Planet Outlaws (1953)

Truly Dreadful Film

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Absolutely Brilliant!

A Disappointing Continuation

It's just over an hour long, watchable and kinda fun. Is it good? Yes and No, it depends on how much you like Buck Rogers and silly "B" Sci-Fi flicks. It's a classic example of older, fun "B" Sci-Fi that fans of the genre might enjoy. It is not what you call a good movie just silly fun.This was originally a 1939 Buck Rogers Serial. In 1953, it was re-edited and put together to create this short feature film. I have not seen the original serial, so I'm unsure just how much was cut out for this movie but I'm sure it was all the unnecessary extra stuff.Buck Rogers fans the film should delight, Sci-Fi fans might enjoy it while others might want to pass on this one.3.5/10

Have watched many times and also the serial it came from... Love the old science fiction movies... Especially in black and white... Yet I wonder if any one has really watched this oldie... Every time I have seen it, one thing keeps bugging me about the character of Buck Rogers... Here on the IMDb site for "Planet Outlaws" the military rank of Buck is Colonel... Yet every single time I have seen this movie I distinctly hear Buck Rogers being referred to as Lieutenant ( excuse the spelling )... Not once in the movie have I ever heard Buck being referred to as Colonel Buck Rogers... Probably not the best review posted to this site but it is my first and thought I would put this to you all... I give it 5 out of 10... cheers

The 1939 "Buck Rogers" serial clocks in at just about four hours, and though "Planet Outlaws" is just a bit over an hour itself, the repetitious nature of it's programming makes it feel almost as long as the original. I wasn't counting, but how many trips did Buck (Buster Crabbe) and sidekick Buddy (Jackie Moran) actually make between Earth and Saturn? The film's limited budget really shows through in virtually every scene, and is never more apparent than in the shots of the space ships themselves. Keeping in mind that "King Kong" was made six years earlier in 1933 should give one a good idea of what kind of shoestring this must have been made on. In the story, Buck and Buddy go into suspended animation for a period of five hundred years after their dirigible goes down in an Arctic region in 1938. Amazingly, a record of their original mission still exists, which helps with their credibility once they're discovered.The villain of the piece is one Killer Kane, attempting to rule the world, the universe and anything else beyond that. As Kane, Anthony Warde doesn't have that larger than life charismatic evil of say, a Darth Vader, or even a Ming the Merciless. What he does have though is the technology to render an entire 'Robot Battalion' of captured enemies to do his bidding. Interestingly, whenever a good guy removes a helmet from one of the slaves, the mind control connection dissolves, even when the helmet is immediately put back on! Well, I guess it doesn't have to make sense. Buck Rogers was the product of a simpler time, when forays into outer space science fiction was a wide open experiment, along with the relatively new medium of talking pictures. Viewed in that context, the film has a unique perspective to offer if one can refrain from being too critical. Have some fun with this one, space ranger.

The old movies, and especially the old serials, had a naive charm of their own. Starting with the characters, there was no ambiguity here. Bad guys did bad deeds and only bad deeds. Good guys did good deeds and only good deeds. This characterization is very apparent in this movie. Killer Kane is all evil and Buck Rogers is the next thing to a saint.The futuristic sets and apparatus are a hoot. They would be laughed out of todays science fiction films. Compare with Stars Wars, big difference. The space ships eject sparks more appropriate to fireworks than a rocket engine. Saturn is a rocky planet, not a gas giant. The uniforms are ridiculous. Why bother with pressure suits and space helmets. Computers, what are they? The hero, of course, is indestructible, and so on.All of this elements, and a few more, make old movies the charmers that they are.