King Of The Rocket Men
(aka Lost Planet Of The Airmen)
Year: 1949
Country: USA
Genre: Republic SF Movie Serial, 12 weekly chapters
Language: English
Subtitles: No
File Format: AVI 
  
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041547/

First AVI (603 Mb):
Chapter 01: Dr. Vulcan, Traitor   
Chapter 02: Plunging Death   
Chapter 03: Dangerous Evidence   
Chapter 04: High Peril   
Chapter 05: Fatal Drive   
Chapter 06: Mystery of the Rocket Man   

Second AVI (530 Mb):
Chapter 07: Molten Menace   
Chapter 08: Suicide Flight   
Chapter 09: Ten Seconds to Live   
Chapter 10: The Deadly Fog   
Chapter 11: Secret of Dr. Vulcan   
Chapter 12: Wave of Disaster 

Director – Fred C. Bannon
Screenplay – Royal Cole, William Lively & Sol Shor
Photography (b&w) – Ellis W. Carter
Music – Stanley Wilson
Special Effects – Howard & Theodore Lydecker
Makeup – Bob Mark
Art Direction – Fred Ritter
Produced by Republic.

Cast:
Tristram Coffin as Jeff King/Rocket Man
Mae Clarke as Glenda Thomas
Don Haggerty as Tony Dirken
House Peters Jr as Burt Winslow
James Craven as Professor Millard
I. Stanford Jolley as Professor Bryant
Stanley Price as Gunther Von Strum

Opinons about when the golden age of movie serials ended vary. Some believe it was in 1943 with "The Masked Marvel". Others are convinced it was after "The Purple Monster Strikes" in 1945. While many contend the it lasted until 1949 and the release of "King of the Rocket Men". Regardless of these opinions, most fans agree that serials in the late forties were starting to get worn out due to a repetition of plot elements, lowering budgets, and excessive stock footage. "King of the Rocketmen" was an obvious attempt to reignite the old magic at Republic, and proved to be one of their best serials from the post war years.

Plot:
A mysterious criminal known only as Dr. Vulcan has been stealing secrets and inventions from Science Associates to sell to foreign powers, and killing the inventors while making the deaths look like accidents. His latest victim, Professor Millard (James Craven) barely survives when a control panel explodes, showering him with electricity. With the help of fellow scientist Jeff King (Tristram Coffin), Millard sets up shop out of town in an abandoned cave. He lets the world believe he is dead so that he can finish his new atomic rocket suit as well as discover the identity of Dr. Vulcan.

Jeff meets with the other members of Science Associates; Bryant (I. Stanford Jolley), Chairman ( Douglas Evans), Conway (Ted Adams), and Von Strum (Stanley Price). They are all concerned about Millard's death and want Jeff to look into it. He agrees, making mention that Millard had been investigating the other deaths and was convinced that they were not accidents, but the work of Dr. Vulcan.

Dr. Vulcan is in fact one of the Science Associate board members. After the meeting he calls his number one flunky Dirken (Don Hagerty) and tells him to search Jeff's office and lab to see if Jeff has any real evidence to show who he really is. Dirken and Blears (David Sharpe) break into Jeff's lab, and aren't too concerned about running into anyone, after all these brainy types don't know how to handle themselves in a tough spot. Both men are in for a rude awakening when Jeff King walks in and beats the stuffing out of both men before they are able to get away.

Jeff goes to Millard's hidden lab and tells him about the break in. Millard is convinced that Jeff is now a target for Dr. Vulcan, but Jeff isn't too concerned. Millard has finished his rocket suit and gives it to Jeff to make a test flight at his first opportunity. Jeff is also give a sonic ray gun that the professor has invented.

Jeff has more important work at the moment, overseeing the transportation of an atomic powered aerial torpedo (missile not having become the accepted term yet). Dr. Vulcan also has plans for the new missile. While Jeff is at the warehouse getting the missile put aboard a truck, Dirken and Blears attack. They knock out Jeff and the guard, while a third cohort disables Jeff's car. Jeff comes to just as they are pulling away.

Finding his car sabotaged, Jeff decides this is the perfect time to test the new flying suit. Putting on the leather jacket with the rocket tubes on the back, the shiny bullet shaped helmet, and sticking his new ray gun into his belt, Jeff sets the controls and blasts off. As he is flying away, Jeff's friend, and PR man for Science Associates, Burt Winslow (House Peters, Jr.) and Glenda Thomas (Mae Clark), corespondent for "Scientific Data Magazine", pull up and are awed witnesses to Jeff's maiden flight. Glenda manages to snap a picture of the flying man before he zooms out of sight.

