The Atomic City

Paramount Studios put out a Cold War thriller very early in the Cold War era. Despite the name, The Atomic City (TAC), things atomic were background. There are no radiation special effects or explosions beyond a stock footage blast in the opening narration. At its heart, TAC is a spy-crime thriller with nuclear bomb secrets as the MacGuffin. Yet, through all that, atomic anxiety and fear of communism are clear sub-messages. Gene Barry stars as a top nuclear physicist. TAC was nominated for an Academy Award. The filming in restricted Los Alamos and in the picturesque Puya Cliffs add visual interest to an already busy plot.

  Quick Plot Synopsis
Within the fenced perimeter of Los Alamos, the "Atomic City" is fairly secure. The workers, staff and their families live fairly normal lives. Dr. Frank Addison (Barry) and his wife Martha, raise their son Tommy as normally as possible. Tommy is eager for the class field trip and a chance to a fair in a nearby town, and win a bicycle. When the drawing calls him as the winner, his teacher notices he's not there. No one saw him leave. Meanwhile, the Addison's get a telegram giving them instructions. Tommy has been kidnapped. Dr. Addison is to give the kidnappers the formulas to the H-bomb or Tommy dies. Since they were told not to go to the police, the Addisons make up stories about picking up Tommy early, etc. etc. Friends notice they're acting odd. At Frank's office, the FBI intervene. Frank's plan was to give the kidnappers some formulas that failed, which only a mathematician working for a couple days could discover were bad. A hoard of FBI men stake out the hotel where the pickup is to be made. The follow the pickup man to a baseball game. In the crowd, the man transfers his envelope to a peanut salesmen, unseen. Exiting the game, the pickup man's car was booby trapped. Explosion. Film of the event identified the salesman as a "party member" and local crook. While the FBI are too rule and honor bound to get tough, Frank is not the FBI. He roughs up the crook and gets the address of where the envelope went. No one is in the house, but a blackboard full of equations tells them that their bad-formulas were discovered. Meanwhile, Tommy is being kept in some pueblo ruins by thugs hired by the communists. They pose as park rangers. One of them turns a couple and their boy away sang the ruins are too dangerous. The commie scientist arrives to say the formulas were fake. Get rid of the boy. However, Tommy has slipped out of a hole he was digging. The bad guys pursue him to small cliff cave. It's too small for them, so they decide to just block the entry and leave him to die. Back in town, the boy whose family was turned away from the ruins turns in Tommy's winning ticket. An FBI man finds out and all agents converge on the Puye Cliffs ruins. Aided by a helicopter, the agents get the bad scientist. The thugs hole up in the cave, but when two of them figure to turn themselves in, they're shot by the loyal communist. Tommy has, meanwhile found a small exit, but it is in the cliff face. He dangles and clutches the rocks. The helicopter spots him. An agent repels down and saves him. Everyone is happy. The End.

  Insidious Infiltrators
TAC uses the theme of spies-among us, which would become popular in Cold War sci-fi. Except here, the spies and infiltrators aren't disguised as aliens who take human form. They're just plain spies and collaborators. True to the sci-fi form, you can't tell a communist villain (or their hired thugs) from a loyal citizen. They all look normal enough. The thug posing as an authority figure (Park Ranger) is a good example of this.

  Cold War Spotlight
The story itself is very early in the Cold War era, so there is more anxiety about the secret falling into enemy hands. Later atomic angst (after the commies already had their own bombs) would focus on doomsday. In TAC, the kidnappers' motivation and the impetus of the plot center of US having the bomb and THEM doing anything to get it. When Martha suggests that they give the kidnappers what they want, Frank scoffs that this would mean THEY would "wreck half the world."

  Notes
Pot Boiler -- Even though the story is a fairly conventional kidnapping crime drama, the gravity of the ransom price pushes it beyond the ordinary.

  A Whiff of Doom -- A subtle atomic angst message is delivered by young Tommy. At his lunch table, he prefaces his pipe dreams (twice) "If I grow up…" instead of when I grow up. It troubles his mother, that their boy isn't sure he has a future. Nothing more is made of this message, but it was a good presaging of later youth malaise as a response to atomic anxiety.

  Ruthless Villains -- Note that the bad guys are cast as heartless killers. Even their own hired thugs and minions are treated as disposable commodities. They're blown up, or shot when they were done with their assigned duties.

