April 24, 2025 • 52 mins
Pathetic Earthlings, who can save you now?
Well, there might be one guy...
Flash Gordon has been on our screens for almost 90 years, and the story of the dashing all-American hero, his companions, and his battles against Ming the Merciless laid the groundwork for modern sci-fi, influencing everything from Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek and Doctor Who.
From his humble comic strip roots, Flash's adventures were perfect for a modern film adaptation, and legendary film mogul Dino De Laurentiis was adamant he knew what he wanted for his Flash Gordon; a visual feast, a lavish production, a playful tone and his friend Danilo Donati as the production and costume designer.
From its colourful costumes to its campy dialogue, Flash Gordon is a spectacle that has transcended time, and cinema owes Flash a huge debt of gratitude, but it was not an easy movie to make. Its original director Nicolas Roeg ended up leaving after a year, and Mike Hodges stepped up, but with very little control over what you see on screen.
Queen's iconic soundtrack for Flash Gordon was groundbreaking, blending rock music with film scoring in a way that had never been done before. Flash Gordon remains a cult classic, influencing generations of filmmakers and fans, and continues to be celebrated for its unique charm and creativity.
Despite the issues behind the scenes, and the behaviour of their leading man, Flash Gordon has an undeniable charm that has kept it alive in the hearts of fans worldwide.
It alive? Sorry, I meant... GORDON'S ALIVE!
I would love to hear your thoughts on Flash Gordon (1980) !
Verbal Diorama is now an award-winning podcast! I won the Best Movie Podcast in the inaugural Ear Worthy Independent Podcast Awards recently. I am beyond thrilled, and hugely grateful to the Ear Worthy team. It means so much to me to be recognised by a fellow indie outlet, and congratulations to all the other winners!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(01:36):
Hi everyone, I'm Em andwelcome to Verbal Diorama, episode
296, Flash Gordon. This is thepodcast that's all about the history
and legacy of movies you knowand movies you don't. That's for
every one of us. Stand forevery one of us. She saves with a
mighty hand Every man, everywoman, every child. It's the mighty
(01:57):
M. Verbal Diorama. FlashWhatever. Welcome to Verbal Diorama.
Whether you are a regularreturning listener, whether you are
a brand new listener to thispodcast, whether you're just a visitor
from the planet Mongo, thankyou for being here. Thank you for
choosing to listen to thispodcast. I am so happy to have you
here for the history andlegacy of of Flash Gordon. This is
(02:20):
an episode that's a long timecoming to this podcast, I believe.
I actually thought about doingthis episode several years ago and
I wanted to wait, to behonest, I wanted to wait until a
special occasion. And whilst Idid consider doing it for the 300th
episode, which is coming soon,I decided, you know what? I want
(02:41):
to predate the 300th episodeextravaganza with Flash Gordon. So
that is what I am doing. Andon that topic, huge thanks to everyone
who listens to this podcast,who supports this podcast, and who
has continued to do so overthe last six years and now 296 episodes.
You will find out more aboutwhat's happening for the 300th episode
(03:07):
in a little bit, but hugethank you for your support. It means
so much to a small indiepodcast with a host who does everything
on her own to have people whoregularly support and listen to this
podcast. So huge thank you.And we're going from last week's
episode on Sister act and ablessed time with his Holiness the
(03:31):
Pope, enjoying some gospelinfused hymns, to actual Brian Blessed
and some rock infused sciencefiction of the highest order. I'm
not gonna dilly dally withthis one. It's time to dive. Sorry,
Brian, you do it. Into thehistory and legacy of the science
(03:51):
fiction space opera. No, notthat one. This one. Here's the trailer
for Flash Gordon.
(05:00):
American football hero FlashGordon is skyjacked aboard Dr. Hans
Zof's rocket ship, along withtravel agent Dale Arden. The threesome
are drawn into the influenceof the planet Mongo, ruled by Emperor
Ming the Merciless. The evilMing has been testing Earth with
unnatural disasters anddeeming our world a threat to his
(05:21):
rule. He also intends to takeDale as his concubine, attempts to
execute Flash and intends todestroy Earth. Flash must avoid the
amorous attentions of Ming'sdaughter and unite the warring kingdoms
of Mungo to rescue Dale andsave every one of us. Let's, as always,
run through the cast. We haveSam J. Jones as Flash Gordon, Melody
(05:46):
Anderson as Dale Arden, Maxvon Sydow as Emperor Ming the Merciless,
Topol as Hans Zharkov, OnelaMuti as Princess Aura, Timothy Dalton
as Prince Baron, Brian Blessedas Prince Fultan, Peter Wingard as
General Cloitus, MariangelaMulatto as General Carla and Richard
(06:09):
O'Brien as Vico. Flash Gordonhas a screenplay by Lorenzo Semple
Jr. An adaptation by MichaelAllen, was directed by Mike Hodges
and was based on characterscreated by Alex Raymond. In the summer
of 1980, a long awaited spaceopera movie was released. A huge
(06:30):
success. That movie was theEmpire Strikes Back, the sequel to
one of the biggest movies ofthe 70s, Star Wars. A few months
later, in December 1980,another space opera movie came out
with a dashing hero, abeautiful princess, various creatures
and alliances made tooverthrow an emperor. I'm sure many
(06:52):
people at the time thought,what was this Star wars clone? Except
what many moviegoers didn'trealize was Star wars was the clone.
Flash Gordon was the original,the one who inspired it all. The
story of Flash Gordon doesn'tstart with Flash Gordon. It starts
with Anthony Rogers, the leadof the short stories Armageddon 2419
(07:16):
AD and the Air Lords of Han in1928. The character was renamed Buck
Rogers in 1929, and the comicseries he starred in, set in the
futuristic 25th century,featured prominently in US newspapers,
becoming one of the mostsuccessful comic strips in the country.
Of course, Buck Rogersinspired a slew of clones Many of
(07:38):
which just didn't come closeto his success, except for one which
surpassed Buck Rogers in everyrespect in his debut in 1934. Originally,
King features Syndicate hadattempted to get the rights to the
John Carter of Mars stories byEdgar Rice Burroughs. Failing that,
they enlisted one of theirstaff artists, Alex Raymond, to create
(08:02):
a science fiction comic stripsimilar to Buck Rogers, following
the adventures of FlashGordon, a handsome polo player and
Yale University graduate, andhis companions dale Arden and Dr.
Han Zharkov. The story beginswith Earth threatened by a collision
with the planet Mongo, wherethey come into conflict with Ming
the Merciless, Mongo's evilemperor. Known for their vivid, colorful
(08:25):
depictions of the future, itwas a stark contrast to Buck Roger's
black and white illustrations.The Flash Gordon comic strip became
one of the most popularAmerican comic strips of the 1930s
and ran as a Sunday strip from1934 until 2003 and a daily strip
from 1940 to 1944 and 1951 to1992. Reprints of the Sunday strip
(08:48):
was syndicated by King featuresyndicate from 2003 until 2023, when
Flash Gordon was relaunchedwith a new daily and Sunday strip.
In April 1935, the strip wasadapted into the Amazing Interplanetary
Adventures of Flash Gordon, a26 episode weekly radio serial with
Flash Gordon voiced by GailGordon. The series ended in October
(09:12):
1935. That same month, inOctober 1935, the further interplanetary
Adventures of Flash Gordondebuted as a daily show airing 60
episodes, ending in February1936. Flash Gordon is regarded as
one of the best illustratedand most influential of American
adventure comic strips. AlexRaymond was considered one of the
(09:36):
most famous science fictionartists of all time, and his artistry
and rich imagination led toFlash Gordon becoming a movie serial
in 1936 starring Buster Krabas Flash Gordon. After Universal
took the gamble and spent alarge amount of money to make the
serials a reality, Buster Krabwas not only an Olympian, winning
(09:59):
an Olympic bronze medal in1928 for the 1500 meter freestyle
and an Olympic gold medalistwinning in 1932 for the 400 meter
freestyle swimming event, healso starred as Tarzan in 1933. He
was Flash Gordon in 1936, 1938and 1940, and also Flash Gordon's
(10:20):
rival Buck Rogers in 1939. Thefirst 1936 serial was 13 chapters
and aired exclusively in UStheaters, usually before the main
feature always ending on acliffhanger so viewers would return
the next week. Two sequelsfollowed Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars,
which was 15 chapters in 1938and Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe,
(10:43):
which was 12 chapters in 1940.It cost a reported $350,000 to make.
And like the 1980 movie I'mComing to Cragg dyed his dark hair
blonde for the role. Sets andprops from Universal films like Frankenstein,
Dracula, Bride ofFrankenstein, Dracula's Daughter,
(11:04):
and even the 1923 silent moviethe Hunchback of Notre Dame all appeared
in Flash Gordon. To keep costslow for syndication to TV in the
1950s, the serial was renamedSpace Soldiers so as not to be confused
with the newly made liveaction TV series Flash Gordon, which
aired between 1954 and 1955starring Steve Holland. There was
(11:28):
also an animated series from1979 to 1982 also called Flash Gordon
and sometimes called the NewAdventures of Flash Gordon. And there
was also Flash Gordon, theGreatest Adventure of all, an animated
TV movie in 1981. Flash alsoshows up as a main character in Defenders
of the Earth, the animatedseries from 1986, where he teams
(11:51):
up with fellow King featuresheroes the Phantom and Mandrake the
Magician. Flash had anotheranimated series in 1996 and a live
action series from 2007 to2008 starring Eric Johnson as Stephen
Flash Gordon. There was aneven more adult adaptation in 1976
called Flesh Gordon. I'm notgoing to elaborate on what that's
(12:15):
about because this is a familyfriendly show video game wise. In
1986, there was Flash Gordonfor the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64,
ZX Spectrum and MSX. But the1936 serial was special and it did
something ratherextraordinary. It may have been kitsch,
campy and full of cliches, butit pioneered the cliches. Almost
(12:40):
every plot device used by moremodern science fiction can be traced
back to Flash Gordon, adashing all American hero, damsel
in distress, cliffhangers,last minute rescues, someone not
being dead after all,repressed sexuality, a galactic despot,
multiple beautiful spaceprincesses, control rooms with elaborate
(13:02):
consoles, death rays used assuperweapons, ray guns, the mad Scientist
Ally, love triangles, lovequadrangles, arena combat, characters
frozen in suspended animation,mind control, multiple species living
harmoniously. It had it all.It influenced Star Trek, Battlestar
(13:22):
Galactica, Doctor who, andmost famously, Star Wars. And I'm
coming to that. It would alsoironically influence The Buck Rogers
TV series from 1979 to 1981.Even though the original 1936 Flash
Gordon serial wasn't the mostelegant production, it stood out
from other modern TV shows,thanks in part to its excellent casting
(13:46):
and of course thescreenwriter's excellent adaptation
of the concept created by AlexRaymond. Due in part to financial
constraints, but primarily tosubpar screenplays and the perception
of science fiction as juvenileentertainment, no subsequent serials
were ever able to surpass oreven come close to matching Flash
(14:06):
Gordon. But the swashbucklinghero led space opera seemed the perfect
thing for the big screen. Andin the 60s, Dino de Laurentiis, fresh
from producing the adaptationof Barbarella, acquired the rights
to make Flash Gordon, with adesire for Italian director Federico
Fellini to direct. Now, thename Dino De Laurentiis might not
(14:27):
mean much to moderncinemagoers. He died in 2010, aged
91. But he was instrumental toItalian cinema as well as Hollywood
cinema. He was a Hollywoodmogul, in all senses of the word.
