Flash Gordon - I conquistatori dell'Universo

In this 12-chapter serial from Universal Pictures and directors Ford Beebe & Ray Taylor, the evil Ming the Merciless (Charles Middleton) is once again the emperor of the far-off planet of Mongo. He has been sending ships to the Earth to drop "electrified dust" that causes a plague known as the Purple Death. To try and stop him, Flash Gordon (Buster Crabbe), Dale Arden (Carol Hughes), and Dr. Alexis Zarkov (Frank Shannon) travel back to Mongo. There they reteam with ally Prince Barin of Arboria (Roland Drew), but they face fierce foes in Ming, his chief soldier Captain Torch (Don Rowan), and the treacherous Lady Sonja (Anne Gwynne). Also featuring John Hamilton and Chief Yowlachie as the King of the Rock People.

This was the last of the great science fiction serials starring Buster Crabbe, following Flash Gordon (1936), Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars (1938), and Buck Rogers (1939). There's a lot to enjoy here, but things are starting to wear thin, as well. The sets are obviously minor redresses of the ones used in Buck Rogers, and much time is spent in the cramped cockpits of various spaceships. Carol Hughes replaces Jean Rogers (who declined to return), and she does a decent job.

Highlights of the movie include Anne Gwynne as the evil Lady Sonja, a sweet-faced blonde always ready to stab someone in the back. Gwynne is also part of a long SF legacy, as besides her appearance in this, her grandson is Chris Pine, the most recent Captain Kirk in the three latest Star Trek movies. I also liked the Rock People, who live in a desolate rocky waste known as the Land of the Dead. They wear silly rock outfits, and their spoken language is English played backward. They also get menaced by a giant lizard in footage that looks lifted from another movie. Speaking of which, there are both scenes and music borrowed from the German movie White Hell of Pitz Palu (1930).

As I said, this marked the end of the science fiction serial for the most part, as the format leaned more heavily on superhero, police, and spy serials during the forties, with a brief return to science fiction in the early 50's before the format was permanently killed by TV.

I love and have a great affinity for serials from the golden age of cinema, and this was definitely one of the better ones I have seen. Previously, I had really enjoyed Buster Crabbe's presence in the post-Weissmuller era of Tarzan, and I have had the DVD of Hodges' 1980 'Flash Gordon' for eons, but wanted to first get to the root of the phenomenon by checking out the serials. Fortunately, in purchasing a 50-film pack, 'Nightmare Worlds' from Mill Creek, it was included.

The 12 episodes of the 220-minute serial were well-edited into the fine flow that this version I saw had, and the special effects and production values were quite decent--you could tell it had been made both by a high-quality studio, in Universal, and by directors quite used to the serial format, in Ford Beebe and Ray Taylor.

There are some goofs (for example, when Ming's henchmen are looking at a mountainside for the four protagonists, and five are shown), but it's action-packed, with interestingly stylized wipe-edits, and I can see how it later influenced the likes of both George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.

As well, it's very interesting how the filmmakers were subtly able to use the film to offer social commentary to the growing Nazi/Fascist movements worldwide that were wreaking havoc across the globe in the Axis of Evil. Heartily recommended to anyone who enjoys the fun side of cinema.

It's better than a lot of the dreck produced today. It is best not to watch it all at once, but watch one episode a day. When I consider how low the budget was, and how long ago this was made, it adds to the appreciation of this.

For example, making a cliff face look like a plausible ice wall by opening the iris wide to let in more light. It's full of cliches - sort of. But remember, they weren't cliche at the time.

It is interesting that Ming seems rather reasonable in this - not the over-the-top monster we have come to know and loath - and love!

The heroic theme music strikes up, the chapter number and the 'story so far' prologue scroll up the screen and into the distance, and we are thrust into a new adventure where our hero and his companion, now disguised as Imperial Guards, having entered the stronghold of their enemy by spaceship, are about to rescue the beautiful Princess from his evil clutches! Elsewhere in the complex our hero's elderly mentor, dressed in his hooded wizard-like robes, also works to thwart the villain's dastardly plans…

Sound familiar?

