Menace from Outer Space (1956 TV Movie) User Reviews

Quality Pulp! 3 more episodes of the Rocky Jones TV show sewn together

[mstomaso · 4/10 · 5 September 2007]

In the mid-50s most episodes of the early TV sci-fi show Rocky Jones: Space Ranger" were assembled into a number of TV movies for re-broadcast. Unlike some of these recycled TV movies, Menace from Outer Space has less of a serial feel to it, and flows as if it were intended to be a feature-length film from the beginning.

To summarize the Rocky Jones show - Jones (Richard Crane) is a space-ship captain who flies around the solar system with an improbably named sidekick "Winky" (played by ill-fated child prodigy Scotty Beckett) representing the United Worlds - an interplanetary political entity which has a very strong resemblance to Star Trek's federation. Also like Star Trek - the Rocky Jones series also consistently cast women in positions of considerable power and responsibility - a bold move for 1950s TV. Like later series from the Star Trek franchise, the show also employs pseudo-scientific black-box technologies and technobabble quite liberally in order to avoid plot holes and speed bumps on the highway of logic.

In this story arc, Rocky and his extended family (a little kid named Bobby, prodigy scientist Veena, an elderly professor and, of course, the stalwart Winky) are drawn into high-stakes interplanetary political intrigue . One of Jupiter's moons, formerly believed to be uninhabitable, has launched a missile at the earth and forensic evidence concerning the missile suggests that the moon has a tremendous wealth of mineral resources never before suspected. Of course, Rocky is immediately dispatched to attempt to establish peaceful trade relations.

The special effects are not bad for their time, but the average viewer today will probably find them laughable. The cinematography and directing are quite good for early TV, and the editing creates a fine pace for this family sci-fi space adventure.

The script is predictably silly, but the characters are very consistently developed from show to show, and they are all quite likable. The acting is serviceable for its intent - family TV viewing.

Recommended for those interested in Sci-Fi TV history and pulp sci-fi film addicts. Keep what this is intended to be in mind and keep your expectations low, and you just might have a good time with it!

Space Rangers & Space Cadets Of 1950's TV

[xyzkozak · 4/10 · 10 November 2014]

While watching Menace From Outer Space, one must keep it firmly in mind that this was an early-television program that was specifically geared to entertain youngsters in the under-12-years-old age range.

Yes. Its storyline was simple-minded. Yes. Its low-budget effects were, often enough. a laughable joke. Yes. Its characters were all one-dimensional stereotypes who were probably playing it very tongue-in-cheek....

But, on the whole, this kiddies' TV show was good-natured enough to be considered marginally entertaining and its husky hero, Rocky Jones, was good-looking enough for anyone to forgive its many downfalls and flaws and at least enjoy it in all of its cheesy, b-grade splendour.

A Second Helping

[Hitchcoc · 3/10 · 17 April 2006]

I had one helping of this group in the "Crash of the Moons." This one continues when a couple of missiles strike earth and Rocky and the gang go to find out where they are coming from. They end up on a moon of Jupiter which is perfect for their survival. They are lucky to land because they have run out of gas. At least their gas gauge says so. This time they start with uniforms of more the rebel variety of the Civil War. But later don baseball caps. It's a long, convoluted effort to try to recreate a fuel source (there's no Texaco anywhere near). Like those dilithium crystals, there is a fuel source available to them. Unfortunately, holed up on the planet is a murderous turncoat who has the ear of the leader of the planet. He enlists some other rebellious types that appear in the early part of the movie (which is actually a series of TV shows). Rocky Jones never seems to have much trouble staving off the bad guys. He gets an assist from a little space girl who helps his little space guy. The young woman, who never seems to do anything, gets involved in the fashion on the Jupiter moon. Eventually, everything works out. Rocky and Winky (who screws up a lot, but sure is a swell fella), manage to keep things safe for the space alliance or whatever. If anything can show you how far we've come when it comes to film and television, get a load of this.

A fascinating insight into early television programming

[charles_mackay1841 · 15 August 2005]

Not a film for those seeking gripping, Hollywood style entertainment, in fact, not a film at all. Menace from Outer Space is an agglomeration of the first three episodes of the Rocky Jones, Space Ranger series starring "B" movie veteran Richard Crane.

"Menace" appears to have been created for re-packaging and re-licensing of film length features and is quite similar to its companion feature, "Crash of Moons."

"Rocky Jones," and the feature length films assembled from the serial shows, is a wonderful example of early television coming to grips with its role as an entertainer of children. Unfortunately, many of these early efforts come across as childish, and "Menace" is no exception.

