Captain Gallant - Season 1 - Episode 27 - The Ransom | Buster Crabbe, Fuzzy Knight, Cullen Crabbe

2021-02-24 18

A wealthy tourist is kidnapped in a marketplace and held for ransom. Capt. Gallant's investigation of the kidnapping begins to raise some troubling questions about the victim's activities.

Directed by Jean Yarbrough
Starring Buster Crabbe, Fuzzy Knight, Cullen Crabbe

Cast
Buster Crabbe as Captain Michael Gallant
Fuzzy Knight as Private Fuzzy Knight
Cullen Crabbe as Cuffy Sanders
Gilles Quéant as Sergeant Duval
Peter Tren as Colonel
Giacomo Rossi as Sgt. Rousseau .

Buster Crabbe was a swimming champion in the 1928 and 1932 Olympic Games. This led to a role in the Tarzan serial Tarzan the Fearless (1933), and a career in which Crabbe starred in more than a hundred films. In King of the Jungle (1933), Jungle Man (1941), and the serial King of the Congo (1952), he played typical "jungle man" roles. He starred in several popular films at this time, including The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi (1933), alongside Betty Grable, and Search for Beauty (1934).

In 1936, he was selected over several stars to play Flash Gordon in the first, very successful Universal Pictures Flash Gordon serial, which was followed by two sequels released in 1938 and 1940. The series was later edited and shown extensively on American television during the 1950s and 1960s, then fully restored for home video release. He also starred as Buck Rogers for Universal, playing the role with dark hair, unlike his blonde hair for Flash Gordon. In 1939 Crabbe reunited with Grable for a lead role in the mainstream comedy Million Dollar Legs.

During World War II, Crabbe was put under contract by Producers Releasing Corporation for lead roles from 1942 to 1946. He portrayed a Western folk-hero version of Billy the Kid in 13 films, and Billy Carson in 23, along with Al St. John as his sidekick. As a 34-year-old married man, Crabbe had a draft deferment, but made Army training films for the field artillery at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, along with St. John.Crabbe also played some jungle roles for the studio.