Planet Outlaws (1953)

Cast:

Buster "From Buck Rogers to Tarzan..." Crabbe is Col. Buck Rogers
Constance Moore is Lt. Wilma Deering
Jackie "From Gone With the Wind to Buck Rogers's sidekick" Moran is George 'Buddy' Wade
Anthony Warde is Killer Kane
Philip Ahn is Prince Tallen of Saturn

What the box says:

When Buck Rogers (Buster Crabbe) and his sidekick Buddy (Jackie Moran) are aroused from centuries of cryogenic sleep, they are enlisted by Wilma Deering (Constance Moore) to save the world from the grasp of a tyrannical gangster named "Killer Kane". They travel to the planet Saturn to get some much needed help for their assignment, and then set out to deal with Kane and his villainous cohorts.

Plot:

A narrator tells of the rise of planes, submarines, etc...In the future, men found a crashed blimp. The pilot and the co-pilot have been in a suspended animation for 500 years. It is Buck Rogers and his sidekick: Buddy...

Elsewhere, Killer Kane is torturing and mentally enslaving prisoners into robotic drones to learn the secret location of the hidden city of rebels.

The rebels are trying to contact Saturn. Thankfully, Buck has an idea to blockade run Killer Kane's ships and reach Saturn. The Saturnians grab Buck and the Kane crews. Kane's men are able to trick the Saturnians into not helping the rebels. Buck, Buddy, and Wilma manage to barely get back to Earth by stealing one of the Kane ships.

The hidden city picks up one of Kane's ships heading towards them but are unaware of who is in it. Buck is able to crash the ship down to safety.

The Saturnians are sending Prince Talon to Earth to investigate what Kane's men have claimed and to possibly agree to signing a treaty with Kane.

Buck and Buddy decide to infilitrate Kane's headquarters. They manage to hear how Kane wants the Saturnian treaty approved. Buck manages to grab Prince Talon to show how Kane enslaves prisoners which quickly gets him to think the rebels aren't as evil as he was led to believe. Apparently, global tyrant using a mind-control device to enslave people doesn't impress Talon who decides that Saturnians needs to help the Earth rebels.

Buck, Buddy, and Talon manage to get one of Kane's ships and head away. Unfortunately, they are crashed down on the way to the hidden city. Thankfuly, Lt. Wilma is able to find them. Talon decides that Saturn needs to oppose Kane. Unfortunately, Talon cannot contact his people.

Kane tries sending some of his ships back to Saturn to get the treaty signed before the Saturnians realize how evil Killer Kane is.

The rebels use their very experimental temporary cloaking device ona ship to evade Kane's blockade on the way to Saturn to get the rebel treaty approved. The Saturnians agree to aid the rebels. Buck heads back to Earth.

Later, at the Hidden City, the rebels are planning their massive attack for when the Saturnians will join in the surprise attack. Unfortunately, Lasko, one of Kane's officers, hid in Buck's ship, and calls Kane to reveal where the secret entrance to the Hidden City is.

Kane's ships are heading to attack the Hidden City. Buck manages to defeat Lasko and closes the entrance which causes most of Kane's ships to crash into the side of a mountain. The rebels capture one of the ships.

The rebel war council, Buck wants to attack Kane immediately. However, they can't contact Saturn. Buck heads back to Saturn and learns that Kane has kidnapped Talon to keep the Saturnians from opposing him. Well, Buck is able to convince the Saturnians to fight Kane.

Buck infilitrates Kane's headquarters and starts to free the enslaved prisoners from captured rebels to deposed Kane's advisors.

Kane is planning to attack the Hidden City when Buck and the others walk in.

The narrator explaijns how this is the end of Kane like warlords of 1939 and World War 2.

What I say:

A child of the 1980s probably knows more about Flash Gordon thanks to the movie with all of its Queen soundtrack. The child of the late 1970s always seems to remember Buck Rogers thanks to Erin Grey as Col. Wilma Deering. Well, the 1939 Buck Rogers serial and re-released in the early 1950s to this.

Ths plot does get kind of jumpy. Somehow cutting a 237 minute 12-part serial down into barely over an hour does make it lose some of its story. Well, we can't expect high quality when the "Danger! Can Buck Rogers escape from this peril? Return next week to find out.." It does get jumpy at places: has this been this character been on the movie earlier?, characters that totally disappear, and other things like that...

Buster Crabbe was an Olympic swimmer before turning to acting. Well, he is Buck Rogers to many before Gil Gerard in the late 1970s. In fact, Buster was also Flash Gordon and Tarzan in other serials. We can't hold things like Nabonga Gorilla against him.

Yes, Star Wars in it's pre-special edition versions was partial inspired by the Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers movie serials. The noble hero fighting the evil empire and especially the warlord. The 1930s had more of the sci-fi pulp stories and comic books. Buck and his sidekick get accidentally frozen in suspended animation for more than 500 years and find the future ruled by Kiler Kane. Of course, they join the rebels and try to do everything to oppose the evil warlord.

This serial has the big special effects look like toy rockets used for the flights in the time when pie plates were flying saucers. Buck Rogers ship may only be invisible for 10 minutes. Wonder Woman's is perpetual, even if you see her flying around in a transparent lined model... Killer Kane's prison factory was giving off a slight Metropolis vibe without the extreme Germanic Expressionistic feel.

Quotable Dialogue
"This gas is making me drowsy."
"Stand back, Wilma!"
"What about those awful Zug guards?"
"You blockheads! I'll send all of you to the robot battalion!"
"I don't want to experiment on you..."
"Stand by with your Disolvo-Ray..."
Morals of the Story
Radio remote control has only been established around the year 2500.
Futuristic warlords are because of the criminal behaviors in the 20the Century.
Saturn has a human breathable atmosphere.
Tyrannical warlords don't like to be questioned by minions.
Interplanetary travel doesn't require much training for pilots.