So did Jeff King learn to fly without the flight suit? Grab your popcorn because it’s time for the fourth installment of King of the Rocket Men!
For some reason our host didn’t leave the opening on this time. Oh, and if anyone knows if “Cloromite” is an actual explosive (the search engines can’t find it), post in the comments.
By the way: cheapest escape ever. And they even reused the scene where Jeff walked out of the bushes fixing his hat from the last episode.
Rocket Man had three different stuntmen doing his stunts in this movie, each of whom would also stand in for other characters when needed. The first was Dave Sharpe, considered one of the best of his day. He was even referred to as the “Crown Prince of Daredevils” according to Wikipedia. His credits include my still-favorite serial, the often-mentioned Adventures of Captain Marvel. The second was Tom Steele, who was also an actor and performed both roles in Republic’s serials. Coming from Scotland, his credits also include the 1951 cult classic The Thing, the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever, and even the original The Love Bug, the first of Disney’s “Herbie” films. He also did stunts for Star Trek. Finally there’s Dale Van Sickel, A college football player and coach before working on serials and even in the Marx Brothers’ movie Duck Soup (his first appearance), Sickel sadly was killed in a car crash. He also worked on The Love Bug as well as the TV version of The Green Hornet.
So how will the guy in the flying suit possibly survive falling from a tall building? And am I beginning to think I should have screened this serial before selecting it? One of these will be answered in chapter 5, “Fatal Dive” at this website next week.
Related articles
- Saturday Night Serial: King of the Rocketmen Ch. 1
- Saturday Night Serial: King of the Rocketmen #2
- Saturday Night Serial: King of the Rocket Men chapter 3
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