  Noble Heroes -- Note how the FBI are cast as squeaky clean boy scouts. They have a rule book which doesn't allow them to rough up a suspect. When Frank (the upset father) suggests they rough up the peanut salesmen to get more clues, agent Farley says, "We can't do it. It goes against everything we stand for."

  Forties Feast -- For car fans, TAC offers a few scenes chock full of 1940s models. The FBI drive around in long black 1947 Chryslers. The pickup man drives a 1940 two-tone DeSoto Sportsman. The ballpark parking lot is a buffet of old Detroit iron. Chevy, Buick, Mercury. The newest model easily identified is a 1950 Ford Sedan and the spiffy 1950 DeSoto Custom the pickup man parks next to. This suggests that the film (or at least the outdoor scenes) were shot in the summer of '51, before the debut of '52 models (typically in early autumn).

 Bottom line? TAC is a good crime thriller, well paced and well photographed. It is a good movie from that early Cold War era when sneaky, dastardly commies were the focus. It's a film even non-sci-fi fans can enjoy.

Duck and Cover

After the autumn of 1949, when the Soviet Union had "The Bomb" too, anxiety grew in the American public. Hometown America was in danger like never before. New York, San Francisco or Chicago, all could become Nagasaki. Mostly to quell the rising public anxiety, the federal government commissioned a series of educational films intended to show the public that there was something they could do. The most famous of these informational films was Duck and Cover (D&C). Millions of school children in the 50s were shown this film, as part of the usual "mental hygene" film cycle. The practical value of the films' advice was questionable, but then, the intent was not so much training in proven techniques (as there was little real-world testing of civilians and bombs). The primary goal seems to have been to reduce the growing sense of helplessness and doom.

Quick Plot Synopsis
You can watch this film itself. It's only 9 minutes long. A copy is at the Internet Archives. In lieu of that, here's how it goes: The film opens with animated Bert the Turtle ambling along a tree-lined lane. A monkey dangles a lit stick of dynamite right behind his head. Bert gasps, and ducks into his shell, the monkey and tree are blown up. Bert is reluctant to emerge. The narrator tells us, over footage of a school class practicing duck and cover drills, that we must be prepared if the bomb falls nearby. At the sight of the flash, duck and cover. An animated farmhouse is wrecked by an offscreen blast. Bert is safe inside his shell. Over footage of a mom rubbing ointment on her son's back, we're told the radiation could give us a "really bad sunburn." Sometimes there will be a warning, sometimes not. Kids playing baseball, or in their yards, hear the air raid siren and flock indoors. Other kids doing what most kids do: walk to school, ride the bus, ride their bikes, see the unannounced flash. They all huddle on the ground near a wall. Even a poor farmhand, at the sight of the flash, cowers under his manure spreader. The film concludes with more animated footage of Bert. "Remember what to do, friends. Tell me right out loud. What are you supposed to do when you see the flash? (Kids in unison.) "Duck and Cover." Bert does. The End.

Apocalypse Survived
The government wanted head off a citizen to panic or a slip into nuke malaise. Aiding the government was human nature. People tend to want and look for positive possibilities too. The basic message in D&C was that through quick action and well-stocked shelters, the average Joe could survive the unthinkable. Whether realistic or not, the notion of making it through armageddon had its appeal.

Impact on Sci-fi
The notion of mankind surviving a nuclear war -- even if mutated or diminished, etc. -- shows up in a great many sci-fi plots. From Arch Oboler's Five ('51) to Planet of the Apes ('68) and beyond, there is the background optimism that despite the terrible destruction, somehow, a remnant of mankind would live through it all. Apocalypse Survived is one of the most common sci-fi themes. Yet, a parallel theme is that of imminent danger from the skies. Compare D&C's warnings with that of Scotty's in The Thing from Another World ('51) "Watch the skies. Keep watching the skies!". It's not hard to see the Cold War playing out in sci-fi.

Notes
Bert The Star -- Archer Productions had hoped that Bert the Turtle would catch on and become a famous cartoon character. This didn't happen, but then, having only one film appearance makes stardom tough. Archer Productions didn't last long enough to give Bert another film.

