Above: A title card for FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE (Universal, 1940). Along the top, from left to right, are Carol Hughes, Buster Crabbe, Frank Shannon, Roland Drew, Shirley Deane, and Charles Middleton. In the lower right-hand corner are Lee Powell and Anne Gwynne.

FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE

Universal, 12 Chapters, 1940. Starring Larry “Buster” Crabbe, Carol Hughes, Frank Shannon, Charles Middleton, Don Rowan, Lee Powell, Anne Gwynne, Roland Drew, Donald Curtis, Shirley Deane, Victor Zimmerman.

To the accompaniment of a flash of lightning and the thundering strains of Franz Liszt’s “Les Preludes,” we’re off again on another amazing Flash Gordon adventure, unfortunately the last in this terrific series. Once again, our Earth is in deadly peril, this time from a mysterious and lethal plague known as the Purple Death. And, as in the case of the onrushing planet of peril in the first serial and the Nitron Beam in the second serial, no one is able to stop the threat but Flash Gordon (Larry “Buster” Crabbe) and Dr. Zarkov (Frank Shannon). Zarkov and Flash, along with Dale Arden (Carol Hughes) discover that a spaceship from another planet has been dropping the dust that causes the Purple Death plague into the Earth’s atmosphere. That ship is from Mongo, and is dropping the dust at the command of the Emperor Ming (Charles Middleton), reports of whose death have been greatly exaggerated. The Emperor has returned to his old palace on Mongo and is plotting to wipe out life on Earth and on any other planet that opposes his planned conquest of the entire universe. Our heroes once more rocket to Mongo to battle with Ming, joining forces with Prince Barin (Roland Drew), the planet’s rightful ruler, and begin to seek ways to combat Ming’s horrible arsenal of deadly weapons as the fate of the Earth and the universe hangs in the balance.

FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE has often been unfairly designated as considerably weaker than its two predecessors, and even sometimes branded as an out-and-out “bad” serial. This is partly due, no doubt, to the new actors cast in the roles of Dale Arden, Prince Barin, and Princess Aura, but it is also traceable to a myth set in motion by Jim Harmon and Donald F. Glut in their book THE GREAT MOVIE SERIALS. Always more concerned with wise cracks at a serial’s expense than accuracy, they did their best to give the impression that the serial was very low-budget and principally made up of stock footage from the German film WHITE HELL OF PITZ PALU, utilized when the heroes were in the frozen area of Mongo called Frigia. This is simply not true; only two of the serial’s chapters are spent in Frigia and the stock is used very sparingly indeed, intercut with plenty of original footage of the serial’s stars. Far from being the weakest of the Flash Gordon serials, CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE can stand on equal terms with its predecessors, failing to match them in some areas but surpassing them in others. Serial fans would be a lot poorer without any one of the three Gordon serials; they each possess their own particular delights but fit together very nicely as a trilogy.

UNIVERSE was obviously budgeted just as highly as the preceding FLASH serials, the Frigia Myth notwithstanding; once again the costumes, sets, and scientific gadgets are eye-popping and quite lavish by serial standards. Though no less visually interesting, the costumes are somewhat different than in the earlier serials; Universal in this serial was attempting to catch up to the artistic alterations in Alex Raymond’s strip that had taken place over the years. Hence, we have the good guys wearing Robin Hood-like forester outfits a good deal of the time (in keeping with the theme of Prince Barin’s “Forest Kingdom,” Arboria), which had been in use in the strip since 1935. Echoing the strip, which was imitating Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant in artistic “look” at this time, the overall fashions of Mongo in the third serial seem to vary from Medieval to 19th-Century “Ruritanian,” as opposed to the Dark Ages/German-futurist-expressionist outfits in the first serial.

In the set department, the enormous throne room used in both serials is back, as are the winding palace hallways used in TRIP TO MARS, although the rooms opening off the halls are fitted out with a new design of futuristic pocket doors, which prevents them from looking like a mere rehash of Azura’s palace rooms in the earlier serial. The barren, rocky portions of Mongo (called the Land of the Dead, as we learn for the first time in this serial), only briefly glimpsed in FLASH GORDON, serve as the backdrop for a good deal more of the action in this outing, with some interesting chases over the mountains and rocky trails of the Bronson Canyon area. Between the Land of the Dead scenes and the Frigia sequences, the serial manages to introduce visual touches that duplicate neither the palace scenes of the first serial nor the forest scenes of the second serial.

