Flash Gordon (1936) - IMDb IMDb 17 January 2017 4:34 PM, UTC NEWS There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error Three earthlings visit the planet Mongo to thwart the evil schemes of Emperor Ming the Merciless. Directors: Alex Raymond (based on the comic strip by), Ella O'Neill (screenplay) | 3 more credits » Stars: Famous Directors: From Sundance to Prominence From Christopher Nolan to Quentin Tarantino and every Coen brother in between, many of today's most popular directors got their start at the Sundance Film Festival . Here's a list of some of the biggest names to go from Sundance to Hollywood prominence.

a list of 30 titles created 02 Oct 2011 a list of 30 titles created 29 Nov 2011 a list of 21 titles created 14 May 2013 a list of 35 titles created 11 Mar 2014 a list of 45 titles created 11 months ago Search for " Flash Gordon " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Flash and his friends return to planet Mongo for an antidote to the Purple Death. But Ming the Merciless has other plans for them... Directors: Ford Beebe, Ray Taylor Stars: Buster Crabbe, Carol Hughes, Charles Middleton Directors: Ford Beebe, Robert F. Hill, and 1 more credit » Stars: Buster Crabbe, Jean Rogers, Charles Middleton (1936) Buster Crabbe, Jean Rogers, Charles Middleton. The first screen version about Flash Gordon and his adventures on the planet Mongo. Still great fun... Directors: Ford Beebe, Robert F.

Hill Stars: Buster Crabbe, Jean Rogers, Charles Middleton A football player and his friends travel to the planet Mongo and find themselves fighting the tyranny of Ming the Merciless to save Earth. Director: Mike Hodges Space hero Flash Gordon and his crew of the Galaxy Bureau of Investigation patrol space, battling space monsters, power-mad alien dictators and other threats to the stability of the universe. Stars: Steve Holland, Irene Champlin, Joseph Nash The adventures of the comic strip space hero and his friends as they battle the tyranny of Ming the Merciless on the planet Mongo. Stars: Robert Ridgely, Alan Oppenheimer, Diane Pershing Hometown Celebrity Steven "Flash" Gordon discovers a secret his father tried desperately to keep hidden. He then embarks on a journey to another dimension in hopes of finding his father who... See full summary » Stars: Eric Johnson, Gina Holden, Karen Cliche A newspaper publisher and his Korean servant fight crime as vigilantes who pose as a notorious masked gangster and his aide. Directors: Ford Beebe, Ray Taylor Stars: Gordon Jones, Wade Boteler, Keye Luke Beautiful Gaby meets a romantic jewel thief in the mysterious Casbah.

Director: John Cromwell The caped crusaders versus The Wizard, black-hooded mastermind. Director: Spencer Gordon Bennet To protect a magic talisman from being used for evil, a boy is given the power to become an adult superhero with a single magic word. Directors: John English, William Witney Stars: Tom Tyler, Frank Coghlan Jr., William 'Billy' Benedict Flash Gordon (TV Series 1996) Animation | Action | Adventure Edit Storyline A rogue planet is 'rushing madly toward the earth.' Impending doom creates worldwide pandemonium. But maverick scientist Dr. Zarkov hopes to stay disaster by travelling to the new planet in his experimental rocket. Two chance-met strangers, athletic Flash Gordon and damsel in distress Dale Arden, go with him. Arrived, the trio find Mongo to be a planet of wonders, warring factions, and deadly perils, its orbit controlled by Emperor Ming who has his own sinister plans for earth. Can our heroes, armed only with science and sex appeal, stop him? Written by Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu> THRILLING STRANGE WORLD ADVENTURES!!!

(original Chapter 1 one-sheet poster) See more » Genres: 6 April 1936 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Flash Gordon: Space Soldiers See more » Filming Locations: Mono (RCA Victor High Fidelity Recording) Color: Did You Know? Trivia Despite its large budget, this serial utilized many sets from other Universal films, such as the laboratory and crypt set from Bride of Frankenstein (1935), the castle interiors from Dracula's Daughter (1936), the idol from The Mummy (1932) and the opera house interiors from The Phantom of the Opera (1925). In addition, the outer walls of Ming's castle were actually the cathedral walls from The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923). See more » Goofs When some of the characters speak, the voice on the soundtrack doesn't match the person speaking. See more » Quotes My favourite serial so far---this one has everything 30 July 2005 | by Travis_Moran (Canada) – See all my reviews My friend gives me these 3 huge boxes. "They're laserdiscs of Flash Gordon serials," he says.

"I'm gonna have some giant coasters," I say. But not so. This serial rocks. (But I had to whine & moan to almost everyone I knew to find a laserdisc player for em). There is really a little of everything in this serial: There are lion-men, hawk-men, shark-men, Earthmen, & I guess you'd call em Mongo-men. The sets & costumes combine, Greek, Roman, Oriental, Egyptian and there's even armour like English knights. Awesome costumes. And some of it was a riot. Those horrible tights with shorts over em worn by Zarkov are beyond description. And the guys in the furnace scene seem to be wearing boxers. It's also funny the way they renamed the octopus to an octosack, the orangutan to orangapoid, and the tiger to a tigron. There's even a dragon (a Godzilla-like creature who threatens Flash on a couple of occasions before being killed off). You like the Invisible Man? This has got you covered. You like sword fights, wrestling (both animals & men), fist fights? Plenty for any taste.

We have an underwater city, a sky city, a city on top of a mountain, and tonnes of secret passages and caves. Hokey effects? Massive amounts. The sky city is supported by radium furnaces stoked like old-time steamships. The rocketships are "powered" by fireworks and have constant backfires and/or humming noises. Lots of wires are visible holding things up (like food when Flash was invisible and of course rocketships). There's clouds out in space, but none around the earth when viewed from Mongo. "Giant" lizards show up briefly. Fighting sea creatures supposedly threaten Flash & co. on the way to the shark-men's underwater city. The "gadgets" in Dr. Zarkov's lab crack me up. And they seem to be the same ones no matter what lab he's in (he worked in Ming's lab and Vultan's). And yeah, we have romance. Everyone wants Dale; Ming, Vultan, Flash. But at least one person wanted Princess Aura (Prince Baron) just not the person she would have preferred. In fact, it seems a lot of the sub-plots concern intrigue on the part of Princess Aura to try to win Flash.

Man I think the characters are awesome. That fat, horse-laughing, King Vultan was hilarious. How he managed those wings was pure artistry. And Ming! What can I say about Ming? He was perfect. They should have had him for the emperor in Starwars. Ming has got to be my favourite character in this serial. Princess Aura was quite a little character too. And she pulled it off nicely. I think she's a better actress than Dale Arden by a long shot. Even the sneaky high priest had a distinctive role. Zarkov was good, but not the strongest character---and he always stood in the background during fight scenes holding Dale. Now we get to Flash: Flash, of course, was the strong point, the leader, the hero---and he did it well. Crabbe is a good actor and this role fit him perfectly. After watching this, I think I know where George Lucas got the main idea for Starwars. Watch this, you'll see what I mean. If you ever considered watching an old serial (or any serial for that matter), this should be your first choice.

