WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema Rewid: Flash Gordon (1980) 0:00:04.519 --> 0:00:07.760 Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. Rewind, we have a 0:00:07.760 --> 0:00:10.719 fun one here for you today. This episode originally published 0:00:10.760 --> 0:00:14.000 two sixteen, twenty twenty four. It is our episode on 0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:20.160 nineteen eighties Flash Gordon. This movie is an extravaganza, so 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:22.840 we're gonna dive right in, listen to a little Queen 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:26.720 and rock out with its cosmic Shenanigans. 0:00:30.080 --> 0:00:35.800 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:40.520 --> 0:00:44.000 Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb and. 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:45.640 This is Joe McCormick. 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:45.839 In. 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:50.000 Today's film on Weird House Cinema is the cheeky nineteen 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:55.720 eighty science fiction adventure Flash Gordon, allegedly starring Sam J. 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:59.680 Jones and Max Foncito. But I would say more more 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:04.480 like arring Brian Blessed and Queen, and boy, what a 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:06.880 film this is, you know. I was just thinking about 0:01:07.440 --> 0:01:10.720 how we cover all kinds of movies on Weird House Cinema. 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:14.760 We do good movies, conventionally bad movies, well known movies, 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:18.360 obscure gems, big and small, loud and quiet. But lately 0:01:18.760 --> 0:01:20.720 I think we've kind of been on a streak. We 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:25.960 have featured a lot of very big, very loud type 0:01:26.000 --> 0:01:30.800 movies extravaganzas, if you will, specifically movies like this from 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:34.440 the early nineteen eighties that are kind of a weirdness overload. 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:36.920 So we did The Apple from the year nineteen eighty, 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:40.320 we did Zoo Warriors from the Magic Mountain from nineteen 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:43.360 eighty three, and now we're back with another movie of 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:46.120 this type yet again from the year nineteen eighty and 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:49.280 its Flash Gordon. In the tradition of the other two 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:51.720 I just mentioned, this movie is a lot. It is 0:01:51.760 --> 0:01:57.080 almost overwhelming in its thrilling and hilarious flamboyance. 0:01:58.120 --> 0:02:00.280 Yeah, there's so much here. This is the film seen 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:03.600 many times over the years, and yet going into it again, 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:05.480 you know, watching it maybe for the first time in 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:10.920 oh maybe ten years, there's so much I'd forgotten. So 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:13.720 there were the big things that I was eager to 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:17.760 re experience, and then equally overwhelming things that had slipped 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:20.760 my mind, and things that were maybe a little more 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:23.520 subtle that are also just as weird and wonderful. So 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:25.920 it's quite an experience. You know. 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:27.680 There are a lot of things I want to talk 0:02:27.680 --> 0:02:30.520 about with this movie, but one thing that really struck 0:02:30.600 --> 0:02:34.440 me about it is that, and of course it's not 0:02:34.480 --> 0:02:36.720 the only movie of this sort, but it felt really 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:38.760 strong here is that this is a movie made with 0:02:38.919 --> 0:02:44.520 a palpable sense of nostalgia. It feels interesting because this 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:47.079 now is a movie that's like forty three, forty four 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:51.480 years old. Probably a lot of current adults have nostalgia 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:55.000 foreseeing the nineteen eighty Flash Gordon movie as a kid. 0:02:55.720 --> 0:02:58.639 But it's also a project where you can feel how 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:04.320 the filmmakers were trying to with some ironic distance, just 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:08.680 like shamelessly indulge in nostalgia for a type of storytelling 0:03:09.080 --> 0:03:13.120 they themselves had loved as children, maybe forty years or 0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:13.960 so before that. 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:17.960 Yeah, Yeah, getting into Flash Gordon's origins as a Depression 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:22.160 era comic book, it's passed as a part of these 0:03:22.240 --> 0:03:25.560 various action serials and so forth. It was a very 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:31.880 influential series, a very influential fiction on a number of 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:36.680 future filmmakers, future writers, future comic book authors and illustrators, etc. 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:41.680 Now, this movie is not overtly a comedy. I guess 0:03:41.720 --> 0:03:44.720 you would say that the genre is science fiction adventure. 