Starring

Larry "Buster" Crabbe as Flash Gordon
Jean Rogers as Dale Arden
Charles Middleton as Emperor Ming
Priscilla Lawson as Princess Aura
Frank Shannon as Doctor Zarkov

Also starring
Richard Alexander, John Lipson, Theodore Lorch, James Pierce, Duke York, Jr and Earl Askam

Screenplay by Frederick Stephani, George Plympton, basil Dicker and Ella O'Neill
Directed by Frederick Stephani

The Flash Gordon serials were already 20 year old when I first saw them as a child on TV. Seeing them now with adult eyes, it's easy to laugh at their innocence, political incorrectness and many scientific flaws (not to mention their toylike props and primitive special effects). But even looking at them from the vantage point of the 90s, with all the special effects expertise squandered on lacklustre plots in today's film, Flash Gordon is still exciting and fast paced.

So much material is jammed into each 20 minute episode: so much plot is advanced with each line of dialogue, you can forgive the awkwardness of some of these lines because there's so much to feast your eyes on.

I never read the Alex Raymond "cartoon strip" but certainly 1932 Olympic medallist Buster Crabbe was born to play the title role. His Flash is a man of action, willing to face any danger, and loyal to every friend, no matter how recent the friendship. Crabbe also is in superb physical shape and up to doing many fights ad stunts required. Although it's obvious a stunt double stood in for him occasionally, it's equally clear he did most of the athletic stunts himself, including the underwater sequences.

Jean Rogers is likewise the perfect damsel in distress as Dale Arden, blonde and gorgeous and needing rescue at every turn. (Although Dale was dark haired in the Alex Raymond comic strip and in the 2nd and 3rd serials, rumour has it she was made blonde in this because of the popularity of Jean Harlow.) Provoking lust in alien men and jealousy in alien women, she is forever screaming and fainting and no role model for any of today's females since she takes no positive action at any time but only serves as a pawn. Although she is clearly a villain, Princess Aura is the female who repeatedly takes decisive action, frequently rescues Flash and moves the action along.

When I first saw these serials, Frank Shannon didn't seem incongruous to play Doctor Zarkov, but with his thick Irish accent, he now strikes the adult me as an odd choice for a Russian scientist. It must have been the beard that made him look both sinister and intellectual, although looking at him now, he reminds me more of Jim Henson. As an adult I confess to being annoyed at Zarkov's great facility with science (or at least his amazing luck in discovering new "rays"): He is able to summon up a newly discovered ray for almost every contingency: on ereplaces the power source holding up Vultan's Sky city: one restores Falsh's memory which had been lost due to "draughts of forgetfulness" one makes Flash invisible in time to escape execution: and one communicates the great distance between Earth and Mongo. All this and he designed and built his own rocketship as well (although he can't land unless all power on Earth is turned off!) Among the trio of Zarkov, Flash and Dale is everything you need in an adventure film: brains, brawn, bravery and beauty.

Cahrles Middleton, long a baddie in Westerns, makes an indelible impression as ther bald headed, high collared Ming, every inch the villain par excellence: his occasional hamminess just part of Ming's overall appeal. It's a shame he disappears for so much of the running time, replaced by his lesser minions.