Buck Rogers (serial)
Encyclopedia
Buck Rogers is a Universal
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...

 serial film
Serial (film)
Serials, more specifically known as Movie serials, Film serials or Chapter plays, were short subjects originally shown in theaters in conjunction with a feature film. They were related to pulp magazine serialized fiction...

 based on the Buck Rogers
Buck Rogers
Anthony Rogers is a fictional character that first appeared in Armageddon 2419 A.D. by Philip Francis Nowlan in the August 1928 issue of the pulp magazine Amazing Stories. A sequel, The Airlords of Han, was published in the March 1929 issue....

 comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....

, starring Buster Crabbe
Buster Crabbe
Clarence Linden "Buster" Crabbe was an American athlete and actor, who starred in a number of popular serials in the 1930s and 1940s.-Birth:...

 (who had previously starred in two Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon is the hero of a science fiction adventure comic strip originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by and created to compete with the already established Buck Rogers adventure strip. Also inspired by these series were comics such as Dash...

 serials) as the eponymous hero, Constance Moore
Constance Moore
Constance Moore was a singer and actress. Her most noted work was in wartime musicals such as Show Business and Atlantic City and the classic 1939 movie serial Buck Rogers, in which she played Wilma Deering, the only female character in the serial.-Life and career:Moore was born in Sioux...

, Jackie Moran and Anthony Warde.

Plot

The story begins with Buck Rogers
Buck Rogers
Anthony Rogers is a fictional character that first appeared in Armageddon 2419 A.D. by Philip Francis Nowlan in the August 1928 issue of the pulp magazine Amazing Stories. A sequel, The Airlords of Han, was published in the March 1929 issue....

 (Buster Crabbe
Buster Crabbe
Clarence Linden "Buster" Crabbe was an American athlete and actor, who starred in a number of popular serials in the 1930s and 1940s.-Birth:...

) and Buddy Wade (Jackie Moran) in the midst of a dirigible
Airship
An airship or dirigible is a type of aerostat or "lighter-than-air aircraft" that can be steered and propelled through the air using rudders and propellers or other thrust mechanisms...

 flight over the North Pole
North Pole
The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is, subject to the caveats explained below, defined as the point in the northern hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface...

. They are caught in a savage storm and crash - but not before they release an experimental substance called Nirvano Gas that they hope will preserve them until rescue can arrive. The Nirvano Gas works, but the dirigible is buried in an avalanche and is not found until 500 years have passed. When Buck and Buddy are found, they awaken to a world ruled by the ruthless dictator
Dictator
A dictator is a ruler who assumes sole and absolute power but without hereditary ascension such as an absolute monarch. When other states call the head of state of a particular state a dictator, that state is called a dictatorship...

 Killer Kane
Killer Kane
Killer Kane is a fictional character in the 1939 Buck Rogers serial film produced by Universal Studios. Kane is a gangster who became the supreme dictator of Earth with the help of his criminal army. Although the events of the serial transpire in the year 2440, Kane has apparently ruled the world...

 (Anthony Warde
Anthony Warde
Anthony Warde was a noted American actor who appeared in over 150 films between 1937 and 1964.-Career:A native of Pennsylvania, Warde started his Hollywood career in Escape by Night , appearing in a handful of undistinguished feature films before gaining popularity as one of the hardest working...

) and his army of "super-racketeer
Racket (crime)
A racket is an illegal business, usually run as part of organized crime. Engaging in a racket is called racketeering.Several forms of racket exist. The best-known is the protection racket, in which criminals demand money from businesses in exchange for the service of "protection" against crimes...

". Only those who live in the "Hidden City", run by the benevolent scientist Dr. Huer (C. Montague Shaw
C. Montague Shaw
Charles Montague Shaw was an Australian character actor, often appearing in small supporting parts in more than 150 films....

) and his military counterpart, Air Marshal
Air Marshal
Air marshal is a three-star air-officer rank which originated in and continues to be used by the Royal Air Force...

 Kragg (William Gould), resist the criminal rulers of Earth.

Buck and Buddy join the resistance, and they set out for Saturn
Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn is named after the Roman god Saturn, equated to the Greek Cronus , the Babylonian Ninurta and the Hindu Shani. Saturn's astronomical symbol represents the Roman god's sickle.Saturn,...

, where they hope that they can find help in their fight against Kane. Saturn is run by Aldar (Guy Usher) and the not-so-aptly-named Council of the Wise and Prince Tallen. To the dismay of Buck and Buddy, they also discover that Kane has dispatched ambassadors of his own, headed by his loyal henchman, Captain Laska (Henry Brandon). The serial then becomes a back-and-forth struggle between Buck and Kane to secure the military support of Saturn for the struggles on Earth.