0:03:45.280 --> 0:03:49.240 But it is a deeply funny movie. And you could 0:03:49.320 --> 0:03:51.280 look at movies like that that are, you know, not 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:54.400 overtly comedies but are very funny, as the kind that 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:56.600 are intentionally funny and the kind that are not so 0:03:56.680 --> 0:03:59.480 intentionally funny, maybe the latter category, you know, ed wood 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:04.520 films such this movie, though, is very intentionally funny, even 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:09.320 though comedy is not its overt category. One way I 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:13.600 would describe this is a defining sensation in watching Flash 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:18.159 Gordon is the thin clacking sound of plastic pieces of 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:21.640 costume armor hitting one another in the battle scenes. Like 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:24.560 it feels like a significant choice that there was not 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:28.560 an attempt to edit out that plastic clacking sound or 0:04:28.600 --> 0:04:31.680 to like folly in a weightier sound. It's just part 0:04:31.720 --> 0:04:33.960 of the magic of Flash Gordon. You are supposed to 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:36.080 hear the plastic on plastic grind. 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:39.120 Yeah, that's a good point about that. The plastic armor. Gosh, 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:43.039 there's so much plastic armor. Yeah. It is an extravagant 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:48.520 campy updating again of this old comic book, this old 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:52.520 series into a kind of late seventies cinematic vision comes 0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:55.040 out in nineteen eighty, but you know very much the 0:04:55.400 --> 0:04:59.680 late nineteen seventies trajectory getting this film made and it 0:04:59.720 --> 0:05:02.480 is out it out yet another sci fi film of 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:05.840 this era that was chasing the hit that was Star 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:09.880 Wars MM, which is ironic, of course, because George Lucas 0:05:09.960 --> 0:05:12.640 was heavily inspired by the old Flash Gordon comic books 0:05:12.880 --> 0:05:16.520 and actually wanted to make a film adaptation at one point, 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:19.800 but the rights were too expensive, so he began an 0:05:19.839 --> 0:05:22.800 alternate journey that would result in Star Wars and the 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:27.480 Star Wars franchise that would spill out of it. In 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:31.000 the wake of the success of Star Wars, however, famed 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:33.880 Italian producer Dino de Larentz, who've talked about on the 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:37.279 show before, picked up the film rights and set out 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:38.360 to produce the picture. 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:41.679 That is funny and Yeah, I was wondering about exactly 0:05:41.720 --> 0:05:43.720 that kind of thing, because for a long time I've 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:47.799 understood that part of the animating spirit behind the creation 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:52.160 of Star Wars was an excitement for this type of 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:55.520 storytelling that George Lucas remembered from when he was a kid, Yeah, 0:05:55.600 --> 0:05:58.440 like the adventure serials and stuff, and he wanted to 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:01.040 recreate that feeling with his own movie. I don't think 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:04.080 I realized that he directly wanted to do an update 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:07.840 of the Flash Gordon comics but but that would make 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:10.320 a lot of sense. Ultimately we got Star Wars, which 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:12.920 is a you know, more new, original kind of thing, 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:15.360 which is wonderful in its own right. And then yeah, 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:18.599 like so you're saying that the Star Wars that George 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:21.159 Lucas had to make because he couldn't make he couldn't 0:06:21.200 --> 0:06:24.279 get the rights to Flash Gordon ultimately inspired them to 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:26.080 make a new Flash Gordon movie. 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:30.360 Yeah. Yeah, Essentially, Star Wars is an evolution of the 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:33.719 basic concept. So in a way, what you know, Dealer 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:36.000 Interesting sets up to do is kind of it almost 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:38.200 feels kind of backwards by comparison, Let's go back to 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:42.000 the thing that inspired the amazing new thing and see 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:44.599 what we can create. And you know, to their credit, 0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:48.839 it doesn't feel as much in its substance like a 0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:51.760 Star Wars ripoff. It doesn't feel like you're chasing Star 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:55.200 Wars so much, certainly not as much as other pictures 0:06:55.200 --> 0:06:58.680 we've talked about. But yeah, with this film have come 0:06:58.720 --> 0:07:01.680 into being without Star War being the success that it was, 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:05.440 he can make a strong argument that it would not. Now, 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:08.680 of course, Dino de Lorento's was not going to direct this. 0:07:09.360 --> 0:07:12.160 You know, it's a predominantly, it's always been a producer 0:07:12.400 --> 0:07:15.800 puts the pieces together right. At one point he had 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:19.880 none other than Nicholas Rogue attached, who of course directed 0:07:19.880 --> 0:07:22.840 The Man Who Fell to Earth, which we previously discussed 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:24.240 on the podcast. 