Flash Gordon The Deadly Ray from Mars
Flash Gordon The Deadly Ray from Mars
The Earth is being ravaged by mysterious floods, hurricanes and earthquakes. After blasting off in a rocket ship, Flash Gordon, Dale Arden and Dr. Zarkov discover that the source of the destruction is a mysterious ray emanating from the planet Mars. Flying to the rescue, Flash and his friends must overcome the cruel and beautiful Queen Azura and the legions of Claymen and Treemen of Mars. But lurking behind Azura’s deadly schemes is the real culprit, Flash’s archrival Ming the Merciless! Once again Flash must struggle against incredible odds to save the Earth from almost certain doom. But will he be in time? This is a feature-length edited version of the 1938 serial “Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars.”
User Ratings and Reviews
3 Stars Flash vs. Ming: Round Two
Though an entertaining serial, “Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars” suffers from obvious padding (due to its 15-chapter length), erratic pacing and unnecessary comic relief. Luckily, Buster Crabbe and Charles Middleton resume their intergalactic battle in classic Saturday Matinee tradition - highlighted by the memorable presence of the Clay People. The action-packed finale has a rousing vitality not evident in the previous chapters. Worth seeing, but definitely the weakest of Universal’s Flash Gordon trilogy.
5 Stars A Historic Sci-Fi Film
This was truly the for runner for Star Wars and Star Trek. The special effects look very simple by todays standards. But I am still amazed by how the Clay People come to life out of the walls in the caves. It has great villains in Ming and the Tree People. I can only imagine how great this Serial looked in 1938 when fans went to the movies on Saturdays to see the next 20 minute chapter.
5 Stars Episodes listing
1. New Worlds To Conquer
2. The Living Dead
3. Queen Of Magic
4. Ancient Enemies
5. The Boomerang
6. Tree-Men Of Mars
7. The Prisoner Of Mongo
8. The Black Sapphire Of Kalu
9. Symbol Of Death
10 Incense Of Forgetfullness
11 Human Bait
12 Ming The Merciless
13 The Miracle of Magic
14 A Beast At Bay
15 An Eye For An Eye
5 Stars OF MING AND MAGIC
Of the three Flash Gordon serials, the Trip to Mars is my favorite. Ming, for unexplained reasons has escaped death on Mongo and landed on Mars [which bears an uncanny resemblence to planet Mongo]. He is nasty as ever. I really, really hate that Ming!
I have a confession, however. I am really, really in love with Azura, Queen of Magic! [I don't want that to get around]!
For some reason, she presented me with my first prepubertal sexual awakening. I was eight. It may have been her glacial beauty, her imperious disdain or her ability to turn grown men to clay and vanish on the spot. I don’t know.
She died in chapter 13. It’s an ignominious death in a tacky suburb of Mars. Even worse, it was at the hands of her own guards. I only know, had I been there, it would have turned out differently!
The computer has presented me with magic beyond her dreams. I could obtain this DVD and perform a search for my Queen.
Queen Azura was played by Beatrice Roberts. The actress was born in Manhattan in 1905. As a young woman she entered several beauty contests including Miss America. She had a short term marriage to Robert Ripley [Believe It or Not], and a long term dalliance with Louis B. Mayer [MGM]. She appeared in a string of grade B [maybe C] movies, often uncredited.
I still bear a torch for her. In truth she would be as old as my grandmother. On the screen, however, she retains a regal appeal.
Beatrice Roberts vanished finally into obscurity and apparently is buried in Plymouth, Massachusetts near my hometown. If I ever find her grave I’ll stop and plant some violets.
4 Stars Space silliness
These fifteen episodes, twenty minutes each, add up to a five-hour marathon of popcorn-worthy swashbuckling. It’s based on Alex Raymond’s comic strip from that pre-WWII era that now looks like such an Eden of innocence. It wasn’t, of course, but they didn’t know it back then.
Queen Azura of Mars has waged war on the clay people, who seem condemned to live their shambling lives away from the sun, in prison uniforms and itchy-looking rubber masks. Evil Ming the Merciless falsely befriends her, to take advantage of her mystic command of the White Opal. It is a gem that grants her magical powers and looks pretty good on with her perpetual evening gown. Somewhere along the line the good guy’s gal, Dale Arden, also doffs her lab coat and spends the rest of the flick running through forests and caves in an evening gown of her own - more sparkly, and more dramatic about the bodice. Then there’s Prince Barin, standing proud in his armored chestplate and shortie bloomers. And Ming, with a little arrow pasted onto his skullcap.
Well, ignore the costumes (and the plot, if you can). Instead, drink in the tubby little strato-sleds as they soar through the air, flatulent with drooping sparks and drifting wreaths of smoke. Or the wonderful labs, generally bare except for a few ominous Erlenmeyers and a Jacob’s ladder or two, or more. Or the ray guns that look mostly like little cookie presses with the handle bent sideways.
It’s great stuff. My childhood was, I admit, as close to the series’s 1938 date as to this writing, or closer. It was wonderful, stirring adventure back then. It still is, if you can see it with innocent-enough eyes. If not, it’s the epitome of camp, only better for being so un-self-conscious. And people don’t have bloody fights and do keep their clothes on, so tender sensibilities need not worry.
//wiredweird
Filed under: Comic Book DVD Reviews