Buck Rogers (1938)

Starring Buster Crabbe, Constance Moore, Jackie Moran, Jack Mulhall, Anthony Warde
Directed by Ford Beebe & Saul A. Goodkind

(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

Colonel Buck Rogers and his young friend Buddy Wade wake up after 500 years in suspended animation to discover the Earth has been subjugated by the cruel Killer Kane.

Crabbe follows up his starring role in the Flash Gordon serial by portraying another comic strip hero, and there are some similarities with Gordon, from the spaceship effects to the friends and villains Buck takes on through the course of the storyline.  However, there's less of an emphasis on fantastic sights and locales, other than the new technology Buck encounters, including teleportation chambers, a rocket train, and flying belts.  The serial focuses on the clash between Killer Kane, who blockades the Earth with his rocketships and uses mind control on the prisoners he enslaves, and the people of the "Hidden City" who rebel against him, including familiar Rogers associates Dr. Huer and Wilma Deering.  Crabbe is excellent, getting to utter some dramatic speeches along with his derring-do, but Warde is pretty much a one-note villain, never leaving his council chambers, and leaving it up to his guards to handle Rogers.  Moore as Deering is a dependable partner for Buck, and Moran as the young Buddy is earnest and likable enough but wears a bit with his whining whenever he's left behind.  The presence of Universal's classic music cues enhances the action and other goings on, and overall this is a good serial, if not quite in the same league as Flash Gordon.