Radar Men from the Moon (1952)

Radar Men from the Moon was produced by Republic Pictures in 1952 as a 12-chapter movie serial released weekly to cinemas.

Commando Cody (George Wallace) is a civilian researcher and inventor who can fly using a streamlined helmet and an atomic-powered rocket backpack attached to a leather flying jacket. He also has a rocket ship capable of reaching the Moon.

When America comes under attack from a mysterious force that wipes out military bases and industrial complexes, Cody surmises (correctly) that the Earth is coming under attack from our own Moon.

Flying his rocket ship there, he confronts the evil Retik, the Ruler of the Moon (Roy Barcroft), who plans to conquer Earth and then move the Moon’s entire population to the planet using spaceships and atomic weapons.

Over the 12 serial chapters, Cody and his associates Joan (Aline Towne), Ted (William Bakewell) and Dick (Gayle Kellogg) battle an elusive lunar agent named Krog (Peter Brocco) and his gang of human henchmen led by Graber (Clayton Moore) and Daly (Bob Stevenson), who use ray cannons to disrupt Earth’s defence forces and weaken public morale.

After a second trip to the Moon, where he captures a sample ray cannon for duplication in his lab, Cody tracks Retik’s minions to their hideout, where Krog is killed by one of his own devices, and Graber and Daly subsequently die in an over-the-cliff car chase.

Retik flies to Earth to take personal charge of his collapsing operations but is blasted out of the sky by one of his own ray weapons.

Republic went on to produce a short-lived 1955 television series called Commando Cody – Sky Marshal of the Universe with Judd Holdren as Cody, William Schallert as Ted, Richard Crane as Dick and Gregory Grey as Retik. Aline Towne reprised her role of Joan.

The 12 movie episodes were later combined and screened on US television in 1966 as a film called Retik the Moon Menace.

Commando Cody
George Wallace
Joan Gilbert
Aline Towne
Retik, Ruler of the Moon
Roy Barcroft
Ted Richards
William Bakewell
Dick Preston
Gayle Kellogg
Graber
Clayton Moore
Krog
Peter Brocco
Daly
Bob Stevenson
Government Agent Henderson
Don Walters

Director
Fred C Brannon

Episodes

Moon Rocket | Molten Terror | Bridge of Death | Flight to Destruction | Murder Car | Hills of Death | Camouflaged Destruction | The Enemy Planet | Battle in the Stratosphere | Mass Execution | Planned Pursuit | Death of the Moon Man

Video