Radar Men from the Moon (1952)

Simply A Masterpiece

i must have seen a different film!!

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

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).

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.

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.

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.