Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940)

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Obviously shot in haste, but given a bit of class in the earlier eps by the use of vast amounts of stock footage, including snips from the previous serials. Mind you, the stock material is often rather clumsily inserted - not that mismatched cuts and out-of-place establishing shots are anything unusual in this serial. Still some of the old footage is quite impressive. Chapter 3 with its copious action from Universal's own 1930 release White Hell of Pitz Palu is my favorite. This ep concludes with Ming's wonderfully conceived mechanical men, the annihilators, on the rampage, though the actual cliffhanger is weak.Throughout the serial, the editors use optical wipes to maintain interest. One of the best eps for a startling array of wipes is 6. In fact this is a fun chapter all around, with some of the hokiest and most ridiculous dialogue, delivered with perfectly straight faces by players who should have known (but don't) how to gently send it up. The only actor who gives this vein a welcome try is Earl Dwire as a maniacally sadistic scientist, but he is killed off in an early chapter. One of the script's more inspired creations are the Rock Men who make their initial appearance in chapter 7. These eps gain further appeal by lensing on visually exciting natural locations. Alas, after we bid farewell to the Rock Men early in chapter 9 we have only the lessening joys of the burning metal, the flooded tunnel and the plunge off the castle rampart to sustain us until the serial comes to a somewhat disappointing end. There is no final fight between Flash and Ming, the emperor being disposed of by a wayward rocket ship.The writers don't mind repeating some of their action ideas from time to time, and of course we do see those same shots of the miniature space ships in flight, taking off and landing in exactly the same locations endlessly. I don't know whose bright idea it was to dress the hero's allies in Robin Hood outfits. Just another campy incongruity - though it does provide Miss Hughes, an otherwise somewhat colorless heroine, with a pleasing change of costume. Anne Gwynne displays a bit more spirit as the villainess. But acting, as said before, is not this serial's strong point. Even the hero is so bland he could often be invisible for all we in the audience care. And as for Ming, the so-called Merciless, he needs a reasonable alternative to Don Rowan's thick-headed Captain Torch (not even a colonel, mind you) as his chief henchman if he is to have the remotest chance of success. Perhaps Ming the Moron would be a more apt title. Never has a dastardly ruler been surrounded by more turncoats and incompetents.Direction and other credits rarely rise above the capable - and often stabilize at a lesser level - but we love the corny music score.