The only reason I didn't give this one a 10 is because of a few story holes that could have been fixed easily, the way the giant lizards seemed just tacked in there, and a couple of weak characters (king of shark-men & king of lion-men). 24 of 26 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Flash Gordon (1936) FLASH GORDON (Click on chapter titles below) Universal, 1936. Directed by Frederick Stephani. Camera: Jerome Ash, Richard Fryer. With Buster Crabbe , Jean Rogers, Charles Middleton , Priscilla Lawson, Frank Shannon, Richard Alexander, Jack "Tiny" Lipson, Theodore Lorch, Richard Tucker, George Cleveland, James Pierce, Duke York, Muriel Goodspeed, Earl Askam, House Peters, Jr. Flash Gordon is a 1936 film serial which tells the story of three people from Earth who travel to the planet Mongo to fight the evil Emperor Ming the Merciless. Buster Crabbe , Jean Rogers , Charles Middleton , Priscilla Lawson and Frank Shannon played the central roles. This serial has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

This first Flash Gordon serial has been called "the American Siegfried", referring directly to Fritz Lang's 1924 silent movie from the personality of its title character, its costumes, intensity, and special effects, as well as many plot similarities; and indirectly to Richard Wagner's Ring cycle because of its (sensational but admittedly lesser and imperfectly cued) music�a collection of the science fiction and mystery theme music from the feature films of the Universal Studios. The archetypal plot points common to both legends include the personality differences of the two main female characters, the monarch's desire for one of them and her magical seduction, and the hero's invisibility and his fight with a giant lizard. The Flash Gordon serial was the most expensive of them all, the only serial advertised in some theaters above the name of the feature presentations, and probably the serial with the greatest attendance. It was the only sound serial with sexual tension, and it has become the best-remembered serial of them all. Years later, in a television appearance in his native Oakland, Crabbe told an interviewer that he was unhappy when Universal insisted on coloring his hair blonde to match the comic strip character.

Flash Gordon was followed by two more serials, Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars (1938) and Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940). During the 1950s, the three serials were shown on American television. To avoid confusion with a made-for-TV Flash Gordon series airing around the same time, they were re-titled, becoming respectively Space Soldiers, Space Soldiers' Trip to Mars, and Space Soldiers Conquer the Universe. Chapter 01 - The Planet of Peril : The planet Mongo is on a collision course with Earth. Dr. Hans Zarkov takes off in a rocket ship to Mongo, with Flash Gordon and Dale Arden as his assistants. They find that the planet is ruled by the cruel Emperor Ming, who lusts after Dale and sends Flash to fight in the arena. Ming's daughter, Princess Aura, tries to spare Flash's life. Chapter 02 - The Tunnel of Terror : Aura helps Flash to escape as Zarkov is put to work in Ming's laboratory and Dale is prepared for her wedding to Ming. Flash meets Prince Thun, leader of the Lion Men, and the pair return to the palace to rescue Dale.

Chapter 03 - Captured by Shark Men : Flash stops the wedding ceremony, but he and Dale are captured by King Kala, ruler of the Shark Men and a loyal follower of Ming. At Ming's order, Kala forces Flash to fight with a giant octosak. Chapter 04 - Battling the Sea Beast : Aura and Thun rescue Flash from the octosak. Trying to keep Flash away from Dale, Aura destroys the mechanisms that regulate the underwater city. Chapter 05 - The Destroying Ray : Flash, Dale, Aura and Thun escape from the underwater city, but are captured by King Vultan and the Hawkmen. Dr. Zarkov befriends Prince Barin, and they race to the rescue. Chapter 06 - Flaming Torture : Dale pretends to fall in love with King Vultan in order to save Flash, Barin and Thun, who are put to work in the Hawkmen's Atom Furnaces. Chapter 07 - Shattering Doom : Flash, Barin, Thun and Zarkov create an explosion in the atomic furnaces. Chapter 08 - Tournament of Death : Dr.

Zarkov saves the Hawkmen's city from falling, earning Flash and his friends King Vultan's gratitude. Ming insists that Flash fight a Tournament of Death against a masked opponent, and then a vicious orangopoid. Chapter 09 - Fighting the Fire Dragon : Flash survives the tournament. Still determined to win Flash, Aura has him drugged to make him lose his memory. Chapter 10 - The Unseen Peril : Flash recovers his memory. Ming is determined to have Flash executed. Chapter 11 - In the Claws of the Tigron : Zarkov invents a machine that makes Flash invisible. Flash torments Ming and his guards. Barin hides Dale in the catacombs, but Aura has her tracked by a tigron. Chapter 12 - Trapped in the Turret : Aura realizes the error of her ways, and falls in love with Barin. She tries to help Flash and his friends to return to Earth � but Ming plots to kill them. Chapter 13 - Rocketing to Earth : Ming orders that the Earth people be caught and killed, but Flash and his friends escape from the emperor's clutches.

Flash, Dale and Zarkov make a triumphant return to Earth Flash Gordon (1936) Serial clip - YouTube Flash Gordon (1936) Serial clip Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Uploaded on May 27, 2007 Emperor Ming lusts after the blond Dale Arden. Ming to Dale: "..your eyes, your hair, your skin...I've never seen one like you before...you're beautiful.." Featuring Buster Crabbe, Jean Rogers and Charles Middleton as Ming. This is the only serial that has been selected for preservation in the Library of Congress National Film Registry. Category Flash Gordon (1936) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error (1936) Buster Crabbe, Jean Rogers, Charles Middleton.

The first screen version about Flash Gordon and his adventures on the planet Mongo. Still great fun... Directors: Alex Raymond (based on the comic strip by), Ella O'Neill (screenplay) | 2 more credits » Stars: 74th Golden Globe Awards Jimmy Fallon may be hosting, but let IMDb be your guide to the 2017 Golden Globes with galleries, videos, lists, and more. Don't miss our live coverage of the Golden Globes beginning at 5 p.m. PST on Jan. 8 in our Golden Globes section. a list of 1398 titles created 07 Mar 2012 a list of 45 titles created 19 Jun 2012 a list of 230 titles created 20 Jul 2012 a list of 183 titles created 29 Jun 2013 a list of 33 titles created 11 Sep 2015 Search for " Flash Gordon " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin.

Three earthlings visit the planet Mongo to thwart the evil schemes of Emperor Ming the Merciless. Directors: Frederick Stephani, Ray Taylor Stars: Buster Crabbe, Jean Rogers, Charles Middleton Flash and his friends return to planet Mongo for an antidote to the Purple Death. But Ming the Merciless has other plans for them... Directors: Ford Beebe, Ray Taylor Stars: Buster Crabbe, Carol Hughes, Charles Middleton Directors: Ford Beebe, Robert F. Hill, and 1 more credit » Stars: Buster Crabbe, Jean Rogers, Charles Middleton A spider escapes from an isolated desert laboratory experimenting in giantism and grows to tremendous size as it wreaks havoc on the local inhabitants. Director: Jack Arnold A football player and his friends travel to the planet Mongo and find themselves fighting the tyranny of Ming the Merciless to save Earth. Director: Mike Hodges A scientist finds a way of becoming invisible, but in doing so, he becomes murderously insane. Director: James Whale Nick investigates the case of a missing man and later a murder that is connected to Nora's family. Director: W.S. Van Dyke When Scott Carey begins to shrink because of exposure to a combination of radiation and insecticide, medical science is powerless to help him.

Director: Jack Arnold A newspaper publisher and his Korean servant fight crime as vigilantes who pose as a notorious masked gangster and his aide. Directors: Ford Beebe, Ray Taylor Stars: Gordon Jones, Wade Boteler, Keye Luke Space hero Flash Gordon and his crew of the Galaxy Bureau of Investigation patrol space, battling space monsters, power-mad alien dictators and other threats to the stability of the universe. Stars: Steve Holland, Irene Champlin, Joseph Nash The adventures of the comic strip space hero and his friends as they battle the tyranny of Ming the Merciless on the planet Mongo. Stars: Robert Ridgely, Alan Oppenheimer, Diane Pershing A living mummy stalks the beautiful woman he believes is the reincarnation of his lover. Director: Karl Freund Edit Storyline (1936) Buster Crabbe, Jean Rogers, Charles Middleton. The first screen version about Flash Gordon and his adventures on the planet Mongo. Still great fun... See All (16) » Taglines: BIG FEATURE SENSATION! Amazing STRANGE WORLD ADVENTURES!

