Having been in a chemically-induced sleep for 500 years, Lt. Buck Rogers (Buster Crabbe) and his youthful sidekick Buddy Wade (Jackie Moran) awaken on a future Earth and are taken to the 'Hidden City', Earth's last bastion of decency, which is under threat by the forces of the tyrannical Killer Kane (Anthony Warde). Before long, Buck's prowess in fisticuffs and military matters prove their worth to the beleaguered good-guys and their hoped-for allies from the planet Saturn. This was a low-budget serial from Republic that recycled many of the props from the contemporaneous 'Flash Gordon' serials (which also starred Crabbe) as well as parts of the score. Also heard is the memorable (and frequently reused) music from 1935's 'The Bride of Frankenstein' and the futuristic city seen out the windows is from 1930's 'Just Imagine'. A 'Star Wars'-like scroll connects and summarises the 12 chapters, which is good as they all start to look the same as Buck or Kane's minions shuttle back and forth to Saturn to recruit or con the Saturnians (who come across as being too credulous and incompetent to be particularly valuable allies in the battle to rule Earth). Buddy was not a character in the original strips and was likely added to appeal to a youthful audience (similar young but resourceful sidekicks accompanied 'Rocky Jones, Space Ranger' and 'Captain Video' on TV in the fifties). On the distaff side, Constance Moore plays Lt. Wilma Deering but, since Buddy is Buck's partner in adventure, the lady-spaceship-pilot is not given much do other than look official in her remarkably unflattering uniform. Even for the genre and era, most of the special effects are underwhelming with cheap-looking 'rockets' trailing smoke and sparks, and 'human-robots' wearing ludicrous looking mind-control helmets. On the plus side, the Hidden City has teleport 'pods' which adds a nice science-fictiony touch and some attempt is made to use optical effects for the ray-guns. The resolutions to the chapters' 'cliff-hanger' endings are predictable and, in one instance, a 'cheat' (a character is shot just as they are about leap out a window but in the next instalment they make their escape without anyone shooting at them). The serial is much less imaginative than those that followed the adventures of 'Flash Gordon' and, as lead menace, the gangster-like Killer Kane pales in comparison with Ming the Merciless of the Planet Mongo, the over-the-top gloating interplanetary megalomaniac who was a consent threat to Flash and everyone else on Earth. I love, and am very forgiving of, vintage science fiction so, despite its numerous weaknesses, I still enjoyed Buck's adventures in the 25th century but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone other than tolerant aficionados or media historians. Patiently watched week-by-week on TCM.
Review of Buck Rogers
