Hot Picks

- There's No Such Thing as Zombies 2020

- Ready for My Close Up 2019

- Lavender Men 2025

- Lost Cos 2023

- Sound of the Surf 2022

- The Stillness 2025

- Frankie Freako 2024

- The Texas Witch 2025

- Cannibal Mukbang 2023

- Bleeding 2024

- No Choice 2025

- Nahual 2025

- Bitter Souls 2025

- A Very Long Carriage Ride 2025

- The Matriarch 2024

- Oxy Morons 2025

- Ed Kemper 2025

- Piglet 2025

- Walter, Grace & the Submarine 2024

- Midnight in Phoenix 2025

- Dorothea 2025

- Mauler 2025

- Consecration 2023

- The Death of Snow White 2025

- Franklin 2025

- ApoKalypse 2025

- Live and Die in East LA 2023

- A Season for Love 2025

- The Arkansas Pigman Massacre 2025

- Visceral: Between the Ropes of Madness 2012

- The Darkside of Society 2023

- Jackknife 2024

- Family Property 2: More Blood 2025

- Feral Female 2025

- Amongst the Wolves 2024

- Autumn 2023

- Bob Trevino Likes It 2024

- A Hard Place 2025

- Finding Nicole 2025

- Juliet & Romeo 2025

- Off the Line 2024

- First Moon 2025

- Healing Towers 2025

- Final Recovery 2025

- Greater Than 2014

- Self Driver 2024

- Primal Games 2025

- Grumpy 2023

- Swing Bout 2024

- Dalia and the Red Book 2024

- Project MKGEXE 2025

- Two to One 2024

- Left One Alive 2025

- Burgermen 2020

- Conspiracy of Fear 2025

- The Haunting of Heather Black 2025

- Talk of the Dead 2016

- A Killer Conversation 2014

- First Impressions Can Kill 2017

- Star Crash 1979

- Strangler of the Swamp 1946

Buck Rogers
Buck Rogers Conquers the Universe / Buck Rogers: Destination Saturn

USA 1939
produced by
Barney A. Sarecky (associate) for Universal
directed by Ford L. Beebe, Saul A. Goodkind
starring Buster Crabbe, Constance Moore, Jackie Moran, Jack Mulhall, Anthony Warde, C. Montague Shaw, Guy Usher, William Gould, Philson Ahn, Henry Brandon, Wheeler Oakman, Kenne Duncan, Carleton Young, Reed Howes, John Harmon, Wade Boteler, Roy Butler, Eddy Chandler, Lane Chandler, Russ Clark, Jack Gardner, Karl Hackett, Kenneth Harlan, Stanley Price
screenplay by Norman S. Hall, Ray Trampe, based on characters created by Philip Francis Nowlan, musical director: Charles Previn

serial
Buck Rogers

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Quick Links

Abbott & Costello

The Addams Family

Alice in Wonderland

Arsène Lupin

Batman

Bigfoot

Black Emanuelle

Bomba the Jungle Boy

Bowery Boys

Bulldog Drummond

Captain America

Charlie Chan

Cinderella

Deerslayer

Dick Tracy

Dick Turpin

Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Orloff

Doctor Who

Dracula

Edgar Wallace made in Germany

Elizabeth Bathory

Emmanuelle

Fantomas

Flash Gordon

Frankenstein

Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies

Freddy Krueger

Fu Manchu

Fuzzy

Gamera

Godzilla

Hercules

El Hombre Lobo

Incredible Hulk

Jack the Ripper

James Bond

Jekyll and Hyde

Jerry Cotton

Jungle Jim

Justine

Kamen Rider

Kekko Kamen

King Kong

Laurel and Hardy

Lemmy Caution

Lobo

Lone Wolf and Cub

Lupin III

Maciste

Marx Brothers

Miss Marple

Mr. Moto

Mister Wong

Mothra

The Munsters

Nick Carter

OSS 117

Phantom of the Opera

Philip Marlowe

Philo Vance

Quatermass

Robin Hood

The Saint

Santa Claus

El Santo

Schoolgirl Report

The Shadow

Sherlock Holmes

Spider-Man

Star Trek

Sukeban Deka

Superman

Tarzan

Three Mesquiteers

Three Musketeers

Three Stooges

Three Supermen

Winnetou

Wizard of Oz

Wolf Man

Wonder Woman

Yojimbo

Zatoichi

Zorro

Available on DVD!

To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned)

Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!