Dino De Laurentiis had arrivedin Hollywood from his native Italy
at the start of the 70s withbig ambitions. He produced over 500
(14:50):
films in his lifetime, with 38of them receiving Academy Award nominations
and one, La Strada, winningthe Academy Award for Best Foreign
language film in 1954. He wasmostly known for producing or executively
producing movies likeBarbarella, danger, Diabolic, the
1976 King Kong remake,Serpico, Death Wish, and Three Days
(15:14):
the Condor. He'd continued toproduce after Flash Gordon, including
cult favorites like Conan theBarbarian, Conan the Destroyer, Red
Sonja, David Lynch's Dune,Halloween 2, Evil Dead 2, and army
of Darkness. He also producedthe first Hannibal Lecter film, Manhunter.
And while he wasn't involvedin Silence of the Lambs, he was with
(15:37):
the follow ups Hannibal andRed Dragon and the prequel Hannibal
Rising. And a lot of the rolesthat he took were also uncredited
as well. La Strada, the onlyof his films to win an Academy Award,
would be directed by FedericoFellini. Fellini would option the
rights for Flash Gordon fromDino De Laurentiis, but ultimately
(15:57):
wouldn't make the film. Hewould have a character named after
him in the 1980 movie as a nodto him. George Lucas famously wanted
to get the rights to FlashGordon in the 1970s, but Dino de
Laurentiis wouldn't give themto him. So George Lucas went off
to make his own Flash Gordon,which he called Star wars. And the
(16:19):
rest, as they say, is history.In the meantime, De Laurentiis hired
Nicholas Roeg to make FlashGordon. Roeg was most well known
for directing Don't look nowand the man who Fell to Earth. Roeg,
a fan of the comic strip,would spend a year in pre production
working with Michael Allen onthe script with longtime friend of
De Laurentiis, Danilo Donatias the production designer and costume
(16:43):
designer. At that point,several movies were being mooted,
sets were being built, andMike Hodges was lined up to direct
the sequel to Flash Gordon.And that's an important point that
I'm going to come to. So theywere originally talking about Nicholas
Rogue to direct the firstmovie and Mike Hodges to direct the
sequel. But Dino Darentiswasn't happy with the work that Nicholas
(17:09):
Roeg was doing. He wantedsomething fun and playful that could
start a franchise, rather thanthe idea that they were working with,
which was Ming the Mercilesschasing Flash and Dale across the
galaxy just so he couldprocreate with Dale. The budget ballooned
and Nicholas Rogue would endup leaving the project. De Laurentiis
(17:29):
even asked Sergio Leone if hewould be interested in directing
Flash Gordon. Leone was a fanof the comic strip, but declined
because he wasn't happy withthe script that had been completed
thus far. De Laurentiis wentback to Mike Hodges, though, and
instead of him directing thesequel, persuaded him to take on
the first movie, with DeLaurentiis persuading a reluctant
(17:52):
Hodges that he was the man forthe job. By the time Hodges joined
the movie, Dino De Laurentiishad restructured everything, asking
his King Kong collaborator,Lorenzo Semple Jr. To write a new
script more in line with FlashGordon's comic strip roots and had
allowed Danilo Donati freereign over the design of sets and
(18:12):
costumes, which were ascreative as they were extravagant.
Semple had previously workedwith Dino De Laurentiis on Three
Days of the Condor andHurricane and was most well known
for his writing work on thepilot and first four episodes of
the 1960s Batman series andthe 1966 Batman feature film. Which
(18:32):
is understandable when youcompare the campy tones of both Batman
of the 1960s and Flash Gordon.Casting was underway for the movie,
with notably both ArnoldSchwarzenegger and Kurt Russell under
consideration for Flash.Newcomer Sam J. Jones was noticed
by Dino De Laurentiis motherin law after he was a contestant
(18:53):
on the Dating Game. He hadpreviously shot some saucy photos
for the centerfold of Playgirlunder the pseudonym Andrew Cooper
iii. Safe to say thosepictures were found and republished
after Flash Gordon under Jonesreal name. Jones audition process
lasted 10 months and 30 daysof screen tests before it was confirmed
(19:16):
he had the part. He had to dyehis dark hair blonde and wear blue
contact lenses, but the lensesended up causing issues, so he didn't
use them. Model Dale Haddonwas originally cast as Dale Arden,
but she was fired by Dino DeLaurentiis, who called the replacement
Melody Anderson mere daysbefore filming started. Anderson
(19:37):
was in New York with a friendwhen De Laurentiis called her and
asked her to get on animmediate plane to London. She did
negotiated the contract. Onher arrival her blonde hair was dyed
brown. She had a costumefitting and started filming the next
day. This was a cast ofrelative newbies alongside thespians
and established awardnominated actors. The cast was rounded
(20:00):
out with a variety of Britishand Italian stars as well as Israeli
actor and singer Topol, whowas most well known for his role
in Fiddler on the Roof, forwhich he won the Golden Globe for
Best Actor and was nominatedfor the Academy Award for Best Actor
as well. Topol wouldconstantly sing on set and was the
consummate entertainer. Alsostarring in this movie is the legendary
(20:22):
Brian Blessed, who probablyloves this movie more than anyone
else in the world. There areso many interviews of him just singing
the praises of Flush Gordonand how much he loves Flash Gordon
and how much he loves the fansas well. He is a genuine delight
to behold. Blessed watched theBuster Crab serials as a child and
when he play acted them outwith friends, he always played Voltan.
(20:45):
So to him playing Voltan inthe movie was a literal childhood
dream come true. He even triedto get the production to hire Buster
Krab to be Flash Gordon'sfather in the movie, but that didn't
end up happening. Max VonSydow had been in Ingmar Bergman's
the Seventh Seal in 1957 andhe had starred in several other Bergman
(21:05):
films over the years. He wasalso Academy Award nominated and
he brings real gravitas aswell as a cheeky side eye to the
role of Ming the Merciless.His performance would end up so iconic
that when Von Sydow passedaway in 2020 aged 90, many of the
obituaries highlighted hisrole in Flash Gordon. He had been
(21:26):
a fan of the comic strip as achild and so of course he wanted
to play the role. This is alsoan actor who starred in Conan the
Barbarian and Dune. He wasn'tafraid of science fiction or fantasy
roles and according to othersin the cast, he was extraordinarily
kind and gracious on set,happy to learn from Brian Blessed
how to use his hands toelaborate Ming's behavior. And as
(21:49):
for the future Bond TimothyDalton, it was simply just a paycheck.
All of the major cast weresigned for multi picture deals because
this was always envisaged as afranchise from the get go that didn't
happen for reasons I'll cometo. But Dino De Laurentiis was nothing
if not unconventional whencasting the Hawkman. He saw the Welsh
(22:09):
rugby team and told MikeHodges he wanted number nine, number
five, number four and numberone. Hodges had to tell him they
couldn't just cast rugbyplayers as hawk men and they wouldn't
probably want to be danglingon wires for six months either. Hodges,
as the director, wanted tokeep a very chilled, light hearted
set. But on a Dino DeLaurentiis film, the person really
(22:32):
in charge is always Dino DeLaurentiis. He and production and
costume designer Danilo Donatiwere close, and Hodges soon realized
the only way to shoot what hewanted to shoot was, was to keep
everything relaxed. Donatiwould provide costumes and props
and Hodges would shoot withwhat he was given. It would lead
to filming that wasn'tnecessarily under the director's
(22:54):
immediate control, but itwould lead to a set full of improvisation
and that sense of fun andfreedom would translate into the
finished movie. It wasn'talways fun, though. Two weeks into
shooting, Hodges left theproduction frustrated with De Laurentiis
being so hands on and so openwith his dissatisfaction with the
crew. Hodges would take ameeting with De Laurentiis and set
(23:17):
ground rules on privatediscussions going forward. And Hodges
return to set. He worked out asystem of suggesting ideas to De
Laurentiis in the earlyevening. De Laurentiis would say
he would think about it andthen the next morning come to set
with the same idea, whichHodges would then agree with. And
that was how the directoractually got stuffed done. Scenes
(23:38):
improvised include thememorable football fight sequence,
which was never in theoriginal script. Sam J. Jones had
noted that the Faberge styleeggs being carried by one of the
alien races resembled anAmerican football. He wondered, since
his character was supposed tobe this great American football star,
whether he should find a wayto play with them. The actor and
(23:59):
the crew then spent some timeplanning it out and they ended up
with one of the most memorablescenes in the movie, elevated even
further by Queen's music,which I'm also going to come to.
The fight was supposed to beserious, but Hodges insisted it was
comedic and fun and it addedto the tonal mashup of the finished
film, which is in part comedy,part horror and part overtly sexual.
(24:20):
And the tone kind of makessense when you realize they had English
crew and Italian crew andthere was a language barrier and
both thought what they weredoing was correct. Flash and Dale,
as the two straight roles inthe movie, were the hardest to do
since Mostly everyone else washamming it up and having a great
time. Sam J. Jones took hisrole as Flash extremely seriously,
(24:43):
reading the comic strips tounderstand the character. So much
so that when the firstassistant director suggested Flash
hit someone over the head witha bar, Jones replied that Flash would
never do that. Flash may notbe the brightest star in the galaxy,
but. But he was a man withintegrity. Flash Gordon had a budget
of $27 million, which wasalmost three times the original Star
(25:06):
Wars. The greatest specialeffects and creative teams from all
around the world wereassembled, so there was no lack of
skill either. Filmingcommenced at Shepperton Studios,
occupying all available areasat the big facility, eventually spilling
over into a disused aviationhangar in Weybridge, Surrey, due
to the enormous amount of setsrequired. Make no bones about it.
