Flash not slash thank you (Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe (DVD))

Member Name: rathen1971

Product:	Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe (DVD)
Date:	16/05/01 (36 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great story, broken into chapters , enjoyable

Disadvantages: black and white, 1930's technology

Imagine flying space ships, other worlds, alien life forms, adventure, cliff hangers and excitement....and then imagine it in Black and white. Perhaps not as exciting. If I told you it was made in the 1930's perhaps you'd be put off. Don't be.

Ming the Merciless (Charles Middleton) tries to destroy earth with a deadly gas, Flash (Buster Crabbe), Dr Zarkov (Frank Shannon) and of course Dale Arden (carol Hughes) go to investigate. They soon learn of Mings evil plan and a battle ensues over many chapters. You get 3hours and 15 minutes of action here.

This video contains the entire series of Flash Gordon conquers the universe. The film is interrupted by Star wars like scrolling pages between chapters. You can see where George got his ideas from. So you get to see the cliffhanging endings to each chapter as they would have appeared at the cinema.

Some of them are hilarious as they make it look like Flash has surely died but somehow he escapes. The funny thing about the show is they used dummies whenever anyone fell and its so obvious but adds to the tongue in cheek nature of Flash Gordon. I don't think it was ever meant to be serious. Flash sometimes patronises Dale and calls her a good girl. This made my hair stand on end because in our age we associate chauvinism with such sayings but in the 1930's i think things were more innocent. Although i never heard Dale say to Flash what a good boy he was.

This is a show that appeals to all ages. I watched this as a six year old and loved it. I recently bought the video and still enjoyed it again.

The only negatives include the sound which isn't always crystal clear im not sure if it's because of the American accents but i couldn't always make out what was being said. The sets were basic and no where near as good as today and the ships look like a carefully sculpted soap wash bottle painted gold dangling on invisible thread. The costumes are magnifi
cent mind. Im being a bit harsh perhaps above because there are more strong points that negatives. I was amazed at how good everything was when you consider it was made in the 1930's.

After watching this i wanted more adventures of Flash eg Flash goes to Mars. It was clear from the beginning of this that Flash had previous adventures where he had come up against Ming. I thought this video was the entire lot of Flash Gordon videos but i noticed in America they have 3 Flash Dvds. This is the only one we have released over here.

Because of the black and white nature of Flash i wonder if the youth today would be interested. Certainly any one interested in sci-fi would enjoy this. The pace of the adventures is very fast. There is more action than time spent on getting to know the characters. Yet it strangely doesn't suffer from this.

This is an innocent romp classified as a U so suitable for all.

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