the leading man is my tpye

Truly Dreadful Film

Good concept, poorly executed.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Even though this live-action, Sci-Fi, TV show from the early 1950s was, pretty much, a bargain-basement special, it still contained enough goofy entertainment value in its half-hour episodes to earn itself a 4-star rating from me.Set in the year 3203, Flash Gordon and his space-age pals, Dr. Zarkov & Dale Arden, boldly travel across the vast galaxy, battling cosmic villains, here, there, and everywhere.Always in full command of his gleaming starship, The Sky Flash, you can always count on dashing, young Gordon and his diligent crew to keep the cosmos safe for one, and all.Filmed in b&w, this German production ran for only one season, 1954-1955.

TO BEGIN WITH, let us state upfront, that we had believed, do believe and always will believe that the 3 Cliffhangers/Chapter Plays/Serials from Universal Pictures in the 1930's & early '40's were the quintessential rendering of Alex Raymond's comic strip to the celluloid medium, period. Okay, now we have that out of the way. (Now ain't full disclosure, Schultz?) TO OUR WAY of thinking, attempting to do a FLASH GORDON TV Series, while the local channels were full of FLASH GORDON (Universal, 1936) and FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS (Universal, 1938)* as tantamount to programming suicide. We remember as young boomer kids that Buster Crabbe, Jean Rogers, Frank Shannon and Charles B. Middleton WERE definitely THE Flash, Dale, Zarkov and Ming.WELL, THE SERIES was made and in spite of our feelings, there were many really good aspects to its fundamental elements.FOR ONE, ALTHOUGH the serials had a rather elderly Irish born actor in Frank Shannon in the role of Dr.Zarkov, this TV series cast a much more youthful Joseph Nash in the role of Dr. Hans Zarkov.** In examining samplings of the comic strip, one finds that this younger version of the brilliant scientist was much more closely molded in the original concept.AS FOR THE choice of Irene Champlin in the role of Dale Arden, we have no real objections. True, she didn't wear any skimpy, sexy burlesque queen outfits; but to be fair, the strip had long abandoned the practice. We figure that Hearst's King Feature Syndicate (the copyright owner) had found a different costume designer.CONCERNING HAVING CAST Mr. Steve Holland as Flash Gordon, we think he was at least adequate in the part. The athletic actor had the proper attitude and a trim physique; but lacked the musculature of the all around Mr. Everything athlete and 1932 Olympic Swimming Champion, Clarence Linden "Buster" Crabbe.THERE WERE MANY aspects of this telling of FLASH GORDON Saga that strayed over and seemingly 'borrowed' some plot aspects from rival spaceman dean of the comic strip interplanetary genre, BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY. Whereas FLASH GORDON had been set in contemporary USA, Mongo and other worlds, this series opted for the futuristic.WELL, WE KNOW for sure that at least one episode did. It also made reference to the futuristic city below their rocket-ship as Berlin! (Remember, Schultz, that this series was a West German Television production!) NOTE * To the best of our recollection, FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE (Universal, 1941) wasn't released to the television market until much later than its two predecessors, circa 1957.NOTE ** Perhaps there was a growing Anti-Nazi Sentiment added to World War I Anti-German feelings in the mid to late 1930's, but rather than calling him Hans Zarkov (as in Alex Raymond's strip) the only given name in the serials was that of Dr. "Alexis Zarkov" in the second serial, FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS (1938).

The Flash Gordon 1950's TV series is interesting, mostly due to it's being one of the first science fiction series to be shot on film. The fact that it was made in the still recovering post WWII Germany, and the later episodes in France gives it different look and feel than comparable American lensed shows, such as Rocky Jones, Spacer Ranger.Some of the German episodes are rather dark and grim, with an almost expressionistic look. The budgets are quite low, and while there are a number of model shots of the space craft (such as Gordon & Co.'s Skyflash) many of the effects in the German episodes are largely photo and cel animation. The French episodes feature the Skyflash II, a very shiny rocket model, which seemed to complicate matters for the slightly more ambitious FX in the later episodes.Male model Steve Holland played Flash, which is intriguing, as Holland was the artist model used by James Bama for the Doc Savage novel reprints that were highly successful in the 60's and early 70's. Holland turned up on the cover of many action hero paperbacks. For someone with no real acting experience, he's not too bad -- but he's certainly no match for Buster Crabbe's portrayal.Joe Nash is generally quite good as Zarkov. Irene Champlin seemed to have some trouble (as did many of the actors) in getting her lines out and try to make an actual performance gel in the rushed looking -- possibly single take -- scenes.Producer Ed Gruskin was known for his work in radio (including a Doc Savage series) and writer Bruce Elliot wrote for the pulps, notably a number of Shadow novels under the house name of Maxwell Grant.Some of the music by Roger Roger (yep, that's his name) in the French produced episodes will be very familiar to viewers of low budget horror and Sci-fi films of the 50s,60s, and 70's. The tracks became part of a music library, and are still licensed for use today.

Tala Birell's role is indicated in the credits (not "uncredited" as heretofore indicated). The episode was filmed in Berlin and was the only episode in which Tala appeared. She looked all of her 45 years and would die several years later from cancer. Tala's commanding presence as a vicious queen determined to rule the universe expands the range of camp performances, unfortunately her last role in a 30 years career on stage and in film.