ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

I wasn't a big fan of these DC comic books, but the basic idea was intriguing.

The Blackhawks were an elite, independent group of freedom fighters who flew advanced aircraft during WWII and battled the enemies of democracy.

Today I found out that a 15-part 1952 serial based on the comic book was produced by Sam Katzman and starring Kirk Alyn as Blackhawk. Alyn had earlier been the first screen Superman.

Here's what Wikipedia says about the concept.
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Led by a mysterious man known as Blackhawk, the Blackhawks (or more formally, the Blackhawk Squadron) are a small team of World War II-era ace pilots of varied nationalities, each typically known under a single name, either their given name or their surname. Though the membership roster has undergone changes over the years, the team has been portrayed most consistently as having seven core members.

In their most well-known incarnation, the Blackhawks operate from a hidden base known only as Blackhawk Island, fly Grumman XF5F Skyrocket planes, and shout their battle cry of "Hawk-a-a-a!" as they descend from the skies to fight tyranny and oppression.

Clad in matching blue and black uniforms (with Blackhawk himself boasting a hawk insignia on his chest), early stories pitted the team against the Axis powers, but they would also come to battle recurring foes such as King Condor and Killer Shark, as well as encounter an array of gorgeous and deadly femme fatales.

They also frequently squared off against fantastical war machines ranging from amphibious "shark planes" and flying tanks, to the aptly named War Wheel, a gigantic rolling behemoth adorned with spikes and machine guns.

At the height of his popularity in the early 1940s, Blackhawk titles routinely outsold every other comic book but Superman.[4] Blackhawk also shares the distinction of being just one of five comic book superheroes to be published continuously in their own titles from the 1940s up to the 1960s (the others being Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and The Phantom).

The comic series has spawned a film serial, a radio series, a novel.
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Here's chapter 1 of the 1952 serial.

__________________ Blackhawk - Chapter 01


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Gord Green]

Blackhawk was portrayed by Kirk Allan who was SUPERMAN in the two Columbia serials.

The concept was wonderful and I read it voraciously in the 50's and 60's. Unfortunatly, this serial left out the great jets and exciting villians for a bit of a lack luster cold war commie plot!
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There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.

[Pow]

"The Miraculous Blackhawk: Freedom's Champion" was the full title for this serial.

Wow! They they were really laying it on thick with that one, eh?

Writer George Plympton had a production staff meeting where they listened to a recording from the BH short-lived radio series.

The radio show had the BH team members speak with accents appropriate to their respective countries.

Plympton & staff found this confusing and decided that for the film serial all the BH team members would speak only with American accents.

How times have changed. If some studio were to produce a major feature film of the BH, they'd not only have the actors playing BH team members speak with their native accents, they'd insist that each actor actually be from the country his character represents.

Chapter three of the BH serial had a very dangerous stunt that had it gone wrong Kirk Alyn could have been killed.

The scene has BH member Chuck staked down on the ground in front of a taxing airplane.

BH runs up and grabs the wing in order to turn the plane off its path. A pilot was hidden inside the aircraft and performed the maneuver in order for it to look as if BH had saved Chuck.

The screenwriters were thinking of a small lighter wood-&-canvas plane when they wrote this sequence, and not the heavy metal aircraft that was used for the scene.

Chuck is played by the well known character actor John Crawford. John appeared in many films and TV shows.

He was one of the Greek heroes in Ray Harryhausen's terrific film "Jason and the Argonauts."

He was Commisioner Ferris in ST:TOS episode "The Galileo Seven" where he had a difficult time as an actor with William Shatner.

And he had the recurring role of Sheriff Ebb on "The Waltons" TV series.

Author William C. Cline in his book "In the Nick of Time: Motion Picture Sound Serials" wrote about BH as "a pretty good airplane adventure."

BH was the last of the aviation serials. Fliers had become less popular with audiences, SF was taking its place.

The uniform design for Kirk Alyn looks fine, except for the BH circle emblem.

In the comics, the emblem is on BH's chest; in the serial its located on his stomach.

I would love to see a major BH feature film one day.

It should be set during WWII, and have some SF elements in it.

And the ever-lovin' War Wheel from the comic books would be a must for the movie.

[Bud Brewster]

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I haven't thought of this in decades, but back in the 1980s I came up with slam-bang idea for a Blackhawk movie that would be done in the Indiana Jones style — a period piece which sincerely presented the era in which it takes place.

The Blackhawk team would fly around in advanced experimental aircraft which the government provide them with so these planes could be tested in combat situation.

Here's two examples of the kind of aircraft I imagined in this sceene.









The movie opens with a beautiful shot of the camera zooming along backwards through a sunlight blue sky, passing in-an-out of fluffy clouds which it races passed.

Suddenly a strange aircraft comes into view as it emerges from a cloud and overtakes the camera. It matches the camera's POV speed and follows along for several seconds.

This is the kind of aircraft I had in mind. The aircraft is an unmanned done, and it's battling with the Blackhawk team!






Several of their aircraft bank into view behind the drone and fire at it. But the drone quickly banks to the left, avoiding the shots!

As the drone and the Blackhawk team soar through the sky and fire at each other, we see that they're actually firing "paint ball bullets" to mark the hits each aircraft makes. This is actually a sparing match being conducted to sharpen the team's combat tactics.

