Charles Alexandra

New York, 1980: airplanes have replaced cars, numbers have replaced names, pills have replaced food, government-arranged marriages have replaced love, and test tube babies have replaced ... well, you get the idea. Scientists revive a man struck by lightning in 1930; he is rechristened "Single O". He is befriended by J-21, who can't marry the girl of his dreams because he isn't "distinguished" enough -- until he is chosen for a 4-month expedition to Mars by a renegade scientist. The Mars J-21, his friend, and stowaway Single O visit is full of scantily clad women doing Busby Berkeley-style dance numbers and worshiping a fat middle-aged man.

Newspaper reporter John Templeton is suspected of being "The Snake," the murderer of a banker who is the father of the reporter's sweetheart, Joan Renshaw. The reporter escapes from the police and, with the girl, trails "The Snake" to Shanghai, where they lure him into confessing that he was hired by the banker's partner.