Production
Just as filming began on this serial, the name of the hero was changed from Commando Cody to Larry Martin, as played by Judd Holdren, who had previously played TV hero Captain Video in a 1951 Columbia Pictures chapterplay, but he retains all the same sidekicks, high-tech props and laboratory facilities that Commando Cody had in the previous serial, Radar Men from the Moon.
An addition to the Rocketman outfit, seen first in this serial, is a huge two-way radio about the size of a lunchbox that Larry Martin wears hanging heavily from his belt when dressed in the flying suit. This radio is also seen in some stills of Cody in the flying suit in Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe. As most flying sequences are reused stock footage from earlier Rocketman serials, the radio usually disappears when Cody is in flight. Martin also uses an ordinary police revolver instead of the ray gun favored by Cody in earlier and later appearances.
Zombies of the Stratosphere was budgeted at $172,838 although the final negative cost was $176,357 (a $3,519, or 2%, overspend). It was the cheapest Republic serial of 1952. It was filmed between April 14, and May 1, 1952. At seventeen days this is the joint-shortest, with King of the Carnival, filming period of all Republic serials. The serial's production number was 1933.
Zombies of the Stratosphere reuses the "Republic Robot" (somewhat resembling a walking hot-water heater), along with stock footage of it in action (such as the Bank Robbery by Robot scene from Mysterious Doctor Satan), and black and white footage from a color Roy Rogers film. It is also heavily padded with footage from King of the Rocket Men, to which this was a pseudo-sequel. However, although this serial has Martians as the villains, they are not the version shown in the earlier serial The Purple Monster Strikes. The Robot was first seen in Undersea Kingdom (1936) and prominently featured in Mysterious Doctor Satan (1940).
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