This great 12 chapter serial was made by Universal in 1936. It was a gamble on their part that paid off.

In the mid 1930's, Universal Studios was in financial trouble. Though they had a very profitable franchise with their horror movies (Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy) they also had a string of expensive flops that were eating up any profits that the monster movies made. In 1934, Universal released Tailspin Tommy, a serial based on the Bell Syndicate comic strip. The serial did very well, and so they made a sequel, Tailspin Tommy and the Great Air Mystery, which was also popular.

Based on these successful serials, Universal decided to purchase the rights to several comic strip characters from King Features, hoping for a string of hits and much needed cash. They purchased Ace Drummond, Secret Agent X-9, Jungle Jim, and Flash Gordon. (All but the first were the creations of Alex Raymond.)

The first of these comic strips to be adapted to the screen was Flash Gordon. The fast paced action of the strip made it a natural. The odd thing was its budget; $350,000, nearly three times the budget of a typical serial. For that much you could make an "A" picture. Universal was willing to gamble that Alex Raymond comic would bring people to the movie theaters week after week.

The plot of the serial follows Alex Raymond's comic strip very closely. A rouge planet is heading towards Earth, causing all kinds of disasters. Flash Gordon (Olympic swimming medallist Buster Crabbe) meets Dale Arden (Jean Rogers) while flying in a small passenger plane. A meteor storm, causes the plane to crash. Flash and Dale bail out and land near the home of Dr. Zarkov (Frank Shannon,) a scientist who has created a space ship, and plans to fly to the runaway planet to attempt to change its course. Flash and Dale join him, and the three are off, to the planet Mongo! Soon after they land, they are all captured by Mongo's ruler, Ming the Merciless (wonderfully played by Charles Middleton.) Ming's daughter, Princess Aura (Priscilla Lawson,) falls in love with Flash just about as fast as Ming falls for Dale. Ming imprisons Dr. Zarkov in a lab, and plans to marry Dale and kill Flash. This first chapter pretty much sets up the action for the twelve chapters that follow. The serial has everything: space ships, giant lizards, Lionmen, melting rays, Hawkmen, floating cities, Sharkmen, and even a tournament of death. The action is fast paced, and doesn't let up.

One of the great things about this serial is the scenery. They were able to use sets from other Universal productions that gave the serial a sense of grandeur. The tower set and crypt from Bride of Frankenstein was used, as was the castle interior from Dracula's Daughter. The huge idol from The Mummy was turned into the god Tao for the series. Props were borrowed too, such as the electrical equipment in Ming's lab which was used in many various Universal horror movies. Even Zarkov's space ship had an earlier life. It was originally made for 1930 Fox feature, Just Imagine.

Most of the sets were sparsely furnished. Conspicuously so. They is very little in Ming's huge throne room, or in King Vultan's chambers. The money they saved on furnishings was put into special effects. Though laughable today, and not even cutting edge in 1936, they were much above average for a serial. They use split screens, and even some matte shots. This effort and expense didn't save the look of the serial entirely. No matter how you look at it, the space ships look like models on strings, and the underwater creature attacks look like what they are: sharks and octopi in an aquarium.

The sets were not the only thing that Flash Gordon borrowed. The sound track was lifted from other Universal movies also, most notably The Bride of Frankenstein, The Black Cat, and The Invisible Man. This hodge-podge conglomeration of musical scores actually works much better than one would think. The music that was appropriated added to many of the scenes, and fit in very well.

The acting was very good, especially for a serial, and when you take into account the material. Buster Crabbe managed to take the role of Flash Gordon seriously, while a more traditionally trained actor might have had a hard time doing so. And while the title role was very well cast, the best performance in the series was by Charles Middleton who played Ming the Merciless. He was absolutely fabulous as the evil ruler of Mongo, lusting after Dale, and despising Flash. Middleton played the role with just the right mixture of regalness and ruthless cunning, bringing the space villain to life.

Since it follows the comic strip fairly closely, the serial does not drag in the middle as many serials do. Flash and Dale are constantly traveling across Mongo enlisting aid and foiling traps. There are many different sets and every chapters seems to have a new monster. The acting, the sets, and the wonderful props all come together perfectly to make Flash Gordon an entertaining romp through a comic strip.

The DVD:

This serial was originally released as just Flash Gordon. When it was shown on TV, they changed the name to Space Soldiers to avoid confusion with the Flash Gordon ongoing TV series. Image has put the two titles together for this release, as I believe the previous VHS release was also called. The credits still list the title as Flash Gordon.

Video:

This is a great looking DVD. The transfer is very good, with the picture being clean and clear, and presented in it's original aspect ratio (1.37:1.) There are scratches and some film defects, but these are minor, as the print used as a master was exceptional. Unfortunately, Image squeezed all 13 episodes (4 hours worth) onto one side of the DVD, and I noticed a few slight compression artifacts. They were slight, and not distracting though. Nothing that should deter a potential buyer.

Image includes the opening titles and cliff-hanger closings for all the chapters, instead of cutting them out and turning it into one long four hour movie. The end credits are on every chapter too.

Sound:

The sound is in Dolby digital mono, and very clear with no hiss or background noise.

Extras:

This disc, crammed full as it is, doesn't have any extras, not even cast credits. The inside cover of the DVD's keepcase does fold out and has a nice brief history of the film. A trailer to at least one of the episodes would have been very welcome.

The menu is very standard. There are three pages which list the various chapters of the serial and let you select the one you'd like to see. The entire disc has only 13 chapter stops, one for each episode. An additional stop in the middle of each chapter would have been helpful.

Final Thoughts:

If you have never seen a serial before, this one would be a good place to start. It avoids many of the pitfalls that a lot of chapter plays fall into. The story progresses from chapter to chapter, and isn't repetitive. There are great sets and high production values (at least when compared to other serials.) The acting is generally good and it has some great cliff hangers. This is one of the better serials that Hollywood produced.

If you have seen serials and enjoy them, this is a no-brainer. With the picture so nice, and the sound so clean, this DVD is essential to any collection of serials.