From Alex Raymond's Famous Newspaper Strip (original one-sheet poster on feature release) Genres: Flash Gordon: Rocketship See more » Company Credits Mono (RCA Victor High Fidelity Sound System) Color: Did You Know? Trivia Reissued in early 1950 on a double bill with Mars Attacks the World (1938). See more » Quotes Dr. Zarkoff : I'll soon be leaving for the planet Mongo, in a rocket-ship of my own design. TV Movie version of the first Flash Gordon Series 23 March 2007 | by mstomaso (Vulcan) – See all my reviews Buster Crabbe was a big, good-looking guy who could act. The Flash Gordon serials of the 1930s used several big guys (most of whom really weren't actors) to bring to life the characters of a serialized cartoon. This TV movie condenses the first series. If you have a choice, watch the serial as it was originally made, and avoid this. the serial was hectic enough, but compressed into this format, the entire drama is rushed - like a string of fight scenes with some vaguely important dialog in between.

Flash starts out as a young man on a plane who is preoccupied about the planet which is about to slam into the earth, destroying everything, and the very pretty girl sitting next to him (Jean Rogers). The passengers bail out and the plane crashes. Flash saves the girl and lands near a rocket ship designed to solve the interplanetary problem by a seemingly deranged but very brilliant scientist (Frank Shannon). And the adventures have just begun. We meet Ming the Merciless - self-proclaimed Emperor of the Universe; an enormous jovial winged king with the attention span of a chickadee; an honorable and huge prince clad in Roman armor with a sword and a fleet of rocket ships; a conniving princess who wants to possess Flash, a despicable high priest, and a tribe of enslaved space hippies who Flash will eventually inspire to great deeds. Some of the dialog is predictably corny, but overall, the main story arc is cleverly plotted. The special effects are good for their time, and the costumes are terrific. Most of the acting is surprisingly good, but there are a few glaringly bad exceptions. These little problems don't really reduce the entertainment value of the film.

There are no great philosophical points you can take home from this film, but they do exactly what they were intended to do quite well - they entertain and stimulate the imagination. Good enough for me! 8 of 11 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes flashgordon - Free Download of B Movies Free Download of B Movies 3rd Flash Gordon Serial 1st Flash Gordon Serial Jean Rogers as Dale Arden 2nd Flash Gordon Serial Flash Gordon is a 1936 film serial which tells the story of three people from Earth who travel to the planet Mongo to fight the evil Emperor Ming the Merciless. Buster Crabbe, Jean Rogers, Charles Middleton, Priscilla Lawson and Frank Shannon played the central roles. This first Flash Gordon serial has been called "the American Siegfried", referring directly to Fritz Lang's 1924 silent movie from the personality of its title character, its costumery, intensity, and special effects, as well as many plot similarities; and indirectly to Richard Wagner's Ring cycle because of its (sensational but admittedly lesser and imperfectly cued) music — a collection of the science fiction and mystery theme music from the feature films of the Universal Studios.

The archetypal plot points common to both legends include the personality differences of the two main female characters, the monarch's desire for one of them and her magical seduction, and the hero's invisibility and his fight with a giant lizard. The Flash Gordon serial was the most expensive of them all, the only serial advertised in some theaters above the name of the feature presentations, and probably the serial with the greatest attendance. It was the only sound serial with sexual tension, and it has become the best-remembered serial of them all. Years later, in a television appearance in his native Oakland, Crabbe told an inteviewer that he was unhappy when Universal insisted on coloring his hair blonde to match the comic strip character. Flash Gordon (See Below for Link) was followed by two more serials, Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars (1938) (See Below for Link) and Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940) (See Below for Link). During the 1950s, the three serials were shown on American television.

To avoid confusion with a made-for-TV Flash Gordon series airing around the same time, they were retitled, becoming respectively Space Soldiers, Space Soldiers' Trip to Mars, and Space Soldiers Conquer the Universe. In the mid-1970s, all three serials were shown by PBS stations across the US, bringing Flash Gordon to a new generation, a full two years before Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind re-ignited interest in the science fiction genre. All three serials were later heavily edited and released on home video. Click Here for More Information on the ---> Flash Gordon Serials - Part 2 ========================================================== 2. All The Flash Gordon Serials in one location This is the first Flash Gordon Serial. Flash Gordon's Space Soldiers, the title of the original serial's home video release (the title was changed in the early 1950s to avoid confusion with a short-lived Flash Gordon TV series), features all 13 installments in their entirety. The world is in a state of panic when it is discovered that a planet has fallen out of its normal orbit and is destined to collide with Earth in a matter of days.

Brawny adventurer Flash Gordon (Buster Crabbe), his girlfriend Dale Arden (Jean Rogers), and renowned scientist Dr. Zarkoff (Frank Shannon) blast off into space in hopes of setting the runaway planet back on course. However, they discover that it was all a ruse cooked up by the wicked Ming the Merciless (Charles Middleton), despot of the Planet Mongo, as part of his latest plot for galactic domination. Flash soon finds himself battling Ming both for the fate of the Earth and the hand of the lovely Miss Arden, though Ming's daughter, Princess Aura (Priscilla Lawson) appears to have amorous ideas of her own for Flash. The producers of the serial stretched its budget by utilizing sets, costumes, and music from several of Universal's better-known horror films of the period, including The Bride of Frankenstein; the serial was also later edited into a feature film, entitled Flash Gordon: Rocketship. ======================================================================== Start at:--> Chapter 1 of 15 part 1 of 2 2nd Serial: Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars is a 1938 serial film of 15 episodes, based on the newspaper comic strip Flash Gordon.

It is the second of three Flash Gordon serials made between 1936 and 1940. The main cast from first serial reprise their roles: Buster Crabbe as Flash Gordon, Jean Rogers as Dale Arden, Frank Shannon as Dr. Alexis Zarkov and Charles B. Middleton as Ming the Merciless. Also in the principal cast are Beatrice Roberts as Queen Azura, Donald Kerr as Happy Hapgood, C. Montague Shaw as the Clay King, and Wheeler Oakman as Ming's chief henchman. Another crisis is striking the Earth: a fictional chemical element called nitron is vanishing from the atmosphere, causing hurricanes and other meteorological disasters. Flash and Zarkov use an airplane to take measurements only to discover that a ray-beam from Mars is the source of the nitron depletion. A comical newspaper journalist, Happy Hapgood, arrives on the scene to get the scoop, and stows away when they, together with Dale Arden, leave to investigate in Zarkov's rocket ship. They discover that Azura, Queen of Mars, is working with Ming the Merciless, their old nemesis from Mongo, not dead as they had believed, to conquer Earth.

All Martians who oppose her have been turned into clay humanoids, consigned to live in a world of clay-walled caverns beneath the Martian soil. Flash, Zarkov, Dale and Happy take refuge from the Martians in one of these caverns and are captured by the Clay People, and taken to their Clay King. From him, they learn what is transpiring between Queen Azura and Ming, and anxiously agree to help. NOTE: Each Chapter is in 2 parts! ======================================================================= This is the third Flash Gordon Serial. Buster Crabbe starred in all three. Click Here To get all the Chapters of ---> Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe ========================================================================= Flash Gordon 1.The Planet of Peril (1936) FULL EPISODE - YouTube Flash Gordon 1.The Planet of Peril (1936) FULL EPISODE Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Jan 5, 2013 Flash Gordon is a 1936 science fiction film serial.

