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Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe  Hot
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Written by Staff Writer   
Saturday, 22 January 2005


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Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe

Grade

Content Grade: B
Sound Grade: B
Picture Grade: B

Specs

Directed by Ford Beebe and Ray Taylor VCI Entertainment- MSRP-$29.95 Fullscreen (1.33:1) Dolby Digital Mono 2 channel 237 minutes-Black and White-1940 Not Rated

Review

The movie serial inspired a lot of modern day directors including Stephen Speilberg and George Lucas. Star Wars and Indiana Jones both reflect the "cliffhanger", where the hero seems to be stuck in an impossible situation but somehow manages to escape. When I was growing up, we saw these serials at the Saturday afternoon film festivals, where for less than a buck you were treated to a cartoon, a serial, a big bag of popcorn for a quarter, and a full length feature film. The neat thing about the serial was the ending, where the hero seems t die and we would always discuss the ways in which he would get out of it. Usually our explanations were just as good if not better than the movie serial writers, and when we saw the next episode, we sometimes felt cheated because the serial editors had left out a key scene from the last episode which introduced a saving factor into the hero's trouble. The serials were great fun and its great to see them finally being released on DVD. VCI Entertainment has the rights to the Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials starring Buster Crabbe, mainly because the man who started VCI, Bill Blair, befriended the star, Buster Crabbe. The serials were originally produced by Universal and Blair bought the rights and distributed the films on super 8 mm film. They became quite popular in the 70's playing on college campuses, and Crabbe found a new generation of fans and made many speaking appearances on campuses across the US. This DVD Special Edition includes the entire 12 episodes in the last of the Flash Gordon series. It is considered the slickest and had the biggest budget and most elaborate sets.
While Flash is returning to Earth, he encounters some of evil Emperor Ming's spaceships and fools Ming into thinking he has been shot down. Flash lands to find that Ming has been adding a lethal dust into the atmosphere, known as the Purple Death. With the help of genius Dr. Zarkov and his foxy sidekick and ace reporter Dale Arden, Flash flies to Mongo to confront Ming. You might recognize a few faces in the serial-it's loaded with Hollywood extras and B movie players. John Hamilton is featured as a scientist . He was the hot tempered Perry White in the Superman television shows and famous for the words "Great Caesar's Ghost". Ming is played with zest by Charles Middleton, who savors every moment as Ming. Of course, at the end of every 20 minute chapter, Flash or one of the good guys is left to face a certain demise, until the next chapter starts.

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Picture and Sound

Picture-The film is in good shape considering its age. There are a few skips, and even some cutoff dialog, and the film has dust and scratches but nothing that stops from enjoying the chapters. Contrast is very good in the black and white film and most of the scenes are in sharp focus. Sound-Dolby Digital has been added to enhance the soundtrack and cleans it up remarkably. A lot of the hiss and pops are missing and the hum of the spaceships (pretty hokey) comes through loud and clear. The dialog is a little muddy at times but these films weren't known for their high technical quality in the first place. Dolby definitely saves this one tremendously.

Extras

This special edition is on two DVDs, with a lot of special material that is nostalgic and fun. The chapters are broken into 3 sides of the two discs, four per side. In between, we are treated to interviews with Buster Crabbe, circa 190-1975, along with some really funky old television commercials he made, including Hormel Chili, Bisodol stomach medication, and Magic Mold Body shirt. The disc includes Crabbe's 10th Olympiad swimming meet, where he won a gold medal. He is also shown with Johnny Weismuller, another Olympian swimmer, who went on to Hollywood as Tarzan and Jungle Jim. During the interviews, Crabbe reminisces about the Gordon and Rogers series, giving details about the work schedule (sometimes 16 hours of shooting a day), and his television series, Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion, which also starred his son Cuffy. The disc set comes with a nice full color foldout that includes biography information about Crabbe and the series, and stills from the serial, which are also included in a photo gallery on the discs. A great package of extras.

Summary

If you are looking for a good old time serials, this is one of the best, with decent picture and sound, a comic book story, hokey yet lovable sets, and Buster Crabbe, who I always found very appealing as an actor. Add to that the extras with this disc set and you have an appealing package. A word of warning: Whatever you do, don't buy the remake of Flash, that starred Sam Jones and Max Von Sydow. It's horrible and not nearly as fun! If you are curious, waste two bucks on a rental and see what I mean. Stick with the original!

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