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:27.760 I love Flash Gordon the way that it is, but 0:07:28.000 --> 0:07:30.440 I wish we could have seen the Nicholas Rogue version. 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:33.920 I'm imagining it would be a lot sadder and more 0:07:33.920 --> 0:07:37.560 psychologically complex and would have like fifty times more full 0:07:37.560 --> 0:07:38.960 frontal nudity. 0:07:39.240 --> 0:07:43.520 Yeah, yeah, there's there's actually a whole special feature about 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:46.440 this project that never came to be on the Arrow 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:49.240 Blu ray of Flash Gordon, which I watch for this 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:53.720 this episode rendered from videodrome. Of course, Rogue apparently wanted 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:56.080 to make a big Hollywood picture, and a lot of 0:07:56.120 --> 0:08:00.000 work went into writing and storyboarding his vision for Flash, 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:03.400 and they point out that Rogue was notoriously protective of 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:07.240 his vision for a picture. In the end, however, Dino 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:11.200 didn't think that his vision was fun or funny enough. 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:15.480 It was apparently like pretty serious and you know, just 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:18.280 like you'd imagine, it wasn't as campy as what we 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:22.520 end up getting, and so he Dino de Lerence is 0:08:22.560 --> 0:08:25.600 get ends up going in a different direction, someone perhaps 0:08:25.600 --> 0:08:29.200 more suited in his view for the vision that he 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:32.280 sees for Flash Gordon. And also, according to some of 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:34.440 the commentators that they talked to in this feature, atte 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:36.760 someone who's maybe a little a little more willing to 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:41.000 play the game with a producer like Dino. So, yeah, 0:08:41.000 --> 0:08:43.440 it's always fun to imagine, you know, pictures that could 0:08:43.440 --> 0:08:48.360 have been, especially with some of these big, big films 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:51.440 like this. But you know, it's hard. It's hard to 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:55.199 imagine another version of Flash Gordon being as fun as 0:08:55.200 --> 0:08:55.680 this one is. 0:08:56.240 --> 0:08:58.199 I think that would fully depend on whether they got 0:08:58.240 --> 0:09:01.560 Brian Blessed or not. And it's sounds like the rogue 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:04.280 version of this film, Brian Blessed's presence would not make 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:05.000 as much sense. 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:08.480 Yeah, he is the atlas holding up this picture. I 0:09:08.480 --> 0:09:10.760 don't have an elevator pitch for Flash here, Joe, I 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:11.760 don't know if you if you do it, I mean, 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:13.760 it's Slash Gordon. What can I tell you? 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:15.199 Here's the elevator pitch. 0:09:16.040 --> 0:09:18.840 I love you, but we only have fourteen hours. 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:19.120 To say the. 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:25.040 Yeah, that pretty much sums it up, all right. Let's 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:28.400 listen to the original trailer audio here because and if 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:30.640 you haven't seen the film, and there's a lot to see, 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:40.400 but still the sonic experience of the trailer is pretty convincing. Clides, 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:44.680 I'm bored. What play thing can you offer me today? 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:48.040 An obscure body in the SKA system of your majesty. 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:52.280 The inhabitants refer to it as the planet Earth. 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:59.360 I like to play with things. While before annihilation pathetic earthly? 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:02.360 Who can save you? 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:12.559 Now? Drange object imaged in the Imperial Botic? 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:21.080 He said, who. 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:28.000 The art woman? They paid half for a pleasure? Don't 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:37.120 killing yet? Father? I want him to flesh to. 0:10:45.360 --> 0:10:54.240 F can out. 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:30.000 Side. All right, Well, if you want to go out 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:32.480 and watch nineteen eighties Flash and Gordon, there are multiple 0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:35.240 places to see the film these days. It wasn't always 0:11:35.240 --> 0:11:37.280 the case. I remember a period of time when I 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:39.760 wanted to pick the movie up and I don't think 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:42.560 it was available on disc gett. But again, I watched 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:45.200 it on the excellent Arrow Blu ray. That Blu ray 0:11:45.280 --> 0:11:50.240 also includes the full length documentary Life After Flash, amid 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:51.679 a bunch of other extras. 