Mixed Signals -- While the intent of D&C (and other Civil Defense films) was to quell public worries by giving them something they could do, laced within the narration of D&C were phrases that stuck in kids' memories, fueling that sense of impending doom from unseen sources in the skies. In one scene, kids are playing baseball when siren sounds) "Remember, the flash of an atomic bomb can come at anytime, no matter where you may be." In another scene, Paul and Patty on their way to school. "They always try to remember what to do if the atom bomb explodes -right then-. (Flash!) "It's a bomb! Duck and cover!" In yet another scene, Tony is riding his bike to Cub Scouts. "He knows the bomb can explode any time of the year, day or night. He's ready for it. (Flash!) Duck and Cover." The lingering message? There were no save moments. Doom could strike anytime. Now, go on with your lives, citizens.

Early Ethnic Mixing -- Long before political correctness mandated that crowds of school kids must be ethnically diverse, the classrooms in D&C are racially mixed. Note the little black boy, often prominent in the center of the scene. An hispanic girl is there too, and a black girl further back. It was a classroom ahead of its time. School desegregation was yet many years in the future.

Cool Cars! -- Ok, aside from the sociological value, fans of old cars get quite an eye full of late 40s sedans, encrusted with chrome, and even a cool old fire truck! D&C is an inadvertent time capsule of postwar prosperity.

Bottom line? D&C is a cultural landmark of the 50s. Its subtle (and not so subtle) messages were fuel on the fires of American Atomic Angst. It's well worth the 19 minutes it takes to watch it, to get a feel for what was in audiences' heads as they watched sci-fi movies.

1952

Sci-fi movies of 1952: After the busy year of 1951, this year seemed scanty. There were no mega-classics, but several films which cranked up the Cold War angst to "high".

Radar Men from the Moon -- is Republic Studios' second serial featuring the rocketman character. Inspiration for 1991's The Rocketeer.

Red Planet Mars -- an obscure, but very cerebrial story about "first contact" by radio. The world goes into upheaval over the news.

Captive Women -- is one of the first post-apocalyptic movies set generations after civilization is ruined by nuclear war. Mad Max's granddaddy.

Invasion U.S.A. -- follows five NYC bar patrons' stories as the Russians invade America. Cold War anxiety fodder, for sure.

Zombies of the Stratosphere -- is Republic's third set of serial adventures of the flying rocketman. This time, Mars attacks!

Zombies of the Stratosphere

This is the third iteration of Republic's flying rocket man hero. The first was "Jeff King" in King of the Rocket Men(1949). The second was "Commando Cody" in Radar Men from the Moon (January 1952). The hero in Zombies (ZOTS) was originally supposed to be Commando Cody too, but Republic had begun filming a TV series just before ZOTS was begun: Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe. Perhaps to avoid confusion or conflict, the hero in ZOTS was renamed "Larry Martin". He still zipped around the same rocket man suit, however. (His flying sequences were re-used from King just like Radar Men had done.

Sci-fi was gaining popularity with audiences, especially the comic-book age set. TV programming was in its crude infancy, but several sci-fi adventure shows were on the air, so the market seemed ripe for yet another rocket man adventure serial. ZOTS is a formula serial, following the pattern of serials before it, including the traditional cliffhanger endings.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Mars is a dying world, cooling down because it's too far from the sun. The martians decide to knock Earth out of it's warmer orbit and put Mars there. To accomplish this, the martians set about trying to build an H-bomb on Earth, with the reluctant help of an earth scientist with "unfriendly powers" connections. Like Radar Men the few martians who come to Earth employ various earth thugs to do their bidding. In each episode, the martians' latest plan is foiled. Each episode usually had a chase scene (with or without shootout). The martians eventually succeed in getting the bomb built and armed. They flee in their rocket, but are shot down by Larry in his rocket. After the crash, the last surviving martian, Narab, (played by Leonard Nimoy) tells Larry how to find and disarm the bomb. This he does, and the world is safe...for now.

Why is this movie fun?
ZOTS is like a sequel to Radar Men which had a certain spartan charm. The rockets have a quaint-but-unrealistic 1930s look to them, what with their little zeppelin shape and pointy fins, yet equipped with ordinary office chairs. You have to love movies in which car chases have squealing tires on dirt roads and uranium being transported in plain wooden railroad freight cars. It's also fun to see young Leonard Nimoy is his first sci-fi role -- albeit a very minor one. He had worked in a couple of other minor films in 1951 and 52, but ZOTS was his first sci-fi role. He played Narab, one of two martian henchmen on earth.

