King of the Rocket Men

Infobox Film
name = King of the Rocket Men


image_size =
caption =
director = Fred C. Brannon
producer = Franklin Adreon
writer = Royal Cole
William Lively
Sol Shor
narrator =
starring = Tristram Coffin
Mae Clarke
Don Haggerty
House Peters Jr
James Craven
I. Stanford Jolley
music = Stanley Wilson
cinematography = Ellis W. Carter
editing = Cliff Bell Sr.
Sam Starr
distributor = Republic Pictures
released = Flagicon|USA 8 June 1949 "(serial)"cite book
last = Mathis
first = Jack
title = Valley of the Cliffhangers Supplement
origyear = 1995
publisher = Jack Mathis Advertising
isbn = 0-9632878-1-8
pages = pp. 3, 10, 112-113
chapter = ]
Flagicon|USA 25 July 1951 "(feature)"
Flagicon|USA 16 July 1956 "(re-release)"
runtime = 12 chapters (167 minutes) "(serial)"
65 minutes "(feature)"
country = USA
language = English
budget = $164,984 (negative cost: $165,592)
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 1:27452
imdb_id = 0041547

"King of the Rocket Men" is a 1949 Republic Movie serial, in twelve chapters, important for introducing the "Rocketman Character" who reappeared under a variety of names in later serials "Radar Men from the Moon", "Zombies of the Stratosphere" and the semi-serial "".

Plot

An evil genius of unknown identity, calling himself "Dr Vulcan," plots to conquer the world, but first needs to eliminate one by one the members of the Science Associates, an organization of the earth's greatest scientists. After narrowly escaping an attempt on his life by Vulcan, one member of Science Associates, Dr. Millard (James Craven), outfits another member, Jeff King (Tristram Coffin) with an "atomic powered rocket flying suit."

With the help of the suit, a magazine photographer named Glenda Thomas (Mae Clarke), and other inventions of Dr. Millard, King battles the minions of Dr. Vulcan for twelve suspenseful episodes. Eventually Vulcan steals one of Millard's more dangerous inventions, the Decimator, and uses it to flood and destroy Manhattan Island (courtesy of stock footage from the once-thought-lost film, "Deluge" (1933)), before being brought to justice by Jeff King in his flying suit.

Cast

*Tristram Coffin as Jeff King/Rocket Man. Kirk Alyn was considered for the lead but the part eventually went to Coffin. [cite book
last = Harmon
first = Jim
coauthors= Donald F. Glut
authorlink = Jim Harmon
title = The Great Movie Serials: Their Sound and Fury
origyear = 1973
publisher = Routledge
isbn = 9780713000979
pages = pp. 217
chapter = 9. The Superheroes "Could Superman Knock Out Captain Marvel" ]
*Mae Clarke as Glenda Thomas
*Don Haggerty as Tony Dirken
*House Peters Jr as Burt Winslow
*James Craven as Professor Millard
*I. Stanford Jolley as Professor Bryant
*Stanley Price as Gunther Von Strum

Production

"King of the Rocket Men" was budgeted at $164,984 although the final negative cost was $165,592 (a $608, or 0.4%, overspend). It was the most expensive Republic serial of 1949.

It was filmed between 6 April and 27 April 1949. The serial's production number was 1704.

Republic liked calling their heroes "King" in order to use the title "King of..." The studio had found success with this naming scheme following the adaptation of Zane Gray's "King of the Royal Mounted". [cite book
last = Harmon
first = Jim
coauthors= Donald F. Glut
authorlink = Jim Harmon
title = The Great Movie Serials: Their Sound and Fury
origyear = 1973
publisher = Routledge
isbn = 9780713000979
pages = pp. 283
chapter = 11. New Masks for New Heroes "Get That Masked Trouble Maker" ] [cite book
last = Cline
first = William C.
title = In the Nick of Time
origyear = 1984
publisher = McFarland & Company, Inc.
isbn = 078640471X
pages = pp. 23
chapter = 2. In Search of Ammunition ] The main character in this serial was Jeff King, otherwise known as Rocket Man. The flight gimmickry was inspired by the Buck Rogers "cartoon strip".cite book
last = Harmon
first = Jim
coauthors= Donald F. Glut
authorlink = Jim Harmon
title = The Great Movie Serials: Their Sound and Fury
origyear = 1973
publisher = Routledge
isbn = 9780713000979
pages = pp. 282-283, 285-288
chapter = 11. New Masks for New Heroes "Get That Masked Trouble Maker" ]

"King of the Rocket Men" is a more cheaply-made than the previous Republic serials, and the casting is also less starry. Tristram Coffin was a typical "dress heavy" of the period, complete with pencil-thin mustache, and it was a real stretch even for serial audiences of the day to accept him as the hero. Even stranger was the casting of nearly forty-year-old Mae Clarke as the damsel in distress. The serial also lacks a colorful villain along the lines of "The Crimson Ghost". The "Deluge" footage, though spectacular, had previously been used by the studio in "Dick Tracy vs Crime Inc" (1941).

