Category: Directed by Fred C. Brannon
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King of the Rocket Men isn’t a long serial. It’s only twelve chapters and almost one of them is a recap of the first three chapters. The final chapter spends most of its time setting up a big showdown, with the grand action finale–at least the grand action finale not recycling disaster footage from another,…
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The Wave of Disaster does have some great special effects for Rocket Men’s finale. Sure, they’re from an earlier film, but they’re still great. The Rocket Man effects are fine too, they’re just boring. After yet another tepid cliffhanger resolution–maybe the first to directly contradict the previous chapter’s version of it–and Tristram Coffin letting the…
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About halfway through the chapter–the penultimate Rocket Men chapter–Tristram Coffin and Mae Clarke go over a cliff in a car into a lake. They’ve already gone over a cliff together as a cliffhanger. And Coffin forced a motorcycle driver to his death over the cliff into a lake. It really felt like The Secret of…
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The Deadly Fog is a clip chapter. Sadly, the fog doesn’t refer to the misting effect when Deadly goes into flashback to the moments from the first three chapters. After another lackluster cliffhanger resolution, Tristram Coffin ignores the weapon of mass destruction in a nearby car–he really doesn’t sweat his invention being captured by the…
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Ten Seconds to Live is a new low as far as Rocket Men quality goes. It’s bad to the point the badness becomes more engaging than the story, partially because there’s no story, mostly because the good guys are just so dumb. The cliffhanger resolution is bad. The subsequent setup for the chapter–Tristram Coffin arguing…
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Maybe I missed Tristram Coffin revealing his Rocket Man identity to Mae Clarke and House Peters Jr. Or maybe they just don’t question only Rocket Man ever coming to their rescue after Coffin has put them in danger. This chapter is a mild improvement over the previous one, though the cliffhanger resolutions are getting incredibly…
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King of the Rocket Men made it to chapter seven before having a stinker. And Molten Menace isn’t even an exciting stinker, it’s just a plodding one. It’s also frustrating because it requires lead Tristram Coffin to be stupid about something a scene after he was talking about being cautious about the exact same thing.…
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With the opening cliffhanger resolution once again being tepid, it seems like Rocket Men is never going to get out of the bad opening rut. Poor Mae Clarke is simply dismissed from the chapter, not very gracious considering she’s just around to be in danger. There’s some brief setup for Tristram Coffin’s next scheme to…
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Not much happens in Fatal Dive before the action–i.e. fisticuffs–starts. Tristram Coffin gets out of the previous chapter’s cliffhanger, inexplicably abandoning the interrupted fight, and heads off to consult with scientist on the lam James Craven. Meanwhile, House Peters Jr. is hanging around Mae Clarke’s apartment again and they decided it’s got to be Coffin…
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One of King of the Rocket Men’s unintentional strengths is its brevity. The chapters never go on too long. They’re all just right, even when they’ve got lackluster events. Most of High Peril is lackluster. The opening cliffhanger resolution is lackluster, the group interrogation scene is lackluster, the car chase is lackluster. The car chase,…
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It’s another quick chapter, starting with a lackluster resolution to the previous cliffhanger–three chapters in, it appears King of the Rocket Men is going to just reveal something previously unseen in resolutions instead of the characters actually having to get out of anything. Unfortunately, Dangerous Evidence’s cliffhanger isn’t particularly impressive either. Especially not after that…
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The coolest part of Plunging Death is a toss-up. It’s either when lead Tristram Coffin, who doesn’t get to participate in the chapter’s fisticuffs, pulls over to put on his rocket suit and take off to chase the villain or when Mae Clarke starts pursuing the villain in the first place. She and House Peters…
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King of the Rocket Men’s first chapter, Dr. Vulcan – Traitor, opens with the mysterious Dr. Vulcan killing off members of the scientific establishment. The first couple just die in mysterious explosions, but the third has Dr. Vulcan taunting him with his impending doom. So far, not a great villain. Director Brannon rushes through the…
The Stop Button 