While it's fascinating to see movie serial themes and dramatic situations reformatted for the small screen, the dialogue and acting is excruciating. Perhaps most difficult to bear is the director's obvious fascination with posing all of the actors for good TV images. Rather than a film, this piece comes across as a series of poses, interspersed with contrived dialogue. True believers only!

Good for a laugh and not much else...

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 17 July 2010]

"Menace From Space" begins with strange missiles made of crystal being hurled at the Earth. The brainiac professor determines they are from one of Jupiter's moons, so Rocky Jones takes a small crew to this strange world to try to determine why this is occurring. Once there, an evil Earth scientist is already there and he's manipulating the locals to his own wicked and greedy ends. So, it's up to the Earth heroes to save the day.

I love 1950s sci-fi movies--even though the special effects are often pretty silly and the plots a bit campy. I particularly love the films taking humans on their first trips to the Moon or Mars. However, despite my strong predisposition to like such material, this movie made up of three episodes of TV's "Rocky Jones Space Ranger" is pretty bad. Of course, being made for television the special effects were worse than you'd find in a real movie--this I could accept. What I couldn't accept were the awful characters! Rocky is wooden, but he's not the problem. The biggest problems are Winky and the little brat they took along for no reason whatsoever. Winky is the second in command but you wonder why they'd put a complete moron in such an important role! He's clearly the 'comic relief', though since he isn't funny, he's more the 'annoying relief'! And the 'precocious kid'?! Well, apparently although they barely have enough fuel to make it to Fornax and back, they decide to bring this whiny kid along--even though he can't possibly contribute anything to the mission (unless, of course, they want to use him as a shield). The writing of this show and the ensuing movie is pretty poor and clearly is being marketed to kids, not anyone wanting sci-fi that is realistic or well-written. As a result, it's only good for a laugh and not much more.

'There's only one way to describe it - it's super spatial!'

[yardbird-924-307704 · 3/10 · 15 December 2010]

This is a mildly entertaining bit of fluff cobbled together from three episodes of an early 1950's US television show. It concerns the adventures of Rocky Jones, his somewhat goofy sidekick Winky, the lovely Vena Ray, a precocious kid named Bobby and Professor Newton. They're all under the authority of the Secretary of Space. Secretary of Space, now there's a job title; I'd like to be Chairman of Gravity myself.

As far as the film goes, it's pretty tame as regards the special effects and the action; however, it shares that charm that many of the science fiction films of that specific decade display and, consequently, manages to engage the viewer. It's particularly interesting, if only in a historical sense, to see a sci-fi show from television's early years.

If you get a copy of this film in one of those public domain collections - I received mine in the Mill Creek 100 Sci-Fi Classics set - then I'd certainly recommend watching it but, otherwise, I wouldn't expend any energy trying to track it down.

"Shall I weigh the blastoff synchronizer sir?"

[classicsoncall · 5/10 · 27 May 2006]

Similar to the earlier patch job known as "Crash of Moons", Space Ranger Rocky Jones (Richard Crane) assembles his gang here once again to avert a threat to Earth, though not as ominous as the one in the earlier film. Most of the action as it were, takes place on Fornax, a moon of Jupiter. The mystery of the film seems to be how Professor Newton (Maurice Cass) believes that the environment on Fornax might be hostile to humans, when eight years earlier an Earth rogue named Cardos exiled himself to the moon to escape his criminal past. There he's been ingratiating himself with Zoravac (Walter Coy), the ruler of Fornax.

What gives the film some of it's dubious fun is the extensive use of pseudo scientific jargon. Making a return appearance are the viseograph and the astrophone, but perhaps most impressive was the mechanical canary used to test the atmosphere on Fornax; too bad they didn't come up with a more colorful handle for it.

This time around, Rocky's young ward Bobby (Robert Lyden) is given a playmate, the daughter of Zoravac named Volaca. As expected, the pair wind up in places they don't belong, but manage to help Rocky and Winky (Scotty Beckett) save the day and the millennium. Once again, Winky has the film's most memorable line - "Well rattle my rocket reflexes".

Though uncredited in the film, bad guy Cardos is portrayed by Nestor Paiva. You might recognize him as the Amazon boat captain Lucas from a couple of the "Creature of the Black Lagoon" movies.

Like it's predecessor "Crash of Moons", this film is a fun diversion, even if just to get a view of how far we've come in both space technology and film making. I got a bit of a chuckle out of the mention of an interplanetary agency called the 'Office of Space Affairs'. Had it still been around for the launch of the Star Ship Enterprise, they might have been kept real busy investigating Captain Kirk.

