Serial Week: Flash Gordon

Welcome, welcome welcome one and all back for Day 3 of Serial Week. My apologies for not doing this yesterday but family visits, chores and the like can take its toll. That being said, let's journey into some sci-fi. Alex Raymond (Cartoonist from the 1930s) hit the jackpot working on such strips as Tillie the Toiler and Tim Tyler's Luck. His work was hailed as some of the very best that it allowed him to persue the creation of the jungle adventure series Jungle Jim and spy adventurer Secret Agent X-9. Jungle Jim and Secret Agent X-9 was even set for radio dramas in the day but as he was deemed the artist's artist and most of his work is still a major influence in comic books and the strips, the notoriety of these titles did not give him the recognition as his most popular and well-known science fiction character did. In competition with Buck Rogers, our Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Famer brought boys and girls and many adult, a favorite for ages to come.   This is Flash Gordon.

Hope they don't notice me floating an air biscuit.

With the planet Mongo rocketing towards Earth at unbelievable speeds...yet somehow gravity and atmosphere seem normal as if in the orbit of a sun or moon, Doctor Alexis Zarkov (Frank Shannon of Anthony Adverse, The Texas Rangers, Roll Along,Cowboy, The Adventurous Blonde, Blondes at Work, Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars and You Can't Take It With You) ponders and calculates the precise trajectory of Mongo's arrival. Conferring with his colleague Professor Gordon that a daring attempt must be made to confab with the inhabitants of Mongo.

With the help of an experimental rocket ship, Doctor Zarkov abducts his colleague's son Flash (Buster Crabbe of Tarzan the Fearless, Flash Gordon, The Kid Rides Again, Fugitive of the Plains, The Renegade, Devil Riders and Valley of Vengeance) and his friend Dale Arden (Jean Rogers of Flash Gordon, Ace Drummond, Flash Gordon'sTrip to Mars, Charlie Chan in Panama, Whistling in Brooklyn, Gay Blades and The Second Woman) as hostages a.k.a. Assistants in this flight to save humanity.

It also makes Jiffy Pop Popcorn!

No sooner our would-be heroes land on the planet, they are startled by massive lizards (iguanas in super-imposed camera effect) and hoisted to safety by the Emperor's men for violating their airspace and sullying their lands with their filthy human disease. Gotta fear that polio.   Our armored thugs drag the threesome (stop it, ya pervs) to the Emperor himself and you know they are in the hands of a benevolent and kind ruler named...Ming the Merciless (Charles Middleton of The Good Earth, Hollywood Cowboy, Conquest, Stand-In, Jezebel, Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars and Jesse James). Our villainous ruler takes an almost immediate shine to Dale (Guess they don't see many blondes) and puts Flash into an arena for MORTAL COMBAAAAAAATTTT!!!!

Will Flash make it out alive? Can Ming be reasoned with? Will Princess Aura have even tinier outfits?

Interspursed with Stage 28 of the Universal Studios we also get to make yet more trips to Bronson Caves in Griffith Park. Look I know it is a prime location for Westerns and Sci-fi but c'mon! I could map this place out in my head I have seen the landmarks that many times.

With a scheduled 13 part chapter serial, the entire show was shot in six weeks meaning cast and crew were pulling fourteen hour days. A budget of $360,000, three times the normal for a chapter play it allowed for elaborate armored costumes, scale and full size models and even stunt choreography that was not seen in previous serials.

Despite the substantial budget of the day, most of the show used existing sets from other Universal films such as: the laboratory and crypt sets from Bride of Frankenstein, the castle interiors from Dracula's Daughter, the idol from the Mummy and even the outer walls of Ming's castle was actually the cathedral walls from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Pretty snazzy, huh?

Excuse me, I am on the throne. Wink wink!  Shut the door!

Farscape Week: Farscape Season 2

Howdy folks and welcome back to Farscape Week.  We last we left our escapees and captive human, the Peacekeepers were in hot pursuit and several of the backwater planets seem to be less than hospitable.

Crichton is left without a change of new undies, some football and no Star Trek shows.    This is Farscape Season 2.

Gentlemen cosplaying stormtroopers is lame!

John Cricthon: You wanna have a mid-life crisis? Fine. That- Just…ditch the firm, head off to Maui, shack up with a supermodel, but you do not get to keep the Spoiler.

Narrowly evading capture from the Peacekeepers our nefarious crew strives to avoid too many conflicts and get home.  John is paired up with his alien comrades: The Luxan warrior Ka D’ Argo (Anthony Simcoe of The Castle, Dogwoman: Dead Dog Walking, BlackJack, Marking Time, Solo and Nim’s Island) former Peackeeper commando Aeryn Sun (Claudia Black of A Country Practice, City Life, Pitch Black, God of War and Stargate SG-1), Hynerian exiled ruler Dominar Rigel the XVI (voiced by Jonathan Hardy of The Devil’s Playground, The Mango Tree, Mad Max, The Delinquents and Bloodmoon) and Delvian priestess Pa’u Zotoh Zhaan (Virginia Hey of Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, Timeslip, Neighbours, Vietnam and Dolphin Cove) journey through the stars, visit worlds of unknown origin and get mixed up in more hijinks than the Scooby gang ever could. 

I said I am sorry I was motorboating you!!

 Their mode of transportation Moya is a leviathan, a living spaceship whose species is accustomed to transporting and serving others.  A means to the end in experiencing all the space has to offer.  Every ship must have its pilot and that is all the multi-tendrilled creature that interfaces with Moya is known as.