In the area of special effects and gadgetry, the televiewers of the second serial are back on board in this cliffhanger, as are the spaceship miniatures, but the interior spaceship sets are on an even more intricate scale than before, with complicated control boards, communications devices, and bombing equipment, which makes their operation seem that much more plausible, if still quite impossible. Ming’s laboratory is so replete with sinister devices, such as the cabinets in which he tests his Purple Death dust on his victims or the chamber where he assembles his fire missiles, that one finds it easy to believe he could possibly accomplish his goal of universal conquest.

As in the earlier Flash serials, there are plenty of wonderful minor touches that help to give the world of Mongo a distinctive look and feel--the excellent camouflage costumes of the Rock People and their amazingly undecipherable language (merely English-language dialogue played in reverse, but it works very well), the horned horses ridden by Aura and her entourage in one scene, and the oddly plumed bird used by Ming’s spy Sonja (Anne Gwynne) to carry messages (a crow with a topknot of white feathers), to name but a few.

One area in which UNIVERSE surpasses FLASH GORDON and equals if not surpasses TRIP TO MARS is in the pacing department; one action sequence follows another with exhilarating rapidity. There’s an elaborate fistfight in Ming’s dungeons in the first chapter, with Flash, Zarkov, and some of Barin’s officers taking on Ming’s men and Flash falling into a pit full of poisonous Purple Death vapor, several rocket chases and dogfights, a sequence in which Flash and Roka (Lee Powell) dodge rolling stones along a narrow trail while trying to rush Ming’s henchmen, and a very good fight between Flash and Captain Torch (Don Rowan) and Dale and Sonja atop one of the towers of Barin’s palace. Another action highlight is a very eerie sequence in which Flash and his party, mining “polarite” in Frigia, are attacked by Ming’s “Annihilatons, “robots that electrocute their opponents or destroy them by exploding themselves. The Annihilatons are merely men in robot costumes, but they are filmed at a slower and more herky-jerky speed that gives them a sort of spooky, inhuman demeanor; their attack is so creepily inexorable and devastating that even Flash and Zarkov get a bit rattled.

The Annihilaton sequence is part of one of the serial’s cliffhangers; some other standout chapter endings include a triple cliffhanger that has Flash falling from a cliff, Dale about to be thrown into a fire pit by the Rock People, and Zarkov being attacked by an “Iguanatheon” (one of the enlarged lizards also used in the first Flash serial); another chapter ending that has Flash, Zarkov, Barin, and Roka being trapped in a flood in the tunnels beneath Ming’s palace; and the Chapter Four ending, which is to my mind one of the best in the entire trilogy simply because of the way it shows off all the recurring characters’ relationships and personalities. Zarkov is made a prisoner of Ming and, after refusing to abet his plans, is shackled in the path of a death ray. Flash heroically leaps through a window to save him, coming into the path of the ray and ignoring the no-less-heroic Zarkov’s pleas for Flash to leave him and save himself, while on the balcony above the scene a frantic Dale, robed to become Ming’s bride, attempts to attack the evil despot, who laughs long and gleefully at his apparent triumph.

As may be ascertained from the preceding description, FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE does not sacrifice displays of personality by the characters that we have by this time come to know and love (or, in the case of Ming, hate) in favor of the accelerated action sequences. Indeed, UNIVERSE includes some character touches from the first FLASH serial that were largely absent from the second outing; Ming has once again resumed his slimy pursuit of Dale, and Zarkov has much more to do than in the second serial, once again assuming the near-co-hero function he filled in the initial serial. Possibly this is due to the fact that George Plympton and Basil Dickey, two of the writers on the first serial, handle the writing here--along with Barry Shipman, a newcomer to the Flash trilogy but not to serials. However, the already-mentioned casting switches preclude this serial making a complete connect to its predecessors, but they don’t do anywhere near the damage to UNIVERSE as has been claimed. But, to begin with the returning cast members:

Buster Crabbe once again does a sterling job as Flash, again making the character seem like a regular guy despite his near-superhuman physical abilities and great resourcefulness, through good-humored interaction with the other characters and occasional displays of impulsiveness. Frank Shannon, as already mentioned, takes a very prominent part in this outing, devising most of the strategies that are executed by Flash (and explaining fantastic scientific principles with truly convincing seriousness) and making very effective use of his commanding presence and stern, intense delivery (particularly in his several confrontations with Ming). Charles Middleton is also in fine form for his final turn in his “signature role,” scheming subtly, ranting maniacally, and uttering numerous scornful and sarcastic lines at the expense of his own men and the good guys alike. Despite the fact that this serial was filmed in the early 1940s, a decade where the vivid, flamboyant screen villains of the silent and early sound era were rapidly vanishing before more low-key bad guys, Middleton still plays his role to the hilt, and the serial is the richer for it.

