Buck Rogers in the 25th Century

This early film version of the comic strip "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" which was drawn by Dick Calkins (who appears as himself in the beginning at the drawing board) and published by the John F. Dille company, is a very amateurish 10-minute short with stilted writing, monotonous acting, and laughable special effects done on obvious models of spaceships during the battle scenes. Despite that, those models probably made a mint at the 1934 Chicago World's Fair when they were displayed near the screenings. The publisher's son, John Dille, Jr. portrays the title character with his girlfriend playing leading lady Wilma Deering and magician Dr. Harlan Tarbell, who's also the director, playing scientist Dr. Huer. This is the kind of film that cries out for either Joel or Mike and the 'bots from "Mystery Science Theater 3000" to make their own commentary about the shoddiness of this whole enterprise! I discovered this on the Matinée at the Bijou blog which ran an article about this rare piece of film history. Watch this on YouTube at your own risk!