Some knowledge of the show fills in the gaps

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 19 December 2011]

I have a soft spot in my heart for this old science fiction show from my childhood in the Fifties so I'll never give it a bad review. However in watching Menace From Outer Space a little knowledge of the show which only lasted for 39 episodes in the 1954 season certainly helps.

A moon of Jupiter not thought to contain life starts blasting away at the earth with missiles and we've got nothing that reaches that far. That's of concern to the United Worlds which was later the United Federation of Planets when we got to Star Trek in the Sixties. The place is called Fornax and it's ruled by Walter Coy who has an adviser from earth, a renegade scientist played by Nestor Paiva.

Two characters from previous episodes are in this film, one is a man who disgraced the Space Rangers by turning spy, Griff played by Leonard Penn, the other is an agent for the evil Queen of the planet Ophecius Dargento who is played by Frank Pulaski. Patsy Parsons who was Queen Cleolanta of Ophecius was one evil woman who gave this seven year old nightmares. She was a running villain for several episodes on Rocky Jones.

The planet Fornax has a powerful kind of energy derived from crystals that everybody wants. Kind of like oil today. I think you know where this one is going.

This is high camp and quite a hoot today, but you really have to be a fan of the show to appreciate it fully.

Quite bad.

[plan99 · 3/10 · 6 January 2024]

I usually love not very good Sci-Fi films from the 1950s but this effort was an exception to that. I could only bear to watch about ten minutes at a time but I was determined to get to the end, which I did eventually.

Poor in every way which can sometimes be entertaining but not with this film. The baddie looked like a kindly grandpa and was not in the least threatening. Bad acting all round and even in 1956 this was probably not seen as being a good film, even if it was cobbled together from a TV series of the time.

It's worth watching to see how bad a 1950's Sci-Fi effort can be but it's a struggle to get to the end as it's so bad.

Bobby's Comet

[richardchatten · 2/10 · 30 December 2023]

It you ever wondered why sci-fi was held in such low regard in the 1950s look no further than 'Menace from Space', which shows precious little development since the days of 'Flash Gordon'.

Based on a serial - which explains its length - presumably set in the future since the heroine is dressed like a principal boy and people communicate by TV - but filled with vintage cars and very much reflecting the preoccupations of the Cold War, the opening scene depicts an astronomer at Griffith Observatory (called Professor Newton, geddit?) who proposes a placidly paced journey to Jupiter a full fifteen before '2001' (the film not the year) were the additional gravity prompts a highly non-PC comment upon the leading lady's weight.

Another poor entry from a terrible series

[Red-Barracuda · 1/10 · 27 December 2014]

Menace from Outer Space is yet another TV movie made by editing three episodes of the Rocky Jones, Space Ranger TV series together. This show was quite obviously aimed at a family audience, mainly at children. In this entry a couple of missiles strike earth from a moon of Jupiter hitherto thought to not have any inhabitants, Rocky Jones and his crew are sent off to investigate.

As with other entries in this series, the film is full of rubbish characters and terrible dialogue. Which wouldn't really matter but for the fact it's all awfully tedious and hard work to sit through. If I am being charitable I would have to say that it is a very early example of a TV movie and so its extreme clunkiness is perhaps to be expected and could be regarded as historically interesting as an example of early TV sci-fi. And it also has to be admitted that it was meant for kids, so can hardly be blamed for not appealing to this adult sixty years later. But, you know what? Even taking all of this into account I still thought this was diabolical stuff. Slagging it off does feel a little like kicking a puppy, albeit a pretty annoying puppy.

A really good movie from a different time.

[ccunning-73587 · 8/10 · 12 February 2023]

A really good movie from a different time. It promoted accepting a certain level of risk, delving into the unknown, being honorable & ethical, and left the viewer with a good feeling. Yes, the special effects guys had to actually be creative and not just buy the latest CGI (Cartoon Grade Imagery) package. Think about the lack of violence, gore, vulgarity, skin, and sexual intercourse. Doesn't it just feel good that they can make movie without it?!? Yes, the female lead's short skirt & great gams were probably risque in 1953. Brief synopsis: Jupiter's moon Fornax, 'uninhabitable', shoots a crystal rocket at earth. Rocky & crew spring into action to save the earth. Mistrust, dishonesty, & betrayal feed the drama but 'good will out' in the end and mutual interplanetary trade results. Enjoy with the family!

