Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1941)
1941 · Short film · 19 min · dir. Ford Beebe
New Thrills...New Marvels, New Wonders New Thrills!...New Marvels, New Wonders
- Action
- Adventure
- Science Fiction
Synopsis
Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe is a 1940 American black-and-white science-fiction 12-chapter movie serial from Universal Pictures, produced by Henry MacRae and co-directed by Ford Beebe and Ray Taylor. The serial stars Buster Crabbe, Carol Hughes, Charles B. Middleton, Frank Shannon, and Roland Drew. It was written by George H. Plympton, Basil Dickey, and Barry Shipman, and was adapted from Alex Raymond's syndicated newspaper comic strip of the same name from King Features Syndicate. Shown…
Synopsis from Wikipedia
Details
- Director
- Ford Beebe
- Writer
- Basil Dickey
- Cinematography
- Jerome Ash
- Studio
- Universal Pictures, King Features Syndicate
- Released
- 1940-03-03
- Running time
- 19 minutes
Cast & crew
Ford Beebe Director
John Hamilton
John Elliott
Harry C. Bradley
Earl Dwire
Donald Curtis
Luli Deste
Jean Brooks
Roy Barcroft
Reviews on the Internet Archive
★★★★★ · What memories · navywrslr · 2007-06-20
I havnt seen this since I was a kid in the 50s and even then it was an old series. I dont care the the special effects are bad,or that there are so many faults with fact and fiction,it just for a second took me back to a time when life was so much simpler. I do have one question,does anyone know the name of the FANFARE used at the beginning?
★★★★★ · Barry Shipman and Flash Gordon · frontrowkid · 2009-08-30
Veteran serial scriptwriter Barry Shipman contributed to the script of Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe. At the time (1940) Shipman was on hiatus from Republic Pictures due to salary negotiations. He had come over to Universal in order to prepare a new script for a Lone Ranger serial. When negotiations for this broke down, he was put on the staff for writing the Flash Gordon serial. Years later, when he was writing documentary scripts for the Air Force, one of the technical officers assigned to work with him claimed that it would be difficult for a layman to understand aeronautical language…
★★★★ · references to Nazis? · killer-bob · 2006-03-12
There always seems to be a little ambiguity about just what was known about Nazis and the Final Solution prior to the fall the fall of the 3rd Reich. The first episode of "Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe", released in 1940, actually uses the words "conentration camps" has scenes featuring a kind of gas chamber, and references to a kind of inverted eugenics (instead of a master race, Ming wants to create a "servant race" by using a toxin that will kill only those who are intelligent enough to oppose the emperor. I suspect that this is partly prewar topicality and part coincidence. It…
★ · Oh Brother · jimelena · 2005-12-02
I watched this because it has so many stars. The stars are wrong. I can't believe you guys like this. It has a certain campy quality to it and it is a little better than most serials. But basically, it poor cinema.