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:54.400 I just streamed it on one of the major services 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:57.360 and the quality was good, So yeah, it's out there, all. 0:11:57.320 --> 0:11:59.280 Right, let's talk about the people involved here. Okay. So 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:02.280 the director ist Nicholas Rode. The director that Dino Dealer 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:05.679 NTO has ended up going with is Mike Hodges, who 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:09.920 lived nineteen thirty two through twenty twenty two. English director 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:12.800 and writer, whose first big film hit was nineteen seventy 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:16.840 one's Get Carter starring Michael Kine, followed by seventy two's Pulp, 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:20.440 seventy four as the Terminal Man, and seventy eight's Damien 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:21.440 Omen two. 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:24.360 Ah, that's the Omen movie with the like the all 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:27.679 Boys Prep School. Okay, have you seen that one? 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:29.360 I haven't seen that. I know you went through a 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:32.400 tear with your Omen movies a while back. 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:35.000 Yeah, a couple of years ago, or either last year 0:12:35.080 --> 0:12:37.040 or the year. Maybe it was just last year. Rachel 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:40.160 and I watched all of the Omen movies. We enjoyed 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:41.679 the second one. I don't know if i'd say it 0:12:41.800 --> 0:12:42.920 was good, but we enjoyed. 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:47.840 I just subsequent credits after Flash included eighty five Morons 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:51.560 from Outer Space, eighty nine's Black Rainbow, and two thousand 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:54.600 and threes I'll Sleep when I'm Dead. Also, he did 0:12:54.679 --> 0:12:58.120 some TV, including a nineteen eighty six action movie called 0:12:58.200 --> 0:13:01.800 Florida Straits with Roald Yulia in the lead role. And 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:04.800 he also did two music videos for Queen Flash, which 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:07.400 is of course is one of them. The songs from 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:10.319 this film as well as body language. 0:13:10.679 --> 0:13:14.960 Weird coincidental or I would assume coincidental double Panos Cosmatos 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:18.559 overlap This guy is a movie called Black Rainbow, and 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:21.679 in Flash there's a planet called Arborea, which is the 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:24.960 name of the center in Beyond the Black Rainbow by 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:25.960 Panos Casmonos. 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:29.720 Yeah, those connections are there. I one has to believe 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:33.280 they have meaning. Now, apparently Hodges had the right energy 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:35.520 for this project, which, according to some of the bits 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:38.480 I was watching on the Blu ray, involves a lot 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:40.360 of sort of going with the flow on such a 0:13:40.520 --> 0:13:46.120 large and at times it sounds like maybe slightly chaotic project, 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:47.920 you know, because you know, a lot of moving pieces, 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:51.480 and I think there were definitely some places where they 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:53.720 say that, you know, they had to kind of make 0:13:53.800 --> 0:13:55.480 things up on the fly to figure out how to 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:56.920 piece everything together. 0:13:57.640 --> 0:14:01.439 I think with one advantage of doing a big extravaganza 0:14:01.520 --> 0:14:05.319 movie like this is that the success of the film 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:09.120 doesn't hang so much on the on the story being 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:13.400 executed in a coherent way, so like you can have 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:15.360 you can have a lot of things kind of like 0:14:15.480 --> 0:14:18.240 get pieces get moved around and things get messed with, 0:14:18.480 --> 0:14:20.760 and still over all the experience will kind of work. 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:24.920 Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't have to be perfect with Flashboard, 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:28.360 which is not to discount the talent that went into 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:30.760 this film, like so much about the the just the 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:33.320 visual flare of the film, and we're not even gonna 0:14:33.320 --> 0:14:34.960 be able to get into all the names involved there. 