Buck Rogers

This serial only proves that Buster Crabbe is definitely the king of the Saturday morning serials. He played two of the most memorable characters in comicdom, Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. The main difference is the fact that Flash Gordon is more of an adult strip while Buck Rogers was more of a kiddie strip. In comparing the serials, Buck Rogers had as much action as the latter two Flash Gordon epics, however there was not as great a chemistry between Crabbe and Constance Moore as Crabbe had with Jean Rogers. All that aside though, on its own merit, its a great serial.

BEGINNING its life in a humble enough manner, a story titled "Armageddon 2419 A.D. in an edition of AMAZING STORIES Magazine published in 1929, BUCK ROGERS was soon transcribed into the pages of the Nations Newspapers as a Daily and Sunday Color Comic Strip. Radio next beckoned with Hollywood waiting in the wings.

WHEN Universal worked out a deal to make a Saturday Matinée staple out of it as a Cliff Hanger Serial (aka "Chapterplay"), they were well acquainted with the new sub-genre of the Science Fiction Movie, the Space Opera. Universal Pictures, long known as the top producer of the Horror Films. With such classics to their credit as FRANKENSTEIN (1931), Dracula (also '31), THE INVISIBLE MAN (1933), THE MUMMY (1932) and the first and still greatest of sequels with BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935); as well as so many more titles and sequels extending right up to the 1960's Space Monster Craze.

UNIVERSAL was also one of the three main purveyors of Serials. Having begun the practice in their earliest days, even pre 1920's Silent Screen Days; Mr. Carl Leamelle's Studio was joined later by Mascot and some independents like Victory Pictures and Weiss Brothers Artclass Pictures. Eventually Mascot merged with some others to form Republic Pictures; which was the numero uno producer of Serials (along with the "B" Western Series) for years. The third major Serial Company was Columbia.

FURTHER qualification for Universal was in evidence of its two previously highly successful outings featuring their adaptation of the Hearst King Features Syndicate's Comic Strip done by artistic giant, Alex Raymond by name.

THE Serials' entitled FLASH GORDON (1936) followed by FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS (1938) both starred former Olympic Swimming Champion, Clarence Linden "Larry"(Buster) Crabbe in the title character's role. Although Buster was a Contract Player with Paramount, he had already been lent out to Universal on three occasions; making three comic strip adaptations as Cliff-Hangers. In addition to the aforementioned two, he also did the honors as Earth-Bound Detective, RED BARRY (1937).*

SO, when BUCK ROGERS became their next project, who would be better to fill Buck's 25th Century Boots than the athletic, likable and talented (as a screen Thespian) Mr. Crabbe. It became a fait accompli in short order; taking to the big screen much like the proverbial Duck taking to the equally proverbial small pond or slough of H2O. (That's Water, Schultz!).

MOST everyone that screens the Serial today expresses the opinion that the movie is okay, but they prefer the Flash Gordon roles of the previously made productions. All of the viewers of the Serial when it went into its initial release of 1939 must have felt pretty much the same way. The young Mr. Crabbe may also have become strongly identified with the part of the Wealthy Yale Graduate and Polo Player (from Flash Gordon's Comic Strip Origin).

AT any rate, there was no 2nd Buck Rogers project at Universal until the BUCK ROGERS Feature Film of 1977 with its subsequent BUCK ROGERS Television Series on NBC TV Network.

AS for the BUCK ROGERS Serial, our subject today, it was as familiar a character as one could be; for everyone (and we mean literally EVERYONE was familiar with the character and its legend of 20th Century Man Buck getting put into a deep sleep (suspended animation) for 500 years only to awaken in a future Earth where criminals ruled the country. (You know, Schultz, kinda like Chicago's Daley Machine!) Just about everything is the same, EXCEPT the methods of Buck's being anesthetized.

IN the original Prose Story in AMAZING STORIES Magazine, Mr. Rogers was out Spelunking all by his lonesome, when he was put under by some gas present in the cave he was exploring. In the Serial, he and Buddy 'Wade' crashed their dirigible near the North Pole, getting chilled into a deep, five century long nap. In the 1970's version, Buck is an American Astronaut who is in a space suspended animation thing for the time.(Buddy was Buddy Dearing in the Newspaper Strip, ergo was already in the 25th Century where he was born. There was no 'Buddy' character in the 1977 movie or its TV Series spin-off.)

AS we said, there was little need for any origin exposition with the Universal Serial. Buck really "landed on his feet" and "hit the ground running"; as he was immediately commissioned an Officer in the underground (literal term).

THERE'S no double talk in the BUCK ROGERS Serial whatsoever. Those were much more innocent times-at least for the kids!

