Heroic Space Ranger, Rocky Jones (Richard Crane), irreverent co-pilot Winky (Scotty Beckett, whose unfortunate real-life trajectory contrasted with his affable 'sidekick' character) and perky blonde Vena Ray (Sally Mansfield) head to Ophecius to rescue Professor Newton (Maurice Cass) and his grandson, Space-Ranger-wannabe Bobby (Robert Lyden), who are being held in electronic thrall by the villainous villainess Cleolanta (Patsy Parsons). The film consists of the first three episodes of the TV series ( 'The Curtain of Space' parts 1-3), which were written to allow near seamless fusing into a feature length film and introduces many of the main characters and their 'futuristic world'. Rocky is a typical handsome hero, girl-crazy Winky provides comic relief and Vena, although her initial meet-cute 'banter' with po-faced he-man Rocky is clichéd and badly dated, is quickly established to be a polyglot who serves as Rocky's translator as well as a competent astro-navigator. In keeping with the political dichotomy of the 1950s, there seems to be two major powers: the enlightened 'United Worlds of the Solar System' and repressive 'Ophecius Formation', which is referred to as being on the other side of the 'curtain' and a place where the population is denied "information about life on other moons or planets". Unlike most of the 1950's space-adventures, 'Rocky Jones' was filmed (not kinescoped), so the series survived and is readily available (or at least the movie versions are). For a 1950s TV show, the special effects are ambitious and ingenious, especially the scenes of Rocky's rocket 'The Orbit Jet' taking off, with a gantry cleverly embedded into footage of the power-station that stood in for the Space Rangers' rocket base. The shots of the Orbit Jet in flight are a bit less impressive but the scenes where the classic 'finned spindle' rocket docks with the rotating space-station are Freudingly impressive (for the budget and era). The story is a typical action-adventure yarn featuring lots of fights and heroics, the 'science' is a bit wobbly, the various gadgets implausible and usually very convenient, and the script is full of spacey ejaculations like "Sparkling stardust!", but overall the show seems a bit more 'adult' that its competition, with lots of people getting killed (Rocky doesn't seem to object to leaving the occasional bad guy to be blown up). The Rocky Jones series is an example of well-made and entertaining '50's TV that will appeal to fans of retro-sci-fi. One final note: Vena's gorgeous sports-car is a very rare (and aptly named) 'Grantham Stardust'.