Cold War Angle
Actually, the notion of subversive spies trying to build an H-bomb does have a sort of modern theme to it. It fit into the Cold War culture of the 50s, but fits pretty well today too. Just swap out martians for terrorists. Unlike most Cold War Angst films, the threat is too minor to be truly frightening. It's just not a global scale threat. Larry and his half-dozen associates are all it takes to defeat the three bad guys.

Notes: 
Mars Rising -- It is interesting to note that Mars is the nemesis. Earlier movies had aliens come from somewhere...out there, but not usually pegged to Mars. Aelita was the queen of Mars, but her Mars wasn't hostile, per se, just another place where the workers are oppressed by monarchs. However, no threat to earth.

 -- In Rocketship XM Mars is a tragic wasteland, it's civilization ruined by nuclear war, and its people reduced to mutant cave dwellers. No threat to earth, just a tragic example of nukes gone awry.

-- In Flight to Mars the martian leader Ikron did want to make a fleet of ships to invade Earth because Mars was cooling off (dying). But, that seemed more like just Ikron being tyrannical. Most of the martians were good -- some of them downright pretty.

 -- In Red Planet Mars the planet was actually cast as the good-guy. A role the poor planet would not often see.

 -- In Zombies (ZOTS), the martians are definitely malevolent. Again their planet is described as cooling and dying. Their plan is not to invade the earth, but send it spinning off into space so they can move Mars closer to the fire, and be all warm and cozy again. ZOTS has mean martians coming to Earth to cause trouble. This would become a very dominant plot line in 1953.

Bottom line? ZOTS is low-budget popcorn fun, not high art with noble messages about mankind, etc. It is what kids in the early 50s were watching at their matinee Saturdays, so it's a little window into the soul of an elder Baby Boomer. ZOTS is a good anti-venom for CGI special effects too. Rockets with office chairs! Life was simpler then. Enjoy!

Invasion USA

This little B-film shows up on some lists as a sci-fi film, but that designation seems a bit of a stretch. There's no rockets, saucers, aliens or any kind of technology involved. However, since there weren't many sci-fi movies released in '52, so I'll include it. Invasion USA (IUSA) is an apocalyptic vision. What if the Soviets did attack and invade the USA? Americans in 1952 were feeling very vulnerable to communist attacks. Such feelings tend to spawn cautionary tales of woe. Yes, it's a Red Scare movie. It's easy to scoff at in 2007, but in 1952 America was very scared of the Reds. IUSA is actually a good example of a venerable genre: The Cautionary Tale. More on that below in the Notes section.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Six people sit in a New York City bar: A TV reporter, a congressman, an industrialist, a society girl, a rancher and an enigmatic Mr. Ohman. The first five all share their various reasons for not liking the government's intrusions into their lives. Mr. Ohman quietly rebuffs the group for their preference for personal prosperity over national security. He swirls his brandy snifter exaggeratedly. The bar's TV reports news of crisis. Bombers attack the Alaska, then the American northwest. Each of the five then leave the bar and experience the invasion of America in their own personal corner. The conquest is brutal and complete.

The ending is a sort of variation on the old "it was all a dream" plot device. It turns out, that Mr. Ohman had somehow hypnotized the bar patrons with his twirling snifter and gave them each a "vision" of what invasion would be like -- for THEM. They all profess a patriotic change of heart.

Why is this movie fun?
This movie has so very much stock footage in it, that it's kinda fun to try to spot original footage. In the stock footage, you'll note that the equipment is American. B-29 Superfortresses do the bombing of San Francisco. F-80 Shooting Stars are supposed to be Russian jets. C-82 Packets carry the Russian paratroopers. How clever of the Russians to build all that American hardware for their invasion! Try to see if you see any actual Russian equipment. Of course, American military stock footage was a LOT easier to acquire.

If you ever watched the old black and white Superman TV series, both Lois Lanes -- Phyllis Coates and Noel Niell -- got bit parts. Also, knowing the features of The Cautionary Tale, you can spot little message digs that get thrown in.