ROUNDING out the cast were serial veterans Constance Moore (Wilma), Jackie Moran (Buddy), C. Montague Shaw (Dr. Huer), Jack Mulhall (Captain Rankin), Anthony Warde (Killer Kane also referred to as "Leader Kane"), Guy Usher (Aldar), William Gould (Air Marshall Kragg), Phillip Ahn (Prince Tallem as "Philson Ahn), Henry Brandon (Captain Laska), Wheeler Oakman (Lieutenant Patten), Keene Duncan (Lieutenant Lacy), Carleton Young (Scott), Reed Howes (Captain Roberts) and last but not least Wade Boteler (Professor Wade). Also has a whole blank-house full more!

NOTE: * Universal would have Mr. Crabbe do a third Serial portraying their most successful spaceman in FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE (1940).

POODLE SCHNITZ!!

This one could have been better. Still interesting and good to look at. The re-recorded music is somewhat diluted because the orchestra was smaller than the one used in the original recordings. Warde is only fair as Killer Kane but Crabbe does a good job as Buck. Worth a look but it is no "Flash Gordon".

Buck Rogers, accidentally frozen and revived in the 25th century, was the first space opera comic strip hero, adapted from Philip Francis Nowlan's book "Armageddon 2419 A. D." (and changed quite radically in the process). His most successful imitation was Flash Gordon, who saves contemporary Earth from being destroyed by a bizarre alien attack.

As the hero of a Saturday morning cliffhanger movie serial, however, things are reversed and Buck Rogers (1939) is an inferior imitation of Flash Gordon (1936, 1938, 1940). This serial has the same main actor (Buster Crabbe) as the Flash Gordon serials, but that does not completely rescue it from a repetitive plot and mostly unenergetic acting. It seems possible that the problem was caused in part by the attempt to target a younger audience. It is no wonder that no sequel was ever produced.

Buck Rogers fights on the side of American freedom fighters. In the original book they were fighting against Chinese occupations, but for the comic and the serial this was changed to a home-grown corrupt regime. Great care is taken to present the situation as the fight of the (underground) legitimate government against a criminal usurper rather than the fight of revolutionaries against an unpopular government. For modern tastes this semantic trickery is perhaps a bit too obvious, but something else has aged even worse: the Zuggs, a naive and easily manipulable race naturally subordinate to the human master race of Saturn. Which itself appears quite unable to get anything done without help from humans from Earth.

Compared to all other serials of this nature, this one is about average. It is only in comparison to the Flash Gordon serials, which are simply more fun, that it is really weak. My rating of 6 is a compromise between an intrinsic rating of 5 or 6 ('meh' or 'not bad') and a rating of 7 ('good') for the serial's historic significance.

I found the 1979 film, which again reworked the story completely, far more enjoyable.

I can't help comparing this 1939 serial to "Flash Gordon" (1936) and "Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe" (1940). Although some of the special effects (the ray guns and fleets of spaceships) are superior, "Buck Rogers" is less fun. It's not the fault of Buster Crabbe, who invests Rogers with the same heroic energy he gave to Gordon. And Jackie Moran shines as sidekick Buddy Wade (in the newspaper strip he was Buddy Deering, Wilma's younger brother). But the other actors fall short. So does the story and pacing.

Anthony Wade's Killer Kane is a colorless villain, lacking the panache of Charles Middleton's gleefully evil Ming the Merciless. He badly needs a slinky, sinister Ardala Valmar to spice things up. Constance Moore is a competent Wilma Deering but there's no chemistry between her and Crabbe. Moore lacks the passion Jean Rogers exhibited as Dale Arden in the "Flash" series or the breezy camaraderie Erin Gray displayed as Wilma Deering in the 1980s "Buck Rogers" television show. C. Montague Shaw is OK as Doctor Huer but doesn't have nearly as much to do as Frank Shannon's Doctor Zarkov (again, from the "Flash" serials).

After an exciting start, the serial falls down in the latter six episodes. It is typical of the genre to have a late episode replay scenes from earlier in the series to pad things out. But "Buck Rogers" does this twice. Serial plots also tend to have a lot of captures, escapes, and re-captures. "Flash Gordon" broke the monotony by having these occur in a variety of ways in a variety of locations. "Buck Rogers" has only two destinations: Earth and Saturn. Both planets apparently share the same rocky desert terrain. Doctor Huer has only one technological gimmick to help Buck. The heroes get stranded by crashed spaceships seemingly every other episode. And Kane's goons never tumble to the fact that it's Rogers driving that rocket cruiser reported missing from their hangar.

Given it's charismatic hero and quality special effects, "Buck Rogers" could have equaled or surpassed "Flash Gordon" if it had had stronger writing or more energetic secondary characters. Unfortunately, it has neither.