And so we begin the next thrilling installment in Saturday Serials, King of the Rocket Men! Released in the summer of 1949 by Republic Pictures, the 12-part movie follows the heroic exploits of Jeff King, aka Rocket Man. King was played by Tristram Coffin.

The first chapter, “Dr. Vulcan – Traitor,” gets right down to business. No sooner do the opening credits stop rolling than we see unexplained explosions and scientists being killed off in most violent fashion. But other than the Rocket Man gimmick — which makes an appearance at last in the last four minutes — this is pretty standard action fare from the ’40s. By that I mean plenty of expositional dialogue interspersed with fisticuffs and heavies wearing fedoras. But still, lots of good, vintage fun.

This installment is split into two YouTube videos, but with a total running time of only about 20 minutes.