Told in 13 installments, it was the first screen adventure for the comic-strip character Flash Gordon, and tells the story of his first visit to the planet Mongo and his encounter with the evil Emperor Ming the Merciless. Buster Crabbe, Jean Rogers, Charles B. Middleton, Priscilla Lawson and Frank Shannon played the central roles. In 1996, Flash Gordon was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". A rogue planet is 'rushing madly toward the earth. Impending doom creates worldwide pandemonium. But maverick scientist Dr. Zarkov hopes to stay disaster by travelling to the new planet in his experimental rocket. Two chance-met strangers, athletic Flash Gordon and damsel in distress Dale Arden, go with him. Arrived, the trio find Mongo to be a planet of wonders, warring factions, and deadly perils, its orbit controlled by Emperor Ming who has his own sinister plans for earth. Can our heroes, armed only with science and sex appeal, stop him? Chapters:1-4 The planet Mongo is on a collision course with Earth. Dr.

Alexis Zarkov takes off in a rocket ship to Mongo, with Flash Gordon and Dale Arden as his assistants. They find that the planet is ruled by the cruel Emperor Ming, who lusts after Dale and sends Flash to fight in the arena. Ming's daughter, Princess Aura, tries to spare Flash's life. Category Super-Hero Films: Flash Gordon Flash Gordon Greatest Super-Hero Films: Flash Gordon (chronological by time period and film title) Flash Gordon - was a super-hero derived from the science-fiction adventure comic strip by Alex Raymond, first published as a King Features syndicated Sunday comic strip on January 7, 1934. Cartoonist Austin Briggs began a daily Flash Gordon strip beginning on May 27, 1940. Raymond's authoring of the Sunday comic strip lasted until April 30, 1944, although the strip (both daily and Sunday) continued to exist with new stories until March 16, 2003.

First Flash Gordon Comic Strip January 7, 1934, Sunday comic strip Earth Bombarded by Meteors Another Example of Flash Gordon Sunday Strip February 25, 1934 Reprints of the Austin Briggs Comic Strip Dailies Flash Gordon Dailies Flash Gordon Dailies (1940-42) Many iterations of the character were developed (to compete with Buck Rogers) in the adventurous, sci-fiction/fantasy Flash Gordon serials of the late 1930s (with Buster Crabbe as Flash Gordon and Jean Rogers as blonde Dale Arden). Flash fought daring intergalactic battles to save mankind. The action-oriented episodes were filled with fantastic spaceships, androids, death rays, futuristic scenes and cities, monsters, exotic enemies and other imaginative creations. Title Screen Poster Flash Gordon (1936) - Theatrical Serial A 13-installment serial from Universal, the first Flash Gordon screen adventure, and the first pure science-fiction serial. The original and the best of its type, with Buster Crabbe as adventurer Flash Gordon, Jean Rogers as girlfriend Dale Arden, Frank Shannon as scientist Dr. Zarkov, and Charles Middleton as Planet Mongo tyrant Ming the Merciless.

Later retitled for its home video release in the mid-1950s as Flash Gordon's Space Soldiers, to differentiate it from the same-titled TV series. It was condensed from the 245-minute serial into two feature films (cutting out the repetitive opening titles, duplicate footage, etc.), both released in 1966: Rocket Ship (1966), 66 minutes, released theatrically, and Spaceship to the Unknown (1966) (aka Atomic Rocketship), 97 minutes, released to TV and non-theatrical rental markets: Theatrical release - 1966 TV feature film - 1966 Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars (1938) - Theatrical Serial A 15-episode serial from Universal, the sequel to the 1936 serial, with Jean Rogers as a brunette. It was the final appearance of Jean Rogers as Dale Arden. Later retitled for TV viewing in the mid-1950s as Space Soldiers' Trip to Mars, to differentiate it from the same-titled TV series.

There were two edited or condensed versions of the 15-part 1938 Universal serial, both released in 1966: the 99 minute The Deadly Ray From Mars (1966) released to TV in a syndication package, without the cliffhangers, the repetitive openings, etc. Another version that condensed the 15 parts of the 1938 serial into a 68 minute theatrically-released film was Mars Attacks the World (1966). TV feature film - 1966 Theatrical release - 1966 Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940) - Theatrical Serial A 12-part serial from Universal, the third of three serials in the late 1930s, and the last of the trilogy of serials. With Carol Hughes as Dale Arden. Later retitled for TV viewing in the mid-1950s as Space Soldiers Conquer the Universe, to differentiate it from the same-titled TV series.

The multi-part serial from 1940 was edited into two halves, for two feature films shown on TV: the 88-minute The Purple Death from Outer Space (1966) (the feature-length edited version of Chapters 1-6), and the 85-minute The Peril from Planet Mongo (1966) (the feature-length edited version of Chapters 7-12). Two TV movies in 1966 Flash Gordon (1954-1955) (aka The Space Adventures of Flash Gordon) - TV series This was a syndicated, live-action TV version produced in Germany. Steve Holland portrayed the superhero Flash Gordon. It aired throughout the US - and specifically was broadcast by the DuMont TV Network on the East Coast. Set in the year 3203, Flash was joined by pretty Dale Arden (Irene Champlin) and bearded Dr. Zarkov (Joe Nash). They journeyed to the planet Mongo to defeat Emperor Ming. There was one season of half-hour TV shows, for a total of 39 episodes, running from October 1, 1954 to July 15, 1955.

The premier episode was titled: "Flash Gordon and the Planet of Death." The New Adventures of Flash Gordon (1979-1982) Flash Gordon: The Greatest Adventure of All (1982) The New Adventures of Flash Gordon (1979-1982) (aka The Adventures of Flash Gordon, or Flash Gordon) - TV series Flash Gordon: The Greatest Adventure of All (1982) - TV movie Filmation's Saturday morning cartoon TV series was notable as the first Flash Gordon animated TV series. In the familiar story, Flash Gordon (Robert Ridgely was the voice of Flash) rocketed to the planet Mongo with girlfriend Dale Arden and scientist Hans Zarkov to prevent evil dictator Ming the Merciless from dominating the universe. It was broadcast on NBC-TV for two seasons (a total of 24 episodes) from September 22, 1979 to November 6, 1982. Season 1: 16 episodes, Sept. 22, 1979 to January 5, 1980 Season 2: 8 episodes, Sept. 18, 1982 to Nov.

6, 1982 The first 16 episodes of the first season were serialized the same way as the old 1930's Alex Raymond comic strips. The second season suffered when NBC decided to change the format of the show by cutting them down to 12 minute chapters (2 unrelated stories per episode), dumbed-down the story for younger audiences, and introduced a kid-friendly, comic-relief character, a squeaking pink dragon named Gremlin. After the TV series was cancelled, the footage was re-edited and assembled as a full-length, 95 minute made-for-TV animated film that aired in 1982, titled: Flash Gordon: The Greatest Adventure of All (1982). Flash Gordon (1980, UK/US) This feature-length Flash Gordon film revived interest in the super-hero, following in the wake of the immensely-successful space opera Star Wars (1977). Now a major cult film. Director Mike Hodges' campy, sometimes witty, and cartoonish super-hero film starred Sam Jones as the heroic space warrior (with Melody Anderson as his attractive female companion Dale Arden).

