Perhaps the best known of Hollywood serial characters, Flash Gordon is the iconographic 1930s American male: athletic, courageous, smart, blond with a handsome face and winning smile. As played by Olympic athlet Buster Crabbe, he would be the focus of three serials: SPACE SOLIDERS (1936), FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS (1938), and FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE (1940.)

Although all three are available to the homemarket, the latter is perhaps the most readily so, and there are numerous VHS and DVD editions. Most of these are "budget"--and in most cases the term is indicative; you will find that fuzzy pictures, poor sound, and zero bonuses are the norm. At present, the VCI edition is probably the best available; although it shows the ravages of time, the picture is fairly stable, the sound is at least reasonable, and it does offer a few bonuses.

Like most serials, the story is very basic. A strange plauge has visited the earth--an illness that leaves a single purple dot on the foreheads of its victims. Flash, Dale Arden (Carol Hughes), and Dr. Zarkov (Frank Shannon) take to their space ship to investigate the matter and discover that the disease is being spread by a spaceship sent by Ming the Merciless (Charles Middleton) from the planet Mongo. Needless to say, they rush off to Mongo to put a stop to it.

The great thing about the Flash Gordon serials is their look, which is very, very strange indeed. The special effects are very much 1930s science-fiction pulp, with sputtering spacecraft shaped rather like outsized hypodermic needles, peculiar-looking robots with angular faces, and all the rest. The sets and costumes add a great deal more to the film's truly bizarre look; apparently Mongo is a strange cross between Sherwood forrest, Imperial Russia, and some sort of Asian Art Deco Hell; all the men wear tights (whether they look good in them or not) and they are as handy with bow and arrow and sword as they are with ray guns.

Although a seminal figure in Hollywood serials, the Flash Gordon films were bested by a number of other serials, most notably by THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL, SPY SMASHER, and THE CRIMSON GHOST, to name but a few. But in their strange mishmash of American gung-ho, pulp science fiction, and bizarre Hollywood conceptualization, they remain entertaining--and FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE is really the best of the three. It is also, incidently, the installment upon which the cult satire FLESH GORDON was largely based. Recommended, but primarily for hardcore serial fans.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

This has to be some kind of archetype - the master plan from which generations of cheesy science fiction movies were drawn. It dates to the era when short-wave radio was gee-whiz technology, when heroes were handsome and Nordic looking, when women were for screaming and for being saved, and when special effects for ray-guns were scratched directly on the black&white film with a pin.

It has everything: ray-guns that look like oilcans, arrows and swords, women on every mission (for the required ineffectual girlfight, since men couldn't hit women), and wobbly spaceships sputtering sparks. Almost everyone except the daring Flash wears a funny hat. Dale Arden, the lovely but useless heroine, has a pert cap with a meter-long plume, cemented to her head at a jaunty angle. Evil Emperor Ming alternates between jagged skullcap and a chapeau titled "Death of Ostriches." His minions, the witless ones seemingly outnumbered by the traitors, wear claustrophobic visors good for hiding the features of any would-be infiltrator. Heck, even the shovels have big fancy fins on them.

Our heroes are brilliant strategists. When captured by the Rock Men, they escape using the clever tactic of running away, something their guards seem never to have anticipated.

Perhaps it was meant more or less seriously at the time, but this can only be enjoyed for its campiness today. So be it - this is the finest, campiest sample of cheesy effects, gratuitous cliff-hangers, and bumbling fights you will ever see. Wait for a rainy Saturday, pop some extra popcorn, and sit back. This is goofy, black-and-white nostalgia at its finest.

//wiredweird

Are you among those who sat and watched the matinee series like `Flash Gordon' or `Buck Rogers' on television growing up. Well I remember quite clearly sitting with my friends watching the faded, cheesy 1930s and `40s fare on British television and other instances when I would be home sick from school that I would find, flipping through the channels, some classic Saturday matinee fare playing on BBC2.
It's with the clouded judgement of long ago nostalgia that has me loving every minute of the `Flash Gordon' DVDs, they are a true guilty pleasure with their yogurt-carton-with-fins spaceships, actors hamming it up with terrible line delivery and preposterous plots.
Yet for all their faults, these shows are nicely packaged slices of fun that will still imbue wonder in kids for generations to come. Their appeal is timeless to the young and young at heart. It's revealing to their appeal that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg both envisioned the Indiana Jones franchise as a modern version of the Saturday matinee serials.
Of all the Flash Gordon serials this one - the third - is the one I remember the most from my childhood with Buster Crabbe being joined by Carol Hughes as Dale Arden (replacing Jean Rogers) and Charles Middleton as Ming the Merciless.
The serial begins with a spaceship from the planet Mongo spreading a lethal purple dust into the atmosphere of Earth. Its up to Buck Rogers along with Dale and Dr. Zarkov (Frank Shannon) along with friend and ally Prince Barin of Arboria (Roland Drew) to travel to the frozen land of Frigia to recover the antidote for the Purple Death.
Coming short on the heels of Errol Flynn's `Adventures of Robin Hood' the influences of the successful classic are clearly evident in this serial. We have Drew portraying Barin with a Flynn-type air and the Mongo population wearing outfits that would not have looked out of place in the Sherwood Forest of Flynn's production.
This two-disc set also includes an interview with Buster Crabbe, Olympic footage of Crabbe winning the 1932 Gold Medal in the 400 meter swim, a photo gallery and three television commercials featuring the actor.
For such a low price it really is a steal, it's a lot cheaper to relive your childhood this way than to take a trip to DisneyWorld and to get the entire 12-episodes for under $20 is better value than the more current series also coming out on DVD.
The quality of the picture is middling at best, (no doubt as a result of age) but this strangely just enhances the nostalgic value of the set. For those who remember the serials from television presentations years ago the simple fact was that the serials were already old when we were young.

THIS TIME AROUND, FLASH GORDON, PROFESSOR ZARKOFF, AND DALE ARDEN GO BACK TO MONGO TO ONCE AGAIN TAKE ON EMPEROR MING, WHO THIS TIME HAS SENT A PLAGUE TO EARTH THAT IS KILLING OFF ITS POPULATION. DESPITE MANY CAST CHANGES, THIS MANAGED TO NOT ONLY TOP THE TRIP TO MARS, BUT IS ON THE SAME LEVEL AS THE ORIGINAL SERIAL! ALL 12 CHAPTERS ARE HIGHLY ENTERTAINING AND NEVER BORING. ANOTHER TIMELESS GEM.

This DVD is nice for the price. The description says Region 1, but its region 0. The video and audio are about the same as others on the market, but the menus are well designed (very retro!) All 12 chapters are on one dual layered disc and the layer change doesn't interfere with the movie. There are no extras, but hey for the price, what do you expect?