(25:28):
While we may look back and seea cheesy, vibrant, campy adaptation,
Flash Gordon was a lavishproduction with some of cinema's
greatest talents both in frontand behind the camera, including
talent from Star Wars. GilbertTaylor was a cinematographer on Star
wars and also on Flash Gordon.And many of the same individuals
(25:48):
who worked on the specialeffects for Star wars also contributed
to the visual effects forFlash Gordon. The production being
filmed in England meant thatlegendary Italian costume designer
Danilo Donati couldn't utilizethe Italian costume houses he originally
worked with. So instead he hadthe costumes made at the Theatre
of the Primitive Future, aBritish costumia that had fabricated
(26:10):
and supplied costumes formusic videos, film and television,
including Adamant's regal suitfor the Prince Charming music video.
Star wars had been rathermonochromatic. It was set in space
with lots of greys and blacks.Flash Gordon was going to be the
complete opposite. Bold andcolorful. Donati used color everywhere,
(26:32):
from the costumes to the setsand props. Millions of bugle beads
were used to create theelaborate shimmer of the costumes.
Thousands were used for Ming'selaborate chest emblem alone. While
the inhabitants of Mongo havelavish designs, the costumes for
the humans were plain incomparison, with lots of khaki white
T shirts and muted colours.Not so for Ming, who is bathed in
(26:56):
bright reds, pinks and goldswith his army also in pink and red.
Cloitus and Carla are in blackleather with gold embellishments,
as are all the secret police.Ming's daughter, Princess Aura, also
predominantly wears gold, pinkand red. Dale wears red when she
is announced to be Ming's newbride, then white the night before
(27:16):
her wedding, before borrowinga slave girl's gold dress, being
captured and wearing a twotone teal and pink dress, which is
Gorgeous, by the way, beforeultimately getting married in black,
which may be some sort of signthat this marriage won't be the best
for her. All outfits arecompleted with either crowns, headdresses
or helmets. Prince Baronprobably has the least glamorous
(27:40):
costume, with a green tunicand tights to blend into the forests
of Arboria. Prince Voltan hasa black and gold leather armor piece,
along with all his Hawk men.The Hawkman costume wings were so
heavy the actors couldn't sitand they had to lie on their stomachs
between takes. Max von Sydowalso struggled with his elaborate
costumes for Ming theMerciless, which weighed over 70
(28:03):
pounds and he could only standin them for a few minutes at a time.
But this isn't a movie of justprimary actors decked out in elaborate
costumes. No. All of Ming'sdignitaries and representatives in
his throne room, all hisslaves, all his armies, they are
all as elaborately dressed aseveryone else's, including little
people, complete with rigidsequin tunics and headpieces. This
(28:27):
movie is gorgeous. And thereis so much flesh on show as well,
mostly with the femalecharacters. Luckily, Ornella Nutty
was a model as a teenager, andI can imagine her being the sexual
awakening for a lot of people,but everything looks beautiful on
her. Speaking of beauty, FlashGordon is the rare sci fi movie that
(28:49):
doesn't just show dark blackskies. Everything has color. They
weren't sure how to do theskies until the special effects team
came up with a way of formingclouds by injecting colors into saline
water and slowing the footagedown. Traditional matte paintings
were used as backgrounds andscale models created by model makers
(29:09):
Martin Boa and Bill Pearson,who'd previously worked on Alien.
Miniature sets were also used.Ming's palace was a 20 foot tall
model against a massive bluescreen. It took about three days
to prepare the Ajax sequenceand put everything, including dozens
of hanging Hawkmen, in place.Brian Blessed put in his own special
(29:30):
effects, going pew, pew, pew.As he shot his bazooka. He had to
be reminded that they add thesounds in post production, and because
of this, they had to takeanother day to reset and refilm.
Originally, Ming causes Flashto hallucinate that Dale had turned
into an attacking spider.Flash sees an image of Dale as a
monster who's about to eathim. Melody Anderson was covered
(29:53):
in green body paint, hadvampire teeth and a headpiece that
weighed about 25 pounds withreal glass eyeballs and blood dripping
from her mouth after she'dbeen in makeup for four hours. And
on set for another six, thedirector came in and said, this is
wonderful, but we can't usethis. It has absolutely nothing to
do with the script. The highlysaturated vivid colors of Flash Gordon
(30:16):
would mean that nothing couldbe hid in darkness. And this would
be an issue when you had noway of hiding wires. Most of Flash
Gordon's effects werepractical in camera effects, including
animatronic and puppet work,prosthetic makeup and practical creature
costumes. Even Ming's ringpower was a light projection. It
also used false perspective tocreate scale illusions. And the movie
(30:40):
may end a littleanticlimactically with Ming impaled
and then disappearing as hisring disseminates him. But that wasn't
going to be the originalending. The movie was going to end
with Flash crushing thewedding and Ming turning into a variety
of creatures to fight Flash,the Hawkman and the Arborians in
an epic final battle. But theysimply ran out of time to film it.
(31:03):
So that ending was pulled andwe got what we got instead. After
the movie finished, 17 weeksof principal photography at Christmas
1979, everyone went on a twoweek break and everyone was expected
back after that break to carryon, do reshoots and do post production
work. But quite famously, oneperson did not return. In the recent
(31:26):
documentary Life After Flash,Sam J. Jones is remarkably down to
earth, no pun intended, humbleand gracious about the role of Flash
and how grateful he is to themovie, to the cast and crew, and
to the fans. Now, if you are afan of this movie, I'd highly recommend
that documentary. It's onAmazon prime here in the uk. But
(31:47):
the Sam J. Jones of todayisn't the Sam J. Jones of 1980. The
Sam J. Jones of 1980 wascocksure and arrogant. And pretty
much after he touched down inLondon for filming, that's when the
problems started. He got intofights. At one point he was in the
hospital with a big scrape onhis face and Dino De Laurentiis barged
(32:08):
into the operating room tomake sure they fixed his face so
as not to leave a visiblescar. Jones also arrived late to
set and had arguments withDino De Laurentiis about money. Jones
representatives suggested hewalk off the film, effectively holding
the film to ransom if hedidn't get his way. After Flash Gordon
wrapped, Jones was not invitedto take part in reshoots and additional
(32:32):
dialogue recording sessionsand was replaced by a stand in and
voice actor. Luckily, most ofhis filming had finished and he could
be filmed from the back forthe Hawkman attack scene. This means
that some of Jones's voicework in the movie is actually dubbed.
How much exactly is not fullyknown. Some people say 5 to 10%.
(32:52):
Jones himself says it's morelike 90%. The vocal stand in was
anonymous for many years, butis now widely recognized as being
Peter Marinka. But there's noactual proof it was him. And whoever
it was is attempting to do aSam J. Jones impression rather than
use their real voice. It leftthe marketing for the movie without
(33:13):
its actual Flash Gordon, andinstead Max Von Sydow was heavily
focused on the promotionalmaterial instead. Speaking of Max
Von Sydow, this is the perfectway to segue into the obligature
Keanu reference of thisepisode. And if you don't know what
that is, it's where I try andlink the movie then a featuring with
Keanu Reeves for no reasonother than he is the best of men.
(33:36):
And really the easiest way tolink Keanu to this movie is through
Max Von Sydow, who was theBill and Ted of his day because he
famously challenged Death to agame of chess in the Seventh Seal,
which technically Bill and Tedalso challenged Death to a variety
of games in Bill and Ted'sBogus Journey. And so that is the
(33:57):
easiest way to link Keanu tothis movie. And I can't talk about
this movie without talkingabout the astonishingly good soundtrack.
The production team FlashGordon made initial contact to ask
whether Queen would score thefilm in late 1979. But Dino de Laurentiis
actually wasn't aware of whoQueen was, since he didn't listen
(34:21):
to rock music. His firstquestion on learning of the collaboration
was, who are the Queens? Thefirst choice for Mike Hodges had
apparently been Pink Floyd,who used an image of Charles Middleton
as Ming the Merciless from the30s Flash Gordon serials to advertise
their concert at Sacramentosound factory in 1968. Pink Floyd's
(34:43):
dark side of the Moon wasactually playing on the set when
Queen came to visit. The bandwas shown a clip of the finished
movie and Brian May would goon to say, quote, we wanted to do
something that was a realsoundtrack. It's a first in many
ways, because a rock group hasnot done this type of thing before,
or else it's been toned downand they've been asked to write mushy
(35:04):
background music, whereas wewere given the license to do what
we liked, as long as itcomplemented the picture. And Queen
were very hands on with thesoundtrack, with each member of the
band writing distinctivetracks for it. It was the band's
idea to use snippets ofdialogue to give a sense of narrative
and structure to the album.And it was Freddie Mercury who designed
(35:26):
the distinctive Flash Gordonlogo for the album sleeve. Queen's
work on Flash Gordon was keptsecret so as to not overshadow the
film's December 1980 premiere.The soundtrack was released less
than six months after their1980 album The Game, which featured
hits like Another One Bitesthe Dust and Crazy Little Thing Called
Love. Flash Gordon was one oftwo film soundtracks that Queen produced
(35:50):
along with Highlander, andthey took the making of the Flash
Gordon soundtrack so seriouslythey delayed their proposed greatest
hits album for a year. Flash'sTheme was the only single to be released
from the album under the titleFlash. The album reached number 10
here in the UK charts andnumber 23 in the US, and it would
go gold here in the UK too.Queen would also receive a BAFTA
(36:14):
nomination for Best OriginalMusic alongside Howard Blake, who
worked on the Flash Gordonscore. Blake was only given 10 days
to finish the orchestralscore. He fell ill with pneumonia
due to the exhaustion and thenthe movie didn't even use the majority
of his work. But this is anabsolutely stonking soundtrack and
so unique. I actually listenedto it before I started preparing
(36:37):
this episode because it isgenuinely that good. Thrash's Theme
might have been the firstQueen song that I ever listened to
when I was a child. And soreally this movie introduced me to
Queen in six so many ways.Flash Gordon was released on 5th
December 1980 in the US andtopped the box office in its first
week. It dropped 50% in itssecond week and by its fourth weekend
(37:00):
of release in the US it wasbeing pulled from major markets.
Of course it didn't help thatits star player, Flash himself, wasn't
on the promotional circuit. Afew days after its release on 8 December
1980, the awful news of JohnLennon's assassination outside his
apartment in New York Citybroke. The following day, during
(37:22):
Queen's concert at London'sWembley arena, they paid tribute
to Lennon by playing a versionof imagine. On 10 December 1980,
Flash Gordon was released inthe UK and despite being released
three weeks before the end ofthe year, just before a bitter winter
and a recession, Flash Gordonbecame the third highest grossing
(37:43):
movie of 1980 in the UK. Italso performed well in Italy due
to two prominent Italianactors. On its 27 million dollar
budget, Flash Gordon wouldgross $27.1 million domestically
in the US and $19.4 millioninternationally, for a total worldwide
gross of $46.5 million. Itreceived positive reviews overall.