Low budget thrills with Rocky Jones

[chris_gaskin123 · 7/10 · 3 November 2005]

Menace From Outer Space is based on the Rocky Jones TV series from the 1950's and this is actually episodes put together as a feature film.

There special effects are not too bad considering the low budget.

The cast includes Richard Crane as Rocky Jones with Sally Mansfield and Roberty Lydon.

It was good to see this movie and I also have Crash of the Moons in my collection.

There were several episodes of the Rocky Jones TV series that were made into feature films.

Great fun.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

Waning Sequel, it's no "Crash of Moons"

[Aegelis · 4/10 · 23 March 2021]

The good news is the professor played by Maurice Cass and Vena played by Sally Mansfield still seem to "believe in the dream" of acting despite the script. I get that it's a serial TV show, but they upped the ham and turned down the interesting plot for this set. Spacey cliche' and catch-phrases abound trying to cover up that this is actually some kind of old cowboy drama. The "science" part is severely lacking in this science fiction. There was some ship battles, a fist fight, but also a dragging tale and nonsensical decisions. As much as I liked the start of this potentially rocketing series, best to send this mess to the dark side of the moon.

Before there was Rocky and Bullwinkle, there was Rocky and Winky.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 8 October 2020]

Somewhere around the third or fourth plan from outer space came Rocky Jones (Richard Crane), a heroic astronaut who ventures to another planet with loyal sidekick Scotty Beckett (as Winky), the grandfatherly Maurice Cass and the diminutive Robert Lyden, along with scientist Sally Mansfield, TV's first female in space. They are welcomed and offered a special kind of fuel, but alien professor Nestor Paiva betrays his leaders, threatening the mission for King Walter Coy. But Paiva has the protection of the evil "Darganto" (Guy Prescott) who threatens to invade the earth while King Coy is there.

Cheesy but fun, this is vintage TV at its core, utilizing primitive special effects that would have looked obsolete during the silent era. Acting is either monotone and unrehearsed, or completely melodramatic. Beckett seems to be still playing a teenaged character, and certainly the former little rascal hadn't aged much. Crane is handsome and charming, perfect for this kind of role if not much else. The three episodes they put together to make this full length movie flow nicely. An interesting antique of that new fangled box that was slowly taking over people's living rooms, and enjoyable as a fun, fast moving museum piece.

"Gosh Rocky, she weighs 236 pounds".

[Bernie4444 · 5/10 · 27 December 2023]

The professor spots a rocket that attacked earth on both his telescope and video graph. A rocket is dispatched to a moon of Jupiter to see what is up. The crew: Richard Crane as Rocky Jones, wearing the obligatory space t-shirt Scotty Beckett as Winky, wearing the issued baseball cap Sally Mansfield as Vena Ray, a cape with legs Robert Lyden as Bobby, casual space garb Maurice Cass as Professor Newton, 18 Th century bow tie and tails

What kind of civilization will they find and will they be perceived as friend or foe?

Maybe the real threat is from space rogues from earlier episodes?

Talk about technology such as the video graph. Even mobile versions in cars. Lots of oscilloscopes, an analog fuel gauge, and lots of stilted dialogs. A mechanical canary.

This animal may even have looked hokey to adults of the time. However, I can tell you as an underling of the time this is really an intriguing program.

Cheesy Camp

[Rainey-Dawn · 2/10 · 14 March 2019]

A 2-part episode that was put together to create one movie.

I'm not thrilled with the Rocky Jones episodes - the show seem to be geared more towards a much younger audience than for the mature crowd and maybe why I can't get into the series of films.

If you want something very different and more "fun" in Sci-Fi then you might like these films - you can expect lots of cheese and camp.

2/10

Rocky Jones

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 30 November 2022]

Clean-cut, square-jawed Rocky Jones of the Space Rangers was the lead character of a syndicated science fiction series that ran for two seasons from February to November of 1954. Shot in black and white, the show was about Rocky's adventures as the space policeman for the United Worlds. Flying in his Orbit Jet XV-2 - and later the Silver Moon XV-3 - Rocky was a victim of budgets, as despite having a laser gun, he often defeated villains with his fists. Just as often, those villains were people in costumes speaking English instead of some alien tongue. Also, no matter where women came from - even lead villain Cleolanta, Suzerain of the planet Ophecius - they all love him in a precursor to the way James T. Kirk would be able to land any lady, even the green ones.

