Flash Gordon (1936/II)

Director:

Frederick Stephani

Writers:

Alex Raymond (based on the comic strip by)
Frederick Stephani (screenplay) ...

Genre:

Sci-Fi

Tagline:

BIG FEATURE SENSATION! Amazing STRANGE WORLD ADVENTURES! From Alex Raymond's Famous Newspaper Strip (original one-sheet poster on feature release)

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Good Versus Evil | Beautiful Woman | Rocket | Flash Gordon | Antigravity Ray

Cast

Buster Crabbe	...	Flash Gordon (archive footage)
Jean Rogers	...	Dale Arden (archive footage)
Charles Middleton	...	Ming the Merciless (archive footage)
Priscilla Lawson	...	Princess Aura (archive footage)
Frank Shannon	...	Dr. Hans Zarkov (archive footage)
Richard Alexander	...	Prince Barin (archive footage)
Jack 'Tiny' Lipson	...	King Vultan (archive footage)
James Pierce	...	King Thun (archive footage)
Theodore Lorch	...	Second High Priest (archive footage)
Earl Askam	...	Officer Torch (archive footage)
Richard Tucker	...	Professor Gordon (archive footage)
George Cleveland	...	Professor Henson (archive footage)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Lynton Brent	...	Transcontinental Pilot (archive footage)
Lane Chandler	...	Ming Guard (archive footage)
William Desmond	...	Hawkmen Lookout Captain (archive footage)
Al Ferguson	...	Spaceograph Technician (archive footage)
Fred Kohler Jr.	...	Robot / Ming Soldier (archive footage)
Charles McMurphy	...	Atom Furnace Slavedriver (archive footage)
Bull Montana	...	Monkey Man (archive footage)
Lon Poff	...	First High Priest (archive footage)
Sana Rayya	...	Priestess of the Tigron (archive footage)
Constantine Romanoff	...	Monkey Man (archive footage)
Glenn Strange	...	Robot / Ming Soldier / Gocko (archive footage)
Harry Wilson	...	Ugly Ming Sentry (archive footage)

Also Known As:

Atomic Rocketship
Flash Gordon: Rocketship (USA) (video catalogue title)
Rocket Ship (USA) (reissue title)

Runtime:

72 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

Feature version of the serial of the same name.

Quotes:

Dr. Zarkoff: Okay, Flash, I'm game. I'll help you save the world.

Movie Connections:

Edited from Flash Gordon (1936/I)

TV Movie version of the first Flash Gordon Series

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!