(38:08):
Currently sits at 83% onRotten Tomatoes, with a consensus
of campy charm and a knowingsense of humor help to overcome a
silly plot involving a spacefaring ex football player, his adoring
bevy of groupies and a supervillain named Ming the Merciless.
Now obviously in RottenTomatoes. Original reviews are mixed
with contemporary criticalreviews, but it celebrated its 40th
(38:32):
anniversary in 2020 with manyretrospective reviews praising the
movie for its iconic sets,costumes and for being something
so completely different to thedark, moody comic book adaptations
we would later get. SanjayJones's performance was overwhelmingly
criticized, but you know Flashis supposed to be a bit of a himbo.
(38:53):
The lack of Universal'smarketing attempts also extended
to award nomination campaigns.Despite this, Flash Gordon was nominated
for three baftas for BestCostume Design, Best Original Film
Music and Best Art Design, aswell as three Saturn Awards for Best
Costumes, Best Science FictionFilm and Best Supporting Actor for
Max Von Sydow. It would winnone of them, but it also wouldn't
(39:16):
win Worst Actor at theinaugural Golden Raspberry Awards
for Sam J. Jones either. Now,Dino De Laurentiis, as hopefully
I've put across, was a manwith grand ambitions, and that led
to his vision for FlushGordon. His plan was allegedly to
buy Hollywood studios and filmthree Flash Gordon movies back to
(39:37):
back with the second.According to Brian Blessed, based
on the second movie serial,Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars, where
Flash Gordon meets the ClayMen and other people on Mars when
Ming has set up a base. ButMing died in the first movie, didn't
he? No, because Ming's eviladvisor Clytus was actually one of
many Ming clones, thusallowing both Max Von Sydow and Peter
(40:01):
Wingard to return to theirvillainous roles. But after Flash
Gordon released and flopped,Sanjay Jones sued Dino De Laurentiis
for breach of contract,demanding that De Laurentiis honour
his option for two furtherFlash Gordon films. Sadly, Jones
lost, and while they couldhave easily recast Flash, the original
just didn't do the businessthey expected and the sequels were
(40:23):
never made. A new Flash Gordonhas been in the works since 20th
Century Fox hired J.D. payneand Patrick McKay to write a script
in 2014, with Matthew Vaughanin line to direct. This adaptation
was mooted till 2018, withDisney then buying 20th Century Fox
and obtaining the rights tothe material. An animated film was
(40:45):
then in the works with TaikaWaititi, who had taken inspiration
from Flash Gordon for Ragnarokin line to direct, but in 2019 the
animated version wascancelled. In 2021 it was revived
but this time as a live actionremake. But I put this to Hollywood,
an animated version of FlashGordon would be pretty perfect and
(41:06):
would mean many of theoriginal cast who are still with
us could reprise their roles.So what I'm saying is, does anyone
have Brian Blessed's number?Despite the plans for a remake, Flash
Gordon has never really leftour screens. From Star Wars, Star
Trek, Guardians of the Galaxy,Ragnarok, even arguably Disney's
ill fated John Carter owes adebt to Flash Gordon. Despite Flash
(41:29):
Gordon actually owing a debtto John Carter. Everything takes
inspiration from everythingelse and a new Flash Gordon probably
would go some way to fix theissues of the original. Ming the
Merciless has often beenattributed to the so called Yellow
Peril xenophobia along with FuManchu and Marvel's the Mandarin
and coded as an East Asiancharacter with his hair and makeup
(41:53):
despite Max von Sydow notportraying him with yellow face.
Times have changed when itcomes to depictions of discriminatory
racial stereotypes. So Much sothe BBFC, the board in charge of
UK film ratings, recentlyreclassified Flash Gordon as a 12A
due to these outdatedstereotypes. A new version would
have to go some way torecategorize Ming, but sometimes
(42:16):
that's where these remakes canactually excel. Flash Gordon is one
of the ultimate sciencefiction and fantasy cult classics
with many famous fansincluding Taika Waititi, Mark Millar,
Robert Rodriguez, QuentinTarantino, Edgar Wright and the late
Stan Lee. From the originalcomic strip in the 1930s to the modern
(42:37):
day adaptations and spin offs,Flash Gordon has inspired countless
filmmakers, TV producers andcomic book creators to create amazing
and imaginative stories andhas left an indelible mark on pop
culture. We're still talkingabout Flash Gordon and the fans still
love Flash Gordon becauseFlash Gordon is a good movie and
(42:58):
it looks great on Blu Ray.Unfortunately, I haven't actually
seen it in 4K yet. Sam J.Jones appears playing himself in
Seth MacFarlane's 2012 comedyTed, with the characters of Ted and
John being fans of FlashGordon and the movie's reference
several times throughout thatfilm. He also appears in the sequel
Ted Too in Life After Flash.He is remarkably honest about his
(43:22):
attitude back then and themistakes he made. He called Dino
De Laurentiis to apologize forhis behavior and De Laurentiis accepted
his apology. Brian Blessed'sperformance as Prince Boltan became
a pop culture icon when theveteran stage and screen actor uttered
the immortal line Gordon'salive. Which 40 years later remains
(43:45):
the most repeated, reused andrecycled quotation from both this
film and Blessed's entirecareer. He is more than happy to
repeat the line and does sooften. Blessed is a genuine blessing
and he adores this movie andits everlasting legacy. He often
tells stories from the set,including the time when the late
(44:05):
Queen Elizabeth II told himthat Flash Gordon was a particular
favorite Christmas movie shewould watch with her grandchildren.
I can just imagine her doing aGordon's alive. Cinema owes a huge
debt of gratitude to FlashGordon. But cinema also owes a huge
apology to Flash Gordon aswell. Both the original comic strip
(44:26):
and the serials and thismovie. It shaped so much of science
fiction and fantasy, and yetso many discredit this movie for
its cheesy, campy, colorfulversion of Mongo. Without Flash Gordon,
we wouldn't have Star Wars.George Lucas has acknowledged that
Flash Gordon was a significantinfluence. How could it not be? Look
at any level and they're verysimilar. Maybe Ning was going to
(44:49):
turn out to be Flash's fathertoo. Which would mean his feelings
for Princess Aura areinteresting to say the least. But
hey, that also happened inStar wars, so samesies. Flash Gordon
may not be to everyone'staste, but it succeeds at doing what
it sets out to do. It wantedto create a lowbrow action adventure
that doesn't take itself tooseriously. And it's not only a space
(45:12):
opera, but a full blown rockopera. And it does this to a spectacular
level. It really, truly is inthe realest sense, a spectacle. Does
it completely make sense on acharacter level to trust the guy
who captured you in a rocketand flew you into space? No. And
how can that man survive amemory draining machine just by reciting
(45:33):
Shakespeare? He probablycan't. Should you be talking about
the kids you're going to havewith the woman you've known for about
a day or 48 hours at the most?Probably not. And should the most
powerful emperor in the galaxybe killed by the end of the spaceship?
Highly unlikely. And what ishot hail exactly? How does the hail
(45:54):
become hot when hail is cold?So many questions. But I care about
none of these things. Becausewhere this movie shines is aesthetically,
it's stunningly beautiful tolook at. The costume design is absurdly
good. It's a sexy fever dreamof a movie that stands alone. The
practical creature work ismemorable. The death scenes are pretty
(46:15):
horrifying, but the mattepaintings and model work are terrific.
This movie means more to methan I ever realized. But memories
of watching it as a kid justcame flooding back to me of how much
I wanted to be Princess Auraand wear her beautiful dresses. And
I just want to recommend againthe documentary Life After Flash.
Sam J. Jones came across asnothing but a humble and lovely person
(46:38):
who just listened to hisgreedy advisors rather than his own
gut. He accepts his behaviorat the time was awful and that he
squandered a potentially goodcareer, but he regularly attends
conventions and he lovesmeeting fans. He seems like a great
guy to meet and chat to and inmany ways is the perfect Flash Gordon.
Flash Gordon was simply alwaysmeant to be a one and done, and it's
(47:02):
the most perfect one and done.It balances the bombast of its visuals
and soundtrack with the kindof blandness of its leading actor,
but there's a balance there.Flash Gordon may be 45 years old
this year, but while thechances of seeing a remake anytime
soon are probably a little bitdead right now, this movie is there.
It's fun, it's crazy andsilly. And you know what? Gordon's
(47:26):
alive. Sorry, Brian, you do it.
Gordon's alive.
He loves it. You've just gotto let him do it. He. He's happy
now. Thank you for listening.As always, I would love to hear your
thoughts on Flash Gordon andthank you for your continued support
of this podcast. And if youwant to get involved and help this
podcast grow, you could tellyour friends and family about this
(47:46):
episode or about this podcast.You could leave a rating or review
wherever you found thispodcast. Or you can find me and follow
me on social media. I am atVerbal diorama all across social
media and you can find posts,you can like share and comment on
posts and that all helps withvisibility as well. Now for the next
(48:08):
episode. I'm actually notgoing to tell you what's coming next
because what's coming Next isa five episode extravaganza for the
300th episode of this podcast.So I'm actually not going to tell
you right now, but you canfind out in a special announcement
episode that is due out onyour podcast feed the day after this
(48:28):
episode comes out. So ifyou're listening to this episode
on release day tomorrow, youwill get an episode explaining what's
happening. If you're listeningto this episode later, it is the
next episode in your podcastfeed. Please have a listen. Hopefully
you'll be as excited as I am.But that is what's coming for the
300th episode extravaganza.Now this podcast is free and it always
(48:51):
will be free. However, it'snot free to make a podcast and I
rely on some incredibly onsome incredibly valuable support
from fellow listeners of thispodcast who really seem to love what
I do and are happy tocontribute financially to the upkeep
of this podcast. Now, you areunder no obligation to join them
and you never will be.However, if you have some spare change
(49:14):
and you want to support anindie podcast creator, and most importantly,
you enjoy the work that I doon this podcast, then you could choose
to support this podcastfinancially if you wish. There are
two ways you can do that. Youcan go to verbaldiorama.com tips
and give a one off tip or youcan go to verbaldiorama dot com patreon
and you can join theseincredible people. They are Claudia,
(49:36):
Simon, Laurel, Derek, Kat,Andy, Mike, Luke, Michael, Scott,
Brendan, Lisa, Sam, Jack,Dave, Stuart, Nicholas, so, Kev,
Pete, Heather, Danny, Ali,Stu, Brett, Philip M. Xenos, Sean,
Rhino, Philip K, Adam, Elaine,Kyle, and Aaron. If you want to get
in touch, you can email meverbaldioramail.com you can also
(49:59):
message me on various socialmedias erbaldiorama or you can go
to verbaldiorama.com and youcan fill out the little contact form.