Rocky Jones was created by Roland D. Reed and starred Richard Crane as Rocky and former Our Gang member Scotty Beckett as Rocky's co-pilot Winky. It was sponsored by Gordon Baking Company, which is why one of Rocky's other ships was called the Silvercup Rocket after one of their bread brands. The show was greeted with a ton of cash-in merchandise, including watches, space dollars, badges, buttons, records, comic books and clothing.

Charactets changed in the last season, due to Professor Newton (Maurice Cass) dying of a heart attack - he was replaced by Professor Mayberry (Reginald Sheffield) - and Winky (Scotty Beckett) being arrested for possessing a weapon after being implicated in an armed robbery at the Cavalier Hotel in Hollywood. He left for Mexico, wrote some bad checks, got in a gun battle with the police and was jailed until he came back to the U. S. in 1954. He was replaced by a new comedy character, Biffen Cardoza (James Lydon). As for Cleodata, the new enemy became Juliandra, Suzerain of Herculon, played by Ann Robinson.

There are 39 episodes of the show with 36 being broken into 3-chapter arcs that were edited into TV movies. Menace from Deep Space are the "Bobby's Comet" episodes that originally aired on April 6, 1954. The story is all about the Jovian moon Fornax, which is filled with energy crytals that Rocky and his friends - as well as his enemies - all want. Is it a Cold War analogy? Probably not. Yet the villains do dress like Arabic people and Cleodata refers to Rocky as an infidel, which is pretty strange.

There may be a kid sidekick, but Rocky's love interest Vena Ray (Sally Mansfield) sure has a fancy car.

Ralston also sponsored a show called Space Patrol and working with Blue Bird shoes, gave away a spaceship. Here's the ad copy courtesy of Solar Guard: "A hugh silver and scarlet rolling clubhouse, the Commander's rocketship, the Terra IV. The ship is 35 feet long, 10,000 lb in weight with a full size motorized flatbed truck to pull the Rocket. You can take the rolling clubhouse on trips, camp outs with your dad, sightseeing trips, or use it for you and your friends Space Patrol Headquarters. It has bunk beds lights, cooking equipment, and lockers for space gear. In addition to the Ralston Rocket there is $1,500 in cash to spend."

There was also supposedly a rocket that traveled to promote Rocky Jones and for years, I'd hear rumors that people had found it. Imagine having your own space ship.

"Super stellar" silly stuff

[jamesrupert2014 · 5/10 · 8 February 2022]

After a missile crashes into Earth, the crew of The Orbit Jet (Rocky Jones, Winky and Vena) along with Professor Newton and Bobby, head to the mysterious vessel's origin: Fornax, a moon of Jupiter, where they find a civilisation that is promptly threatened by the nasty colonialist forces of Ophecius. This short film is comprises the third three-episode story arc of the 'Rocky Jones Space Ranger' TV show ('Bobby's Comet') and is pretty typical of the series. There are some good special effects (often recycled from earlier episodes), the plot bobs along quickly, the characters (established in earlier episodes) serve their purposes, and the script is again full of pseudo-science (notably when Fornax's 2G gravity comes up) and catchy futuristic expressions. There is a bit too much Bobby for my tastes, but as one purpose of the show was to promote toys and trinkets to kids, so I suspect that young Bobby was an important marketing tool. Essential viewing for anyone interested in 1950s sci-fi TV programs but less interesting than the first three episodes/movie, in which the imaginative and effective (for their time) visuals were introduced.

Captain Proton to The Rescue!

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 3 July 2019]

In Star Trek Voyager (1995) starting in Season 5 they introduced a new Monochromatic Character: Captain Proton!

Always fighting Chaotica, With his trusty Sidekicks, Cap Proton always saved the day!

The Producers of Trek outdid themselves, by Homaging Serials like this "Movie" which was actually several independent episodes strung together.

The First thing you see in this story is a Young Blonde woman with a Mascot Kid in tow, driving one of the Coolest Cars I've ever seen.

They meet up with a Professor at an observatory, to watch a suspicious missile land just several feet away from the Observatory.

So then it's Rocky to the Rescue, with a trip to an unknown moon of Jupiter to find an unknown menace.

What I loved about this one, is that they do not show a V-2 rocket launching, they actually created special effects of rockets launching and landing with were done well for the day, even showing how Gravity comes into play for an astronaut in the pilot's seat.

There are several bad guys that have to be defeated, which Rocky does in short order. Even the Child Mascot takes part in taking the bad guys down.

The sets and costumes are clever, and the story is actually entertaining.

But the thing I loved most about this, was Rocky's haircut.