| Radar Men From The Moon |
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''Radar Men from the Moon'' ( Republic Studios , 1952) was the first Commando Cody serial, in 12 chapters, starring newcomer George Wallace ( 1917 - 2005 ) as Cody and Aline Towne as his sidekick Joan Gilbert, with serial veteran Roy Barcroft as the evil Retik, the Ruler of the Moon. The director was Fred C. Brannon, with a screenplay by Ronald Davidson and special effects by the Lydecker brothers. This famous but extremely dull serial recycles the rocket-powered flying suit from ''King of the Rocketmen'' (1949). Commando Cody (his strange title is never explained; he is a civilian researcher with a large laboratory building and a sizable staff of employees) has available for his use the rocket-powered flying suit, a rocket ship capable of reaching the moon, a tank for exploring the lunar surface, and a silvery ray pistol. Suddenly the US finds itself under attack as a mysterious something wipes out military bases and industrial complexes. Cody deduces somehow that the earth faces a menace from our own moon, and rockets there to discover and confront the moon's dictator Retik, who boldly announces plans to conquer our planet and move his subjects there. However, there is a singular lack of science-fictional derring-do in the episodes. Instead, Cody spends most of his time fist-fighting on earth with an elusive lunar native, Krog, and the gang of crooks he has hired to steal and stockpile supplies for the invasion, and to continue to create strategic damage with a truck-mounted raygun. Watch for Clayton Moore as Krog's chief earthling assistant. Stock footage from earlier Republic Studios serials, all the way from ''The Purple Monster Strikes'' (1945) to ''King of the Rocket Men'', is used extensively. Virtually nothing really happens until the final confrontation with Retik in Chapter 12, and anyone who remembered ''The Purple Monster Strikes'' from seven years before had already seen all of that confrontation! '' (1953). REFERENCES AND EXTERNAL LINKS:
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