I do try to reply to everymessage that I receive and I always
love to hear from people. Soplease feel free to send me a message.
Let me know what you'velistened to recently and feel free
to give me some feedback orsuggestions too. And finally, they
(50:23):
all want me to say Gordon'salive. Can you give us the line from
Flash Gordon? Because I knowthe Mexican Flash.
You want the life of Flash Gordon.
Gordon's alive. Gordon'salive. Gordon's alive. Here's some
(50:44):
gin. Gordon's alive. Gordon's alive.
Gordon's alive. You'rethinking about that now. In the news
this week, the polls continueto slide for Gordon Brown. And some
(51:06):
people are saying he's deadand buried. But I think the opposite.
I say Gordon's al. Hey,darling, I have been asked by the
public, would I say Gordon'salive? Ready? Gordon's alive. Please,
please, Mr. Bless, sayGordon's alive. Gordon's alive. Gordon's
(51:32):
alive. Gordon's alive. By theway, I haven't said it, have I? To
you all. I've got to say it toyou. Everybody wants me to say it,
don't they? Gordon's Alay. Oneof our greatest peacetime prime ministers
has died. But don't worry,Gordon's alive. Gordon's alive.
(51:59):
Bye,
Hi everyone, I'm Em andwelcome to Verbal Diorama, episode
296, Flash Gordon. This is thepodcast that's all about the history
and legacy of movies you knowand movies you don't. That's for
every one of us. Stand forevery one of us. She saves with a
mighty hand Every man, everywoman, every child. It's the mighty
(01:57):
M. Verbal Diorama. FlashWhatever. Welcome to Verbal Diorama.
Whether you are a regularreturning listener, whether you are
a brand new listener to thispodcast, whether you're just a visitor
from the planet Mongo, thankyou for being here. Thank you for
choosing to listen to thispodcast. I am so happy to have you
here for the history andlegacy of of Flash Gordon. This is
(02:20):
an episode that's a long timecoming to this podcast, I believe.
I actually thought about doingthis episode several years ago and
I wanted to wait, to behonest, I wanted to wait until a
special occasion. And whilst Idid consider doing it for the 300th
episode, which is coming soon,I decided, you know what? I want
(02:41):
to predate the 300th episodeextravaganza with Flash Gordon. So
that is what I am doing. Andon that topic, huge thanks to everyone
who listens to this podcast,who supports this podcast, and who
has continued to do so overthe last six years and now 296 episodes.
You will find out more aboutwhat's happening for the 300th episode
(03:07):
in a little bit, but hugethank you for your support. It means
so much to a small indiepodcast with a host who does everything
on her own to have people whoregularly support and listen to this
podcast. So huge thank you.And we're going from last week's
episode on Sister act and ablessed time with his Holiness the
(03:31):
Pope, enjoying some gospelinfused hymns, to actual Brian Blessed
and some rock infused sciencefiction of the highest order. I'm
not gonna dilly dally withthis one. It's time to dive. Sorry,
Brian, you do it. Into thehistory and legacy of the science
(03:51):
fiction space opera. No, notthat one. This one. Here's the trailer
for Flash Gordon.
(05:00):
American football hero FlashGordon is skyjacked aboard Dr. Hans
Zof's rocket ship, along withtravel agent Dale Arden. The threesome
are drawn into the influenceof the planet Mongo, ruled by Emperor
Ming the Merciless. The evilMing has been testing Earth with
unnatural disasters anddeeming our world a threat to his
(05:21):
rule. He also intends to takeDale as his concubine, attempts to
execute Flash and intends todestroy Earth. Flash must avoid the
amorous attentions of Ming'sdaughter and unite the warring kingdoms
of Mungo to rescue Dale andsave every one of us. Let's, as always,
run through the cast. We haveSam J. Jones as Flash Gordon, Melody
(05:46):
Anderson as Dale Arden, Maxvon Sydow as Emperor Ming the Merciless,
Topol as Hans Zharkov, OnelaMuti as Princess Aura, Timothy Dalton
as Prince Baron, Brian Blessedas Prince Fultan, Peter Wingard as
General Cloitus, MariangelaMulatto as General Carla and Richard
(06:09):
O'Brien as Vico. Flash Gordonhas a screenplay by Lorenzo Semple
Jr. An adaptation by MichaelAllen, was directed by Mike Hodges
and was based on characterscreated by Alex Raymond. In the summer
of 1980, a long awaited spaceopera movie was released. A huge
(06:30):
success. That movie was theEmpire Strikes Back, the sequel to
one of the biggest movies ofthe 70s, Star Wars. A few months
later, in December 1980,another space opera movie came out
with a dashing hero, abeautiful princess, various creatures
and alliances made tooverthrow an emperor. I'm sure many
(06:52):
people at the time thought,what was this Star wars clone? Except
what many moviegoers didn'trealize was Star wars was the clone.
Flash Gordon was the original,the one who inspired it all. The
story of Flash Gordon doesn'tstart with Flash Gordon. It starts
with Anthony Rogers, the leadof the short stories Armageddon 2419
(07:16):
AD and the Air Lords of Han in1928. The character was renamed Buck
Rogers in 1929, and the comicseries he starred in, set in the
futuristic 25th century,featured prominently in US newspapers,
becoming one of the mostsuccessful comic strips in the country.
Of course, Buck Rogersinspired a slew of clones Many of
(07:38):
which just didn't come closeto his success, except for one which
surpassed Buck Rogers in everyrespect in his debut in 1934. Originally,
King features Syndicate hadattempted to get the rights to the
John Carter of Mars stories byEdgar Rice Burroughs. Failing that,
they enlisted one of theirstaff artists, Alex Raymond, to create
(08:02):
a science fiction comic stripsimilar to Buck Rogers, following
the adventures of FlashGordon, a handsome polo player and
Yale University graduate, andhis companions dale Arden and Dr.
Han Zharkov. The story beginswith Earth threatened by a collision
with the planet Mongo, wherethey come into conflict with Ming
the Merciless, Mongo's evilemperor. Known for their vivid, colorful
(08:25):
depictions of the future, itwas a stark contrast to Buck Roger's
black and white illustrations.The Flash Gordon comic strip became
one of the most popularAmerican comic strips of the 1930s
and ran as a Sunday strip from1934 until 2003 and a daily strip
from 1940 to 1944 and 1951 to1992. Reprints of the Sunday strip
(08:48):
was syndicated by King featuresyndicate from 2003 until 2023, when
Flash Gordon was relaunchedwith a new daily and Sunday strip.
In April 1935, the strip wasadapted into the Amazing Interplanetary
Adventures of Flash Gordon, a26 episode weekly radio serial with
Flash Gordon voiced by GailGordon. The series ended in October
(09:12):
1935. That same month, inOctober 1935, the further interplanetary
Adventures of Flash Gordondebuted as a daily show airing 60
episodes, ending in February1936. Flash Gordon is regarded as
one of the best illustratedand most influential of American
adventure comic strips. AlexRaymond was considered one of the
(09:36):
most famous science fictionartists of all time, and his artistry
and rich imagination led toFlash Gordon becoming a movie serial
in 1936 starring Buster Krabas Flash Gordon. After Universal
took the gamble and spent alarge amount of money to make the
serials a reality, Buster Krabwas not only an Olympian, winning
(09:59):
an Olympic bronze medal in1928 for the 1500 meter freestyle
and an Olympic gold medalistwinning in 1932 for the 400 meter
freestyle swimming event, healso starred as Tarzan in 1933. He
was Flash Gordon in 1936, 1938and 1940, and also Flash Gordon's
(10:20):
rival Buck Rogers in 1939. Thefirst 1936 serial was 13 chapters
and aired exclusively in UStheaters, usually before the main
feature always ending on acliffhanger so viewers would return
the next week. Two sequelsfollowed Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars,
which was 15 chapters in 1938and Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe,
(10:43):
which was 12 chapters in 1940.It cost a reported $350,000 to make.
And like the 1980 movie I'mComing to Cragg dyed his dark hair
blonde for the role. Sets andprops from Universal films like Frankenstein,
Dracula, Bride ofFrankenstein, Dracula's Daughter,
(11:04):
and even the 1923 silent moviethe Hunchback of Notre Dame all appeared
in Flash Gordon. To keep costslow for syndication to TV in the
1950s, the serial was renamedSpace Soldiers so as not to be confused
with the newly made liveaction TV series Flash Gordon, which
aired between 1954 and 1955starring Steve Holland. There was
(11:28):
also an animated series from1979 to 1982 also called Flash Gordon
and sometimes called the NewAdventures of Flash Gordon. And there
was also Flash Gordon, theGreatest Adventure of all, an animated
TV movie in 1981. Flash alsoshows up as a main character in Defenders
of the Earth, the animatedseries from 1986, where he teams
(11:51):
up with fellow King featuresheroes the Phantom and Mandrake the
Magician. Flash had anotheranimated series in 1996 and a live
action series from 2007 to2008 starring Eric Johnson as Stephen
Flash Gordon. There was aneven more adult adaptation in 1976
called Flesh Gordon. I'm notgoing to elaborate on what that's
(12:15):
about because this is a familyfriendly show video game wise. In
1986, there was Flash Gordonfor the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64,
ZX Spectrum and MSX. But the1936 serial was special and it did
something ratherextraordinary. It may have been kitsch,
campy and full of cliches, butit pioneered the cliches. Almost
(12:40):
every plot device used by moremodern science fiction can be traced
back to Flash Gordon, adashing all American hero, damsel
in distress, cliffhangers,last minute rescues, someone not
being dead after all,repressed sexuality, a galactic despot,
multiple beautiful spaceprincesses, control rooms with elaborate
(13:02):
consoles, death rays used assuperweapons, ray guns, the mad Scientist
Ally, love triangles, lovequadrangles, arena combat, characters
frozen in suspended animation,mind control, multiple species living
harmoniously. It had it all.It influenced Star Trek, Battlestar
(13:22):
Galactica, Doctor who, andmost famously, Star Wars. And I'm
coming to that. It would alsoironically influence The Buck Rogers
TV series from 1979 to 1981.Even though the original 1936 Flash
Gordon serial wasn't the mostelegant production, it stood out
from other modern TV shows,thanks in part to its excellent casting
(13:46):
and of course thescreenwriter's excellent adaptation
of the concept created by AlexRaymond. Due in part to financial
constraints, but primarily tosubpar screenplays and the perception
of science fiction as juvenileentertainment, no subsequent serials
were ever able to surpass oreven come close to matching Flash
(14:06):
Gordon. But the swashbucklinghero led space opera seemed the perfect
thing for the big screen. Andin the 60s, Dino de Laurentiis, fresh
from producing the adaptationof Barbarella, acquired the rights
to make Flash Gordon, with adesire for Italian director Federico
Fellini to direct. Now, thename Dino De Laurentiis might not
(14:27):
mean much to moderncinemagoers. He died in 2010, aged
91. But he was instrumental toItalian cinema as well as Hollywood
cinema. He was a Hollywoodmogul, in all senses of the word.