Yes. Of course it does, for this is FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE (actually clunkily titled in all the opening credits as FLASH GORDON SPACE SOLDIERS CONQUER THE UNIVERSE) and is, of course, along with FLASH GORDON ('36) and FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS ('38), the inspiration for Mr. Lucas's other famous space opera, the name of which escapes me for the moment. We even have Imperial Spaceships bombarding our heroes on an Ice Planet (imaginatively called 'Frigia') and a battle on a Forest Moon ('Arboria' – Wow! Who dreams up all this stuff?), where friendly Prince Barin and his 'Merry Men' are bow and arrow wielding precursors to the Ewoks of Endor. There are many other elements too that eventually made their way into George's epic saga, but you'll have to watch it to see how many you can spot.

The acting is dreadful, the costumes ridiculous, the 'special effects' laughable and the plot (using the term very loosely) has holes in it big enough to fly an Imperial Battle Cruiser through - but enough about STAR WARS (ah, that was it!). Seriously though, FLASH GORDON may be ropey but I challenge anyone to fault their enthusiasm and the whole is weirdly compelling and great fun.

Shamelessly grabbing any spare backlot sets, props, sound effects and costumes available, a trend the much later STAR TREK original series, and others, continued, we are treated to such sights as Imperial officer's uniforms that appear to have been delivered by mail order direct from Ruritania; Prince Barin's 'treemen' clad in medieval castellated Lincoln Green (we assume) skirts and tights straight out of THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD ('38), and backstreets of Mongo that could have equally been trod, and no doubt were, by both Errol Flynn and Frankenstein's Monster. Even the music is stock, the most noticeable being Franz Waxman's 'Birth of the Bride' from his score to BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN ('35), which is plundered repeatedly. Fin-accessorised bullet shaped spaceships buzz around (again to a FRANKENSTEIN laboratory's electrical hum) with sparks falling downwards and smoke drifting up (an amazing thing the vacuum of space), and, no matter the destination, they always land, spirally, in the same scenic valley.

All 'dynamic' twelve chapters are presented in this boxed set with irresistible titles like 'The Purple Death', 'The Palace of Terror', 'Freezing Torture', 'The Destroying Ray' and 'Walking Bombs' (these particularly are a hoot), complete with the necessary cliff-hanger endings and opening and closing credits for each, but sadly, and a bad oversight, there are no special features. I know that perhaps this is difficult given the age of the material, but some accompanying old movie newsreels, as on the DVD release of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, might have put it into some kind of historical perspective.

In this age of CGI effects where anything is possible, it's nice to look back and see where it all began, and I've no doubt that in 1940 it was equally as enthralling as any SFX blockbuster claims to be today.

Get some beers in, some friends around and have some fun as FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE!

Trivia Note: Although FGCTU was Buster Crabbe's final appearance as Flash in the old Universal serials, he did make one final cameo appearance as the character in season one of the 1979 TV series BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY which starred Gil Gerard as Buck, a character Crabbe had also played 40 years earlier in 1939. In the two-part episode 'Planet of the Slave Girls' (a typical old Gordon/Rogers chapter title in itself) Crabbe appeared as 'Brigadier Gordon', a former space fighter pilot called out of retirement, and there's a pointed piece of dialogue toward the end of the episode where the new Buck (Gerard) is, in fact, talking to the old (Crabbe):

Buck: That's pretty good shooting. Gordon: Son, I've been doing this since before you were born. Buck (the character of course thinking he was born five centuries earlier): You think so? Gordon: Colonel, I know so.

Only four years later Clarence Linden 'Buster' Crabbe had passed away, making this a nice and timely touch in an otherwise unmemorable series.

Universal's 46th sound-era film was the third and last of their serials...From the ALEX RAYMOND newspaper feature owned and copyrighted by King Features Syndicate...starring Buster Crabbe as "Flash Gordon." All featured loose adaptations of their Sunday comic page continuities but this one stayed pretty close to the long-running segment devoted to Prince Barin's Kingdom of Arboria and the Ice Kingdom of Frigia ruled by The Ice Queen, both on the planet Mongo.