Carol Hughes, as Dale Arden, is the most successful of the “new” actors; she’s quite beautiful (though not as incredibly lovely as Jean Rogers) and very spunky and likable; she seems to fit in instantly with Crabbe and Shannon and does a fine job following in Rogers’ footsteps. The slick, suavely dignified Roland Drew as Prince Barin is about as far from Richard Alexander as could be imagined, and though Drew is a competent actor, it’s simply hard to accept him as our old friend Barin. Barin’s role in this serial is admittedly of a different nature than in the earlier FLASH cliffhangers; instead of being a rough-and-tumble adventurer rushing about with the other heroes, he’s a ruler with his own palace and army and thus one can see why the producers might have felt a more aristocratic actor was required for the part; however, I think Alexander could still have pulled off Barin’s altered role. Shirley Deane, as Barin’s wife Aura, is also rather startlingly different from her predecessor Priscilla Lawson, being blonde, sweet-tempered, and almost mild-mannered. Aura must have been undergoing some kind of therapy since the first serial to have undergone such a mellowing of personality. Still, neither of these actors is bad or unpleasant to watch; they’re simply quite a departure from the originators of their roles.

Don Rowan, taking over the part of Captain Torch played by Earl Askam in the first serial, is a fine action heavy; while Askam’s Torch seemed more like a put-upon middle management official than a villain, Rowan is tough, callously mean, and very physically intimidating. Anne Gwynne, playing Ming’s female accomplice Sonja, is excellent; though she doesn’t have much to do in the first half of the serial, she gets a lot of screen time in the second half, carrying out treacherous and murderous deeds with a perpetual sneering smirk on her face. Michael Mark is very good as Karm, a scientist imprisoned by Ming who secretly aids Dr. Zarkov; he gives the character a kind of bitter dignity in the face of his continuing mistreatment by Ming. Lee Powell, hero of two classic Republic serials (FIGHTING DEVIL DOGS and THE LONE RANGER) gets everything he can out of his supporting role of Barin’s aide Captain Roka, getting in on a good deal of action and sharing a fine rapport with Buster Crabbe. Enormous and energetic Donald Curtis, usually a villain, does a fine job as another Barin aide, Captain Ronal (Curtis would perhaps have made a better substitute Barin that Drew, seeing as his size approaches that of Richard Alexander himself). Edgar Edwards, another usual villain, has a smaller role than Powell and Curtis but is also very good as yet another of Barin’s officers.

Earl Dwire is wonderfully “over the top” as a deranged scientist minion of Ming’s in the first chapter; he is so gleefully fiendish that one wishes he wasn’t killed off so early. Austrian actress Luli Deste plays the haughty Queen of Frigia, who assists our heroes after they have done her a favor, and Ben Taggart is her rather pompous chief general. John Hamilton, TV’s blustery Perry White, plays Flash’s father in the opening chapter of the serial, taking over the role from Richard Tucker, and is surprisingly calm and dignified. Tom Chatterton appears as Dale’s scientist father (this is the first we learn of Dale’s having a father), and Herbert Rawlinson is a grouchy, skeptical scientist who refuses to trust in Zarkov’s plan to save the Earth. Victor Zimmerman is Captain Torch’s sneaky lieutenant Thong, and the great character actor Byron Foulger puts in an appearance in the last two chapters as Drulk, another scientist-captive of Ming’s. Chief Yowlatchie and Mala appear briefly as, respectively, the king and prince of the aboriginal Rock People, and William Royle is Ming’s Captain of the Guards who is secretly loyal to Prince Barin and who saves the good guys’ lives on more than one occasion. Lane Chandler appears for the third and last time in the Flash series, this time as a Ming officer, and Roy Barcroft, whose face is almost always concealed behind Ming’s soldiers’ visored helmets, appears as multiple Ming soldiers (his voice is always a dead giveaway) and once as a Barin soldier. Eddie Parker and Tom Steele pop up in several minor roles, and also provide stunt work (Parker doubles Crabbe in the various action scenes).

Good old Ray Taylor, along with Ford Beebe, is the director, and helms the last of the Flash Gordon trilogy (each of which he helped to direct) to a very satisfactory conclusion. These three cliffhangers, taken together, represent such an incredible aggregation of old-fashioned entertainment and excitement that one wishes there had been at least one, maybe two or three, more entries in this wonderful series. It’s hard to say goodbye to Flash, Dale, Zarkov, Ming the Merciless, and the rest, and to leave Mongo and Mars behind.