Production notes

This 12-part Buck Rogers movie serial was launched in 1939. It starred Buster Crabbe, who had previously played the role of Flash Gordon. Constance Moore played Lieutenant Wilma Deering, the only woman in the film, and Jackie Moran was Buddy Wade, a character who did not appear in other versions of the Buck Rogers franchise, but who was clearly modeled on the Sunday strip character Buddy Deering. Anthony Warde played "Killer Kane", Buck Rogers's enemy; this was the only time that Warde, who usually portrayed evil underlings in serials, played a lead villain .

Korean-American actor Philson Ahn, younger brother of noted actor Philip Ahn, played Prince Tallen, a Saturnian native who befriends Buck Rogers.

The noted actor and "crown prince of stuntmen" David Sharpe, who appeared in over 4,500 films over the course of a seven-decade career, also appeared in the Buck Rogers serial in several roles: as a Kane pilot, a Hidden City sentry, and a Saturnian lieutenant.

The serial had a small budget and saved money on special effects by re-using material from other stories: background shots from the futuristic musical Just Imagine (1930), as the city of the future, the garishly stenciled walls from the Azura palace set in Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars, and even the studded leather belt that Crabbe wore in Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars, turned up as part of Buck's uniform.

In 1953, the 1939 movie serial was edited into a feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...

 entitled Planet Outlaws. Then it was edited again to feature length and titled Destination Saturn for syndication to television, in 1965. Finally, the serial was edited once again to feature form in the late 1970s, this version simply entitled Buck Rogers with the theatrical poster advertising, "Star Wars owes it all to Buck Rogers", and later was sold on videotape in the early 1990s by VCI Entertainment under the catalogue title of Planet Outlaws (which title, to make it appear legitimate, was also superimposed onto the first shot of film following the main titles). VCI released all twelve installments on DVD in September of 2000. In November of 2009, VCI released a special 70th anniversary edition on DVD, with extras including "The History of Buck Rogers" by Clifford Weimer, a photo gallery and the 1935 Buck Rogers short feature originally shown at the 1933-34 Worlds Fair.

Cast

  • Buster Crabbe
    Buster Crabbe
    Clarence Linden "Buster" Crabbe was an American athlete and actor, who starred in a number of popular serials in the 1930s and 1940s.-Birth:...

     as Buck Rogers
    Buck Rogers
    Anthony Rogers is a fictional character that first appeared in Armageddon 2419 A.D. by Philip Francis Nowlan in the August 1928 issue of the pulp magazine Amazing Stories. A sequel, The Airlords of Han, was published in the March 1929 issue....

  • Constance Moore
    Constance Moore
    Constance Moore was a singer and actress. Her most noted work was in wartime musicals such as Show Business and Atlantic City and the classic 1939 movie serial Buck Rogers, in which she played Wilma Deering, the only female character in the serial.-Life and career:Moore was born in Sioux...

     as Wilma Deering
    Wilma Deering
    Wilma Deering is a fictional character featured in the various iterations of Buck Rogers which have spanned many media over the years.Through all the versions of Buck Rogers, Wilma Deering has maintained some clear characteristics. She is a sometimes romantic interest for Buck, always a loyal...

    . This was the only serial appearance for Moore, a singer on radio and the New York stage.
  • Jackie Moran as George "Buddy" Wade
  • Anthony Warde
    Anthony Warde
    Anthony Warde was a noted American actor who appeared in over 150 films between 1937 and 1964.-Career:A native of Pennsylvania, Warde started his Hollywood career in Escape by Night , appearing in a handful of undistinguished feature films before gaining popularity as one of the hardest working...

     as "Killer" Kane
  • C. Montague Shaw
    C. Montague Shaw
    Charles Montague Shaw was an Australian character actor, often appearing in small supporting parts in more than 150 films....

     as Doctor Huer
  • Jack Mulhall
    Jack Mulhall
    Jack Mulhall, born John Joseph Francis Mulhall, was a film actor since the silent film era and appeared in over 430 films....

     as Captain Rankin
  • Guy Usher as Aldar
  • William Gould
    William Gould (actor)
    William Gould was an American film actor. He appeared in over 240 films between 1922 and 1953. He died in Long Beach, California.-Selected filmography:* Beasts of Paradise * The Riddle Rider...

     as Air Marshal Kragg
  • Philson Ahn as Prince Tallen
  • Henry Brandon as Captain Laska

Critical reception

Cline writes that Moore makes a vivid impression with a performance that projects "passive importunity...[which] could only exude from a demeanour of wholesome honesty."

Chapter titles

  1. Tomorrow's World
  2. Tragedy on Saturn
  3. The Enemy's Stronghold
  4. The Sky Patrol
  5. The Phantom Plane
  6. The Unknown Command
  7. Primitive Urge
  8. Revolt of the Zuggs
  9. Bodies Without Minds
  10. Broken Barriers
  11. A Prince in Bondage
  12. War of the Planets

Source:

External links

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