Dino De Laurentiis had arrivedin Hollywood from his native Italy
at the start of the 70s withbig ambitions. He produced over 500
(14:50):
films in his lifetime, with 38of them receiving Academy Award nominations
and one, La Strada, winningthe Academy Award for Best Foreign
language film in 1954. He wasmostly known for producing or executively
producing movies likeBarbarella, danger, Diabolic, the
1976 King Kong remake,Serpico, Death Wish, and Three Days
(15:14):
the Condor. He'd continued toproduce after Flash Gordon, including
cult favorites like Conan theBarbarian, Conan the Destroyer, Red
Sonja, David Lynch's Dune,Halloween 2, Evil Dead 2, and army
of Darkness. He also producedthe first Hannibal Lecter film, Manhunter.
And while he wasn't involvedin Silence of the Lambs, he was with
(15:37):
the follow ups Hannibal andRed Dragon and the prequel Hannibal
Rising. And a lot of the rolesthat he took were also uncredited
as well. La Strada, the onlyof his films to win an Academy Award,
would be directed by FedericoFellini. Fellini would option the
rights for Flash Gordon fromDino De Laurentiis, but ultimately
(15:57):
wouldn't make the film. Hewould have a character named after
him in the 1980 movie as a nodto him. George Lucas famously wanted
to get the rights to FlashGordon in the 1970s, but Dino de
Laurentiis wouldn't give themto him. So George Lucas went off
to make his own Flash Gordon,which he called Star wars. And the
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rest, as they say, is history.In the meantime, De Laurentiis hired
Nicholas Roeg to make FlashGordon. Roeg was most well known
for directing Don't look nowand the man who Fell to Earth. Roeg,
a fan of the comic strip,would spend a year in pre production
working with Michael Allen onthe script with longtime friend of
De Laurentiis, Danilo Donatias the production designer and costume
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designer. At that point,several movies were being mooted,
sets were being built, andMike Hodges was lined up to direct
the sequel to Flash Gordon.And that's an important point that
I'm going to come to. So theywere originally talking about Nicholas
Rogue to direct the firstmovie and Mike Hodges to direct the
sequel. But Dino Darentiswasn't happy with the work that Nicholas
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Roeg was doing. He wantedsomething fun and playful that could
start a franchise, rather thanthe idea that they were working with,
which was Ming the Mercilesschasing Flash and Dale across the
galaxy just so he couldprocreate with Dale. The budget ballooned
and Nicholas Rogue would endup leaving the project. De Laurentiis
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even asked Sergio Leone if hewould be interested in directing
Flash Gordon. Leone was a fanof the comic strip, but declined
because he wasn't happy withthe script that had been completed
thus far. De Laurentiis wentback to Mike Hodges, though, and
instead of him directing thesequel, persuaded him to take on
the first movie, with DeLaurentiis persuading a reluctant
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Hodges that he was the man forthe job. By the time Hodges joined
the movie, Dino De Laurentiishad restructured everything, asking
his King Kong collaborator,Lorenzo Semple Jr. To write a new
script more in line with FlashGordon's comic strip roots and had
allowed Danilo Donati freereign over the design of sets and
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costumes, which were ascreative as they were extravagant.
Semple had previously workedwith Dino De Laurentiis on Three
Days of the Condor andHurricane and was most well known
for his writing work on thepilot and first four episodes of
the 1960s Batman series andthe 1966 Batman feature film. Which
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is understandable when youcompare the campy tones of both Batman
of the 1960s and Flash Gordon.Casting was underway for the movie,
with notably both ArnoldSchwarzenegger and Kurt Russell under
consideration for Flash.Newcomer Sam J. Jones was noticed
by Dino De Laurentiis motherin law after he was a contestant
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on the Dating Game. He hadpreviously shot some saucy photos
for the centerfold of Playgirlunder the pseudonym Andrew Cooper
iii. Safe to say thosepictures were found and republished
after Flash Gordon under Jonesreal name. Jones audition process
lasted 10 months and 30 daysof screen tests before it was confirmed
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he had the part. He had to dyehis dark hair blonde and wear blue
contact lenses, but the lensesended up causing issues, so he didn't
use them. Model Dale Haddonwas originally cast as Dale Arden,
but she was fired by Dino DeLaurentiis, who called the replacement
Melody Anderson mere daysbefore filming started. Anderson
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was in New York with a friendwhen De Laurentiis called her and
asked her to get on animmediate plane to London. She did
negotiated the contract. Onher arrival her blonde hair was dyed
brown. She had a costumefitting and started filming the next
day. This was a cast ofrelative newbies alongside thespians
and established awardnominated actors. The cast was rounded
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out with a variety of Britishand Italian stars as well as Israeli
actor and singer Topol, whowas most well known for his role
in Fiddler on the Roof, forwhich he won the Golden Globe for
Best Actor and was nominatedfor the Academy Award for Best Actor
as well. Topol wouldconstantly sing on set and was the
consummate entertainer. Alsostarring in this movie is the legendary
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Brian Blessed, who probablyloves this movie more than anyone
else in the world. There areso many interviews of him just singing
the praises of Flush Gordonand how much he loves Flash Gordon
and how much he loves the fansas well. He is a genuine delight
to behold. Blessed watched theBuster Crab serials as a child and
when he play acted them outwith friends, he always played Voltan.
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So to him playing Voltan inthe movie was a literal childhood
dream come true. He even triedto get the production to hire Buster
Krab to be Flash Gordon'sfather in the movie, but that didn't
end up happening. Max VonSydow had been in Ingmar Bergman's
the Seventh Seal in 1957 andhe had starred in several other Bergman
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films over the years. He wasalso Academy Award nominated and
he brings real gravitas aswell as a cheeky side eye to the
role of Ming the Merciless.His performance would end up so iconic
that when Von Sydow passedaway in 2020 aged 90, many of the
obituaries highlighted hisrole in Flash Gordon. He had been
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a fan of the comic strip as achild and so of course he wanted
to play the role. This is alsoan actor who starred in Conan the
Barbarian and Dune. He wasn'tafraid of science fiction or fantasy
roles and according to othersin the cast, he was extraordinarily
kind and gracious on set,happy to learn from Brian Blessed
how to use his hands toelaborate Ming's behavior. And as
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for the future Bond TimothyDalton, it was simply just a paycheck.
All of the major cast weresigned for multi picture deals because
this was always envisaged as afranchise from the get go that didn't
happen for reasons I'll cometo. But Dino De Laurentiis was nothing
if not unconventional whencasting the Hawkman. He saw the Welsh
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rugby team and told MikeHodges he wanted number nine, number
five, number four and numberone. Hodges had to tell him they
couldn't just cast rugbyplayers as hawk men and they wouldn't
probably want to be danglingon wires for six months either. Hodges,
as the director, wanted tokeep a very chilled, light hearted
set. But on a Dino DeLaurentiis film, the person really
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in charge is always Dino DeLaurentiis. He and production and
costume designer Danilo Donatiwere close, and Hodges soon realized
the only way to shoot what hewanted to shoot was, was to keep
everything relaxed. Donatiwould provide costumes and props
and Hodges would shoot withwhat he was given. It would lead
to filming that wasn'tnecessarily under the director's
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immediate control, but itwould lead to a set full of improvisation
and that sense of fun andfreedom would translate into the
finished movie. It wasn'talways fun, though. Two weeks into
shooting, Hodges left theproduction frustrated with De Laurentiis
being so hands on and so openwith his dissatisfaction with the
crew. Hodges would take ameeting with De Laurentiis and set
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ground rules on privatediscussions going forward. And Hodges
return to set. He worked out asystem of suggesting ideas to De
Laurentiis in the earlyevening. De Laurentiis would say
he would think about it andthen the next morning come to set
with the same idea, whichHodges would then agree with. And
that was how the directoractually got stuffed done. Scenes
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improvised include thememorable football fight sequence,
which was never in theoriginal script. Sam J. Jones had
noted that the Faberge styleeggs being carried by one of the
alien races resembled anAmerican football. He wondered, since
his character was supposed tobe this great American football star,
whether he should find a wayto play with them. The actor and
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the crew then spent some timeplanning it out and they ended up
with one of the most memorablescenes in the movie, elevated even
further by Queen's music,which I'm also going to come to.
The fight was supposed to beserious, but Hodges insisted it was
comedic and fun and it addedto the tonal mashup of the finished
film, which is in part comedy,part horror and part overtly sexual.
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And the tone kind of makessense when you realize they had English
crew and Italian crew andthere was a language barrier and
both thought what they weredoing was correct. Flash and Dale,
as the two straight roles inthe movie, were the hardest to do
since Mostly everyone else washamming it up and having a great
time. Sam J. Jones took hisrole as Flash extremely seriously,
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reading the comic strips tounderstand the character. So much
so that when the firstassistant director suggested Flash
hit someone over the head witha bar, Jones replied that Flash would
never do that. Flash may notbe the brightest star in the galaxy,
but. But he was a man withintegrity. Flash Gordon had a budget
of $27 million, which wasalmost three times the original Star
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Wars. The greatest specialeffects and creative teams from all
around the world wereassembled, so there was no lack of
skill either. Filmingcommenced at Shepperton Studios,
occupying all available areasat the big facility, eventually spilling
over into a disused aviationhangar in Weybridge, Surrey, due
to the enormous amount of setsrequired. Make no bones about it.
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While we may look back and seea cheesy, vibrant, campy adaptation,
Flash Gordon was a lavishproduction with some of cinema's
greatest talents both in frontand behind the camera, including
talent from Star Wars. GilbertTaylor was a cinematographer on Star
wars and also on Flash Gordon.And many of the same individuals
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who worked on the specialeffects for Star wars also contributed
to the visual effects forFlash Gordon. The production being
filmed in England meant thatlegendary Italian costume designer
Danilo Donati couldn't utilizethe Italian costume houses he originally
worked with. So instead he hadthe costumes made at the Theatre
of the Primitive Future, aBritish costumia that had fabricated
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and supplied costumes formusic videos, film and television,
including Adamant's regal suitfor the Prince Charming music video.
Star wars had been rathermonochromatic. It was set in space
with lots of greys and blacks.Flash Gordon was going to be the
complete opposite. Bold andcolorful. Donati used color everywhere,
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from the costumes to the setsand props. Millions of bugle beads
were used to create theelaborate shimmer of the costumes.