Cold War Angle
This movie is nothing BUT a Cold War angle. It wallows in the topic without any hint of metaphor or analogy. It's just plain ol' commies attacking America. No imagination required.

Notes
As with most movies that focus on a small group of people, they're usually meant as a cross section of America. Each of the five have their selfish conceit, which is dashed by the invasion. The industrialist refused a government contract to build tanks because it wasn't profitable. His factory is taken over by commies to build tanks for the invaders, etc.

Notes: The Cautionary Tale
IUSA is a fine example of a genre of fiction which has old roots. The Cautionary Tale took it's modern form with a short story in 1871 by Sir George Chesney, The Battle of Dorking. Chesney (a military man) wrote of a fictional Prussian conquest of England, and provided the moral of the tale. It was all the Brits' own fault because they had chosen to focus on business at the expense of military spending. This was a hot political issue in the 1870s. Chesney's story was a tale of "what if..." the proponents of a smaller army get their way in parliament. The Cautionary Tale was so powerful that the technique was copied regularly every since.

The traditional pattern for The Cautionary Tale is to paint a dire picture of woe in the near future, perpetrated by cruel brutes against our good citizens. Then tell the reader that it all happened because the people didn't fund X or Y or Z (fill in the funding issue d'jour). IUSA fits this pattern perfectly. Watch it as a political action commercial. Spot the funding agenda items. In 1952, the Red Scare was at full steam. People really and truly feared the prospect of Russian invasion and/or nukes. The issues were not quaint abstractions to the audiences of 1952.

Captive Women

Originally produced with the title "1000 Years From Now," this film was acquired by Howard Hughes' RKO Studios. Hughes liked his studios' titles to have more grab. So, it was renamed Captive Women (CW). I know, it sounds like a cheap exploitation film or soft porn, but it's actually a moderately serious post-apocalypse tale. It's purporting to be a look at humanity several hundred years after a nuclear holocaust devastates America. This make it the great granddaddy of post-apocalypic movies like the Mad Max trilogy, the Planet of the Apes series, etc.

Quick Plot Synopsis
In the year 3000, hundreds of years after the nuclear war wiped out civilization, mankind living around the ruins of New York City has split into three groups. The Norms are the descendants of the war's survivors who took shelter underground in New York City. They're "normal" (no disfigurement) and maintain a sort of leftover civilization in the tunnels. The Mutates live above ground in the city's ruins but are variously disfigured due to chromosomal damage. The Upriver Men are rustic and ruthless mountain men who live out in the country of upstate New York.

Gordon, chief of the Upriver Men plots to raid the Norms' settlement in order to capture some women. The Norms are betrayed by one of them, who expects Gordon to make him chief. Two Norms, Robert and Bram, escape but are captured by Mutates and brought before their council. They are sentenced to be killed for past Norm atrocities against Mutates. Robert once saved Riddon (Mutate chief) from the Upriver Men, so they're spared. Riddon is betrayed by a rival and is captured by Gordon's men. Robert leads a band of Mutates in a raid against Gordon and his men, who occupy the Norm "village." The raid succeeds. The Mutates booby trap their own tunnel (The Holland Tunnel) which they've used for years to get to Manhattan in order to raid for Norm women. (Everyone wants Norm women, you see.) The booby trap succeeds in caving in the tunnel on Gordon and his men. The Mutates and Norms are saved.

Why is this movie fun?
This may be the first movie to set itself in a distant post-apocalypic future. (if you don't count Things to Come ) The whole premise of nuclear war wiping out civilization as we know it, and mankind having to start civilization over, would become almost cliche by the 1990s, but in 1952, it was unique. Rocketship XM gave us a glimpse of nuclear ruin (and the survivors turned to cavemen) -- but that was the martians' civilization, not ours. CW depicts nuclear ruin on earth.

In many ways, CW is just another tribal, sword-and-sandal film, but there are occasional reminders in the dialogue of the nuclear foundations of the story.

Cold War Angle
The movie starts with an intro about peace-loving people, the United Nations and that the power of the bomb belongs "In the hands of peace-loving people." (i.e. not the communists) We're told that the movie will be an Imaginary look into the year 3000 when lawlessness reigns..."If we permit the enemies of civilization to control the weapons of peace." That was a pretty heavy-handed preamble leaves no doubt that the film is a nuclear warning tale.

