ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

I wonder what it was like to be a sci-fi lovin' kid in 1936 and to rush down to the local theater every Saturday to watch the next chapter of Flash Gordon!

Buster Crabbe and Jean Rogers are absolutely perfect as the heroes of this wild yarn on the planet Mongo, and after being primed and ready for the serial by Alex Raymond's comic strip, this was a dream come true.

(Click on images to enlarge.)









Although the three serials range in quality, they are still extremely enjoyable. The first one tops the other two in several ways, not the least of which was the delightful presences of Jean Rogers, looking mighty close to the gals that Frank Frazetta gave us on the covers of many ERB novels.


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The action was better in the first and the third serial, (Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe), but the production quality was noticeably better in the third one.









The second one (Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars) just didn't have the energy of the original, and the producers were too chicken to show Dale Arden in revealing outfits, so she ran around through the entire serial wearing the same damn ankle length gown!

They even gave her brown hair! Whose dumb idea was THAT!


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After the way poor Jean was treated in Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars, Carol Hughes was actually an improvement, even though they dressed her up like Mrs. Robin Hood — which was actually appropriate, because Flash and company were all decked out like the Merry Men of Mars!





Enjoy the two-hour feature version.


_ Flash Gordon 1936 serial, fan edit - 2 hour movie


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[alltare]

COMET TV has been running the Flash Gordon movies for the past few weeks.

What is "EGB"?

[orzel-w]

[Bud Brewster]

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Right. Thanks, Wayne.

Alltare, I apologize for the typo. But wasn't the reference to Frazetta a strong clue as to who I was referring to?







By the way, back in 1974 when I was taking art classes in college, this was the girl I dated.





I showed her the cover of this ERB book one day —


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— and she said she'd love to be able to wear a costume like that in public.

I did a portrait of her (one of my earliest paintings) and frankly it really doesn't do her justice —


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— but she liked it, so I gave it to her. Lord, I had such a crush on this girl!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Custer]

I do have two of the serials as dvd box sets - "Conquers the Universe" in 12 dynamic chapters, and "Space Soldiers" in 13, which I gather is an alternative title for the first serial, so I'll know which order to watch them in.

Concerning the first serial, Wikipedia mentions, under "Reception," that "Flash Gordon was Universal's second-highest-grossing film of the year, after Three Smart Girls, a musical starring Deanna Durbin. However, the Hays Office objected to the revealing costumes worn by Dale, Aura and the other female characters. In the two sequels, most of the female characters were thus dressed more modestly." So we now know who to blame!

[Bud Brewster]

[Custer]

That might not have worked too well.



On a different note, I can report that Three Smart Girls did have a follow-up too, but they didn't have a trip to Mars or Conquer the Universe - it was Three Smart Girls Grow Up.

[Krel]

[Bud Brewster]

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Well, that's certainly true of the male characters, and the costumes worn by Dale and Ming's daughter in the first serial seem perfect. But did the gals run around in long gowns in some of the comic strips?

You know much more about the strips than I do, David.



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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Notice Dale in the image above (and below).

Other than the brown hair, her appearance is very similar to the one in the first serial. The studio was forced to remove an important element of what made Flash Gordon so appealing to romantic (and lustful) young boys!






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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

Happy Birthday Buster Crabbe.
February 7, 1908 ~ April 23, 1983.

"Some say my acting rose to the level of incompetence and then leveled off.

I was a lot better actor than people gave me credit for.

I didn't have any training, but I feel if I had been given the chance, I could have become a really good, top-rate actor.

I didn't make it like a Clark Gable or Charles Boyer. But i wonder what would have happened if things been different?" ~ Buster Crabb

Buster was a fan of the Flash Gordon comic strip by Alex Raymond.

However, he did not plan on auditioning for the role of Flash for the serials. He felt the concepts would be too far out for audiences to accept, and that the movies would flop.

Buster was curious to see who would audition for the role of Flash. He went to observe the actors who were trying out for the SF hero.

Producer Henry MacRae saw Buster at the auditions and wanted to give him the role, as he'd be perfect.

Flash Gordon was being produced by Universal Pictures while buster was under contract to Paramount Pictures.

A deal was arranged between the two famous film studios so that Buster could appear in Flash Gordon.

Buster had to dye his hair blonde in order to match Flash's hair color from the Alex Raymond comic strip.

Buster disliked doing so and was quite self conscious. He would often be wearing a hat in order to cover his now blonde hair.

