Zombies of the Stratosphere

12-chapter science fiction action serial from Republic Pictures and director Fred C. Brannon features a Martian invasion party, including Marex (Lane Bradford) and Narab (Leonard Nimoy), with a plot to detonate H-bombs powerful enough to knock Earth from its orbit, after which Mars will be moved into its place, strengthening the Martian atmosphere and allowing life to flourish there once again. It's up to Larry Martin (Judd Holdren), equipped with his incredible rocket suit, and his compatriots to stop the Martian menace and their earthly criminal henchmen.

Original planned as another Commando Cody offering, for some unexplained reason Republic changed the lead character's name to Larry Martin at the last moment, despite leaving the supporting cast, not to mention the rocket suit, the same. The filmmakers relied heavily on stock footage, and re-used a lot of action scenes and effects shots from earlier serials and movies. There are a lot of fist fights, plus a killer robot. This particular serial gets mentioned now chiefly for being the first screen performance by Leonard Nimoy. The future Spock was already playing an alien, only this time not one nearly as cool as the Vulcan.

When viewing "Zombies of the Stratosphere " out of the context of the 1950's, it can be said that the serial falls short of avg. standards, but that said, if you have a Sat. afternoon to spend with your son, and conditions warrant you from going outside, then get out the popcorn, warm up the VCR, and pop in this adventure!!! While evil Martians(Zombies) plot to knock the Earth out of its orbit, with an Atomic(Hydrogen) bomb, Larry Martin and friends , outwit and out hustle, this dedicated group of Evil Doers, with 11 Chapters of car crashing , boat chasing, robot fighting, cliff hangers, that may amuse the over 35 crowd, and could delight younger viewers, whose Fantasy of Flight, is fulfilled, from those of us that are gravity challenged !!! Even the Female leads fight , and are not intimidated by the Outer Space villains !!! While the plot is so-so , this serial is very nostalgic , of a time when the future held so much promise, and the Universe, that was so close, still held so much mystery !!! Get the COLOR version, much more depth !!! Watch the landings onto the Spaceships, by flying humans, needs a little work !!! Enjoy !!!

The story/scenario for "Zombies of the Stratsophere" was originally written to be used as the fourth episode ( of the eventual twelve) of the Republic-produced "Commando Cody- Sky King of the Universe" syndicated television 1951-52 production season series. The studio unit that was doing the television series, under Associate Producer Franklin Adreon, was also doing the serials (for theatre distribution) and after the first three "Commando Cody" TV episodes were completed, then started production on "Zombies of the Stratosphere" prior to finishing the remaining nine Cody-TV episodes. On April 10, 1952, Adreon sent a memo to all Republic Pictures Corporation departments advising that certain character names in production number 133 (internal house number for the upcoming serial) have been changed as follows: Commando Cody becomes Larry Martin; Joan Gilbert becomes Sue Davis; Ted Richards becomes Bob Wilson; Mr. Henderson becomes Mr. Steele and Hank becomes Dick.

"Zombies" utilized stock footage from various Republic serials, features and one western; all of the 17 flying sequences of the airborn-wired dummy came straight from "King of the Rocket Men.", and the uranium-smuggling airplane sequence was lifted from the Roy Rogers western, "Bells of Coronado," which is why Clifton Young (as Ross)and Henry Rowland (Plane Heavy)show up in this serial. Larry Martin's space ship was recycled from "Radar Men from the Moon", while the Martians flew a new model (created for "Zombies")that featured a transparent bubble-gum turret housing a ray cannon atop the fuselage.

Republic contract-player Roy Barcroft is not seen in the serial but his voice was heard on the radio (chapters 1 and 11) and as dubs for Ross (chapter 4)and Tarner (chapter 7.) There was a fabricated "Introducing Leonard Nimoy" added to the opening cast-sheet when this film was colorized in the '90's, a bit of revisionism catering to Trekkies. Republic Pictures Corporation itself did not pass out "Introducing" credits to players listed ninth in the cast.

Filming started on April 4, 1952 and was completed on May 1, 1952. The budget (expected filming cost of the production) was $172,838 and the finished negative cost came in at $176,357, or slightly four thousand dollars over budget. These were the real numbers and, of course, do not fit the revisionist definitions of budget currently employed by some websites.

One of my all time.... SO BAD IT´S REALLY GOOD FAVORITES! What is there to say about Movies like this one??? On just about every imaginable level... And in about every single production area you can name... This one is truly a STINKER! Everyone has heard of LOW BUDGET.... In this case... It is more like..... NO BUDGET!

Dozens of untintended laughs guaranteed!!! ..... If...Of course ... You can manage to sit through the ENTIRE 1 Hour and 15 Minutes!!!! ENJOY!!!

50s Republic Studios serial that very much resembles other 50s Republic work like Commander Cody and Radar Men From The Moon.

Firstly, I was not a child of the 50s, I was a child of the 70s, so perhaps I have a different take on old time B&W movie serials than older viewers? My take is this...I turn to Columbia serials for Batman, I turn to Universal serials for Buck Rogers and I turn to Republic serials for this kind of frantic spacey action with spaceships and rocket men flying around the place! So basically, I love Zombies Of The Statosphere! Mainly the first four chapters...

The first few chapters will put a smile on your face. You will not be looking at Leonard Nimoy (and this is coming from a Trekker like me) but rather you will get totally sucked into the style-over-substance look of this production. From the alien costume to the Lydecker miniature flying effects, to the full scale ship model, to the outstanding vintage cars, and the train rooftop fights. This has the works.

I know a few of these old time serials had fights on train rooftops but I found such footage most pleasing in Columbia's Batman And Robin (1949)...so you might wish to see that as well.

Now onto the bad news. Because the first four chapters put me on such a high, I was not ready for what was to come in chapters five and six when the painfully dated tin-can robot appears! Yes, I know, with the exception of Robby The Robot (Forbidden Planet, The Invisible Boy), 50s robots just looked like this. Even the odd 60s robot looked much like this (see that first season Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea episode with a robot). But the sight of a walking garbage bin put a damper on what was a knockout start.

On top of this, the extensive underwater footage did not look so good on my faded print of the serial. Maybe you had a better print and could make out what was going on underwater?

In a nutshell, this is well worth watching as the flying effects and general look of the production is outstanding. Lydecker would go on to do more "real-daylight-filmed-flying-scenes" with TV's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964) and Lost In Space (1965). Some viewers (like me) will struggle with things once tin-man enters the scene but he does not get much screen time and he does only very limited damage to the 12 chapters as a whole. Enjoy!