Everyone wants to steal our "good" women
This primal theme runs through CW. The brutish Upriver Men raid for Norm women -- who all seem to be twenty-somethings, trim and pretty, dressed in white. The Mutates raid for Norm women because they want to repair their gene pool. Flawed man craves the perfect women. There's a very strong tribal sexuality undercurrent in CW. They Want Our Women, is an oft recurring primal sub-theme in many 50s sci-fi films.

Religious Notes
There is a surprising religious sub-story within CW. This isn't too surprising, given the year (1952) and the heat of McCarthyism in full force. It's the Mutates who have retained a faith in God, calling themselves "The Lord's children." The Norms have taken to worshipping the devil. (Note the bacchanal wedding festivities at the feet of a big idol.)

There is a theological exchange between Mutate Riddon and Norm Robert. Riddon talks about how mankind may have deserved the nuclear devastation.
Riddon: "The Lord is merciful, but even His patience can end...and the punishment be bitter." He alludes to Sodom and Ghomorah as an ancient example of judgement, then as for more recent history... "He visited His wrath upon man in the twentieth century. Perhaps now He has deserted man for good."
Robert: "That is why we worship the devil. His works endure. He has proven himself stronger than God. What of God's handiwork remains?"
Riddon admits that God has not given the Mutates an easy life. "Perhaps we may, as He, be on our own road to Calvary." (i.e. slated to die for mankind's nuclear sins.)

Now, this is a pretty deep theological question for a B sci-fi flick. Does the existence of evil (death, destruction, etc.) prove that Satan is stronger than God? Does one owe allegiance to whomever seems to be on top at the time? The Mutates held onto their belief that God is the stronger, even if they were not blessed with a comfy life.

Despite the bleak forecast for 20th century civilization, there is a note of reconciliation at the end of CW. The Norm woman Ruth begins to love Mutate chief Riddon (whose disfigurement is pretty minor, really). This natural love (not that of a kidnapped "bride") is implied to mean the eventual repair of mankind's gene pool. True love yields hope. This plot element amounts to a subtle recast of the Christian message: The salvation of flawed man (symbolized by the Mutate men) can only occur when the perfect (the Norm women) gives itself voluntarily. Given the overt Christian messages, the existence of this subtle message is hardly farfetched.

The movie ends with slow zoom out -- a wedding ceremony for Riddon and Ruth. The zoom out continues until two thin branches lashed together (as if part of a hut) enter the screen, forming a very obvious Christian cross. There is NO doubt that the producers and director have shown God has having won after all. THAT is pretty strong stuff for a B-movie.

Red Planet Mars

1952 was a pretty thin year for sci-fi films. Red Planet Mars (RPM) is one of the few sci-fi feature films.  RPM, like the 1997 film Contact, focuses on radio messages as our first form of contact. (Rather than invasion) Where the atheist Carl Sagan had Jodie Foster make contact with Carl's "god" -- a benign new-age "consciousness," the writers of RPM imagined contacting Mars and maybe the biblical God. RPM was plainly anti-communist, but at least it was couched in a sci-fi story. Many in the anti-red genre, such as Red Menace ('49), were unadorned dramas about commies trying to subvert America.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Dr. Cronyn (played by Peter Graves) is picking up radio signals from Mars. He's using a special "hydrogen valve" radio set based on captured nazi plans. The former Nazi, Franz Calder, who invented the hydrogen valve, is secretly bankrolled by the Soviets. He's set up in the Andes mountains. Messages come in telling of economic marvels -- of martians feeding thousands with a single acre, etc. This causes riot and economic upheaval in western nations. Then messages come through that the martians worship God. This sparks the faithful to overthrow their various communist regimes. Despite the labor trouble, the West enters an era of faith and peace.

An avalanche destroys Calder's lab, but he shows up later at Cronyn's lab claiming to have sent the messages himself, to destroy the West's economy and the Soviets' empire. He then planned to tell all in order to destroy the faith the religious messages spawned. Cronyn and his wife decide that Calder must be stopped. They open the hydrogen valve, willing to die to stop Calder and preserve the new peace. At the last minute, the receiver begins to crackle. A new message comes in from Mars and obviously NOT Calder. Outraged, Calder shoots the CRT, sparking the huge hydrogen-fueled explosion. Faith and peace prevail.

