Buck Rogers

Buck To The Future

Buck Rogers
Directed by Ford Beebe & Saul A. Goodkind
USA 1940 Image DVD Region 1

Between Flash Gordon’s Trip To Mars (reviewed here) in 1938 and Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe (reviewed here) in 1940, Larry ‘Buster’ Crabbe played another famous comic strip hero on the big screen... in addition to Flash, Tarzan (who was, of course, a pulp hero first) and Red Barry. This theatrical serial was Buck Rogers but, curiously, it wasn’t actually based on either the strip or novel itself (although the opening credits of every episode proclaimed it to be so) and instead the character was just grafted onto a different story and given a slightly different origin. In fact, it’s said to possibly be based on an illegally published, unofficial Flash Gordon story from 1936, in which he travels to Saturn.

Either way, it’s still a cool serial and, although it’s probably a little more pedestrian than the Flash Gordon ones in terms of a variety of locales and characters, it does suit the serial format quite well and in this one Buck is not alone in his situation. When his airship crashes in some snowy mountains and the hybernation gas invented by Professor Wade is turned on in the cabin, in case search parties can’t find them, his young friend Buddy Wade (the professor’s son) is also along for the trip into the 25th Century and they are both woken from their airship slumbers by the rebellion facing off against tyrant Killer Kane, hoodlum ruler of the Earth, five hundred years later. Unlike the newspaper strip, Buddy is not Buddy Dearing, a native of the 25th century and Wilmas's younger brother.

So joining Crabbe is Jackie Moran as Buddy Wade, Constance Moore as Wilma Deering, serial king C. Montague Shaw as Professor Huer (who we last saw as the clay king in Flash Gordon’s Trip To Mars), Philson Ahn as Prince Talon of the planet Saturn (where a good majority of the Saturnians, apart from the mutant slave race the Zuggs - with their rubber face applications - seem to be of Asian extraction... yeah, I’m not going to touch that one) and Anthony Warde as Killer Kane (who isn’t in it as much as a lead villain ought to be, it has to be said). There’s also Henry Brandon as prominent bad guy Captain Laska, who many may best remember ‘Asianed up’ for the title role in the 1940 serial Drums Of Fu Manchu, in ‘red face’ as Scar in the 1956 John Wayne classic The Searchers and as the old cop in John Carpenter’s original 1976 movie Assault On Precinct 13.

So the action takes place in just three locations which, in serial fashion, the hero and his companions travel to and from in various episodes... so the Hidden City of the rebellion (which is located in a secret mountain that has big doors disguised as the front of the mountain, allowing spaceships to fly in and out), Killer Kane’s technologically advanced city and, of course, the planet Saturn. And there are lots of things going on, some of which make no sense (there are a huge number of plot holes in this one) but, one of the big factors is that Kane has made a zombie-like army of human robots, by putting amnesia helmets on his enemies and making them susceptible to his orders (possibly an influence on the original TV serial version of Doctor Who - The Dalek Invasion Of Earth, by the looks of it).  Most of the set ups are obvious and, despite the expense of serials of this nature, there are a hell of a lot of recycled sets in this. Once obvious thing is that the bullet cars which work as an underground transit system on Saturn are the exact same ones that the Clay Men in Flash Gordon’s Trip To Mars used.

I mentioned in yesterdays review of Flash Gordon’s Conquers The Universe that George lucas took a lot of ideas from these serials and both the opening episode recap credit calls and the viewscreen focussing with accompanying sound effect are again in evidence here. In fact, as far as that viewing screen from Star Wars - The Phantom Menace goes, he was possibly thinking of this one first because, here, the viewscreens are also circular in design as they are in that later film.