They fought against Emperor Ming the Merciless (Max von Sydow) on the planet Mongo and his plans for world domination - with cliff-hanger action. Accompanied by a rock musical score from the band Queen. Flash Gordon and the 1930s and 40s Science Fiction Serial Flash Gordon and the 1930s and 40s Science Fiction Serial Wheeler Winston Dixon Motion picture serials, the forerunner of today’s serialized television dramas, have been around since the earliest days of the narrative cinema. Exhibitors rapidly realized that in order to assure continued audience attendance, open ended “cliff hangers” were sure to keep viewers returning week after week, to find out the latest plot twists, character developments, and of course, how the hero or heroine had escaped from the previous week’s peril. The first real serial, with multiple episodes and a running weekly continuity, was Charles Brabin’s What Happened to Mary? (1912), starring Mary Fuller as an innocent young woman who inherits a fortune, while the villain of the piece tries to separate her from her newfound wealth. There was even a sequel to the serial, Who Will Mary Marry?

(1913), as proof of the new format’s success. But the real breakthrough came in 1914, with Louis Gasnier’s The Perils of Pauline, starring Pearl White. Pauline established the hectic, action-packed formula that would persist until the production of the very last serial, Spencer Gordon Bennet’s Blazing the Overland Trail in 1956. Fistfights, non-stop action, minimal character exposition and a sense of constant, frenetic danger permeated The Perils of Pauline, and it generated a host of imitators. Soon the “damsel in distress” format used in Perils of Pauline was being employed by a number of other serials, including Francis J. Grandon’s The Adventures of Kathlyn (1913), starring an equally athletic Kathlyn Williams, and Louis Feuillade’s epic mystery Fantômas (1913).

Early serials were shown in weekly installments, a practice that continued throughout the lifetime of the genre, but early serial chapters could run as long as an hour, particularly in the case of Feuillade’s Les Vampires (1915), one of the most popular of the silent serials. These weekly screenings usually took place as a major part of the cinema program, and early serials were aimed at both adults and children. Occasionally, an enterprising entrepreneur would run a serial chapter throughout the week, to maximize attendance. But by the late teens and early 20s, a fairly rigid structure had been defined through trial and error. Serials ran 12 to 15 episodes, with the first episode usually running a half hour, to set up the situation, and introduce the protagonists (and their adversaries) to viewers. Subsequent episodes clocked in at roughly 20 minutes. Each episode ended with what the industry termed a “take-out” – a scene of violent peril from which the hero or heroine could not possibly escape.

The next chapter would pick up the action at the same point, but offer a “way out” for the lead character; a trap door offering a convenient escape, jumping from a moving car, or breaking free from some sort of fiendish device created by the serial’s chief villain. The central characters in serials were more often types, rather than fully fleshed-out characters. In the early silent days, women were the protagonists of many of the action serials, thrown into situations of continual danger until the final reel unspooled. With the advent of women’s voting rights in 1920, the lead character became, more often than not, a heroic male; blindingly handsome, often endowed with above average mental acuity (as an investigator, adventurer, or soldier of fortune). A female companion was then introduced to support the hero’s efforts, with the possible addition of a young boy or girl “sidekick” to encourage adolescent identification with the serial’s characters. The hero was aided by a number of associates, who usually worked as a team to support the lead’s efforts.

Lastly, and most importantly (for the leads in serials were usually rather bland), there was the chief villain, often masked, whose identity was not disclosed until the final moments of the last chapter. Known in the trade as the “brains” heavy, the villain, in turn, would be aided by a variety of henchmen, or “action” heavies, who would unquestionably carry out the orders of their leader in a campaign of mayhem and violence that kept the serial’s narrative in constant motion. Indeed, though the serial format would serve as the template for weekly television series starting in the early 1950s, serials were far more violent than early television fare, noted for their extreme, non-stop action, their propulsive music scores, and seemingly impossible stunt work. And, unlike contemporary television series, which are open-ended – concluding only when audience interest has evaporated – serials were designed as a “closed set,” fifteen episodes and out, shot on breakneck schedules of 30 days or fewer, for completed films that could run as long as four hours in their final, chapter-by-chapter format.

Serials embraced nearly every genre – jungle serials [Jungle Menace [1937], with Frank Buck); crime serials (Alan James’ Dick Tracy [1937] with Ralph Byrd); the supernatural (Normal Deming and Sam Nelson’s Mandrake the Magician [1939], with Warren Hull); westerns (William Witney and John English’s The Lone Ranger Rides Again [1939], with Robert Livingston); and, of course, science fiction. Some of the earliest serials made were sci-fi efforts, including Robert Broadwell and Robert F. Hill’s The Great Radium Mystery (1919), Otto Rippert’s Homunculus (1916), and Harry A. Pollard’s The Invisible Ray (1920); all were successful with the public, who clamored for more. Note that in almost all these cases, two directors were assigned to a serial, because of the sheer bulk of material involved. Sometimes directors worked on alternate days, to keep from becoming burnt out; in other instances, one director would handle all the action scenes, while another would shoot all the narrative exposition sequences.

Serial scripts were immense, often running to 400 pages or more (or four times the length of an average feature), yet shooting schedules and budgets were often miniscule, and directors were expected to shoot as many as 70 “set ups” (a complete change of camera angle and lighting) a day to stay on schedule. Nat Levine, head of Mascot Studios, a prime purveyor of serial fare until his company merged with Republic Pictures, arguably the most accomplished of the sound era serial makers, used ruthless cost-cutting to bring in such films as The Phantom Empire (1935), a 12 chapter science-fiction/western hybrid serial directed by Otto Brower and B. Reeves “Breezy” Eason, starring a young Gene Autry. Pushing his directors and crews to the limit, Levine also cut corners on actors’ salaries and other production costs, so that every dime he spent showed up on the screen. Actors, directors, and stunt men were left to fend for themselves; all that Levine cared about was finishing on time and on schedule.

In between setups, Levine had an improvised dormitory set up on the Mascot lot in some vacant studio space, where exhausted stuntmen, actors and technicians could catch a few minutes sleep, and then grab a cup of coffee and some doughnuts to wake up, before being dragged back to the set. This arrangement also allowed Levine to keep an eye on his employees at all times, something like the production system used by the Shaw Brothers studios in Hong Kong in the 1970s. If you stayed on the lot all the time, Levine always knew where to find you. As veteran serial director Harry Fraser recalled in his memoirs (Fraser would go on to co-script the first Batman serial in 1943, which was directed by Lambert Hillyer), Nat Levine was “the real Simon Legree without a whip” (102). Wrote Fraser: I recall doing a Rin-Tin-Tin for him, released under the title The Wolf Dog [1933, co-directed with Colbert Clark], as I recall. I had an eighty scene [emphasis added] schedule one day, with the dog as the star and involved in most of the scenes. In addition to [former D.W.

Griffith stock company member] Henry B. Walthall playing the human lead, there was a long list of supporting actors and actresses. Well, I came out with seventy scenes at the end of the day, but pushing everyone to the limit. But when the Serial King heard I was behind schedule by ten scenes, he practically accused me of causing the company to go bankrupt. My Scottish ire aroused, I listened to Nat rave on, then finally threw the script on the table and walked out of his office. (102) Conditions at the other studios were little better. By now firmly consigned to the “kiddie trade,” where before they had also attracted adult audiences, serials were seen as being bottom-of-the-barrel product, and the major studios that churned them out (Columbia, Republic and Universal) saw them as strictly bottom line propositions. However, in many cases, viewers went to the theater each week not to see the feature attraction, but rather the serial, which kept them coming back for the next thrilling installment.

