Line #30 Film/FlashGordonSerial


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3	In the 1930s and 1940s, three {{film serial}}s were made based on the ''ComicStrip/FlashGordon'' comic strip. They starred Buster Crabbe as Flash Gordon, Charles Middleton as Ming the Merciless, Jean Rogers as Dale Arden, and Frank Shannon as Dr Hans Zarkov.
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5	The three serials were:
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7	* ''Flash Gordon'' (1936)
8	* ''Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars'' (1938)
9	* ''Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe'' (1940)
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11	The serials were syndicated on US television during the 1950s, under the title ''Space Soldiers'' to distinguish them from the 1954 ''[[Series/FlashGordon1954 Flash Gordon]]'' TV series starring Steve Holland.
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13	These serials were among those that influenced the style of the ''Franchise/StarWars'' movies, particularly their use of an OpeningScroll.
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15	!!The 1930s film serials provide examples of:
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17	* AdaptationDyeJob: Dale is brunette in the comic strip but was made blonde in the first serial -- even though this meant bleaching brunette Jean Rogers' hair -- because of the power of the HairOfGoldHeartOfGold trope.
18	* BaldOfEvil: Emperor Ming.
19	* BearsAreBadNews: Vultan's pet Urso.
20	* BrainwashedBride: Ming the Merciless uses his hypnotic ray machine on Dale Arden to keep her docile during the marriage ceremony. Flash must stop the ceremony before the gong is sounded the requisite 13 times.
21	* CatFight: Aura and just about every other female character at some point.
22	* ClothingDamage: Certainly close to an UrExample for ScienceFiction. It happens in the very first installment to Flash, leading to him DressingAsTheEnemy.
23	* DefeatMeansFriendship: Thun the Lionman joins forces this way.
24	* DeflectorShields: The "Resistoforce" on Barin's ship (in 1936!).
25	* DetectiveMole: Ming tasks his High Priest of Tao with uncovering a traitor who provided Flash information. The Priest is the one who did so.
26	* DimensionLord: The mooks that capture Flash and co. in the first serial refer to Ming as emperor of the universe.
27	* DisintegrationChamber: The "Disintegrating Room" in ''Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars''.
28	* DramaticUnmask: Ming's [[InTheHood masked]] champion swordsman is revealed to be Prince Barin.
29	* DressingAsTheEnemy: Flash.
30	* ElectricTorture: Used as a cliffhanger in the first serial.
31	* EvilerThanThou: Ming proves to be this for Azura; he backstabs her once he gains possession of her magic sapphire.
32	* {{Flynning}}
33	* GoGoEnslavement for Dale... and [[FanDisservice Zarkov]].
34	* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: Dale, in the first serial.
35	* LovePotion: Ming tries one on Dale.
36	* NaturalDisasterCascade: A montage of StockFootage shows the worldwide panic as the planet Mongo is on an intercept course with the Earth--with Americans panicking, Europeans rioting, Arabs on the warpath, Chinese fleeing, Indians praying, and Africans...[[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking doing a native dance?]]
37	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Flash single-handedly decimates a Lionman fleet... that was en route to assault Ming.
38	* NonIndicativeName: ''Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe''. The final installment features a tortured rationalization of the title that does not involve any actual universe-conquering.
39	* OpeningScroll: Only the third serial, ''Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe'', utilized this (and it wasn't the first, as Universal had used this recap method in its serials starting in 1939). The first serial used non-scrolling text to recap the previous chapter, and the second utilized comic book-type art for its recaps.
40	* PeopleInRubberSuits: Almost twenty years before Franchise/{{Godzilla}}.
41	* PlanetSpaceship: Ming is capable of controlling the planet Mongo's movement and it heading towards Earth was no accident.
42	* PublicDomainSoundtrack: Besides music cribbed from various previous Hollywood films, the score includes pieces by Music/JohannesBrahms, Music/FryderykChopin, Music/EdwardElgar, Music/FranzLiszt, Music/PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky, and Music/RichardWagner.
43	* SharkPool: A cliffhanger in the first serial involves Flash trapped in a tank with a giant octopus.
44	* {{Slurpasaur}}: The first of Mongo's denizens Flash faces.
45	* SpeakNowOrForeverHoldYourPeace: Flash and Thun [[WeddingSmashers crash]] Ming's [[AndNowYouMustMarryMe wedding to Dale]] before the gong is sounded the requisite 13 times. Which amounts to the same thing.
46	* StockFootage: Scenes of the destruction wreaked upon Earth by Ming and the resulting pancking crowds were stock footage from newsreels. ''Conquers the Universe'' used footage from the 1930 film ''The White Hell of Pitz Palu'' for establishing shots of the frozen wastes of Frigia. The second and third serials also made increasing use of recycled footage from earlier in the series.
47	* SyndicationTitle: In the 1950s the serials were syndicated on TV under the title ''Space Soldiers'' (there being an actual made-for-TV ''[[Series/FlashGordon1954 Flash Gordon]]'' series also airing at the time).
48	* TrapDoorFail: Inverted, as the door works fine on Flash, only Ming's daughter is inadvertently dropped, too.
49	* UnfinishedUntestedUsedAnyway: Before [[MadScientist Professor Zarkov]] takes off in the rocketship he's built, we have this exchange with TheHero.
50	-->'''Flash:''' Sure this thing will work?
51	-->'''Zarkov:''' I have experimented with models.
52	-->'''Flash:''' Ah. ''(beat)'' They ever come back?
53	-->'''Zarkov:''' [[NotHelpingYourCase They weren't supposed to.]]
54	* WeWillUseManualLaborInTheFuture: Ming the Merciless has many slave laborers on Mongo.

Context Film / FlashGordonSerial