Buck Rogers (Buster Crabbe) and his young friend Buddy (Jackie Moran) get into a terrible dirigible accident in the 20th century that buries them under tons of ice - but thanks to some suspended animation gas developed by Buddy's dad (Wade Botcheler), they are kept in suspended animation (and thus de facto alive) to come back to 500 later. In the meantime, Earth has come under the rule of Killer Kane (Anthony Warde), an offspring of 20th century racketeers who rules the planet with great brutality. But fortunately there's Professor Huer (C. Montague Shaw), leader of the rebels who reside in a hidden city inside a mountain - and also, fortunately Buck and Buddy's dirigible is found by Professor Huer's men, and Buck is quick to not only understand everything that's going on in this future world, he also quickly becomes the rebels' most formidable hero, and Wilma Deering (Constance Moore), ace pilot, falls in love with him.

Buck, Wilma and Buddy go to Saturn to ask the Saturnians for help, but Killer Kane sends some of his men as well, and the Saturnians, judging the situation wrongly, send an emmissary, Prince Tallen (Philson Ahn) down to earth with Kane's men to sign a treaty. In what almost turns out to be a suicide mission, Buck and Buddy get Tallen out of the hands of Kane's men and convince him to sign the treaty with the rebels. But since no radio connection has been established between earth and Saturn, so Buck and Wilma have to fly Tallen to Saturn themselves ... but one of Kane's man, Captain Laska (Henry Brandon) has made it to Saturn first, and somehow he manages to kidnap Tallen, make him his mindless slave with the help of a amnesia device, and thanks to that Tallen betrays Buck and Wilma and almost has Saturn side with Kane before Buck can call the cheat. But by now, Laska has already made the subhuman Saturnians, the Zuggs, his subject with the help of a robot - actually a rebel wearing an amnesia helmet to make him a mindless slave ... and the Zuccs almost overthrow the Saturn Council until Buck again heroically deals with the situation. Returning back to earth, Buck and Wilma are captured by Kane's men, and Buck is even made part of Kane's robot squadron via one of Kane's amnesia helmets, but Buddy has persuaded one of the Hidden City's pilots to fly him to Kane's headquarters and save the day. But returning to the Hidden City in Kane's captured private ship, Buck and company unknowingly take Kane's private pilot with them who transmits the location of the Hidden City over to Kane, and now Kane's men launch an attack. The first wave is unsuccessful though, but now the Hidden City knows they have to lauch a counter attack with help of the Saturnians to not perish in Kane's next attack - but communications to Saturn are down, and Buck and Buddy have to make another trip to the planet to find Laska has kidnapped Prince Tallen in order to force the Saturnians into submission. Of course, Buck manage to save Tallen and ultimately get Saturn on the rebels' side for good. Then it's back to earth, where the Hidden City forces and the Saturn forces are to attack Kane's air force while Buck and Buddy sneak into the Dynamo Room where Kane's robot squad work, they free them all of their amnesia helmets and organize an uprising from within, ultimately forcing Kane into submission by putting an amnesia helmet on him ...

 

Quite obviously, Buck Rogers was made as an attempt to cash in on Buster Crabbe's Flash Gordon-serials of the same era, and a successful one at that - mainly because the similarities between the serials were rather striking - but that said, the Flash Gordon-serials did have the upper hand, there was more sense of wonder in them, they had more exotic and colourful sets and characters, so even though in print, Buck Rogers may have preceded Flash Gordon, on film it seemed a bit like the kid brother - but the kid brother who can, because seeing the serial on its own terms it's a nice exercise in escapism, with an simplistic yet interesting enough story, plenty of action, exciting (even if from today's point of view primitive) visual effects (even if the most impressive backdrops of Killer Kane's city were lifted from 1930's Just Imagine), cool backdrops (borrowed from other Universal productions, mostly, as was the rule with serials), all carried by a for its time over-the-top and fantasy-out-of-bound narration and plenty of excitement, making this good fun, especially when seen through the veil of nostalgia.

 

By the way, there is very little that ties this serial to Philip Francis Nowlan's novellas Armageddon 2419 A.D. and The Airlords of Han that originated the character of Buck Rogers, and for mostly legal reasons, the similarities to the comic strip by Nowlan and Dick Calkins (art) are fleeting as well.

 

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned)

The links below
will take you
just there!!!

Find Buck Rogers
at the amazons ...

USA  amazon.com

Great Britain (a.k.a. the United Kingdom)  amazon.co.uk

Germany (East AND West)  amazon.de

Looking for imports?
Find Buck Rogers here ...

Thailand  eThaiCD.com
Your shop for all things Thai


Thanks for watching !!!

 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!