Zombies of the Stratosphere
Serial (1952)
B&W
Cheezy Flicks
All Region
NTSC
Before
your very eyes you’ll see rocket ships in strato-flight
… strange creatures from another world ! Rocket Men fighting robots
! Deadly machines and weapons in action !
Ah,
yes, Saturday afternoons at the matinee. Scores of snotty kids watching cheaply
produced films and having the time of their life. This DVD will bring back the
memories.
The
matinee format was pretty standardised – Bugs Bunny or Woody Woodpecker
cartoons, a ten-minute episode of a serial, then the main feature. It is the serial part that Cheezy Flicks has given us here. Zombies
was made by Republic Pictures, a prolific producer of low-budget films.
They also did higher budget films starring actors like John Wayne and Gene
Autry but the company’s poor management eventually saw many of their main
drawcard actors moving on to other companies. One or two of their films have
become classics, such as Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) and Rio Grande (1950).
Zombies is not one of the
high-budget classics. It fairly screams “low-budget” with its constant
repetition of scenes, the extended recaps of previous episodes, and its
frequent reuse of outside locations. The acting is fairly OK (the cast list
shows Leonard Nimoy, but try as I might I couldn’t
pick him out) but the plot is quite unbelievable.
The
stunts are also unbelievable – people jump from boats, trains, cars, tanks and
mine trolleys – but their hats stay on. As for the sets, castor-footed office
chairs in a spaceship? That’s going to be helpful when you take off.
“Base to rocket. Base to Larry’s
rocket”.
There
are no zombies and they never get anywhere near the stratosphere. Martians have
landed on Earth. Their intention is to explode an atomic bomb that will throw
the Earth out of orbit and send it, as we are repeatedly told, “spinning off
into space”. The Martians will then use the same technique to nudge their
planet into Earth’s old orbit so they can enjoy the dense atmosphere and warmer
climate that is missing on their frigid world. Can the Earth be saved from
their evil plan?
Against
them is a small group of the most inept “agents” I have ever seen outside Get
Smart. They have their own rocket ship and one of the agents has a backpack
rocket suit with apparently unlimited fuel. Every time he tilts his head up to
see forward the rocket pack tilts down. His pants must be fireproof. The agents
and the aliens all
carry guns but don’t worry, kiddies, nobody actually gets shot
until the end. Despite both sides expending literally hundreds of shots at
ranges down to a few metres, every shot misses and it doesn’t occur to anybody
that it’s time to get a shotgun. One agent is, however, hurt (twice) when an
alien throws a gun at him in frustration. I know how he must have felt. There
are many high-speed boat chases and an enemy submarine but it never seems
appropriate to call in the Navy. Despite the Martian rocket ship coming and
going at will the Air Force is not called in either.
The
blame goes to Director Fred C Brannon, whose other classic serials like G-Men Never Forget, Radar Patrol vs Spy King and Flying Disc Man From Mars were matinee
staples.
I
guess the kids of the day were less critical than they are now. It was just
cheap thrills to them, spread over twelve Saturday afternoons. To many of us, though, it was the big entertainment part of
each week.
Reviews appear on the Synergy website with
a single cover image. In the digital and print edition, reviews appear with
multiple images and with expanded content. We recommend you download the free digital edition (or buy the print edition) to get the most from Synergy Magazine.
This review will appear in Volume 3 No. 3 of the digital and print
edition of Synergy Magazine.
If you came to this page directly (and
missed our menu), click here to go to the
front page of Synergy Magazine Website or use the following link: http://www.synergy-magazine.com