The heroic theme music strikes up, the chapter number and the 'story so far' prologue scroll up the screen and into the distance, and we are thrust into a new adventure where our hero and his companion, now disguised as Imperial Guards, having entered the stronghold of their enemy by spaceship, are about to rescue the beautiful Princess from his evil clutches! Elsewhere in the complex our hero's elderly mentor, dressed in his hooded wizard-like robes, also works to thwart the villain's dastardly plans… Sound familiar? Yes. Of course it does, for this is FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE (actually clunkily titled in all the opening credits as FLASH GORDON SPACE SOLDIERS CONQUER THE UNIVERSE) and is, of course, along with FLASH GORDON ('36) and FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS ('38), the inspiration for Mr. Lucas's other famous space opera, the name of which escapes me for the moment. We even have Imperial Spaceships bombarding our heroes on an Ice Planet (imaginatively called 'Frigia') and a battle on a Forest Moon ('Arboria' – Wow! Who dreams up all this stuff?), where friendly Prince Barin and his 'Merry Men' are bow and arrow wielding precursors to the Ewoks of Endor. There are many other elements too that eventually made their way into George's epic saga, but you'll have to watch it to see how many you can spot.The acting is dreadful, the costumes ridiculous, the 'special effects' laughable and the plot (using the term very loosely) has holes in it big enough to fly an Imperial Battle Cruiser through - but enough about STAR WARS (ah, that was it!). Seriously though, FLASH GORDON may be ropey but I challenge anyone to fault their enthusiasm and the whole is weirdly compelling and great fun.Shamelessly grabbing any spare backlot sets, props, sound effects and costumes available, a trend the much later STAR TREK original series, and others, continued, we are treated to such sights as Imperial officer's uniforms that appear to have been delivered by mail order direct from Ruritania; Prince Barin's 'treemen' clad in medieval castellated Lincoln Green (we assume) skirts and tights straight out of THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD ('38), and backstreets of Mongo that could have equally been trod, and no doubt were, by both Errol Flynn and Frankenstein's Monster. Even the music is stock, the most noticeable being Franz Waxman's 'Birth of the Bride' from his score to BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN ('35), which is plundered repeatedly. Fin-accessorised bullet shaped spaceships buzz around (again to a FRANKENSTEIN laboratory's electrical hum) with sparks falling downwards and smoke drifting up (an amazing thing the vacuum of space), and, no matter the destination, they always land, spirally, in the same scenic valley.All 'dynamic' twelve chapters are presented in this boxed set with irresistible titles like 'The Purple Death', 'The Palace of Terror', 'Freezing Torture', 'The Destroying Ray' and 'Walking Bombs' (these particularly are a hoot), complete with the necessary cliff-hanger endings and opening and closing credits for each, but sadly, and a bad oversight, there are no special features. I know that perhaps this is difficult given the age of the material, but some accompanying old movie newsreels, as on the DVD release of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, might have put it into some kind of historical perspective.In this age of CGI effects where anything is possible, it's nice to look back and see where it all began, and I've no doubt that in 1940 it was equally as enthralling as any SFX blockbuster claims to be today. Get some beers in, some friends around and have some fun as FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE! Trivia Note: Although FGCTU was Buster Crabbe's final appearance as Flash in the old Universal serials, he did make one final cameo appearance as the character in season one of the 1979 TV series BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY which starred Gil Gerard as Buck, a character Crabbe had also played 40 years earlier in 1939. In the two-part episode 'Planet of the Slave Girls' (a typical old Gordon/Rogers chapter title in itself) Crabbe appeared as 'Brigadier Gordon', a former space fighter pilot called out of retirement, and there's a pointed piece of dialogue toward the end of the episode where the new Buck (Gerard) is, in fact, talking to the old (Crabbe):Buck: That's pretty good shooting. Gordon: Son, I've been doing this since before you were born. Buck (the character of course thinking he was born five centuries earlier): You think so? Gordon: Colonel, I know so.Only four years later Clarence Linden 'Buster' Crabbe had passed away, making this a nice and timely touch in an otherwise unmemorable series.

This needs reviving. In retrospect you see the point Republic were making. Its full of references which an audience contemporary with the 1940 production would have understood. The title music is Listz's Prelude 2. This was familiar from reports from Nazi Germany and Nuremberg rallies where it had been used repeatedly to glorify German power. Ming where's a white uniform identical to Mussolini of Fascist Italy. Largely gone is Ming's overt evil and sadistic attitudes in favour of a Messianic belief of unifying the universe under one rule will bring peace and prosperity. Despite the method required will be warfare to attain this. Buster Crabb repeatedly makes remarks about liberty and freedom. He also informs races from different planets that they must unite against the evils and dangers of a conqueror. The people of Saturn are represented by Chinese actors and Ming is fanatical in his wish to conquerer Saturn. This is a reference to the millions killed by the Japanese in Manchuria and China. Also a reference to the Axis pact between Germany and Japan demonstrating the necessity of nations to unite to defeat conquerors who are in alliance with each other.

It's better than a lot of the dreck produced today. It is best not to watch it all at once, but watch one episode a day. When I consider how low the budget was, and how long ago this was made, it adds to the appreciation of this.For example, making a cliff face look like a plausible ice wall by opening the iris wide to let in more light. It's full of cliches - sort of. But remember, they weren't cliche at the time.It is interesting that Ming seems rather reasonable in this - not the over-the-top monster we have come to know and loath - and love!