Flash Gordon battles Ming the Merciless over a new plague devised by the latter called the Purple Death which is presently causing perturbation and despair on the planet Earth.A film edited from several instalments of the 40's serial 'Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe', these were then played on television in the 60's as standalone movies. They are I suppose moderately amusing in that they were made at a time when we knew so much less about outer space, meaning this kind of nonsense could be passed off as vaguely plausible. But on the whole these TV movies edited from ancient sci-fi serials are interminably bad to watch now. The constant stirring music was also fairly hard going to my ears as well. This one may not be quite as painful as its lower budget 50's 'Rocky Jones' equivalent but it is still very much off its time and even though it gives me about as much pleasure as kicking a puppy to say so, I have to say that I thoroughly disliked it more or less from start to finish.

FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE, with Larry Crabbe, Carol Hughes (--the Dale Arden--) and Anne Gwynne (--as Sonja--), directed by Beebe and Taylor, shows the search for Polarite, the attack of the robots (mechanical men, says Zarkov), a blizzard on Frigia, Will Flash Gordon ever defeat the purple plague? This disease is caused by the death—dust, another diabolical invention used by the deluded Ming.Daddy Ming goes on with his nonsense about conquering the Universe, being perhaps the most funny involuntarily absurd movie villain.Ming's sinister soldiers are faceless masks, mindless automates, reduced to a brainless obeying. Apart from the not so strikingly original structure of the group of protagonists and the use of a few planets, this look of the imperial soldiers is the most obvious resemblance to Lucas' universe.The setting is on the famous planet Mongo, then on a deadly cold planet—in another Ruritanian state, Frigia; in Frigia's north, Gordon and his pals, wearing clothes treated with Calorite, search for the Polarite, the only known antidote to the very useful death—dust, the ultimate invention from Ming's top laboratories; Gordon makes the avoidable mistake of taking some geezers (yes, I even count Barin as one of those …) with him, which kind of slow him down, but this only enhances the quality of the suspense.My favorite scenes are those in Ming's temple—the vast hall serving as Ming's throne room, adorned with oriental decorations, with the hideous idol, the belly dancers and the Asian music.This serial has the singularity of featuring the most absurd disguise ever—see Zarkov's disguise, offered him by another geek.After 70 yrs, the Gordon serials remain interesting, a nice testimony to the imperishable interest an exciting movie can raise.

I have affection for this just because of a childhood experience watching these old serials. There was a fellow who used to show a fifteen minute episode as he sat at the control panel of his space ship. I loved those old rockets hanging on strings as they floated through space with their electric sparks shooting off to the side. The aliens with the angel wings.Ming the Merciless. Flash and Dale. Everything was so cheap and, yet, even as a child, I thought this was some artifact from simpler time. I was actually concerned for Flash and what Charles Middleton was going to do to him. Dr. Zarkoff seemed a bit of a putz, but he was also brilliant. Anyway, this is pretty bad, but I can't judge it too harshly. It wouldn't be right.

Wonderful cornWhen good guys were good and bad guys were bad and there was never any doubt as to which was which.Imagine yourself as a kid in a time when we didn't know a great deal about space travel and were willing to suspend what little we did know for the sake of adventure.Forgive the costumes and sets that appear to be left overs from old war movies and Robin Hood films. Allow yourself to believe that there are clouds in space, rocket ships that sort of float about sounding like vacuum cleaners and ray guns that discharge lighting bolts that look like they are scratched into the film.In short, quit being a grownup for an hour or two and enjoy this grandfather of "Star Wars"