tunts

*David Sharpe as Jeff King/Tony Dirken/Prof Bryant (doubling Tristram Coffin in rocket suit, Don Haggerty & I. Stanford Jolley)
*Tom Steele as Jeff King/Burt Winslow (doubling Tristram Coffin & House Peters Jr)
*Dale Van Sickel as Jeff King/Tony Dirken (doubling Tristram Coffin in rocket suit & Don Haggerty)
*Carey Loftin as Burt Winslow (doubling House Peters Jr)
*Eddie Parker
*Bud Wolfe

Rocket Man in action was played by three different Republic stuntmen. Dave Sharpe performed the leaps into the air and acrobatics necessary to simulate flight. Tom Steele was the second stuntman in the costume and Dale Van Sickel took the role when Steele and Sharpe were unavailable or elsewhere in shot. The first appearance of Rocket Man has him fighting aboard a truck driven by Tom Steele while, in the same scenes, Tom Steele is also the stuntman wearing the Rocket Man costume in the back of the truck.

pecial effects

Several shots in the serial feature the Rocketman character flying across broad vistas of barren landscape, an effect achieved by Howard and Theodore Lydecker, by running a full-size dummy on internal pulleys along a very long, taut wire tilted at an angle to the horizontal. The same strategy had produced remarkable flying sequences in the earlier Republic serial "Adventures of Captain Marvel" (1941). Dave Sharpe's take-offs were accomplished with concealed springboards, and his landings by simply jumping down from some raised position into the frame.

The shots of King in his flying suit taking off, flying, and landing were reused in three subsequent Republic productions featuring flying heroes: "Radar Men from the Moon", "" and "Zombies of the Stratosphere".

Rocket Man's raygun "appeared to be a German Luger (acceptable in this post-wartime serial) with a silvery cone propped over the barrel."

The tidal wave in the last chapter is stock footage taken from RKO's "Deluge". Stock footage was used for most of the cliffhangers, showing the "downward trend of late 1940s Republic serials".

Release

Theatrical

"King of the Rocket Men"'s official release date is 8 June 1949, although this is actually the date the sixth chapter was made available to film exchanges.

A 65-minute feature film version, created by editing the serial footage together, was released on 25 July 1951. It was one of fourteen feature films Republic made from their serials. The title was changed to "Lost Planet Airmen" after using the working titles "The Lost Planet" and "Lost Planetmen". The ending was changed for the feature film version. Instead of New York City being reduced to rubble by a deluge, as in the serial, those events are dismissed as just the "dream of a mad man" and did not really happen. A similar change was made in the feature version of "Drums of Fu Manchu". [cite book
last = Harmon
first = Jim
coauthors= Donald F. Glut
authorlink = Jim Harmon
title = The Great Movie Serials: Their Sound and Fury
origyear = 1973
publisher = Routledge
isbn = 9780713000979
pages = pp. 180
chapter = 8. The Detectives "Gangbusters!" ]

"King of the Rocket Men" was re-released on 16 July 1956 between the similar re-releases of "Adventures of Frank and Jesse James" and "Federal Operator 99". The last original Republic serial release was "King of the Carnival" in 1955.

Critical reception

Cline describes this serial as "one of Republic's last cliff-hangers with any originality to it." He singles out Clarke's performance, saying that she is "a refreshing note in an otherwise routine proceeding." [cite book
last = Cline
first = William C.
title = In the Nick of Time
origyear = 1984
publisher = McFarland & Company, Inc.
isbn = 078640471X
pages = pp. 91
chapter = 5. A Cheer for the Champions (The Heroes and Heroines) ]

Chapter titles

# Dr. Vulcan - Traitor (20min)
# Plunging Death (13min 20s)
# Dangerous Evidence (13min 20s)
# High Peril (13min 20s)
# Fatal Dive (13min 20s)
# Mystery of the Rocket Man (13min 20s)
# Molten Menace (13min 20s)
# Suicide Flight (13min 20s)
# Ten Seconds to Live (13min 20s)
# The Deadly Fog (13min 20s) - a re-cap chapter
# Secret of Dr. Vulcan (13min 20s)
# Wave of Disaster (13min 20s)_Source: [cite book
last = Cline
first = William C.
title = In the Nick of Time
origyear = 1984
publisher = McFarland & Company, Inc.
isbn = 078640471X
pages = pp. 249
chapter = Filmography ]

ee also

*The Rocketeer
* List of film serials by year
* List of film serials by studio

References

* Kinnard, Roy, "Science Fiction Serials", (McFarland, NC, 1998). ISBN 0-7864-0545-7.

External links

*imdb title|id=0041547|title=King of the Rocket Men
*amg title|id=1:27452
* [http://www.serialexperience.com/showarticle.php?fldRecNum=136 Detailed Review of "King of the Rocket Men"]
* [http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue04/infocus/introduction5.htm A discussion of the Rocket Man character in the context of the decline of the movie serial]
* [http://www.colemanzone.com/Cody's_Commandos/ A tribute page for all the Rocket Man serials]

###@@@KEY@@@###succession box
title=Republic Serial
before=Ghost of Zorro (1949)
years=King of the Rocket Men (1949)
after=The James Brothers of Missouri (1949)