Post by legios on Nov 2, 2008 22:00:53 GMT
It has been a long time since I have seen this, the first of the “Flash Gordon” serials starring Larry “Buster” Crabbe. It had been, along with things like the “Buck Rogers” and “King of the Rocketmen” serials, a fixture of my childhood due to their television reruns back in the the early eighties and I was hoping when the discs dropped through my door from the rental service that it would live up to my memories.
I needed have worried. Excitement, adventure, and an absolutely wonderful break-neck pace, it delivers in spades. In these days you didn't spend your time navel-gazing and establishing reams of complex back-story. Heroes were heroic because it was the right thing to do, villians did villanous things because they were evil. In the modern era it might well take as long as half an hour to establish who Flash Gordon et al are, and then perhaps longer before they are rocket into space to Planet Mongo. No such preamble here – in minutes we learn that Earth is threatened by a mysterious planet approaching from outer space and that all scientist believe nothing can be done. Except for Proffesser Zarhkov, but Professer Gordon – the voice of Science! believes him mad. Nevertheless Professer Gordon's son, Flash, with Dale Arden in tow ends up rocketing to Planet Mongo to face its perils and to thwart the plans of the evil Ming, Ruler of the Universe. Adventures and terrible perils ensue – Fire Monsters, the Shark Men and their leader King Kala, Vultan Prince of the Hawkmen and many others
I think it is the breezy pace of these serials that I love – every episode ends with our heroes in mortal peril (sometimes together, and sometimes in separate perils) which they must escape from, before getting into another peril in time for the closing moments of the episode. The pace is truly relentless with the cast racing from one feat of daring-do to another, things rarely slow down and when they do it is either to impart some vital piece of information that will drive the next heroic exploit or because there is some cunning plan to be put into operation (usually revolving around Princess Aura conniving to win Flash away from the Earth-woman Dale Arden). There is something endearing about the straightforward approach of these serials – Flash and his companions are heroic whilst Ming is evil and behaves villanously. A clear and simple dichotomy that nicely propels the story forward.
The characters are larger than life. Charles Middleton's Ming is the ultimate evil ruler, by turns ranting and magnanimous. King Vultan of the Hawkmen is gloriously over-the-top (and I'd forgotten how similar this version was to Brian Blessed's eventual portrayal), laughing like a madman and revealing that he keeps a bear in a cupboard in his throne room just in case he needs to terrorise an Earth-woman who he wants to marry (clearly courtship on Mongo is different to Earth....). Larry Crabbe of course is Flash Gordon, the definitive version against which all others are judged. Square-jawed, heroic and determined but just and compassionate he is exactly the stalwart hero that and adventure serial requires.
The science is of course nonsense – and was nonsense in 1936 too – with Vultan's flying city held up by rays powered by Atomic Furnaces. No, actual furnaces into which slaves shovel radium like coal. But that's alright. If it was science fiction this would be a problem of course. But this isn't science-fiction, it is an adventure serial and this isn't science, it is Science! which is quite a different thing. Science! means that it is quite acceptable for Doctor Zarkhov to develop new rays with startling properties as needed. He's a Scientist! and they do that sort of thing.
Yes, the resolutions to the cliffhangers are sometimes more than a little spurious, but part of the fun comes from seeing what unlikely nonsense is deployed to escape certain doom and the earnest way in which it is done brooks no underestimate of the terrible doom that has been avoided.
So much modern entertainment dissappoints me, too much pretense of depth that isn't really there, long story-arcs that take forever to get anywhere and generally a paucity of content, that it is refreshing to be able to put on an episode of this and know that I am in for twenty-five minutes of high adventure.
Besides, who can resist a story with episode titles like “The Destroying Ray”, “Flaming Torture”, “In the claws of the Tigron”? Quite fantastic stuff. It is just a shame that the print used for the DVD release is in such a sorry looking state in places. It looks far worse than the recent DVD release of “Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe”. Mind you, given that it is over seventy years since it was filmed I should perhaps count myself fortunate that it survives at all. (What am I saying, of course it survived – it is Flash Gordon after all!).