Thousands were used for Ming'selaborate chest emblem alone. While
the inhabitants of Mongo havelavish designs, the costumes for
the humans were plain incomparison, with lots of khaki white
T shirts and muted colours.Not so for Ming, who is bathed in
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bright reds, pinks and goldswith his army also in pink and red.
Cloitus and Carla are in blackleather with gold embellishments,
as are all the secret police.Ming's daughter, Princess Aura, also
predominantly wears gold, pinkand red. Dale wears red when she
is announced to be Ming's newbride, then white the night before
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her wedding, before borrowinga slave girl's gold dress, being
captured and wearing a twotone teal and pink dress, which is
Gorgeous, by the way, beforeultimately getting married in black,
which may be some sort of signthat this marriage won't be the best
for her. All outfits arecompleted with either crowns, headdresses
or helmets. Prince Baronprobably has the least glamorous
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costume, with a green tunicand tights to blend into the forests
of Arboria. Prince Voltan hasa black and gold leather armor piece,
along with all his Hawk men.The Hawkman costume wings were so
heavy the actors couldn't sitand they had to lie on their stomachs
between takes. Max von Sydowalso struggled with his elaborate
costumes for Ming theMerciless, which weighed over 70
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pounds and he could only standin them for a few minutes at a time.
But this isn't a movie of justprimary actors decked out in elaborate
costumes. No. All of Ming'sdignitaries and representatives in
his throne room, all hisslaves, all his armies, they are
all as elaborately dressed aseveryone else's, including little
people, complete with rigidsequin tunics and headpieces. This
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movie is gorgeous. And thereis so much flesh on show as well,
mostly with the femalecharacters. Luckily, Ornella Nutty
was a model as a teenager, andI can imagine her being the sexual
awakening for a lot of people,but everything looks beautiful on
her. Speaking of beauty, FlashGordon is the rare sci fi movie that
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doesn't just show dark blackskies. Everything has color. They
weren't sure how to do theskies until the special effects team
came up with a way of formingclouds by injecting colors into saline
water and slowing the footagedown. Traditional matte paintings
were used as backgrounds andscale models created by model makers
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Martin Boa and Bill Pearson,who'd previously worked on Alien.
Miniature sets were also used.Ming's palace was a 20 foot tall
model against a massive bluescreen. It took about three days
to prepare the Ajax sequenceand put everything, including dozens
of hanging Hawkmen, in place.Brian Blessed put in his own special
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effects, going pew, pew, pew.As he shot his bazooka. He had to
be reminded that they add thesounds in post production, and because
of this, they had to takeanother day to reset and refilm.
Originally, Ming causes Flashto hallucinate that Dale had turned
into an attacking spider.Flash sees an image of Dale as a
monster who's about to eathim. Melody Anderson was covered
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in green body paint, hadvampire teeth and a headpiece that
weighed about 25 pounds withreal glass eyeballs and blood dripping
from her mouth after she'dbeen in makeup for four hours. And
on set for another six, thedirector came in and said, this is
wonderful, but we can't usethis. It has absolutely nothing to
do with the script. The highlysaturated vivid colors of Flash Gordon
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would mean that nothing couldbe hid in darkness. And this would
be an issue when you had noway of hiding wires. Most of Flash
Gordon's effects werepractical in camera effects, including
animatronic and puppet work,prosthetic makeup and practical creature
costumes. Even Ming's ringpower was a light projection. It
also used false perspective tocreate scale illusions. And the movie
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may end a littleanticlimactically with Ming impaled
and then disappearing as hisring disseminates him. But that wasn't
going to be the originalending. The movie was going to end
with Flash crushing thewedding and Ming turning into a variety
of creatures to fight Flash,the Hawkman and the Arborians in
an epic final battle. But theysimply ran out of time to film it.
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So that ending was pulled andwe got what we got instead. After
the movie finished, 17 weeksof principal photography at Christmas
1979, everyone went on a twoweek break and everyone was expected
back after that break to carryon, do reshoots and do post production
work. But quite famously, oneperson did not return. In the recent
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documentary Life After Flash,Sam J. Jones is remarkably down to
earth, no pun intended, humbleand gracious about the role of Flash
and how grateful he is to themovie, to the cast and crew, and
to the fans. Now, if you are afan of this movie, I'd highly recommend
that documentary. It's onAmazon prime here in the uk. But
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the Sam J. Jones of todayisn't the Sam J. Jones of 1980. The
Sam J. Jones of 1980 wascocksure and arrogant. And pretty
much after he touched down inLondon for filming, that's when the
problems started. He got intofights. At one point he was in the
hospital with a big scrape onhis face and Dino De Laurentiis barged
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into the operating room tomake sure they fixed his face so
as not to leave a visiblescar. Jones also arrived late to
set and had arguments withDino De Laurentiis about money. Jones
representatives suggested hewalk off the film, effectively holding
the film to ransom if hedidn't get his way. After Flash Gordon
wrapped, Jones was not invitedto take part in reshoots and additional
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dialogue recording sessionsand was replaced by a stand in and
voice actor. Luckily, most ofhis filming had finished and he could
be filmed from the back forthe Hawkman attack scene. This means
that some of Jones's voicework in the movie is actually dubbed.
How much exactly is not fullyknown. Some people say 5 to 10%.
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Jones himself says it's morelike 90%. The vocal stand in was
anonymous for many years, butis now widely recognized as being
Peter Marinka. But there's noactual proof it was him. And whoever
it was is attempting to do aSam J. Jones impression rather than
use their real voice. It leftthe marketing for the movie without
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its actual Flash Gordon, andinstead Max Von Sydow was heavily
focused on the promotionalmaterial instead. Speaking of Max
Von Sydow, this is the perfectway to segue into the obligature
Keanu reference of thisepisode. And if you don't know what
that is, it's where I try andlink the movie then a featuring with
Keanu Reeves for no reasonother than he is the best of men.
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And really the easiest way tolink Keanu to this movie is through
Max Von Sydow, who was theBill and Ted of his day because he
famously challenged Death to agame of chess in the Seventh Seal,
which technically Bill and Tedalso challenged Death to a variety
of games in Bill and Ted'sBogus Journey. And so that is the
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easiest way to link Keanu tothis movie. And I can't talk about
this movie without talkingabout the astonishingly good soundtrack.
The production team FlashGordon made initial contact to ask
whether Queen would score thefilm in late 1979. But Dino de Laurentiis
actually wasn't aware of whoQueen was, since he didn't listen
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to rock music. His firstquestion on learning of the collaboration
was, who are the Queens? Thefirst choice for Mike Hodges had
apparently been Pink Floyd,who used an image of Charles Middleton
as Ming the Merciless from the30s Flash Gordon serials to advertise
their concert at Sacramentosound factory in 1968. Pink Floyd's
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dark side of the Moon wasactually playing on the set when
Queen came to visit. The bandwas shown a clip of the finished
movie and Brian May would goon to say, quote, we wanted to do
something that was a realsoundtrack. It's a first in many
ways, because a rock group hasnot done this type of thing before,
or else it's been toned downand they've been asked to write mushy
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background music, whereas wewere given the license to do what
we liked, as long as itcomplemented the picture. And Queen
were very hands on with thesoundtrack, with each member of the
band writing distinctivetracks for it. It was the band's
idea to use snippets ofdialogue to give a sense of narrative
and structure to the album.And it was Freddie Mercury who designed
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the distinctive Flash Gordonlogo for the album sleeve. Queen's
work on Flash Gordon was keptsecret so as to not overshadow the
film's December 1980 premiere.The soundtrack was released less
than six months after their1980 album The Game, which featured
hits like Another One Bitesthe Dust and Crazy Little Thing Called
Love. Flash Gordon was one oftwo film soundtracks that Queen produced
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along with Highlander, andthey took the making of the Flash
Gordon soundtrack so seriouslythey delayed their proposed greatest
hits album for a year. Flash'sTheme was the only single to be released
from the album under the titleFlash. The album reached number 10
here in the UK charts andnumber 23 in the US, and it would
go gold here in the UK too.Queen would also receive a BAFTA
(36:14):
nomination for Best OriginalMusic alongside Howard Blake, who
worked on the Flash Gordonscore. Blake was only given 10 days
to finish the orchestralscore. He fell ill with pneumonia
due to the exhaustion and thenthe movie didn't even use the majority
of his work. But this is anabsolutely stonking soundtrack and
so unique. I actually listenedto it before I started preparing
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this episode because it isgenuinely that good. Thrash's Theme
might have been the firstQueen song that I ever listened to
when I was a child. And soreally this movie introduced me to
Queen in six so many ways.Flash Gordon was released on 5th
December 1980 in the US andtopped the box office in its first
week. It dropped 50% in itssecond week and by its fourth weekend
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of release in the US it wasbeing pulled from major markets.
Of course it didn't help thatits star player, Flash himself, wasn't
on the promotional circuit. Afew days after its release on 8 December
1980, the awful news of JohnLennon's assassination outside his
apartment in New York Citybroke. The following day, during
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Queen's concert at London'sWembley arena, they paid tribute
to Lennon by playing a versionof imagine. On 10 December 1980,
Flash Gordon was released inthe UK and despite being released
three weeks before the end ofthe year, just before a bitter winter
and a recession, Flash Gordonbecame the third highest grossing
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movie of 1980 in the UK. Italso performed well in Italy due
to two prominent Italianactors. On its 27 million dollar
budget, Flash Gordon wouldgross $27.1 million domestically
in the US and $19.4 millioninternationally, for a total worldwide
gross of $46.5 million. Itreceived positive reviews overall.
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Currently sits at 83% onRotten Tomatoes, with a consensus
of campy charm and a knowingsense of humor help to overcome a
silly plot involving a spacefaring ex football player, his adoring
bevy of groupies and a supervillain named Ming the Merciless.
Now obviously in RottenTomatoes. Original reviews are mixed
with contemporary criticalreviews, but it celebrated its 40th
(38:32):
anniversary in 2020 with manyretrospective reviews praising the
movie for its iconic sets,costumes and for being something
so completely different to thedark, moody comic book adaptations
we would later get. SanjayJones's performance was overwhelmingly
criticized, but you know Flashis supposed to be a bit of a himbo.
