A heavy condensation of the 1936 serial Flash Gordon, with altered musical score. Flash Gordon, Dale Arden and Dr. Hans Zarkov visit the planet Mongo to thwart the evil schemes of Emperor Ming the Merciless, who has set his planet on a collision course with Earth.
I loved these sci-fi escapades years ago when I was a kid and the serials were shown at dinner-time by the BBC. I haven't seen them since, and to be honest was rather disappointed by the way in which the episodes had been rather clumsily butchered into 75 minutes. Not that there ever was much jeopardy with the plot: "Flash" (Buster Crabbe) has to defeat the devious plots of "Ming" (Charles Middleton) with the aid of his allies Barin (Richard Alexander) and "Vultan" (Tiny Lipson) whilst juggling the attentions of "Dale Arden" (Jean Rogers) and the duplicitous "Princess Aura" (Priscilla Lawson) but surely someone could have shown just a touch of professionalism with the basic editing process? That said, it is still a fun watch with the phut-phut rocket ships, melting rays, winged-men and a hero quite literally straight out of the comic books - decent, but as thick as two short planks. The story doesn't really matter (Ming has plonked his planet "Mongo" on a collision course with the pesky third planet) - it's just a daft adventure story with an evil cloak-wearing baddie and a couple of very pretty dames indulging in a bit of cat-fighting over their handsome beefcake hero. It's nostalgia and can be enjoyed as such....