After an exciting dog fight between the drone and the Blackhawks, all the aircraft are covered in colorful blobs of paint.

The team receives a radio message to return to Blackhawk Island, and all the aircraft fall into formation — including the drone — plastered with blotches of paint to simulate the damage that would have occurred in a real battle.

I don't remember much of the rest of my concept — except that in the climax, the Blackhawk team launches an aerial assault on the Tibetan mountain-top fortress of a Fu Manchu-styled villain.

Gee, I wish I'd made a few notes about this idea. I remember thinking it was pretty good.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

I love the concept, Bud. It would fly!

What do you think about adding Lady Blackhawk to the film?

Zinda Blake was the first LB in 1959. Natalie Reed in 1988, and an unnamed LB was created in 2011.

[Bud Brewster]

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Yeah, I guess we should have a female member of the team — just to show that women are as capable as men when it comes to being smart, tough, and brave.

Naturally we'd want her uniform to be almost identical to the men's, to clearly indicate that she's an equal partner — not just some gorgeous bit of eye candy for the fan boys.

Right?

Then again . . . maybe a few minor modifications for the female version of the uniform would be okay.

You know . . .something like this.





After all, it's important for people to take the lady seriously as a crime fighter — not just a pinup girl with a great pair of guns (not to mention her pistols!)







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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

I love the pictures here of Lady BH's uniform, Bud.

But feminists will scream bloody murder if it appears in a film.

[Bud Brewster]

[Pow]

Sharp looking designs on those aircraft there, Bud.

Guess we'll just have to make sure that Lady Blackhawk will have to wear military pants just like the guys.

And Chop-chop will have to lose his name and status as only being the BH's cook. He'll have to become a true BH.

[Bud Brewster]

[Pow]

Oh no, Bud, I do see plenty of superhero films and TV shows with gorgeous gals in sexy wardrobe.

I'm just stating that without a doubt that someone will protest, do an interview, review of a film or TV show, or write a column being angry over these provocative clothes.

[Bud Brewster]

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You're right of course, Pow, and I don't really disagree with your comment . . . I just wanted an excuse to post more images of sexy ladies, compliments of the late Bulldogtrekker's amazing thread called Sci-Fi Babe Collection.

That 16-page thread has well over 100 images like the ones above!

But you're right that a movie which put a lady in one of those micro-miniskirts would be criticized. More important perhaps is the fact that it certainly wouldn't be consistent with the idea that the story is set in the 1940s!

If a Blackhawk movie is ever made, it certainly should include women members of the squadron — several in fact, fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with the guys.

That said, I'm sure nobody will mind if their pants are bit tighter than the guys'. And a bit of cleavage would not be inappropriate, would it?

Gee, I sure hope not . . .

It took me a while to find a Lady Blackhawk in pants, but I finally managed, and this one is actually pretty good.


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Well, heck — imagine my surprise today when I discovered that my brilliant idea to have the Blackhawks fly around in unusual prototype aircraft . . . was actually 80 years old!

I Googled "Blackhawk Squardon aircraft" and got these examples of what the guys actually flew in the comic books.








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And if that wasn't enough to take the wind out of my sails, I discovered that it's an actual prototype by the Grumman aircraft company, created in 1938!

Behold! The Grumman XF5F Skyrocket!









Man oh man, would I ever love to write a script for a Blackhawk movie with aircraft like these (and the others I posted above).
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Decades ago, when I used to hang out with a group of creative young friends I'd known for years, I pitched my idea for a Blackhawk movie as we sat around a table in a Denny's restaurant — something we did on a regular basis.

The group included the follow people.

Rod Bennett - A fine artist and a published author.

He did the drawing below for me to use for a science lesson with my 2nd graders, which included an actual Venus Flytrap!

I told the kids I was going to show them a plant that could eat a cow!

Rod made this amazing drawing from his imagination, using colored markers on poster board — with no "pencil outline" to guide him!

I used it to surprise my class before I revealed an actual Venus Flytrap I'd kept hidden . . . and then I revealed it before feeding the plant a small piece of hamburger to prove it was a "plant that could eat a cow!"





The kids were dazzled by this demonstration.
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Jim Peavy - A professional artist who has done magazine covers for Wonder Magazine, along with other amazing paintings. You can enjoy his work at The Art of Jim Peavy


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Brian Bustard is another old friend and a fine artist whose work is featured here on All Sci-Fi in our gallery called The Art of Bryan Bustard.

My favorite of his is the one below

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And finally there's Larry Hanson, one of my oldest friends, who was famous in our group for the wonderful creations he made to enhance our many "movie nights".

For example, the ones shown below were for the elaborately planned events we spent weeks preparing for.

These are from our Jason and Argonauts night, our This Island Earth Night, our Earth vs the Flying Saucer Night, and our 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Night.








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Larry and I collaborate on the last one below when he asked me to create a small painting to go with his illuminated model of the Nautilus, which he planned to display atop the delicious desert we would later enjoy during our amazing evening when we shared this great movie!

Here's the preliminary sketch I did for the painting I made for his cake.





And here's his cake and my painting, when the evening finally took place.







It was an event we'll never forget!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Gord Green]

Old friends are the best friends!
Even if they only still exist in our memories!
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There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.