Truly Dreadful Film

One of my all time favorites.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Apparently this is the 'abridged' movie edition of a Republic serial titled "King Of The Rocketmen", which is almost as awesome a title as "Lost Planet Airmen". Too bad there are no lost airmen, or lost planets in the screenplay, but I supposed you could argue that at least there is AN "airman" involved - the guy wearing the rocket pack. Well, compressing 12 episodes into a feature essentially eliminated most of the cliffhanger sequences and turned this into a action packed romp through all the classic Republic clichés. You've got a guy in the Bullethead suit with the three control knobs. You've got fistfights breaking out every 2 or 3 minutes. You've got the same recycled special effects/flying footage (which is still pretty cool). You've got car chases, car crashes, and shoot-outs.You've got evil scientists and amazing technological break throughs used for the most banal goals possible. You've got grade "B" though "Z" actors doing their best to turn in dignified performances while spitting out lines of dialog at machine gun speed. You've got a pretty decent climax that almost justifies all the shenanigans that went on before it. I have to admit, it was pretty hokey and cheesy, but I liked it for what it was. Not sure I would have liked sitting through 12 episodes of it, though, so this was probably my best bet.

It's right up there with Plan 9 on the all-time list of 'bad' movies. Yes this movie did lend its name to the great rock/swing band. I asked Commander Cody about the connection to the movie, noting that it was absolutely so bad it was great. A DJ with us cringed, expecting CC to be shocked that I'd dissed a movie he revered. Cody burst out laughing that the night he saw the movie in some dump hotel his band was so bad that he named it after the equally 'bad' movie then & there. "This was before I had Buffalo Bruce and Andy Stein and Bill Kirchen...we were TERRIBLE!"And true, there is no lost planet.

I first saw this movie in 1970 while living in Seattle Washington.During the Mid 50s and early sixties I watched all the Commando Cody Serials on TV i.e. Radar Men from the moon, Zombies of the Stratosphere, Sky Marshall of the Universe. This movie was the Condensed version of the Republic Serial King of the RocketMen and Provides a unique and shortened version of the original Republic Serial. All in all it is a nice movie and to this very day I can still Remember vividly the control panel on the Rocket Suit, On, Up and Fast. What I liked most about this movie was the fast plot and the never-ending action. As in the original Republic Picture serial version King of the RocketMen, Tris Coffic the lead man wearing the rocket suit goes from one dangerous situation to another as he attempts to stop the sinister Dr. Vulcan from deploying the Sonic Decimator which will destroy the city of New York. Along with Mae Clark the evil Dr. Vulcan is defeated and the Sonic Decimator is destroyed and all the bad guys go to jail and Tristram Coffic and Mae Clark live happily ever after. This is an enjoyable movie for those who grew up watching the Saturday morning matinée at the local theaters.Michael.

This old stinker makes the Flash Gordon movies look sophisticated. It's so terrible I love it, and I wish I could find a tape, but none of the catalogs I've checked list it. The rock band leader who calls himself Commander Cody must have loved it too, because he named his band after it.