PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, sociological*COMMANDO CODY is an anomaly in the world of serial films. When filming began, Republic Studios intended it to be a 12-part television serial, competing with other juvenile SF-fare like CAPTAIN VIDEO. However, union rules required Republic to exhibit CODY as a movie serial first, even though each installment of the serial was self-contained. The only exceptions to this rule are the first episode, in which the hero and his aides are introduced for the benefit of the audience, and the final episode, in which the main villain is defeated.
CODY has a complicated relationship to Republic's three "Rocketnan" serials, the last of which had appeared in 1952. In KING OF THE ROCKET MEN, the Rocketman suit was worn by a crusader named "Jeff King," played by Tristram Coffin. In RADAR MEN FROM THE MOON, another hero took King's place without explanation, and he was given the name "Commando Cody." This character was played by lead actor George D. Wallace, and there's no explanation as to why the hero affects this peculiar name. The third serial, ZOMBIES OF THE STRATOSPHERE, allegedly started out with the idea of using the "Cody" name again for the featured "Rocketman." But again the studio used a different character-name, "Larry Martin," possibly because the lead actor changed once again, this time to one Judd Holdren.
The CODY TV-serial was designed as a "prequel" of sorts, for the first episode shows the featured hero meeting his two aides Ted and Joan for the first time, as they're already working under Cody when RADAR MEN begins. In addition, the studio, possibly observing the popularity of the LONE RANGER teleseries, gave the character of Cody a domino mask, which he wears even when he's not in the rocket-suit. This gets a quick explanation in the first episode: Cody is a great scientist who uses both the mask and his peculiar cognomen to protect his real identity from spies-- though the fact that he's forever running around fighting alien invasions doesn't exactly keep him clear from danger. This version of Cody is also more pro-active than the first one: at some point Earth has become aware of a hostile alien force, based on Venus. Cody's genius is responsible for creating a massive cloud of space-dust-- sort of a literal "Iron Curtain"-- that keeps the aliens away for the most part. This ensured that when the evil alien tyrant attempted to assail the planet, he had to operate either through thugs born on Earth, or occasional agents who managed to travel to the planet even though their ships disintegrated through contact with the dust-cloud.
This setup is the most interesting thing about the serial. All twelve episodes show off Republic's skill with both miniatures and fight-choreography. However, because the episodes are roughly thirty minutes, the producers often pad the running-time more than was necessary with serial-segments. Thus the action is decent but never riveting, and of course a lot of footage and many props get re-used seen throughout the serial, notably the "enraged water heater" robot from RADAR MEN. The better episodes are invariably those that present the heroes with some apocalyptic threat-- a new ice age, two suns in the sky-- because these stories force the characters to provide some elementary lectures on scientific principles. I found particularly amusing an episode in which the script worked in a reference to the Greek savant Archimedes.
I commented in my serial-reviews that I thought Judd Holdren was the best Rocketman, but the actor doesn't come off nearly as well in this low-budget TV show. Aline Towne reprises the role of lady assistant Joan, and for three episodes "Ted" is played by veteran character actor William Schallert. Due to a schedule-conflict, Schallert was not available for the other nine episodes, so the writers created a new number-two man, Dick, played by Richard Crane, who had previously played the lead in the serial MYSTERIOUS ISLAND. The scripts with Crane emphasize more light humor and thus are a little more accessible than the first three. However, even when CODY made it to the small screen, no one was interested in the commando's further adventures, thus bringing an end to his adventures, apart from a quickie reference in George Lucas's REVENGE OF THE SITH.
No comments:
Post a Comment