Zombies of the Stratosphere
Zombies of the Stratosphere
| 25 October 1952 (USA)
Zombies of the Stratosphere Trailers

Martians come to Earth to build an H-bomb strong enough to blast Earth out of orbit so that Mars can be moved into its place in closer proximity to the sun. Super-scientist Larry Martin, inventor of the first stratospheric-flight spaceship as well as a jet-powered personal flying suit with helmet, is called upon by the government to investigate ramped-up UFO reports occasioned by the Martians' spaceships. The Martians, meanwhile, led by Marex, engage a renegade earth scientist and a gaggle of gangsters to help them steal supplies, operate a menacing robot, and build their bomb. This movie serial in 12 chapters was originally planned as a sequel to "Radar Men From The Moon" with Commando Cody as the hero but at the last moment the main characters' names were changed and all other references to that serial removed from the script.

Reviews
Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.
Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good
Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
Tyreece Hulme One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.
harper_blue This one (so to speak) is for lovers of the old Republic Serials, those incredibly silly (by modern standards) episodic films that kept our parents or grandparents coming back to the Saturday matinée week after week. Produced on budgets not much larger than Ed Wood ever had, and on sets sometimes recycled from film to film, they still offered a weekly dose of action and adventure in the days when those terms were not synonymous with earth-splitting explosions, computerized special effects, and "I'll be back." The plots were straightforward; of course, most a/a genre films are simple of plot even today, but there is something about these old cans of cheeze that satisfies more than constant viewings of "Terminatorsaur" and "Predatalienator". The goods guys wear white hats (so to speak) and smell good; the bad guys wear black hats and stink of cigarette smoke; and the simplicity of the 'fex are lovely in themselves. Yeah, things still blow up and burn down, but that is still a function of a/a films, I guess. The logic is, bigger isn't always better, and the serials prove the point.In this Saturday-morning peanut-gallery special, the plan is for the aliens to blow up Earth, so that Mars can take its orbital place and get warm. Out to foil them is Larry, a "security agent," armed only with a .45 and a miraculous suit that lets him fly through the air just by twisting knobs (and jumping on a hidden trampoline for the initial takeoff). Can he stop the terrible zombies from completing their dastardly scheme before the train runs off the track, he gets burned in a raging inferno, or the movie runs out of reels? Return to the theater next week for the next exciting chapter...or just keep playing the tape. Get plenty of popcorn, settle in for a Saturday with the kids to introduce them to what film really was like, and keep your eyes open for Leonard Nimoy, sans ears and "Live Long and Prosper", in an early film appearance! One of the best-remembered of the serials, as well as one of the last ones (Republic stopped producing them in the mid-Fifties or so; check a specialist film-history Web site). Warmly recommended to all, unless you have no tolerance for cheesy sci-fi. I only hope it comes out on DVD eventually, and with Nimoy to comment on it or do a special feature!
cshep When viewing "Zombies of the Stratosphere " out of the context of the 1950's, it can be said that the serial falls short of avg. standards, but that said, if you have a Sat. afternoon to spend with your son, and conditions warrant you from going outside, then get out the popcorn, warm up the VCR, and pop in this adventure!!! While evil Martians(Zombies) plot to knock the Earth out of its orbit, with an Atomic(Hydrogen) bomb, Larry Martin and friends , outwit and out hustle, this dedicated group of Evil Doers, with 11 Chapters of car crashing , boat chasing, robot fighting, cliff hangers, that may amuse the over 35 crowd, and could delight younger viewers, whose Fantasy of Flight, is fulfilled, from those of us that are gravity challenged !!! Even the Female leads fight , and are not intimidated by the Outer Space villains !!! While the plot is so-so , this serial is very nostalgic , of a time when the future held so much promise, and the Universe, that was so close, still held so much mystery !!! Get the COLOR version, much more depth !!! Watch the landings onto the Spaceships, by flying humans, needs a little work !!! Enjoy !!!
jscotti I didn't see any zombies in this movie (outside of the viewer....), but I did see Leonard Nimoy in one of his first screen credits. This serial style program which centers on the exploits of a rocket powered hero is a horrible movie, at least by modern standards, but it's so bad, it's funny and although I gave it only a 2 rating, it's campiness could almost make this one a cult classic! One of the funniest things is the control panel on our hero's chest. To go up, he rotates a knob to a spot labeled "up". To go left - you guessed it, he rotates the knob to a spot labeled "left". At the end of each scene, our hero is left in an impossible situation, only to have a slightly different take on that scene showing how he got out of it at the start of the next scene. Pretty funny! We sure hope he saves the damsel in distress and the Earth from those nasty Martians and the future Vulcan.
jbone-4 Around 1990 Television NZ screened a colourised feature of this serial. I've never seen any reference to it elsewhere. It ran about 100 minutes. Considering how bad some colourisations can be this one was quite good, being very similar to Eastmancolour in the tones but without the saturation.