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The lack of Universal'smarketing attempts also extended
to award nomination campaigns.Despite this, Flash Gordon was nominated
for three baftas for BestCostume Design, Best Original Film
Music and Best Art Design, aswell as three Saturn Awards for Best
Costumes, Best Science FictionFilm and Best Supporting Actor for
Max Von Sydow. It would winnone of them, but it also wouldn't
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win Worst Actor at theinaugural Golden Raspberry Awards
for Sam J. Jones either. Now,Dino De Laurentiis, as hopefully
I've put across, was a manwith grand ambitions, and that led
to his vision for FlushGordon. His plan was allegedly to
buy Hollywood studios and filmthree Flash Gordon movies back to
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back with the second.According to Brian Blessed, based
on the second movie serial,Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars, where
Flash Gordon meets the ClayMen and other people on Mars when
Ming has set up a base. ButMing died in the first movie, didn't
he? No, because Ming's eviladvisor Clytus was actually one of
many Ming clones, thusallowing both Max Von Sydow and Peter
(40:01):
Wingard to return to theirvillainous roles. But after Flash
Gordon released and flopped,Sanjay Jones sued Dino De Laurentiis
for breach of contract,demanding that De Laurentiis honour
his option for two furtherFlash Gordon films. Sadly, Jones
lost, and while they couldhave easily recast Flash, the original
just didn't do the businessthey expected and the sequels were
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never made. A new Flash Gordonhas been in the works since 20th
Century Fox hired J.D. payneand Patrick McKay to write a script
in 2014, with Matthew Vaughanin line to direct. This adaptation
was mooted till 2018, withDisney then buying 20th Century Fox
and obtaining the rights tothe material. An animated film was
(40:45):
then in the works with TaikaWaititi, who had taken inspiration
from Flash Gordon for Ragnarokin line to direct, but in 2019 the
animated version wascancelled. In 2021 it was revived
but this time as a live actionremake. But I put this to Hollywood,
an animated version of FlashGordon would be pretty perfect and
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would mean many of theoriginal cast who are still with
us could reprise their roles.So what I'm saying is, does anyone
have Brian Blessed's number?Despite the plans for a remake, Flash
Gordon has never really leftour screens. From Star Wars, Star
Trek, Guardians of the Galaxy,Ragnarok, even arguably Disney's
ill fated John Carter owes adebt to Flash Gordon. Despite Flash
(41:29):
Gordon actually owing a debtto John Carter. Everything takes
inspiration from everythingelse and a new Flash Gordon probably
would go some way to fix theissues of the original. Ming the
Merciless has often beenattributed to the so called Yellow
Peril xenophobia along with FuManchu and Marvel's the Mandarin
and coded as an East Asiancharacter with his hair and makeup
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despite Max von Sydow notportraying him with yellow face.
Times have changed when itcomes to depictions of discriminatory
racial stereotypes. So Much sothe BBFC, the board in charge of
UK film ratings, recentlyreclassified Flash Gordon as a 12A
due to these outdatedstereotypes. A new version would
have to go some way torecategorize Ming, but sometimes
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that's where these remakes canactually excel. Flash Gordon is one
of the ultimate sciencefiction and fantasy cult classics
with many famous fansincluding Taika Waititi, Mark Millar,
Robert Rodriguez, QuentinTarantino, Edgar Wright and the late
Stan Lee. From the originalcomic strip in the 1930s to the modern
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day adaptations and spin offs,Flash Gordon has inspired countless
filmmakers, TV producers andcomic book creators to create amazing
and imaginative stories andhas left an indelible mark on pop
culture. We're still talkingabout Flash Gordon and the fans still
love Flash Gordon becauseFlash Gordon is a good movie and
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it looks great on Blu Ray.Unfortunately, I haven't actually
seen it in 4K yet. Sam J.Jones appears playing himself in
Seth MacFarlane's 2012 comedyTed, with the characters of Ted and
John being fans of FlashGordon and the movie's reference
several times throughout thatfilm. He also appears in the sequel
Ted Too in Life After Flash.He is remarkably honest about his
(43:22):
attitude back then and themistakes he made. He called Dino
De Laurentiis to apologize forhis behavior and De Laurentiis accepted
his apology. Brian Blessed'sperformance as Prince Boltan became
a pop culture icon when theveteran stage and screen actor uttered
the immortal line Gordon'salive. Which 40 years later remains
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the most repeated, reused andrecycled quotation from both this
film and Blessed's entirecareer. He is more than happy to
repeat the line and does sooften. Blessed is a genuine blessing
and he adores this movie andits everlasting legacy. He often
tells stories from the set,including the time when the late
(44:05):
Queen Elizabeth II told himthat Flash Gordon was a particular
favorite Christmas movie shewould watch with her grandchildren.
I can just imagine her doing aGordon's alive. Cinema owes a huge
debt of gratitude to FlashGordon. But cinema also owes a huge
apology to Flash Gordon aswell. Both the original comic strip
(44:26):
and the serials and thismovie. It shaped so much of science
fiction and fantasy, and yetso many discredit this movie for
its cheesy, campy, colorfulversion of Mongo. Without Flash Gordon,
we wouldn't have Star Wars.George Lucas has acknowledged that
Flash Gordon was a significantinfluence. How could it not be? Look
at any level and they're verysimilar. Maybe Ning was going to
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turn out to be Flash's fathertoo. Which would mean his feelings
for Princess Aura areinteresting to say the least. But
hey, that also happened inStar wars, so samesies. Flash Gordon
may not be to everyone'staste, but it succeeds at doing what
it sets out to do. It wantedto create a lowbrow action adventure
that doesn't take itself tooseriously. And it's not only a space
(45:12):
opera, but a full blown rockopera. And it does this to a spectacular
level. It really, truly is inthe realest sense, a spectacle. Does
it completely make sense on acharacter level to trust the guy
who captured you in a rocketand flew you into space? No. And
how can that man survive amemory draining machine just by reciting
(45:33):
Shakespeare? He probablycan't. Should you be talking about
the kids you're going to havewith the woman you've known for about
a day or 48 hours at the most?Probably not. And should the most
powerful emperor in the galaxybe killed by the end of the spaceship?
Highly unlikely. And what ishot hail exactly? How does the hail
(45:54):
become hot when hail is cold?So many questions. But I care about
none of these things. Becausewhere this movie shines is aesthetically,
it's stunningly beautiful tolook at. The costume design is absurdly
good. It's a sexy fever dreamof a movie that stands alone. The
practical creature work ismemorable. The death scenes are pretty
(46:15):
horrifying, but the mattepaintings and model work are terrific.
This movie means more to methan I ever realized. But memories
of watching it as a kid justcame flooding back to me of how much
I wanted to be Princess Auraand wear her beautiful dresses. And
I just want to recommend againthe documentary Life After Flash.
Sam J. Jones came across asnothing but a humble and lovely person
(46:38):
who just listened to hisgreedy advisors rather than his own
gut. He accepts his behaviorat the time was awful and that he
squandered a potentially goodcareer, but he regularly attends
conventions and he lovesmeeting fans. He seems like a great
guy to meet and chat to and inmany ways is the perfect Flash Gordon.
Flash Gordon was simply alwaysmeant to be a one and done, and it's
(47:02):
the most perfect one and done.It balances the bombast of its visuals
and soundtrack with the kindof blandness of its leading actor,
but there's a balance there.Flash Gordon may be 45 years old
this year, but while thechances of seeing a remake anytime
soon are probably a little bitdead right now, this movie is there.
It's fun, it's crazy andsilly. And you know what? Gordon's
(47:26):
alive. Sorry, Brian, you do it.
Gordon's alive.
He loves it. You've just gotto let him do it. He. He's happy
now. Thank you for listening.As always, I would love to hear your
thoughts on Flash Gordon andthank you for your continued support
of this podcast. And if youwant to get involved and help this
podcast grow, you could tellyour friends and family about this
(47:46):
episode or about this podcast.You could leave a rating or review
wherever you found thispodcast. Or you can find me and follow
me on social media. I am atVerbal diorama all across social
media and you can find posts,you can like share and comment on
posts and that all helps withvisibility as well. Now for the next
(48:08):
episode. I'm actually notgoing to tell you what's coming next
because what's coming Next isa five episode extravaganza for the
300th episode of this podcast.So I'm actually not going to tell
you right now, but you canfind out in a special announcement
episode that is due out onyour podcast feed the day after this
(48:28):
episode comes out. So ifyou're listening to this episode
on release day tomorrow, youwill get an episode explaining what's
happening. If you're listeningto this episode later, it is the
next episode in your podcastfeed. Please have a listen. Hopefully
you'll be as excited as I am.But that is what's coming for the
300th episode extravaganza.Now this podcast is free and it always
(48:51):
will be free. However, it'snot free to make a podcast and I
rely on some incredibly onsome incredibly valuable support
from fellow listeners of thispodcast who really seem to love what
I do and are happy tocontribute financially to the upkeep
of this podcast. Now, you areunder no obligation to join them
and you never will be.However, if you have some spare change
(49:14):
and you want to support anindie podcast creator, and most importantly,
you enjoy the work that I doon this podcast, then you could choose
to support this podcastfinancially if you wish. There are
two ways you can do that. Youcan go to verbaldiorama.com tips
and give a one off tip or youcan go to verbaldiorama dot com patreon
and you can join theseincredible people. They are Claudia,
(49:36):
Simon, Laurel, Derek, Kat,Andy, Mike, Luke, Michael, Scott,
Brendan, Lisa, Sam, Jack,Dave, Stuart, Nicholas, so, Kev,
Pete, Heather, Danny, Ali,Stu, Brett, Philip M. Xenos, Sean,
Rhino, Philip K, Adam, Elaine,Kyle, and Aaron. If you want to get
in touch, you can email meverbaldioramail.com you can also
(49:59):
message me on various socialmedias erbaldiorama or you can go
to verbaldiorama.com and youcan fill out the little contact form.
I do try to reply to everymessage that I receive and I always
love to hear from people. Soplease feel free to send me a message.
Let me know what you'velistened to recently and feel free
to give me some feedback orsuggestions too. And finally, they
(50:23):
all want me to say Gordon'salive. Can you give us the line from
Flash Gordon? Because I knowthe Mexican Flash.
You want the life of Flash Gordon.
Gordon's alive. Gordon'salive. Gordon's alive. Here's some
(50:44):
gin. Gordon's alive. Gordon's alive.
Gordon's alive. You'rethinking about that now. In the news
this week, the polls continueto slide for Gordon Brown. And some
(51:06):
people are saying he's deadand buried. But I think the opposite.
I say Gordon's al. Hey,darling, I have been asked by the
public, would I say Gordon'salive? Ready? Gordon's alive. Please,
please, Mr. Bless, sayGordon's alive. Gordon's alive. Gordon's
(51:32):
alive. Gordon's alive. By theway, I haven't said it, have I? To
you all. I've got to say it toyou. Everybody wants me to say it,
don't they? Gordon's Alay. Oneof our greatest peacetime prime ministers
has died. But don't worry,Gordon's alive. Gordon's alive.
(51:59):
Bye,
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