ada
the leading man is my tpye
Rosie Searle
It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
Jemima
It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.
Matthew_Capitano
George Wallace is fine as aerospace flier 'Commando Cody'. Albeit he's a little over-aged for the part, Wallace is better than Tris Coffin who portrayed the rocketman two years earlier in 'King of the Rocketmen'. Bill Bakewell (who looks and sounds almost exactly like Wallace) is adequately humorous as the laboratory sidekick, while beautiful Aline Towne with her sexy voice dresses up the proceedings. Clayton Moore (TV's 'The Lone Ranger') plays a bad guy.12-chapter 'serial' in which Cody flies to the moon to attempt to shutdown enemy forces pointing lasers at earth in order to destroy cities in preparation for an invasion soon to follow. Good escapist stuff, though rocketman Cody never appears naked (the contemporary meaning of the word "commando" is 'nude').
David Elroy
This first Commando Cody adventure ain't bad, but the rocket suit, and most of the flying footage, was straight from Republic's first rocket suit serial, King of the Rocket Men (1949), usually considered the last of the great classic serials. Everything good in Radar Men (and there's plenty that's good) is better in Rocket Men! Please see it! The hero and villain have more personality, the action is more hard-hitting and extreme, the plot is more focused, and - perhaps most importantly - there is much mystery and subterfuge. In Rocket Men, our hero must keep his identity secret - no one knows it's him in that suit. And the villain too has a secret identity - we see him only in silhouette. Here, in Radar Men, everybody knows who everybody else is. Enjoy Radar Men (I know I did), but first, enjoy Rocket Men!
rabmstr
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.
StuOz
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.