Actually, despite the crankiness of the effects, some of this stuff is certainly well done. It’s hard to detect the wires on some of the things, such as the little microphones that float above the big radio sets when they’re in use or the ones holding up the people when the characters are using the anti-gravity belts (this serial’s gimmick similar to the Martian wing-cloaks in Flash Gordon’s Trip To Mars). And also, talking of some of those technically advanced gadget effects, Gene Rodenberry must have been a big fan of this serial because there are two things he definitely seems to have taken on board for Star Trek. One is that pesky cloaking device which renders spaceships invisible. This is similar here to the one in Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe except is has to be hand fired from a cannon by an observer in the Hidden City and aimed at the ship. Unlike the ones in that serial, the effects of this one will only last for ten minutes so... yeah, you can just see the cliff hanger ending coming on that one, can’t you?

But another future Star Trek element... and very impressively done here... is the teleportation pads which go from point to point in the Hidden City. We’re told how they disassemble and then reassemble a person’s molecules somewhere else and they use very familiar ‘beam me up’ textures when they’re in action. This was an obvious steal by Roddenberry and they look really good. Another great effect is when two Hidden City people are using ray guns to chop through the ice formed outside the preserved dirigible that Buck and Buddy take their time trip in. A layer of superimposed ray effects are in action as the ice melts... I eventually worked out that it was a raggedy piece of cut perspex lowered through the floor with the rays put over the top but, still, very impressive stuff, especially for 1939.

The serial is full of the required fist fights (with really bad and prominent stuntmen looking nothing like the actors they are ‘doubling’ for) and aerial battles, plus the usual stealth visits behind enemy lines etc. It’s light watching for sure and, though it’s probably not quite as engaging in terms of story as the three Flash Gordon serials, I still got a real kick out watching this and it’s hopefully not be the last time I revisit this one. Like the Flash Gordon serials and others of that ilk (like King Of The Rocket Men and Daredevils Of The Red Circle), this serial was a common fixture on BBC in the school holidays during the late 1970s and through the 1980s. So Buck Rogers will always have a special place in my heart and I’ll never stop watching these things. For my last review of ‘Serial Week’ though, I’ll be watching another Larry ‘Buster’ Crabbe serial based on a comic strip and, unlike the other four, it’s one I’ve not seen before. So, you know, I’m keeping my fingers crossed it’s as much of a masterpiece as these others. 

Buster Crabbe Serial Week at NUTS4R2

Flash Gordon (1936)

Flash Gordon's Trip To Mars (1938)

Red Barry (1938)

Buck Rogers (1939)

Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe (1940)

Mr. Moto's Last Warning

Warning Shots

Mr. Moto's Last Warning 1939 USA

Directed by Norman Foster

20th Century Fox Region 1

And so onto the sixth of the eight Mr. Moto films to star Peter Lorre in the role... although I’ve just found out that although this one was the sixth to be shot, it was actually the seventh to be released. So not sure if I’m technically watching these in the right order again. Doh!

This is another interesting little curio of a movie and the plot resembles a Charlie Chan film I’ve seen, although I don’t remember its name and I’m not sure if it was made before or after this one. This film concerns itself with a plot by a gang of saboteurs wanting to bring the Second World War on by mining the entrance to the Suez Canal.

There’s lots going on here including a fake Mr. Moto sent to ward off suspicion who is murdered in the place of the “real” Mr. Moto (interestingly, the fake Mr. Moto is played by an actual Japanese actor as opposed to the “real” Mr. Moto being played by a Hungarian actor) and the earliest portrayal that I’ve seen, although I’m sure there must be more frequent and earlier examples in cinematic history, of a secret agent being murdered by having his air deliberately cut off while he is beneath the surface of the ocean in a diving bell... interesting stuff.

And as usual there’s the usual plethora of credited and uncredited “I-know-that-guy” actors to look out for if, like me, you find yourself constantly distracted by “actor spotting.” So lets take a look at some of the more interesting members of the cast...

Well, you know you’re in good hands when one of the first uncredited cast members to appear on screen is that “Crown Prince of the Serials” C. Montague Shaw, in a blink and you’ll miss it role which would guarantee he’d keep making those serials for a while longer. You probably best remember him as the King of the Clay People in the brilliant Universal serial Flash Gordon’s Trip To Mars but he was mostly covered in heavy make-up for the length of that serial. You will certainly remember his face though, I’m sure, as the eminent Professor Huer opposite Buster Crabbe in another famous Universal serial Buck Rogers, that mostly recycled sets and costumes from that second Flash Gordon serial. Other of his more memorable serial performances would be his roles in Undersea Kingdom, Daredevils of the Red Circle, Zorro’s Fighting Legion and Mysterious Doctor Satan.