Flash Gordon was an attempt to attract adults to see a movie serial, because the serials were mostly produced for children.

To that end, the film was budgeted at $350,000, which was quite a sum for a serial.

To compare, the serial "Undersea Kingdom", that was released on May 30, 1936, was budgeted at $81,924.

The "Adventures of Captain Marvel" from 1941 cost $135,553.

Flash Gordon was shown in the "A" theaters across the USA. So, it was shown in the evenings as well as matinees, which is when serials were usually shown.

Flash Gordon became the second highest grossing film of the year.

Despite its large budget, the Flash Gordon production utilized sets from other motion pictures.

A laboratory & crypt were from "Bride of Frankenstein" (1935). A castle interior was from "Dracula's Daughter" (1936). An idol was from "The Mummy" (1932). Outer walls of Ming's castle were originally the Cathedral walls of Notre Dame from "The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and the opera house interior from "The Phantom of the Opera" (1925).

Newsreel footage of the crowds turning out for Charles Lindbergh's historic landing in Paris on May 21, 1927 after his solo crossing of the Atlantic was used when Flash & company returned to Earth.

The scene with the slaves toiling at the atom furnaces was inspired by "Metropolis" (1927).

The rocket used was built for the 1930 comedy-sci~fi movie "Just Imagine."

Buster Crabbe would be the only actor to play the three legendary heroes Flash Gordon, Tarzan, and Buck Rogers.

[scotpens]

[Bud Brewster]

[Krel]

[Bud Brewster]

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This enjoyable serial plays fast-and-loose with the science, but there are a few things which we here at All Sci-Fi could discuss and debate.

The most audacious element of the serial's premise is the idea that Mongo is NOT one of the planets of the Solar System. But the serial doesn't simply add a fictional tenth planet, it presents the idea that Mongo wanders into the solar system and approaches the Earth.





Furthermore, Ming states that he has absolute control over Mongo's movements through space! That's an audacious claim — and it seems to be true, since Mongo remains so far from Earth after Flash and his friends arrive that Zarkov has difficulty contacting it.

But how did Ming control the movements of Mongo?

I went looking for answers. I found this item in the Wikipedia article about Mongo itself!

Please note: For some damn reason I can't find a way to post to a link to the Wikipedia article. But you can just Google the term Mongo (fictional planet). and you'll get it.
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In Alex Raymond's comic strip and the Flash Gordon serials, Mongo was presented as a rogue planet that had drifted into Earth's solar system.

In the Flash Gordon comic strips and comic books, Mongo is usually depicted as Earth-like. Its atmosphere is compatible with Terran life, and the dominant species on Mongo are human-like, such as Ming's people and the Arborians.

Other peoples of Mongo have evolved into different forms,[1] such as the winged Hawkmen, the tailed Lion Men, and the underwater dwelling Coralians.

Mongo is about half the diameter of Earth but is considerably denser, so its gravity is only slightly weaker than the Earth's, though it still allows Flash Gordon to put his gymnastics skills to good use.
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I admire the producers of the serial for dealing with the obvious problem created by the idea that Mongo just drifted into the solar system, and therefore it would have either collided with Earth — or plunged into the sun — or gone into orbit around it — or wandered back out into deep space again.

If that last situation had occurred, the planet would have eventually frozen solid . . . the same condition it should have been in when it entered the solar system!





Since the existence of an Earth-like and richly-populated Mongo proves that it was NOT a frozen orb when it enter the solar system, we must assume that it had some way or traveling through interstellar space and arriving here "alive and well" — and ready to conquer Earth!

As a sci-fi author, I submit that the answer lies in the fact that Mongo is populated by a variety of mutated versions of humanoid life — the winged Hawkmen, the tailed Lion Men, and the underwater dwelling Coralians . . . just to name a few!

In the first series, Dr. Zarkov states that Mongo possesses a high level of radioactivity!

Therefore, I submit that Ming the Merciless is a highly-evolved mutant who uses his powers to enslave this planet and literally move it through space!

Perhaps Ming can sense the presence of an inhabited planet in a nearby star system, and then he transports Mongo through interstellar space to a point a few million miles from that world.






Let's assume that this remarkable ability is Ming's only mutant ability, and in all other ways he like a normal human. He uses his political power to commandeer brilliant scientists who provide him with technological marvels.

In other words, his conquest of Mongo's inhabitants has been accomplished by the more traditional methods of dictators — like those of Adolf Hitler.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)