King of the Rocket Men was the first appearance of the "atomic powered rocket flying suit" from
Republic Pictures.
The characters changed but the suit remained for
four action-packed serials. In 1949,
King of the Rocket Men starts out with a bang, or rather
a series of bangs (YT playlist), as scientists die in accidents, but science and fists save the day. Civilian researcher Commando Cody is the next hero to don the rocket pack in 1952, for 12 chapters of
Radar Men from the Moon. But when
Zombies of the Stratosphere attack that same year, Commando Cody is out sick (or something), so Larry Martin steps up to duke it out in the rocket suit (though
thin on the "zombies", the serial starred
Leonard Nemoy as a Martian). Commando Cody returned in 1953 to face the evil alien "Ruler" in
Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe (
vid 1,
vid 2).
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posted by filthy light thief
on Jul 14, 2011 -
17 comments
Space: 1999 (1975-77) is a British sci-fi series, the last production of
Gerry and
Sylvia Anderson who were first recognized for their work in "
Supermarionation." This series saw the end of the couple, with Sylvia Anderson leaving the show at the end of the first season. She was replaced by
Fred Freiberger, who brought in some Star Trek sensibilities and attempted to cater the show more to the American action-adventure audience. A third season was planned but not produced, and left the series unfinished, ending on an episode that was "
like bad Shakespeare, or worse, bad Star Trek." Fans still support the show in many forms, even creating a semi-official fan-produced mini-episode entitled
Message from Moonbase Alpha to bring some completion to the series, which was shown on September 13, 1999 at the
Breakaway: 1999 convention. Another group of fans has recently taken to
updating the whole series, to
bring Space:1999 into the future.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Jan 13, 2010 -
91 comments
Sex Galaxy (
trailer 1,
trailer 2, NSFW) is a new film that
claims to be the first "green film," as it is made of 100% recycled material. In an
Wired article, director/producer Mike Davis discloses his film sources. "Boarded-up libraries, abandoned schools, decaying drive-in movie theaters…. These are the realms in which I unearth my wares," he said. "And actually, many of these films are available on the internet. You can find amazing collections through the
Library of Congress." The Wired article notes that the recycled material isn't itself wholly original, and
Bad Lit expands the history of film plunder further.
Sex Galaxy is sourced from
Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women, which relied on footage from
Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet, which in turn is sampled from the Russian film
Planeta Bur. The history of film reuse is long and storied, and continues after the jump.
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posted by filthy light thief
on Jun 27, 2009 -
17 comments