Aeryn Sun’s former commanding officer Captain Crias (Lani Tupu of Police Rescue, Heart of Fire, The Lost World, Green Sails and Lantana) hunts Crichton down well out of his assigned sector of space with a vengeance.   Enter our newest villain/lawman Scorpius (Wayne Pygram of Doing Time for Patsy Cline, Big Sky, Risk, The Lost World, Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars and All Saints) who assumes command of Crais’s ship but allows Crais to appear in charge. 

Yes I have observations to share.  This season we get to see a truly noteworthy character in that of Scorpius.  Initially you get the Sithlord feel from him but you find that he is so much more than a Lord Vader archetype in that he truly believes his cold and heartless exterior is needed to keep order in the galaxies but has vast depths to what made him the man he is. There is even some flashback sequences for Scorpius to better round out the character.     

EW the Luxan beefed!

We also become aware of the biggest Peacekeeper fear; the Scarrans.  A reptilian humanoid that can admit a focused heat wave to the point of 3^rd degree burns and even death, these monsters are by far some of the very best to come out of the Jim Henson Creatures production.   Upper body prosthetics, animatronic puppeteering with full facial and ocular movement; these nasties stand at about 7 feet tall, washboard abs worthy of 300 and overall menacing appearance.

Alternative Title Week!

Howdy girls and boys!!!  Welcome back and boy did I come up with some silly for this week.  After being a loyal fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and also reviewing movies for Epinions.com for a couple of years; I noticed a constant in the realm of B grade films marketing.  The need to alter the title numerous times throughout the regions.  For some, this is a means to improve the sales.  For others it is a simple factor that the original title does not translate well from language to language.

Sir, my suit is chaffing.

Personally, I think it is to drive critics completely crackers so they don't know what flick they are actually seeing.   Thus inspired is the theme of the week.   So sit back, relax and I hope you get a kick out of Alternative Title Week.

Sci-Fi Week: Flash Gordon

Hidey ho folks and welcome to Day 5 of Sci-Fi Week and this fine day we end on a Dino de Laurentiis production of which was a huge staple in science fiction and scifi fantasy.   What other film has a Bond, a Bond villain and Ornella Muti in basically spandex?   What other film can give you cheesy lines like,”Flying blind on a rocket cycle,” or “Lying bitch.”   So strap yourselves in, prep your preflight and may the gods have mercy.   This is Flash Gordon.

Space girls are easy...heh.

Spoiler’s alive??!!!

Based primarily on the 1934 comic strip created by Alex Raymond our film opens with booming narrative between two malicious powers on deciding what to do with the Earth.   His excellency, Emperor Ming (Max Von Sydow of The Exorcist, Conan the Barbarian, Judge Dredd, Minority Report and Shutter Island) amuses himself with tormenting Earth with manipulations of nature elements and disasters.    On Earth, New York Jets football hero Flash Gordon (Sam J. Jones of 10, My Chauffeur, Jane and the Lost City, Black Scorpion, Gangland, Revamped and Redemption) starts getting all flirty flirty with this leggy travel agent journalist Dale Arden (Melody Anderson of Dead & Buried, Manimal, Firewalker and Jake and the Fatman) and she plays hard to get.  Better to catch up with the pilots of this tiny two prop Cessna.   Little idle chat with the pilots and next thing you know the pilots are atomized by freak lightning.  No ifs ands or buts about it, they just vanish, leaving Flash to crash land the plane to safety.  Oh folks this will be a familiar theme as he seems to crash land everything he flies.   Dale and Flash are none worse for wear as they encounter NASA disavowed scientist Dr. Zarkov (Topol of Sallah, El Dorado, Fiddler on the Roof, The Public Eye, For Your Eyes Only and The Winds of War) whose building they crashed into.  He explains that he is concerned about the weather and assures them he has a phone to contact whomever they need.  Moments later he kidnaps them both on a rocket ship of his design to encounter whoever is wreaking havoc on the planet.  Travelled through almost a completely different galaxy our heroes arrive at the less that hospitable Mongo.  Nice place to visit but who wants to live there?  A bit like Vegas in that regards.  

Ming or the Mandarin? Who can say.

The intrepid trio is brought before the Royal Court and it will be in Ming’s law what to do with the pathetic Earthlings. Ming chooses to have Dale for…well pleasure.  Flash bowls over 12 of Ming’s men, in an impromptu Football tacklings and chucks these green cylinders at the soldiers, we get a fairly kick ass theme music going and then…Zarkov, typical geek throws like a retarded ape and clocks Flash in the coconut by accident.  Flash is scheduled to be executed but Ming’s daughter Aura (Ornella Muti of Tales of Ordinary Madness, Oscar, An Amazing Couple and Postcards from Rome) has the hots for Flash and asks to keep him as her…pleasure pet?   You get a Gorrean feel here in Mongo.   Our party is split up as Dale is prepped for…pleasure, Zarkov is to be mind wiped and Flash sent to death.  I tell you Ming can delegate his work load.  

And now a few points of interest about the film.   The airfield scenes at the beginning of the film, though set in America was actually shot in Scotland, Dino De Laurentiis was hoping Federico Fellini (La Strada, 8 1/2, La Dolce Vita and Juliet of the Spirits) would have directed the film given his involvement in the comic strip during WWII and Timothy Dalton looked good in a Errol Flynn mustache.   Yes the effects are blue screened and composited in but all in all this purposely campy film holds a place near and dear in my heart.

So drink after all this?  Oh, yeah.