Why is this movie fun
The plot premise is pretty deep for a B-movie. What if we DID receive signals from extraterrestrials, or perhaps God himself, and they affirmed the morality and ethics of the Bible? What would mankind do? There's a discrepancy between Calder's log of fake messages HE sent, and what Cronyn received. Mistranslation? Divine intervention? Was Calder lying about transmitting fake messages and just trying to bluff and take the credit as a last grasp at self-glory? Pretty deep stuff for a B-movie.

The script is well paced, and the plot twists work well. The acting is pretty good too. Peter Graves is young, but does okay. Herbert Berghof does a great job with the shifty/evil Calder. Morris Ankrum is in his usual role as stern authority figure: in this case Secretary of Defense.

Cold War Angle
This is very blatant. The Soviets are the evil, merciless, anti-christian empire. They get overthrown by a popular uprising of the faithful. Early in the movie, Mrs. Cronyn voices the mood of the Cold War citizen. Chris Cronyn asks his wife why she's so fearful about him making radio contact with Mars.
Linda: "The whole world's scared. Every woman in the world. We all live in fear. Fear. It's become our natural state. Fear our sons will have to fight another war. Or fear they'll face worse. We've lived on the edge of a volcano all our lives. One day, it has to boil over."
After Chris tries to comfort her about science offering peaceful answers, she retorts, "Don't you understand? Science has made this volcano we're sitting on." A reference to atomic bombs.

Notes: 
Religious Tone -- Christian elements are woven throughout the movie, just to underscore the point that the Free World has religion while the Commies are "godless". For instance, Calder's secret Andean radio hut is set under a big statue of Jesus. His cryptic clue to his Soviet sponsors was: "To find me, you'll have to find Christ." Quite the taunt to godless communists (who found him anyhow).

There is an interesting little scene near the end, in which Calder scoffs at the Cronyn's faith in God. He quotes Milton. "Better to rule in hell than serve in heaven." Calder doesn't deny God's existence, but says he worships Lucifer. "God may have won that battle (kicking Lucifer out of heaven), but I will win this one..." (A devil-worshipping Nazi is pure archetypal villain -- easy to hate.)

The movie ends with American leaders musing reverently over the last recorded message fragment from Mars (or God himself): "Ye have done well, my good..." The President finishes the message, quoting from Matthew 25:23 as he addresses Congress. "Well done, good and faithful servant...enter thou into the joy of thy lord." This is followed by a montage of congregations singing and praying, culminating with a zoom shot out the oval office window which stops with the window mullions forming a Christian cross on the screen. The words "The Beginning" fade up.

Now, such an ending will probably drive today's atheist into a rage, but the VERY religious tone is historically noteworthy. Where The Day the Earth Stood Still was subtly religious, RPM is blatantly so. No doubt, the national mood surrounding the high-McCarthy-era provides much of the motivation. Since the communists were godless, to proclaim freedom and patriotism, godliness needed to be cranked waaaay up. RPM must be watched with its own cultural context in mind.

Proof Piece -- The House Committee on Un-American Activities had leveled the charge on Hollywood that they were pro-communist and producing films that promoted communism. The dreaded "Black Lists" resulted.  Most of the studios quickly produced a movie or two that were obviously anti-communist, to prove the HUAC charges didn't apply to them.  RPM was United Artists' offering.

You Can't Handle the Proof -- What would the modern world do if SETI (for instance) did get a message affirming what's written in the Bible? Our modern world has gotten so accustomed to belieiving whatever anyone darn well wants to (so long as it's not God), that having anyone settle that debate would be seen as violating someone's civil rights. What would we do with such a message? We'd probably have chaos and riots too.

Bottom line? RPM will disappoint people who require saucers, aliens or laser battles. All the "action" takes place on earth -- most of it is dialogue. We never see any martians, just flickering lines on a CRT as messages are received. RPM is more of a thought-provoking film than an action thriller. There's a timelessness to RPM which most 50s B-movies don't have. It's premise still works.

Radar Men from the Moon

This Republic serial was the second appearance of the flying rocket man character. The first was in 1949, King of the Rocket Men which had a Jeff King as the hero who wore the flying rocket-man suit. Radar Men from the Moon (RMM for short), which starred George Wallace as Commando Cody. However, all of the flying rocket man footage in Radar Men was recycled from King.... These rocket man serials were the inspiration for the 1991 movie The Rocketeer.