Always cost conscious, serials would usually spend most of their production budget on the first three or four chapters, to entice exhibitors to book the serial, and capture audience attention; subsequent episodes were then ground out as cheaply as possible. To top it off, the 7th or 8th chapter of many serials would be a “recap” chapter, in which expensive action sequences from earlier episodes were recycled for maximum cost benefit. Then, too, stock footage from earlier serials, as well as newsreel sequences, were often employed to keep costs down. Thus, most serials were compromised from the start. But occasionally, a serial hero would emerge who would rate slightly better treatment than usual, often a comic book hero transferred to the screen. Dick Tracy was one of the first of these; Flash Gordon was another, the star of three Universal serials produced between 1936 and 1940. Flash Gordon began its life as a comic strip with a lavish, full color Sunday episode on January 7, 1934, as created by Alex Raymond.

The strip proved popular almost immediately and in 1936, Universal decided to gamble a significant amount of time and money bringing Flash to the screen. While estimates range widely, the serial was roughly budgeted at $350,000, which was far more than the average serial at the time, usually brought in for $100,000 or less. Despite the generous budget, Flash Gordon was an ambitious project, requiring spectacular sets (many of them borrowed from other Universal productions), a plethora of special effects, and a fairly large cast of principal actors. Director Frederick Stephani, who also co-wrote the film’s script, was given a six-week schedule, but the circumstances surrounding the production were by no means luxurious. Even with an uncredited assist from co-director Ray Taylor, Stephani faced a daunting challenge. As Buster Crabbe, the star of the serial, and for many the archetypal, iconic Flash Gordon, remembered years later: they started shooting Flash Gordon in October of 1935, and to bring it in on the six-week schedule, we had to average 85 set-ups a day.

That means moving and rearranging the heavy equipment we had, the arc lights and everything, 85 times a day. We had to be in makeup every morning at seven, and on the set at eight ready to go. They’d always knock off for lunch, and then we always worked after dinner. They’d give us a break of a half-hour or 45 minutes and then we’d go back on the set and work until ten-thirty every night. It wasn’t fun, it was a lot of work! (as qtd. in Kinnard, 39) In addition to Crabbe in the leading role, Jean Rogers was cast as Dale Arden, Flash’s nominal love interest; Charles Middleton, then in his 60s, made an indelible impression as Ming the Merciless, perhaps the most memorable of all serial villains for his pure cruelty and sadism; Frank Shannon portrayed Dr. Zarkov, Flash’s scientific advisor and mentor; and Priscilla Lawson appeared as Princess Anna, Ming’s daughter, who vacillates between loyalty to her father and a more than passing interest in Flash.

Buster Crabbe, who as Clarence Linden Crabbe won a gold medal for swimming in the 1932 Olympics, was only 26 when he took on the role of Flash; while others, including future Ramar of the Jungle star Jon Hall tried out for the part, Crabbe was seemingly destined for the role. As he told Karl Whitezel in 2000, Crabbe went to the audition for the role purely as a lark, with no real interest in the part. Watching Hall and others try out for the role from the sidelines, Crabbe was noticed by the serial’s producer, Henry MacRae. After a brief conversation, and with no audition at all, MacRae surprised Crabbe by offering him the part. Under contract to Paramount at the time, and not happy about it, Crabbe expressed polite disinterest: “I honestly thought Flash Gordon was too far-out, and that it would flop at the box office.

God knows I’d been in enough turkeys during my four years as an actor; I didn’t need another one.” But MacRae persisted, and finally Crabbe told him that it was up to Paramount; “if they say you can borrow me, then I’d be willing to play the part” (Whitezel 52). The two men shook hands on it, and a month later Crabbe found himself on a Universal sound stage, tackling the role that would become his lifetime calling card. His dark hair bleached blonde for the role, Crabbe dived into the hectic production schedule with a sense of cheerful fatalism; fate had given him the role, so he tried to make the best of it. As filming progressed, Crabbe grew more confident, and the cast and crew realized that they were working on something that was, to say the least, a notch above the usual serial fare. When production wrapped a few days before Christmas, 1936, there was no wrap party; that would have cost money. A few actors went across the street to a local bar for drinks, and director Stephani patted Crabbe on the back, thanking him for a “nice job,” and that was all.

At the time, Flash Gordon seemed like just another assignment for the young actor, who made six other features in 1936 alone as part of his Paramount contract. But, to Crabbe’s surprise, Flash Gordon made him a star overnight when it was released in March of that year. As the pseudonymous “Wear” in Variety enthused: Universal’s serialization of the Flash Gordon cartoon character in screen form is an unusually ambitious effort. In some respects it smacks of old serial days when story and action, as well as authentic background, were depended upon to sustain their vigorous popularity. Here, instead, feature production standard has been maintained as to cast, direction, writing and background. [. . .] Buster Crabbe is well fitted for the title role, a robust, heroic youth who dares almost any danger. Character calls for plenty of action, which places him in a favorable light. Charles Middleton, best known of late for his western character portrayals, is a happy choice as the cruel Ming, [and] brings a wealth of histrionic ability to the part. Jean Rogers and Priscilla Lawson, besides being easy on the eyes, are entirely adequate, former as Dale Arden and Miss Lawson as Emperor Ming’s daughter.

Frank Shannon indicates promise from his portrayal of the wild-eyed inventive genius [. . .] Flash Gordon should be a top grosser in serial field. (as qtd. in Willis, 49) The die was cast, and as Flash, Crabbe achieved a certain sort of cinematic immortality, although to the end of his days he maintained a love/hate relationship with the role, convinced (perhaps correctly) that it had typecast him permanently as an action hero, when he longed for more serious parts. When the original film proved a box-office bonanza, Crabbe was called back for two sequels, the first of which was Ford Beebe and Robert Hill’s Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938), but for his second outing, the production was no longer a first class affair. As Crabbe remembered: We started the routine of long days and short nights again, to grind out what would become a lesser product than the first had been, quality-wise. The producer took short-cuts, such as reusing some of the rocket ship footage filmed earlier, and replaying some of the landscape shots, assuming that audiences wouldn’t know the difference. [. . .] I never attempted to learn how well it did for Universal.

Judging from the fact that, two years later, I would be called back for a third Flash Gordon serial [Ford Beebe and Ray Taylor’s Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, 1940], I assume it was almost as successful as the first had been. (as qtd. in Whitezel 56) In between these three iconic serials, in an attempt to break away from the Flash Gordon character, Crabbe also portrayed Buck Rogers in a 1939 Universal serial that was cranked out quickly on a modest budget, directed by Ford Beebe and Saul A. Goodkind. All the while, Crabbe kept appearing in “B” feature fare at Paramount, much to his chagrin, hoping for more substantial roles. But Paramount apparently saw little potential in the actor, and to Crabbe’s shock, despite his success with Flash Gordon, dropped him as a contract player in late 1939. Screen tests at other studios, including 20th Century Fox, yielded nothing. 20th Century Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck, after seeing Crabbe’s test, dismissed him with the words “he’s a character actor.