Jeff flies straight into the back of the escaping truck, scaring and bewildering Dirken and Blears, but not enough to keep them from attacking the strangly suited man. During the fight, Dirken is knocked back against the missile's firing switch and the destructive weapon is launched. Wasting no time, Jeff blasts off after the missile and manages to explode it with his ray gun before it can reach the city.

The force of the explosion knocks out Jeff's rocket engines and he starts to plumment toward the ground. Luckily he manages to get his rockets restarted and flies away to safety.

Later Jeff and the rest of the SA board learn through Burt that Glenda has a negative for a picture of the person she has dubbed Rocket Man. This concerns Jeff and MIllard. Though the actual picture is small, and Jeff's face is covered by the helmet, Millard is afraid that if the photo were enlarged enough it would show that the suit's construction follows the plans that Millard had made, which would point straight to Jeff, since the two men were known to have worked together on it. Jeff has Burt contact Glenda to set up an appointment to see the negative.

Dr. Vulcan is interested in the negative as well and sends Dirken to steal it. The thug searches Glenda's apartment but can't find it. Hearing someone coming, he hides. Glenda and Burt enter the apartment to wait for Jeff's arrival. Dirken uses an extension to call the operator and trick her into ringing the phone, then when Glenda picks up the phone, Dirken pretends to be Jeff and asks her to bring the negative to his lab.

After Glenda gets the negative from it's hiding place, Dirken pops out, gun drawn, and demands the piece of film. Burt knocks Dirken's gun away and they engage in a furious fight. Dirken manages to subdue Burt and make off with the film. He gets away in a car, with Glenda pursuing close behind. Burt sees Jeff arrive and tells him what happened. Jeff jumps into his car and heads after them, but quickly pulls over, runs into an alley with his rocket suit, and blasts off after the escaping Dirken as Rocket Man. 

Dr. Vulcan uses one of his stolen inventions, a view screen, to check on Dirken's progress and sees Glenda chasing him. Using another stolen invention, the evil master mind takes remote control of Glenda's car and sends it toward a cliff. Rocket Man breaks off his pursuit to drop down on Glenda's car and help her leap to safety before the car crashes. This has given Dirken enough time to get away.

Things may look bleek for the heroes, but this is not so. Jeff learns that the type of camera Glenda uses is a special kind that can only print pictures on Microfilm 247. He quickly puts a hold on anyone being able to buy that type of picture printing material, knowing that Dirken will have to try and steal the supply kept at Science Associates.

Which is what Dirken does. Jeff gets the drop on Dirken, but then spies a mysterious hand, wearing a distintive ring, reach into the room and turn off the lights, which allows Dirken to get away. Switching to Rocket Man, Jeff follows Dirken to an old cabin out of town. Stashing the rocket suit, Jeff attempts to sneak up upon the cabin but is caught. He quickly turns the tables on his captors and engages in a terrific fight. During the fight some chemicals are spilled which mix together and cause an explosion that destroys the cabin, and the negative. Luckily Jeff managed to get out of the cabin just in the nick of time.

Later Jeff shows Burt a key he had found at the cabin. It is a key to their building. This proves that someone on the board is Dr. Vulcan. He tells Burt of his plan to prove which scientist it is. Unkown to both men is that a dictograph is hidden in the room, and Dr. Vulcan hears everything.

At the next board meeting Jeff has all of the board members put their hands flat on the table. Conway is wearing the ring that Jeff saw the other night. He accuses Conway of being Dr. Vulcan. The scientist whips out a gun and forces everyone back, then flees. Jeff gives chase but loses him. Later Conway phones another of the board members, he is scared that Jeff is trying to frame him for Dr. Vulcan's crimes, and wants the other man to help him. What Conway is unaware of is that the man his is talking to is really Dr. Vulcan, who sends Conway to a man who can help him, Dirken.

Dirken starts to force Conway to write a false confession to Dr. Vulcan's crimes. Police spot Conways's car and notify Jeff. Switching to Rocket Man he flies over to the apartment building and finds Conway and Dirken together. Conway says he is innocent, his ring is a symbol of a secret scientist organization he and another board member belong to, but is killed by Dirken with a knife before he can reveal who that person is. Rocket Man tries to capture Dirken but is knocked out the window. Rocket Man manages to get his rockets fired and zooms back up to the room, but Dirken is gone.

The police are notified. When the unfinished confession is discovered, the police take it at face value and conclude Conway was Dr. Vulcan and decided to kill himself . Glenda isn't convinced. She doesn't believe a man would commit suicide before finishing his confession. Glenda is starting to suspect that Jeff King is really Dr. Vulcan and the whole demonstration about the ring was just to cover his own tracks. She confides her suspicions to Burt, who skoffs at first, but is eventually won over by her logical break down of the facts.