A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
|
|
|
World of Westfahl |
Encyclopedia Introduction |
All Entries |
Acknowledgements
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
|
CRABBE, BUSTER (Clarence Linden Crabbe 1907–1983). American actor.
Conventional commentaries on Crabbe's performances in Flash Gordon,
Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars, Buck Rogers, and Flash Gordon
Conquers the Universe would miss the mark, for it requires no critical
acumen to recognize that he was an absolutely terrible actor. However, it might
be more apt to observe that, in stories that were relentlessly childish, Crabbe
was appealingly childlike, offering a pleasurable experience comparable to
watching your kid in a fourth-grade school pageant. Call it the charming
ineptness of a nice guy trying to do his very best to provide a credible
performance but invariably failing to do so. Later producers of Flash Gordon
films and television series have oversimplified the challenge of finding a
suitable replacement for Crabbe: hey, they have thought, all we need is another
handsome hunk who can't act. But while Steve Holland, Sam Jones, and Eric
Holland all fit that bill, they couldn't match the appealing, naked sincerity
of Crabbe's overt inadequacies. In sum, there was a reason why Crabbe remains
the only Flash Gordon who was asked to play the role again, while the others
only lasted for one film, or one television season.
While rarely appreciated as such, the switch to Buck Rogers in
1939 did represent an effort to offer a somewhat more mature take on science
fiction, and Crabbe endeavored (unsuccessfully, of course) to respond
appropriately, but the serial did not receive an enthusiastic response, and
after one more Flash Gordon adventure, executives decided that science fiction was
now passé, forcing Crabbe back into the humdrum worlds of repetitive
westerns and jungle adventures that would occasionally tiptoe into fantasy.
Eventually, all of this grew so wearisome for the poor actor that he retreated
to his first love, swimming, and focused most of his energies on selling
swimming pools and running a summer camp for aspiring swimmers while still appearing
in occasional westerns.
Much later, when he was briefly lured back to science fiction in his
seventies by nostalgic producers, Fred Olen RAY did him no favors by starring
him in the risible The Alien Dead, but one of the few clever touches
Glen A. LARSON brought to
his generally lame revival of Buck Rogers in the Twenty-Fifth Century
was to offer Crabbe a cameo role in one episode as "Brigadier Gordon," an older
version of Flash Gordon. Perhaps he should have been asked to linger on the set
to provide the bland actor who had inherited the role of Buck Rogers, Gil
Gerard, with an unusual service: some helpful non-acting lessons. For Buster
Crabbe teaches us that bad acting, like good acting, is an art form in itself.
|
||||
To contact us about encyclopedia matters, send an email to Gary Westfahl. Hosted & Designed By:
If you find any Web site errors, typos or other stuff worth mentioning,
please send it to our Webmaster.
Copyright © 1999–2013 Gary Westfahl All Rights Reserved Worldwide