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:37.880 But yeah, so many pieces do come together perfectly. It's 0:14:38.040 --> 0:14:40.760 just that you can definitely tell there moments where things 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:45.280 feel like certain scenes have been rushed in terms of 0:14:45.400 --> 0:14:48.760 the overall vision for the picture and the flow of 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:52.600 the plot. Uh huh, all right. The screenplay credit goes 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:58.040 to Lorenzo Simple Junior Live nineteen twenty three through twenty fourteen, 0:14:58.200 --> 0:15:01.120 American writer whose credits include one hundred and twenty episodes 0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:03.800 of the original Batman series, which I think is telling, 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:08.280 but also films like nineteen seventy three's Papillon, seventy four's 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:11.280 The Parallax View, seventy fives, Three Days of the Condor, 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:15.440 the nineteen seventy six, King Calling Movie, nineteen eighty three's 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:19.120 Never Say Never Again, and nineteen eighty four Shena. The 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:23.920 other writer that's credited is Michael Allen, whose other credits 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:27.760 include Enter the Dragon and also a half dozen other titles, 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:31.520 but Flash being the biggest by far, and it's where 0:15:31.560 --> 0:15:34.240 we also should point out that the character Flash Gordon 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:36.880 was created by Alex Raymond, who lived nineteen oh nine 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:40.360 through nineteen fifty six, an American cartoonist an illustrator who 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:44.240 created Flash for King Features Syndicate back in nineteen thirty four. 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:48.880 And I believe it was essentially an attempt to like, like, Okay, 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:52.200 the competitor has Buck Rogers, we need a Buck Rogers too. 0:15:52.520 --> 0:15:55.240 Let's make him. Okay, what are we gonna call him? Well, 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:57.920 we can't call him Buck. How about Flash? We can't 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:00.800 call him Rodgers? How about Gordon? There you go make 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:12.160 it work. And it grew from that. All right. Now, 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:14.520 getting into the cast here, I'm gonna try and divide 0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:17.240 it up among our core factions. You know, it's sort 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:19.960 of like Game of Thrones here, we have different factions involved. 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:23.320 We're gonna start with the Earth Links, all right. First up, 0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:27.080 we have Sam J. Jones as Flash Gordon born nineteen 0:16:27.160 --> 0:16:31.720 fifty four, former US marine model and American football player, 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:35.000 who was cast in this film over various hot commodities 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:37.840 in Hollywood due to his debut in the nineteen seventy 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:43.600 nine Blake Edwards ten. His professional life after Flash, which 0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:45.440 is again is the subject part of the subject of 0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:49.040 his twenty seventeen documentary, consisted of a lot of TV 0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:52.360 work as well as films like eighty five's Jungle Heat, 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:55.640 ninety two's Maximum Force, and a lot of just you know, 0:16:55.760 --> 0:17:01.440 general action television action films not necessary like The Cream 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:04.040 of the Crop, you know. But he worked a lot 0:17:04.560 --> 0:17:07.040 more recently. He was in both Ted and Ted two, 0:17:07.480 --> 0:17:09.040 and he remains active to this day. 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:11.760 It's easy to see why he was cast when you 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:15.200 think about this movie as a comic book adaptation, because 0:17:15.200 --> 0:17:19.480 he has such a comic book illustration look about him, 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:22.240 more so than most biological humans. 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:26.159 Yeah, there's no denying has a great look. Also no 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:30.200 denying that he's rather green. But at the same time, 0:17:30.880 --> 0:17:36.080 it's it's almost unfair to compare his acting to other 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:39.240 actors in the film, because you know he and also 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:41.119 is co star Melody Anderson, who will talk about in 0:17:41.119 --> 0:17:43.000 a minute. I mean, they're in there with just an 0:17:43.080 --> 0:17:47.360 international cast that features not only like very tenured actors, 0:17:47.600 --> 0:17:51.719 but also generational talents, and so it's you know, how 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:54.160 can you compare one to the other. And then also, 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:57.520 and I think this is more important he gets there's 0:17:57.520 --> 0:17:59.560 a fair amount of fun that's made at the expense 0:17:59.600 --> 0:18:02.160 of this character and to a certain degree of this performance. 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:04.920 But I think it's pretty perfect, right, I mean, what 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:08.040 more do you want from the role of Flash Gordon here? 0:18:08.440 --> 0:18:10.919 Oh yeah, come on, let's be nice to Sam J. Jones. 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:15.600 He does Flash great. You know what, what would you change? 0:18:15.680 --> 0:18:17.080 What kind of notes are you going to give him? 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:20.159 Yeah? I mean if we were talking about Nicholas Rogues 0:18:20.200 --> 0:18:23.680 flash Gordon, yeah, okay, maybe that's a different animal we're envisioning. 