We can hire all of them we need” (as qtd. in Whitezel 57). Crabbe’s next film would seal his fate in Hollywood; he agreed to appear in a string of no-budget westerns for PRC, aka Producers’ Releasing Corporation, arguably the cheapest studio in Hollywood. Of all the studios, only PRC would agree to put Crabbe in a starring role, as astonishing as it seems today. His salary was roughly $1,000 a week for each six-day picture, with star billing, such as it was, thrown in as an added inducement. From there, it was all downhill. Crabbe had achieved lasting fame as Flash Gordon, but he would be forever identified with the role; now, the future seemed to promise only bottom-of-the-barrel action pictures. But the die had been already been cast even with the cost-conscious production of Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe. Most of the cast was replaced by lesser-known actors for reasons of economy, with only Charles Middleton and Frank Shannon reprising their roles as Ming and Zarkov. As Crabbe remembered, with evident sadness: I didn’t like the final Flash Gordon serial.

We used a lot of scenes that we’d done before, the uniforms were the same, [and] the scenery was the same. Universal had a library full of old clips: Flash running from here to there, Ming going from one palace to another, exterior shots of flying rocket ships and milling crowds. It saved a lot of production time, but I thought it was a poor product that was nothing more than a doctored-up script from earlier days. (as qtd. in Whitezel, 59) And yet, for all the compromises and production short cuts, the Flash Gordon trilogy stands as a major achievement in science fiction cinema history; indeed, the first Flash Gordon serial was selected in 1996 by the Library of Congress National Film Registry as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” No matter that it used recycled sets and costumes; nor that its score was comprised almost entirely of stock music from other Universal films, such as James Whale’s The Invisible Man (1935), Whale’s Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Lambert Hillyer’s Dracula’s Daughter (1936), Edgar G. Ulmer’s The Black Cat (1934), or Rowland V.

Lee’s Son of Frankenstein (1939), interspersed with snippets of new music by house composer Clifford Vaughan, and “lifts” from Liszt, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Wagner (this last music cue from Parsifal, fitting in quite nicely). The trio of serials had made an indelible impact on popular culture. The rocket ships were generally ineffective miniatures, the plots were predictably preposterous, and the special effects were often primitive, but somehow, none of this mattered. For the first two serials, at least, as Variety noted in their review, the cast performed with a sense of conviction and cohesion that lifted the project out of the ordinary and into the realm of myth and wonder. There is a genuine chemistry between Crabbe and Jean Rogers, and although the first serial, in particular, is clearly geared towards a juvenile audience, it nevertheless has an adult feel to it, perhaps because all the principals took their roles seriously, and didn’t condescend to the audience. Charles Middleton, for example, had been a song and dance man earlier in his career, and had worked in films with everyone from Laurel and Hardy to director Cecil B.

De Mille (in The Sign of the Cross, 1932), as well as providing a memorable foil for the Marx Brothers in Leo McCarey’s Duck Soup (1933), as well as appearing in a typically villainous role in John Ford’s adaptation of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath (1940). In all, Middleton appeared in more than 190 films, and worked in every imaginable role right up to his death in 1948. As with the other actors, Middleton played his role with conviction and sincerity, and as Ming, lent a certain gravitas to the entire enterprise. The world of Flash Gordon is at once fantastic, and yet real; one feels for the characters, who are drawn with greater depth than traditional serial protagonists, so that they seem to be actual personages, in an actual world, albeit one far removed from our own. In the wake of the Flash Gordon trilogy, other science fiction serials would follow, mostly from Republic Studios. Many of the Republic efforts were quite effective, with high production values and superb special effects by Howard and Theodore Lydecker, including Spencer Gordon Bennett and Fred C.

Brannon’s dystopic The Purple Monster Strikes (1945), dealing with an alien invasion from Mars; William Witney and Brannon’s memorably sinister The Crimson Ghost, in which the titular villain attempts to steal a counteratomic weapon known as a Cyclotrode, in order to achieve the (somewhat predictable) aim of world domination; Spencer Gordon Bennet, Wallace A. Grissell and stuntman extraordinaire Yakima Canutt’s Manhunt of Mystery Island (1945) with its plot device of a “transformation chair” to bring to life the serial’s villain, one Captain Mephisto (Roy Barcroft, Republic’s go-to heavy in residence), and a plot centering on the theft of a “radioatomic power transmitter”; and Harry Keller, Franklin Adreon and Fred C. Brannon’s Commando Cody: Sky Marshall of the Universe (1953), the only serial directly designed as a syndicated television series, thus providing a link between the non-stop frenzy of the serial format, and the more intimate domain of domestic TV fare.

Using recycled footage from Brannon’s King of the Rocket Men (1949), Radar Men From the Moon (1952), and Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952), Commando Cody’s format was a definite departure from the usual serial template; each 30-minute episode was self-contained, and yet the series maintained continuity, so that each episode could be run as a “stand alone,” or as a group. Released theatrically in 1953, the series of 12 episodes was picked up by NBC as a network series, running from July 16, 1955 to October 8, 1955 (Hayes 124). However, despite this attempt to move into television, Republic’s operation was winding down; the company’s last serial was Franklin Adreon’s non-descript King of the Carnival (1955). Republic officially closed its doors on July 31, 1959 as a production entity, although it still exists today as a holding company and a distributor of past product (Flynn and McCarthy, 324).

But though the later Republic, Columbia and Universal sci-fi serials provided predictably pulse-pounding entertainment, there seemed at length to be a perfunctory air about many of the serials in the mid-to-late 1940s. They were predictable, their plots unfolded like clockwork, they did the job, and got out. All nuances and much of the human element were gone. The serials had become a well-oiled machine, delivering predicable thrills on an assembly line basis, with characters that lacked depth, personality, or individuality. Serial leads were utterly replaceable, as were serial heroines; they did their job, and went home; dialogue was confined to exposition, with more and more repetition and recapitulation creeping in as the years passed by. The Flash Gordon serials created a world in which its characters lived, and took on definite human shape; subsequent serials, no matter how well crafted, lacked this three-dimensional quality.

Universal had been producing serials since 1914, with 137 productions in all to their credit, more chapter plays than any other company, until the ignominious end finally came with 1946’s Lost City of the Jungle, directed by Ray Taylor and Lewis D. Collins, which was shot almost simultaneously with The Mysterious Mr. M, directed by Collins and Vernon Keays. Lost City of the Jungle has achieved a certain notoriety as famed character actor Lionel Atwill’s last film; the actor was fighting what would ultimately prove to be fatal bronchial cancer and pneumonia, and was forced to leave the film in the midst of production. Ironically, Atwill agreed to film his “death scene” for Lost City of the Jungle as his last work in front of the camera, leaving much of his role in the serial incomplete. Atwill then departed the Universal lot, never to return, and died on April 22, 1946. To finish Lost City of the Jungle, Universal used a double, created a new subplot to make Atwill’s character an underling instead of the “brains” heavy, and used outtakes for Atwill’s reaction shots. It didn’t work.

Lost City of the Jungle was released the day after Atwill’s death, on April 23, 1946, to generally dismal results. When The Mysterious Mr. M, a nondescript science fiction serial was released to a similarly lukewarm reception, Universal called it quits. Columbia fared little better. Lambert Hillyer’s incredibly racist Batman (1943), for example, the first appearance of the caped crusader on the screen, had a strong sci-fi element in the “mad lab” of Dr. Daka (J. Carrol Naish), a Japanese spy working to sabotage the allied war effort. While it was a solid enough effort, it relied on characters who were sketched in broad, charcoal strokes, with little shading or detail. The Superman serials from producer Sam Katzman’s Columbia unit, 1948’s Superman, directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet and Thomas Carr, and 1950’s Atom Man vs.

