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Date Posted: 06:05:48 01/27/10 Wed
Author: Rick
Subject: Favorite moments in 'Buck Rogers' (1939)

Torch?





Rick

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[> Re: Favorite moments in 'Buck Rogers' (1939) -- Officer Torch, 18:34:03 01/29/10 Fri [1]

-The scrolling Foreward.
-The dirigible scenes.
-The patrol and spaceships of Kane and the hidden city.
-The aerial battles.
-The matte type scene on Saturn with spaceship, mountain in
background, and sky with planets.
-Going thru the hidden city when mountain opens.
-The transporter (or teleporter) to get around hidden city.
-The anti gravity, or degraviy belt(25th Cent. parachute)
-Raygun special effects and stun feature.
-Transparency Ray...to make hidden city spaceships invisible
-Kane's art deco palace and its surroundings. Likely models
from 1930 movie "Just Imagine."
-Seeing Kane have that amnesia helmet placed on his head.
-The subway system on Saturn.
-Various scenes similar to FG serials...eg, one subway station area looks similar to Clay Kings throne in FGTTM, also, Council of the Wise chamber looks like Mings throne in his palace, and Mings fire walk area, various corridors, etc also look familiar. Recycled props I guess.

Some comments.
BR serial is overall ok, but not up to FG trilogy in my opinion. The 1939 serial performances were a tad wooden, in fact, I thought bad guys Killer Kane (Anthony Warde) and Capt.Laska (Henry Brandon) were of more interest, relatively speaking. The action/adventure slowed down about midway, but picked up a bit near end. Those Saturnians....well we saw "primitive" Zuggs (which can speak English also it seemed...the one who was guarded Prince Tallen as a prisoner anyway), those 3 council members, and some group with Tallen, the latter being of royal blood we're told. Dunno how come these people did not have a radio or device to communicate with earth. Several trips had to be made from earth just to convey messages. Yet, at end, BR welcomes Tallen and a few men off of a spaceship saying earth's cause would be lost without Tallen's help with spaceships. Wow! without a radio yet?!?
No chemistry between BR and Wilma Deering...like zero, and no spice anywhere...big difference between this, FG serials and sizzling BR of 1979-80 TV series with Gil Gerard, Erin Gray. No humor either..a bit too serious. And those cheat cliffhangers. Wow! Things blow up or are crushed and good guys are hardly scratched. Big cheat..end of Chap 9, Buddy is in Kane's council room in his "palace" and is shot by a guard with a ray gun. Buddy stumbles back into room, but we don't see him hit the floor. Ok, lets say maybe he was just stunned. Nope..begin Chap 10, no guard shot Buddy, and he jumped out the window, landing on lower terrace thanks to his degravity belt. Remarkable!
The Buck Rogers comic strip is chock full of adventure, futuristic gadgets, pretty well balanced, generous story material...This serial, well I'm not sure. I gather actors followed their scripts, did their best...but the serial could have been better in my opinion. Certainly the potential was there.


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