Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe

Television series

Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe (or, informally, Commando Cody) is a 1953 twelve chapter movie serial from Republic Pictures, which began life as a proposed syndicated television series. It consists of twelve 25 minute sequential episodes directed by Harry Keller, Franklin Adreon, and Fred C. Brannon. It stars Judd Holdren, Aline Towne, Gregory Gaye, William Schallert, Richard Crane, and Craig Kelly. Originally intended to be broadcast on television as a 12 episode weekly series, Sky Marshall was first released theatrically in 1953 as a 12 chapter weekly serial; it was syndicated to television on NBC in 1955. The Commando Cody character was first introduced in Republic's earlier serial Radar Men from the Moon (1952), with actor George Wallace in the title role. Judd Holdren first played the Commando Cody character in Zombies of the Stratosphere (also 1952), but was renamed Larry Martin for this follow up serial.

Dangerous weather and climate changes are ravaging the Earth. Masked super scientist Commando Cody is approached by the U. S. government to investigate. Among the tools at his disposal are a sonic powered one man flying suit with an aerodynamic helmet and a new Cody designed and built rocket ship. With his colleagues Joan and Ted (later replaced by Dick), he ascertains the disasters are being caused by space alien forces led by a mysterious "Ruler" of unknown planetary origins, with occasional help from hired, Earth born criminals. Warding off various dangers, Cody and his associates are able to methodically close in on the culprits and reveal that The Ruler is from our sister world, Venus. In the final episode, Cody is able to capture The Ruler and his soldiers on Mercury with the help of the persecuted Mercurians and their queen. This brings a quick end to the Ruler's influence on Venus and a peace treaty soon follows, ending the Venus Earth conflict.

While Commando Cody was originally filmed as a twelve part TV series, union contract issues forced Republic to first exhibit them in theaters as a 12 part weekly movie serial. The TV episodes actually built on each other in chronological order, lacking the traditional cliffhanger endings that characterized theatrical serials, which has resulted in its being omitted altogether from many reference works on film serials. Sky Marshal was meant as a prequel to Republic's Radar Men from the Moon movie serial. The first chapter has characters Joan and Ted, Commando Cody's established sidekicks in Radar Men, applying for their jobs and meeting Cody for the first time. There was a substantial break between filming the first three TV episodes and the last nine, during which time Republic set about filming another Cody movie serial called Zombies of the Stratosphere. It starred Judd Holdren as Cody, Aline Towne as Joan, and Wilson Wood as Ted. For reasons unknown, however, the Republic revised the principal characters' names, and "Commando Cody" became "Larry Martin". The third TV episode ends with the apparent death of The Ruler, suggesting that Republic may have reconsidered filming the remaining nine and just edit the three it had already completed into a 75 minute science fiction feature film. By the time filming finally resumed on the Sky Marshal TV series, Republic had lost actor William Schallert as Cody's male colleague "Ted Richards" (played by William Bakewell in Radar Men). A replacement was found in Richard Crane, a year before his best remembered role starring as the title character on the science fiction TV series Rocky Jones, Space Ranger. The Ruler also gained a female sidekick, played by Gloria Pall, though she had almost no dialog or action scenes.

Commando Cody reuses the "rocket man" flying jacket and helmet costume, first seen in Republic's serial King of the Rocket Men (1949), to which the other Cody serials are not related. The Sky Marshal series also recycles characters, sets, props, and concepts from the Radar Men serial. Two streamlined, bullet shaped prop helmets were reused again with the "rocket man" costume. The first was made of lighter weight materials and worn only during the various stunt action scenes; during filming, the single hinged visors on both frequently warped and would stick open or closed. When not in his flying jacket and helmet, Cody wears a black military tunic with many insignia and a cap, instead of the regular business suit seen in Radar Men. Cody also wears a black domino mask to hide his real identity. Holdren always suspected this was due to the producers not wanting to take a chance that he might walk out if any future demands for a higher salary were not met, as Clayton Moore had done on the popular The Lone Ranger TV series. The mask presumably served to conceal any change of actor, should the part ever need recasting, although disguising the change of lead with a domino mask had not worked well in the case of the Lone Ranger series.

Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe, the 1955 syndicated TV series, has been available for decades on all manner of Home Video formats, and was the first of the "rocket man" adventures to be released on Blu Ray from Olive Films on September 13, 2016.