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	*{{imdb title\|id=0032475\|title=Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe}}		*{{imdb title\|id=0032475\|title=Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe}}
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Revision as of 22:44, 24 May 2007

1940 film

Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe

Directed by	Ford Beebe Ray Taylor
Written by	George H. Plympton Basil Dickey Barry Shipman Alex Raymond (comic strip)
Produced by	Henry MacRae
Starring	Buster Crabbe Carol Hughes Charles Middleton Frank Shannon
Cinematography	Jerome Ash William Sickner
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	1940
Running time	(12 episodes) / Brazil:220 min / UK:195 min

Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe is a 1940 twelve episode serial film about Flash Gordon. It was the last of three Flash Gordon serials made from 1936 to 1940. The serial was produced and copyrighted by Universal Pictures.

During the 1950s, the three serials were shown on 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-1970's, 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. The re-edited television version, with the title card reading Flash Gordon - Space Soldiers Conquer the Universe, was used for some video and DVD releases of the serial.

Plot summary

Template:Spoiler The film starts on Earth. A deadly plague has been ravaging the planet, known as the Purple Death because it leaves a purple spot on the forehead of its victims. Ming the Merciless is suspected to be behind the plague, and Flash Gordon is sent with Dr. Zarkov and Dale Arden to the planet Mongo to find the cause of the plague, as well as a cure. Caused by Ming's spaceships dropping "Death Dust" into the Earth's atmosphere, they eventually find an antidote for it and Flash and Zarkov distribute it by the same method soon after the start of the series, while Dale Arden remains in the forest kingdom.

Soon reunited with her, the trio continue to battle Ming, his cohorts, and his underlings. Ming's Captain Torch is the "spearpoint villain" of this serial, a type of character which the previous two did not have. He takes tactical command of the efforts to stop them.

Before they leave, they destroy Ming by locking him in a tower and crashing a rocket ship into it. Prince Barin takes his rightful place as ruler of Mongo. In his rage, Ming said, similar to King Louis XIV of France, "I am the universe!" for nearly his last words. And so, with a simple metaphor, Flash Gordon is said by Zarkov at the end of the series to have conquered the universe.

Production Information

Plot points taken from the immediately preceding serial, Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars include the Rock People as derived from the Clay People of the former, and the bringing-back-to-life of people assumed by Captain Torch to have died.

The chamber of the death dust experiments was previously used in the Buck Rogers serial.

One money-saving gimmick used by Universal was to take some exciting mountain climbing catastrophe, search, and rescue scenes from the obscure German film White Hell of Pitz Palu, and its music as well.

This serial contains greater story depth than the others, though the plot is quite episodic: Flash goes from battling in ice, to fire, to rock. It is readily seen as derived from the events of its age. Ming is a trope for the fascist dictators of the age. He has spies, secret police, military-technical laboratories, and kidnappers, and his agents fight a resistance movement. His rule of the few disparate regions of Mongo shown here is presented as just like the countries that Hitler captured. It is all exemplified when Ming dresses up just like an Earth dictator, except with a few more feathers in his cap, in the last episode.

Cast list

Episode list

1. The Purple Death
2. Freezing Torture
3. Walking Bombs
4. The Destroying Ray
5. The Palace of Terror
6. Flaming Death
7. The Land of the Dead
8. The Fiery Abyss
9. The Pool of Peril
10. The Death Mist
11. Stark Treachery
12. Doom of the Dictator

External links

Preceded byThe Green Hornet (1940)

Universal Serial
Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940)

Succeeded byWinners of the West (1940)

Template:Space opera serials 1910-1960

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