Superman, directed by Bennet alone, also have strong sci-fi elements, including disintegrator rays, teleportation machines, and, of course, the person of Superman himself, played in both serials by Kirk Alyn, as “a strange being from another planet who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men,” as the narrative introduction for the subsequent Superman TV series would have it, in which George Reeves took over the title role. But in the two Columbia serials, whenever Superman was called upon to fly to the rescue, the legendarily cost-conscious Katzman switched to two-dimensional animation rather than using live action footage, which would have been more expensive, seriously compromising the production as a whole. The television incarnation of Superman ultimately served the franchise much more effectively, with vastly improved live action special effects. Thomas Carr, for example, whose career as an actor stretched back to the silent era, and who actually played the role of Captain Rama of the Forest People in Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars, switched to directing program westerns in the 1940s, and would go on to direct a number of the early episodes of the Superman TV series, bringing much of the serial sensibility with him.

But many viewers criticized the first season of the TV Superman series for its “excessive,” serial-like violence; it took a regime change at the producer level to create a more “user-friendly” Superman for home consumption. What had worked in the theaters, usually out of the view of parents and guardians on a Saturday morning, raised eyebrows when mom or dad watched along with their children in the family den. Thus, a “softer” Commando Cody and Superman paved the way for 1950s Saturday morning children’s sci-fi; including a filmed West German half-hour version of Flash Gordon, Captain Video and His Video Rangers, Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, Captain Midnight, and Rocky Jones, Space Ranger, which arguably had the best production values of the lot (see Dixon). These Saturday morning teleseries would soon lead to more adult sci-fi, with The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica, all in prime time, and the children’s serial, as it had flourished in the past, would fade into the mists of our collective memory. Yet of all these serials, it is the Flash Gordon trilogy that still commands our attention today.

Its scrolling titles and futuristic gadgetry clearly inspired George Lucas’s Star Wars series, particularly the initial episode, released in 1977. It has inspired a host of remakes; after the 1954-1955 West German series, there was an animated series entitled The New Adventures of Flash Gordon in 1979-1980, Mike Hodges’ 1980 feature film featuring Max von Sydow as Ming the Merciless, which failed to live up to expectations, as well as Michael Benveniste and Howard Ziehm’s X-rated parody Flesh Gordon (1974), and a sequel, Ziehm’s Flesh Gordon Meets the Cosmic Cheerleaders (1989). As of this writing, director Breck Eisner has announced that plans are in the works for a new 3-D version of Flash Gordon, which will bypass the 1980 film and the Universal serials, and go straight back to Alex Raymond’s comic strip for inspiration. So it seems that Flash will always be with us, and that the original serials, tacky and art deco in design though they may be, will remain talismans of our cinematic past.

As for the sci-fi serial format itself, the serial truly paved the way for the television series of the 1950s and beyond; it offered compact thrills and a continuing storyline within the confines of a twenty-to-thirty minute template, and, just like contemporary television serials, kept audiences coming back for more week after week. Today’s teleseries are considerably more sophisticated, both in their technology and in their narrative structure, and the characters that inhabit them are, for the most part, fully dimensional human beings, not cardboard archetypes. And yet they owe a considerable debt to the serials, which inhabited a world of constant action, peril, and imagination, but were ultimately too simplistic for contemporary audiences. The half-hour television series format simply erased the serial from public consciousness; the theatrical serial had become obsolete. People didn’t have to go out anymore to see the latest adventures of their favorite sci-fi heroes and heroines; they could watch them on TV.

And so, just as Flash Gordon and its sci-fi serial brethren predicted much of our future technology (rockets, telescreens, the possibility of interplanetary travel), it also paved the way for the medium of television, with its chaptered format, rigorous schematic structure, and cliff-hanging plot lines. The future of sci-fi television, as well as theatrical series (the Star Wars and Star Trek feature films are two obvious examples) would play out in the 60s, 70s, 80s and continues up to the present day; many of the plots are as fantastic as the early science fiction serials, even if the special effects have markedly improved. But the Flash Gordon serials played an important part in the creation of contemporary televisual formats, as well the serial-like sequel formats of many contemporary theatrical science fiction franchises, and offered to audiences a sense of wonder and amazement that still resonates today, and continues to gesture towards the future. Works Cited and Consulted Ackerman, Forrest J. “The Ace of Space.” Spacemen 4 (July 1962): 34-41. Barbour, Alan G.

Cliffhanger: A Pictorial History of the Motion Picture Serial. Secaucus, NJ: Citadel, 1984. . Days of Thrills and Adventure. New York: Macmillan, 1970. Barshay, Robert. “Ethnic Stereotypes in ‘Flash Gordon.’” Journal of the Popular Film, Winter 1974: 15-30. Behlmer, Rudy. “The Saga of Flash Gordon.” Screen Facts, 2, 4, 1965: 53-62. Dixon, Wheeler Winston. “Tomorrowland TV: The Space Opera and Early Science Fiction Television,” The Essential Science Fiction Television Reader. J. P. Telotte, ed. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2008: 93-110. Ellis, John. Visible Fictions: Cinema, Television, Video. London: Routledge, 1982. “Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars.” Look Magazine, 15 Mar. 1938: n. pag.; 29 Mar. 1938: n. pag.; 12 Apr.

1938: n. pag. Fraser, Harry L. I Went That-A-Way: The Memoirs of a Western Film Director. Wheeler Winston Dixon and Audrey Brown Fraser, eds. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1990. Grossman, Gary H. Saturday Morning TV. New York: Delacorte, 1981. Hayes, R. M. The Republic Chapterplays: A Complete Filmography of the Serials Released by Republic Pictures Corporation, 1934-1955. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2000. Henderson, Jan Alan and Burr Middleton. “Behind the Ming Dynasty: Revelations from the Emperor’s Grandson, Burr Middleton,” Filmfax 85 (2001): 50-58, 87. Kinnard, Roy. Science Fiction Serials. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1998. Kinnard, Roy, Tony Crnkovich and R. J. Vitone. The Flash Gordon Serials: A Heavily Illustrated Guide.

Jefferson, NJ: McFarland, 2008. Lahue, Kalton C. Bound and Gagged: The Story of the Silent Serials. New York: A. S. Barnes, 1968. Mitchell, Robert. “Flash Gordon.” Magill’s Survey of Cinema: English Language Films. Second Series, Vol. II. Ed. Frank N. Magill. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Salem Press, 1981: 796-799. Parish, James Robert, and Michael R. Pitts. “Flash Gordon.” The Great Science Fiction Pictures. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1976: 125-127. Rainey, Buck. Serials and Series: A World Filmography 1912-1956. Jefferson, NJ: McFarland, 1999. Rovin, Jeff. “Flash Gordon.” From Jules Verne to Star Trek. New York & London: Drake Publishers, 1977: 44-45. Schutz, Wayne.

The Motion Picture Serial: An Annotated Bibliography. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow, 1992. Steinbrunner, Chris, and Burt Goldblatt. “Flash Gordon.” Cinema of the Fantastic. New York: Galahad Books, 1972: 125-150. Turner, George. “Making the Flash Gordon Serials.” American Cinematographer, June 1983: 56-62. Vermilye, Jerry. Buster Crabbe: A Biofilmography. Jefferson, NC: 2008. Whitezel, Karl. “Buster Crabbe: An All-American in Outer Space,” Filmfax 79 (2000): 59-59. Willis, Donald, ed. Variety’s Complete Science Fiction Reviews. New York: Garland, 1985. Witney, William. In A Door, Into A Fight, Out A Door, Into A Chase: Moviemaking Remembered by the Guy at the Door. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1996. About the Author

Question: Who played Flash Gordon in the 1936 film of that title?
Answer: Buster Crabbe