Quick Plot Synopsis
In RMM, key defense installations on earth (really just America) are being destroyed and no one can figure out why. Commando Cody's scientist associates figure out that it's an "atomic ray" coming from the moon. The dictator of the moon men, Redik, plans to weaken earth's defenses so he can invade, take over, and make earth home for his moon men. Mostly, he does this by having his moon agent (Krog) hire earth men thugs to do his dirty work. Cody and his crew foil one plot after another of the moon men. Frustrated by the failures, Redik comes to earth himself to take charge of the work, but is similarly thwarted. When he flees in his rocket ship, he is blasted by one of his own ray guns, captured by Cody. A light-hearted ending of the last chapter implies more adventures to come, as Cody is instructed to build a whole fleet of rocket ships.

Why is this movie fun?
If you know it's not a big budget blockbuster, but as low-budget as possible, you can appreciate how the set designers and director tried to suggest the world-of-the-future with whatever they could scrape up in 1952. As such, there's the usual consoles full of knobs, analogue gauges and blinking lights, Art Deco ray guns and psuedo-machines clutter the backgrounds. Oh sure, most of the action (fist fights) is indoors, or chase scenes shot in Red Rock Canyon -- like so many Republic serials were -- but it was enough gee-whiz to keep young audiences coming back each week.

Other fun little bits? In RMM, Clayton Moore (The Lone Ranger) plays Graber, henchman #1 for the moon man Krog. (see trivia notes below)

Cold War Angle
As "lite" entertainment, there isn't much of a Cold War aspect, really.

Notes
Each iteration of these serials and TV series would feature a villain who wanted to conquer the Earth for some reason or other. They tended not to be especially Russian, but harkened to an older strain of cultural mythos: mongols, chinese emperors, mad scientists, etc. But the scale of the villains was small enough (a single dictator with a band of henchmen) that a lone hero with a half-dozen cohorts can defeat them. That's just not a global nuclear scenario.

Also of mild interest is the Moon Men costumes -- full body leotards, complete with tight hood, such that only the face is seen. Removing familiar fashion elements, such as hair style, cut of clothing, etc. was a quick and cheap way to make a not-like-us alien. Sometimes a few silvery elements are added: boots, a vest, a lightening bolt, etc. Watch for this full-leotard costume approach on later 50s B-films. It is interesting, too, that evil rulers seem to need to wear a cape. Perhaps a latent cultural image of royal attire.

Trivia Notes
It's a small world, Hollywood. George Wallace, who played Commando Cody in RMM had tried out, along with many other actors for the role of The Lone Ranger, in 1952. Clayton Moore had played the role for years, but he and the studios were at a financial impass, so the studio was seeking a replacement for Moore. Wallace tried out for the part, but didn't get it. He then tried out for the role of a "tough" in new Republic Serial -- Commando Cody. He didn't get that role, but instead got the lead role of Cody. Ironically, it was Clayton Moore who got the role as "tough #1" in RMM which Wallace was auditioning for. An actor named John Hart was the studio's new Lone Ranger, but the public didn't take to him. By 1954, Moore had his mask back.

Serials & TV: A bit of family history
There was a lot of cross-polination between early television series and movie serials. Columbia had a Captain Video TV series, so created a movie serial of the same name in 1951 (though the two looked completely different). Republic Pictures cobbled together a "feature film" version of it's 1949 movie serial King of the Rocket Men, also released in 1951. This and the Captain Video serial must have been something of a success, as Republic decided to do a sequel, of sorts to King -- Radar Men of the Moon. This, too, must have been something of a success, as Republic then started a bit later in 1952 shooting a TV series of Commando Cody adventures, starring Judd Holdren, the man who played Captain Video.

During the shooting of the Cody TV series, Republic interrupted production to shoot a their rocketman serial -- Zombies of the Stratosphere. In this iteration, the rocket man was also played by Judd Holdren and was planned to be Cody again, but was changed to a civilian named "Larry Martin". Perhaps this was to separate the serial from the TV series. For the TV series, Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe the Cody character gets a space-ranger like outfit, complete with a communicator chest badge which prefigures those used in the Start Trek TV series. It's a pretty small world, these serials.