Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe - The Complete Saturday Morning Serial
by Various
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DVD details
Actor: Buster CrabbeDirector: Various
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 234 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-05-15
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: St. Clair Vision
DVD Reviews of Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe - The Complete Saturday Morning Serial
DVD Review: Inane fun--insane plot
Summary: 4 Stars
The most obvious question posed by this serial is how the actors ever got through filming a single scene without breaking up with laughter. And yet they manage to look very, very serious. That's two verys.
Let's start with the rocket ships, the sine qua non of this science fiction sub-category. They look like fat Faygo bottles with exhaust pipes that have sparklers in them and send out puffs of smoke. They chug along at, oh, ten or fifteen miles per hour, it would appear, and yet they go from one planet to another in no time flat. And before they land they circle like a dog finding a place to lie. If that's not enough, they can turn at sharp angles with ease. There is no such thing as weightlessness or lack of oxygen. Moreover, it is possible to open a door, while in space, and go from one rocket ship to another without freezing or gasping. In short, there is nothing realistic, nothing that conforms to any of the laws of physics. Either the movie makers didn't know about the physics--or decided to ignore reality. Or perhaps viewers today know too much about the hazards of space and how long it takes to get from here to there.
Next, we have the costumes. Most of the time, the good guys wear Robin Hood caps topped with rakish feathers. They also wear tights and what appear to be leather jackets or doublets with strange stud-work and designs. The bad guys from Mongo wear steel helmets with visors; a rod sticks up about 12 inches from the top of the helmet, and there is a feather at the tip. The rest of their costumes appear to be comic opera military uniforms. Many of the characters have long capes that almost touch the floor and frequently get in the way of piloting a rocket ship. Perhaps the silliest outfit is worn by Ming the Merciless. He has high heeled boots, tights, a floor length cape and a cloche, and on occasion there are long white plumes trailing atop his head. The stone men wear silly headgears that make their heads look like chunks of limestone.
There are many fistfights in each episode, a staple of all serials, and no one ever gets a cut lip, a black eye or a skinned knuckle. Add to this the fact that the good guys smite the bad guys right in their steel visors and don't even say ouch. Of course, Ming himself never gets into the fray, chief villains never do, but the women have a couple of fights with each other, but they don't appear to put much heart into it.
The plot is that Ming plans to conquer the universe, and Flash et al. must stop him. The latter get into all sorts of predicaments that seem to spell disaster, but they always get out of them somehow. Suffice it to say that it all turns out OK for our side.
The dialogue is stilted and frequently amusing without intending to be. The sets and filming loci are pretty good, except for the rocket ships, as noted. The women are attractive and submissive, just the way they should be--in 1940. The characters are all one-dimensional as was the fashion: Ming is evil from top to bottom, and Flash is goodness and light.
Despite all this, the serial is a great deal of fun to watch. There is the nostalgia factor, of course, but viewing this as an adult, some 67 years after it was made, generally causes more laughter than angst for the characters.
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