Planet Outlaws was a science fiction movie that was cobbled together from material taken from a 1930's Buck Rogers serial. This was no doubt done because in the post-Atomic bomb Cold War years of the 50's science fiction was really popular. In fact, the film-makers have presented the story as an allegory against the evils of communism, with a dictator whose minions are turned into unthinking servile robots! But whatever the underlying message, this is an old-style action movie where the good guys are really good and the bad guys are complete rotters. There is no ambiguity at play here that's for sure.
The film begins with a brief sequence to set the scene - a hot air balloon piloted by Buck Rogers and his buddy crashes and is buried in snow in the North Pole; they go into suspended animation and are awoke 500 years in the future where they immediately align themselves in a conflict between decent folks and a criminal overlord called Killer Kane.
This would very possibly have seemed like quite an old fashioned film even in the early 50's. It was after all culled from material from a 30's serial. But they have tried to make it as relevant to the times as they could, however, editing a serial down to a 70 minute movie does present some problems. The result is a somewhat frantic movie with lots of big events dealt with very briefly; we have, for example, three trips to and from Saturn as opposed to one proper one. Buster Crabbe stars in the lead role and I suppose he has an uncomplicated clunky charm, if a little dull; his nemesis Killer Kane is not a very interesting villain either. It's unquestionably a very silly film indeed with some amusingly daft spaceships and costumes but it does have some decent sets and some quite impressive model work for the cityscapes. The incessant soundtrack in the background does become a little wearing though, as does the film overall to be honest. As all of these types of movies are, this one does have a time capsule appeal but it's excessive clunkiness makes it a little too tedious, despite the constant action.
The film begins with a brief sequence to set the scene - a hot air balloon piloted by Buck Rogers and his buddy crashes and is buried in snow in the North Pole; they go into suspended animation and are awoke 500 years in the future where they immediately align themselves in a conflict between decent folks and a criminal overlord called Killer Kane.
This would very possibly have seemed like quite an old fashioned film even in the early 50's. It was after all culled from material from a 30's serial. But they have tried to make it as relevant to the times as they could, however, editing a serial down to a 70 minute movie does present some problems. The result is a somewhat frantic movie with lots of big events dealt with very briefly; we have, for example, three trips to and from Saturn as opposed to one proper one. Buster Crabbe stars in the lead role and I suppose he has an uncomplicated clunky charm, if a little dull; his nemesis Killer Kane is not a very interesting villain either. It's unquestionably a very silly film indeed with some amusingly daft spaceships and costumes but it does have some decent sets and some quite impressive model work for the cityscapes. The incessant soundtrack in the background does become a little wearing though, as does the film overall to be honest. As all of these types of movies are, this one does have a time capsule appeal but it's excessive clunkiness makes it a little too tedious, despite the constant action.