Now that the rental discs are winging their way back to be replaced with other watchables from my list I think I have to steer my Rocket Ship over to Amazon in order to purchase this. I can see it having a lot of re-watchability.
Karl
I needed have worried. Excitement, adventure, and an absolutely wonderful break-neck pace, it delivers in spades. In these days you didn't spend your time navel-gazing and establishing reams of complex back-story. Heroes were heroic because it was the right thing to do, villians did villanous things because they were evil. In the modern era it might well take as long as half an hour to establish who Flash Gordon et al are, and then perhaps longer before they are rocket into space to Planet Mongo. No such preamble here – in minutes we learn that Earth is threatened by a mysterious planet approaching from outer space and that all scientist believe nothing can be done. Except for Proffesser Zarhkov, but Professer Gordon – the voice of Science! believes him mad. Nevertheless Professer Gordon's son, Flash, with Dale Arden in tow ends up rocketing to Planet Mongo to face its perils and to thwart the plans of the evil Ming, Ruler of the Universe. Adventures and terrible perils ensue – Fire Monsters, the Shark Men and their leader King Kala, Vultan Prince of the Hawkmen and many others
I think it is the breezy pace of these serials that I love – every episode ends with our heroes in mortal peril (sometimes together, and sometimes in separate perils) which they must escape from, before getting into another peril in time for the closing moments of the episode. The pace is truly relentless with the cast racing from one feat of daring-do to another, things rarely slow down and when they do it is either to impart some vital piece of information that will drive the next heroic exploit or because there is some cunning plan to be put into operation (usually revolving around Princess Aura conniving to win Flash away from the Earth-woman Dale Arden). There is something endearing about the straightforward approach of these serials – Flash and his companions are heroic whilst Ming is evil and behaves villanously. A clear and simple dichotomy that nicely propels the story forward.
The characters are larger than life. Charles Middleton's Ming is the ultimate evil ruler, by turns ranting and magnanimous. King Vultan of the Hawkmen is gloriously over-the-top (and I'd forgotten how similar this version was to Brian Blessed's eventual portrayal), laughing like a madman and revealing that he keeps a bear in a cupboard in his throne room just in case he needs to terrorise an Earth-woman who he wants to marry (clearly courtship on Mongo is different to Earth....). Larry Crabbe of course is Flash Gordon, the definitive version against which all others are judged. Square-jawed, heroic and determined but just and compassionate he is exactly the stalwart hero that and adventure serial requires.
The science is of course nonsense – and was nonsense in 1936 too – with Vultan's flying city held up by rays powered by Atomic Furnaces. No, actual furnaces into which slaves shovel radium like coal. But that's alright. If it was science fiction this would be a problem of course. But this isn't science-fiction, it is an adventure serial and this isn't science, it is Science! which is quite a different thing. Science! means that it is quite acceptable for Doctor Zarkhov to develop new rays with startling properties as needed. He's a Scientist! and they do that sort of thing.
Yes, the resolutions to the cliffhangers are sometimes more than a little spurious, but part of the fun comes from seeing what unlikely nonsense is deployed to escape certain doom and the earnest way in which it is done brooks no underestimate of the terrible doom that has been avoided.
So much modern entertainment dissappoints me, too much pretense of depth that isn't really there, long story-arcs that take forever to get anywhere and generally a paucity of content, that it is refreshing to be able to put on an episode of this and know that I am in for twenty-five minutes of high adventure.
Besides, who can resist a story with episode titles like “The Destroying Ray”, “Flaming Torture”, “In the claws of the Tigron”? Quite fantastic stuff. It is just a shame that the print used for the DVD release is in such a sorry looking state in places. It looks far worse than the recent DVD release of “Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe”. Mind you, given that it is over seventy years since it was filmed I should perhaps count myself fortunate that it survives at all. (What am I saying, of course it survived – it is Flash Gordon after all!).
Now that the rental discs are winging their way back to be replaced with other watchables from my list I think I have to steer my Rocket Ship over to Amazon in order to purchase this. I can see it having a lot of re-watchability.
Karl
