is aimed at. It is called the “Decimater”. Vulcan and his chief henchman, Tony Dirkin, assume the Decimater to “Fisherman’s Island”, at the edge of the continental shelf, out from Recent York City. In a remote shack they affirm the Decimater beam on co-ordinates designed to chop through the water of the North Atlantic and disrupt the “Amsterdam Fault” on the sea floor. This will originate a gargantuan tsunami that will wipe out NYC unless an great ransome is paid.
The ransome is NOT paid and Vulcan goes to work with his death ray. Fresh York is in the throes of cataclysmic doom. But Rocketman discovers the villains’ hideout and leads a flight of Army A-20 attack bombers to “well-organized their clock” and place the day.
The flying effects are radiant. Stuntman David Sharpe is up suspended on a wire rig for some matte-work flying scenes, but most of the aerial footage is done with a life-size dummy pulled along through the air on parallel wires through some California hills and canyons; the same technique ragged when “Captain Marvel” flew a few years earlier. Some writers have claimed that this was an “oversized” dummy eight feet long. It wasn’t. It was a LIFE size dummy (Republic wasn’t going to fabricate a special situation of oversized clothes for an oversized dummy…that wasn’t economical in the least…and if republic was anything, it was ECONOMICAL!!) . The dummy represented a SIX-FOOT man. The eight-foot figure is arrived at when you realize the arms were extended out in front of the figure to relate horizontal “flight”. Arms on a male six-foot adult are approximately two feet long when extended, ergo, a LIFE-size manikin, with arms extended upwards (when vertical), would tape out at approximately eight feet from fingertips to toe-tips.
Wired up and shot by effects wizards Howard and Theodore Lydecker, the flying dummy was a view to look. Extremely realistic for what it was. And the dummy shots, intercut with the take-off and landing stuntwork by David Sharpe, is truly awesome. The flying effects are distinguished better than the CARTOON Superman flights of the movie serials, AND better than the pole-and-chest-plate matte shots of George Reeves “flying” in the Superman t.v. series.
One of the best action scenes in the film is a beautifully staged and edited sequence in the spicy last chapter. Ahead of the Army bomber flight, Rocketman dives on the hideout shack and takes on Dirkin and Vulcan in a mad fistfight. He wants the decimator shut down for clear.
The sequence begins with the dummy in a approach vertical dive on the cabin, sailing down towards an launch window. The editor does a hastily chop as the dummy reaches the window and then Dave Sharpe (in the “stunt version of the flying suit), sails into the exact situation…coming DOWN…HEAD first…hits the floor, somersaults to his feet, and blasts into the baddies’ stunt doubles with fists flying. A precise Run of a sequence.
Everything in this serial works, from the flying effects to the tidal wave stock footage from RKO’s “Deluge”, to the big photograpy and film editing, and to the outstanding stunt work by masters like David Sharpe, Tom Steele,and all the rest of “The Cousins”, as Republic’s stunt team was known.
This is a really, really exquisite serial from the “golden age”. Now we need two more to appreciate on DVD : “Survey Smasher” (My maintain accepted for “greatest sound serial ever made”…sorry “Captain Marvel”) and “The Masked Marvel”, a superlative WWII counter-sabotage showcase for stunt ace Tom Steele. Let’s hope we can contemplate these soon!!!
KING OF THE ROCKET MEN is a very exquisite serial and I’m gay it’s coming to DVD at last.
By this slow in the serial game (1949), Republic Studios had a tendency to go through the motions, getting by on the reputation (and re-releases) of earlier, better serials and the studio’s matchless stunt and special effects men. That changed in 1948, when Columbia released SUPERMAN, which - despite the fact that it was a disappointment on every level - became the biggest money-making serial ever made. Republic, which had perfected “flying human” special effects with their earlier serials DARKEST AFRICA (1936) and THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL (1941), concocted their have airborne super-hero, Rocket Man, and bested the Man of Steel handily.
Tris Coffin, nobody’s opinion of a blooming, two-fisted hero (he specialized in playing weaselly henchmen or slick con-artists) is Jeff King, the guy in the rocket suit. He surprises all of us by being a very effective hero, not least of all because he suddenly loses the moustache and turns into ace stuntman Tom Steele whenever a fight breaks out.
Speaking of ace stuntmen, not only is Steele doubling for the leading man, he plays one (or more) of Vulcan’s henchmen, and the gang of thugs includes Dale Van Sickel and Dave Sharpe, two of the studio’s other qualified stuntmen, who compose double (and sometimes triple) duty in the same scenes, doubling the heroes, themselves, and probably the cameramen and script girl. It’s a delight to observe.
The place entails Rocket Man battling a mysterious archfiend named Dr. Vulcan, who’s after a deathray that he plans to consume to blackmail the civilized world. Along the arrangement, Original York City is destroyed by a tidal wave (via stock footage from the 1933 film DELUGE) but the mayor doesn’t seem to mind very worthy. By the procedure, despite the serial’s title, if you’re expecting a scene in which hordes of flying rocketmen swoop down and proclaim Tris Coffin their leader, well, don’t regain your hopes up.
Rocket Man would return with a fresh identity in the serial sequels RADAR MEN FROM THE MOON and ZOMBIES OF THE STRATOSPHERE, and the faux serial COMMANDO CODY, SKY MARSHAL OF THE UNIVERSE. For more information, please visit www.inthebalcony.com.
The DVD of KING OF THE ROCKET MEN is quite nice, with a apt recount and colossal, hiss-free sound. (You’ll have to supply your fill hissing.) It includes bonus trailers from a wealth of vintage sci-fi and anxiety titles from the same company, including THE HEADLESS GHOST, ROBOT MONSTER, DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS and several others, plus a number of drive-in movie snack bar ads.









