Flash Gordon: Space Soldiers/Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars/Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe [1936] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

RRP Lowest New Price £9.95

Image Entertainment Release date: Tuesday 3rd of October 2000 Starring: Charles Middleton, Priscilla Lawson, Jean Rogers, Frank Shannon, Buster Crabbe, Director(s): Format: Box set, Black & White, DVD-Video, NTSC, Region code: 1 Running time: 778 minutes Language: English (Original Language)

NEXT WEEK AT THIS SAME THEATRE! DON'T MISS IT!
Review date: 2008-11-11 Rating: 10 out of 10

In the long lost days of laserdiscs it cost me a King's ransom to buy these serials (some call them chapter plays) in boxed sets from Image Entertainment. Now you can get the whole lot for under a tenner and relive (or discover!) the heady world of the matinee picture shows.

Here are all three of Buster Crabbe's groundbreaking serials from Universal spread across four discs (FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS having 15 episodes and thus requiring two discs), in pristine quality. You can see the studio's economy in using old sets (the steps of Frankenstein's castle, for example) and old music cues (Hans Salter's wonderful score from BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN is heavily borrowed), but the stories are pure comic strip a la Alex Raymond. Of course, Ming the Merciless steals the show every time, and the plots are spun out to fill a dozen or more episodes but the cliffhangers really excite and Crabbe plays the part with an understated virility. Those with an eye for the subliminal might wonder about some of the bizarre costumes (some of the men show more flesh than the women!) but there is still nothing to beat the sight of the Clay People emerging from the walls of their rock caves. Priceless stuff.

Don't try to watch these stories all in one go - choose a suitable time (Saturday morning is the most obvious, but personal schedules may suggest otherwise) and watch an episode a week just like at the cinema. And see how much you will be longing for the next episode to come round!