John Carradine also makes an appearance as the secret agent assigned to penetrate the treacherous warmongers... it is he who gets murdered in the aforementioned diving bell. You might remember him from many Universal horror movies of the time including a memorable turn in The Mummy’s Ghost and a repeat role as Count Dracula in both House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula. He’s always a pretty solid watch.

Next up there’s screen cad George Sanders as a French villain, part of the gang who kill Carradine and seek to spark off an international incident leading to war. I always have problems with George Sanders because I always find him so unlikeable... even when he’s playing a good guy like The Saint or The Falcon. Thankfully, for me, he doesn’t get too much screen time in this one.

There’s also E. E. Clive in a little uncredited role here, whom you may remember as the burgomaster in The Bride of Frankenstein but the real interesting find in this movie is...

Ricardo Cortez playing the villainous and quite ruthless leader of the gang who poses as part of a stage act under the name, Fabian the Great... which is a ventriloquist’s act. Now I’d seen this guy before and remembered him from his starring role as Sam Spade in the very first movie version of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon (before the role was forever made synonymous with Humphrey Bogart's portrayal of the character in the third screen version of the novel). I also remember his acting in The Maltese Falcon was pretty much atrocious and, at least in this movie, he comes off a little better than he did in that 1931 movie. Maybe in the eight years in between he just honed his craft and got better (the guy got hired a lot by the looks of things), both before and after his turn as Sam Spade and he must have been one of those actors who found the time adapting to the constraints and demands of “the talkies” a difficult period of adjustment... although he was frequently in work so he must have been well liked.

In this movie he’s got an interesting slant to his performance because, as I said, his “cover” is that he’s a ventriloquist and even though it’s in no way essential to the plot, we do catch him talking to his dummy and becoming over-obsessed with his little wooden pal, as many ventriloquists apparently do. He’s no screen forerunner of Maxwell Frere in Dead of Night or Corky Withers in Magic, but he certainly seems to have acquired the constant habit of getting a little bit too enthusiastic about his “little helper” and this does get a little distracting and inappropriate for one of these fast-paced quickies, even though a part of the films denouement does indeed feature the dummy to a small extent. I guess Mr. Cortez was just exploring his craft and like any good actor, embellishing his performance with little observations about the way these kinds of people act when they’re not performing... good for him though. It at least makes for an interesting performance.

As usual with the Moto films, Peter Lorre’s performance is just brilliant and extremely fast paced, with some good judo throws and fist fights thrown in which help make his character a very different kettle of sushi from his Chinese equivalent Charlie Chan, who is payed homage to in this movie with a theatre showing a print of Charlie Chan in Honolulu starring Warner Oland. Now this is interesting because this film was actually shot and, although Warner Oland was slated to star in that movie, he died while Mr. Moto’s Last Warning was still being made (for more details on the death of Warner Oland, see my review of Mr. Moto’s Gamble here) and Sydney Toler replaced him in the movie, which was released in 1938. This must have caused some consternation to any eagle-eyed Charlie Chan fans who noticed this brief reference back in the day. It also caused consternation to my stupidly rigid sense of film-lore reality when my annoying brain wanted to know how Charlie Chan’s Number One son could be a character in the Moto universe, as depicted in Mr. Moto’s Gamble but then be a fictional character in a later Mr. Moto movie. That doesn’t make sense! But then again... if I can weather the absolutely mind-blowing cross-movie continuity conundrums of the Universal Mummy series then my poor head should be able to handle minor references like this one, I guess.

What more can I say about this movie... other than it has an uncredited but mostly unnoticeable score by David Raskin who made such a splash with his music for Laura. Another fast-paced entry in the Mr. Moto series. Always a good watch.