This one takes off when the Earth is visited by a deadly epidemic known as the Plague of the Purple Death, easily diagnosed as it leaves a purple spot on the foreheads of its victims. Flash Gordon (Buster Crabbe), Dale Arden (Carol Hughes) and Dr. Zarkov (Frank Shannon) zoom out in Zarkov's rocket ship and make a straight-space bee-line for Mongo, where the ruthless ruler, Ming the Merciless (Charles Middleton) is spreading death dust in Earth's atmosphere as part of his plan to CONQUER THE UNIVERSE. Actually, he had two kingdoms on his own planet he didn't rule, but Ming had a severe case of the hots for Dale Arden from Day One, and he probably figured he could take care of the rebel kingdoms after he made the lured-back Dale his bride and, thusly inspired, take care of Arboria and Frigia in one fell swoop along with the remainder of the Universe. The man knew how to set priorities.

Upon arriving on Mongo, Flash, Dale and Zarkov visit their old friends Prince Barin (played by Roland Drew, and two Roland Drews weren't equal to Dick Alexander's Prince Barin) and his wife Aura (Shirley Dean, formerly of The Jones Family at TC-F), who was also Ming's daughter, who has been reformed by Barin's love and the realization that her father is one stark-mad, raving lunatic...and horny to boot.

The family touches and relationships between the primary characters---Flash may have had a little thing going on with Aura back in the early days of the strip when she was the total spoiled-rotten daughter and supporter of her father, and they were still exchanging Sunday glances for years even after she married Barin--- and the creation of a Queen Glenda of Frigia (Clarice Sherry) ruling over an Ice Kingdom (that one strike any chords with a 2005 film) show that Alex Raymond's plot-writing skills were on par with his top-flight illustration abilities. All of his comic strips, including "Jungle Jim" were aimed at adults, and the kids could figure it out later on their own. Some of us never did.

Glenda The Ice Queen, on Sundays for certain, also had an eye on General Lupi (William Royle), the commander-in-chief of her army, or he was until he ended up in one of Ming's dungeons, and wasn't doing much in the way of commanding when Flash & Company showed up. In fact, Ming's scientists have perfected the Purple Death Dust to the point where it only kills those with intelligence enough to pose a threat to Ming, while only making slaves out of the less intelligent. This, clearly, posed a threat for all the citizens of Earth with all the population doomed to become slaves, but Ming wasn't a man who liked to take chances, except where Dale Arden was concerned. Well, his stooge scientists tell him that this is what they have done, but Ming wants proof and they are about to experiment on General Lupi. Flash, of course, rescues him and this makes the thawed-out Ice Queen happy, and she grants Flash and Zarkov the right to mine Polarite, the antidote to the Purple Death Dust, in her kingdom. After a few incidents with avalanches and "annihilants" Flash mines enough Polarite to save the Earth, and he makes a quick day-trip back there and deposits the life-saving Polarite on top of Mt. McKinley. (Hey, settle down...it's stock footage McKinley and not a ___location site.) But, back on Mongo, things aren't going all that smooth and there are still many chapters to go. Somewhere toward the end, Zarkov defies Ming by informing him that his and Flash's mission is to not only save the world (Earth) but the Universe as well. Ming, always the one to indulge in tirades, even when things are going his way, scoffs: "The universe? I AM THE UNIVERSE!" Charles Middleton's eyes probably lit up when he saw that line in the script.

(Those of you who don't know how this one ends might want to move on to something else, now)....as they fly back to the safety of Arboria and then back to Earth, Prince Barin tells Flash: "By destroying Ming, you have saved the universe." and Flash replies..."In his mad ambition, Ming declared that HE WAS the universe." And Zarkov says, "Then, since you are the conquerer of Ming, I shall radio your father: Flash Gordon conquers the universe!"

And Dale, not knowing an exit line when she hears one adds..."And saves the Earth."

We thought he saved the Earth several chapters back when he deposited the Polarite atop of Mt. McKinley. Oh, that's correct...Ming later came up with Solarite.

Hey, the dialogue and character's alone overcome any "so-called" 1940's cheesy special effects. Nine out of ten...only because of the covered-up belly buttons in this one.