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:27.359 But this vision, this Flash Gordon, I think there's nobody 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:29.560 else you put in there. I've read that people like 0:18:29.720 --> 0:18:32.600 Arnold and even Kurt Russell, who would have been interesting 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:35.520 in this role. You know that they were up for it, 0:18:36.240 --> 0:18:38.240 but it just I can't imagine it wouldn't be the same, 0:18:38.240 --> 0:18:40.240 wouldn't be the same. I'd go as far as to 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:42.439 say that Arnold even at the time, would have been 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:43.480 wrong for this role. 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:46.960 Yeah, I'm an Arnold defender. You know, a lot of 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:49.399 people make fun of Arnold Schwarzenegger's acting, but I think 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:52.160 he's actually a better actor in a lot of ways 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:55.480 than people give him credit for. But I don't know 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:56.960 if he's who I want. Is Flash? 0:18:57.400 --> 0:19:00.200 Yeah, and I'm definitely not In nineteen eight Now I 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:04.040 mentioned Melody Anderson. This is the actress playing Dale Arden. 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:08.000 This is the other key Earthling. This is his I 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:10.639 guess it's not his girlfriend at the beginning, but becomes 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:12.760 essentially the Flash Gordon love interest. 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:13.280 Yes. 0:19:15.119 --> 0:19:15.159 So. 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:18.560 Anderson was born in nineteen fifty five Canadian actress who 0:19:18.600 --> 0:19:21.080 started off on TV with small parts and shows like 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:26.080 Welcome Back Catter, the Logan's Run TV series Battlestar Galactica. 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:29.639 She also had a supporting role in John Carpenter's nineteen 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:31.480 seventy nine Elvis TV movie. 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:34.720 Oh Interesting, Did that have Kurt Russell in it? Yeah? 0:19:34.760 --> 0:19:36.080 That was Kurt Russell as Elvis. 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:36.560 Okay. 0:19:37.880 --> 0:19:40.960 She followed up Flash with a nineteen eighty one horror 0:19:41.040 --> 0:19:44.680 movie Dead and Buried nineteen eighty six is Firewalker, and 0:19:44.840 --> 0:19:48.240 various TV shows she retired from acting in the mid nineties. 0:19:48.640 --> 0:19:50.680 You know, I think Melody Anderson's a lot of fun 0:19:50.760 --> 0:19:53.480 in this She has the right you could tell she 0:19:53.520 --> 0:19:55.920 has the right sense of humor in approaching this role. 0:19:56.680 --> 0:19:59.600 Yeah. Yeah, so I like her in this role as well. 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:04.480 All right, So that's two out of three Earthlings. The 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:10.119 important third is doctor Hans Zarkoff played by Topol Topel 0:20:10.200 --> 0:20:13.879 lived nineteen thirty five through twenty twenty three Israeli actor, singer, 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:16.439 and illustrator, best known for his starring role in nineteen 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:19.480 seventy one's Fiddler on the Roof and his supporting role 0:20:19.560 --> 0:20:22.800 in nineteen eighty one's For Your Eyes Only. It's been 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:24.480 a while since I've seen For Your Eyes Only. He's 0:20:24.520 --> 0:20:26.320 not the villain in that Bond movie. 0:20:26.400 --> 0:20:30.720 He's like, no, he plays ally. Yeah, he plays a 0:20:30.880 --> 0:20:35.360 criminal that Bond ends up joining forces with to take 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:37.440 out the villain in the end. He's sort of like 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:39.480 a lovable rascal smuggler. 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:43.720 Yeah. Other projects of note include the starring role in 0:20:43.880 --> 0:20:47.680 a nineteen seventy five Galileo movie, and he also shows 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:50.560 up in one episode of Tales of the Unexpected. And 0:20:50.720 --> 0:20:53.600 I have to say, it's easy to forget about this 0:20:53.760 --> 0:20:56.919 performance in a movie that features both you know, Brian 0:20:57.040 --> 0:21:01.040 Blessed and Max Foncido just aim for the rafters with 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:06.159 their performances, but Topaul hits the ground running with some 0:21:06.320 --> 0:21:12.000 just great a ridiculousness, just also just really chewing up 0:21:12.040 --> 0:21:15.000 the scenery well also later on the picture, you know, 0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:19.280 breathing varying degrees of not only ham but also thoughtfulness 0:21:19.359 --> 0:21:21.800 in some of the scenes. So it's he does a 0:21:21.840 --> 0:21:22.320 great job. 0:21:22.560 --> 0:21:24.880 And you know, for this picture, Yes, I'm gonna say 0:21:24.920 --> 0:21:29.680 this character in Topoul's performance is all over the map. 0:21:29.880 --> 0:21:35.960 It's inconsistent, but it's mostly very good. Like he's zany 0:21:36.000 --> 0:21:39.040 in some scenes, and he brings a very good, convincing zaniness. 0:21:39.760 --> 0:21:41.760 There is one scene I want to talk about later 0:21:41.960 --> 0:21:46.280 that I think is just wildly tonally inappropriate for the 0:21:46.400 --> 0:21:49.919 movie in that it gets very serious and even emotionally 0:21:50.040 --> 0:21:53.120 moving in a way that does not exactly feel welcome 0:21:53.600 --> 0:21:58.119 in the context. But it's mostly because of him that 0:21:58.240 --> 0:22:01.960 it works out that way, and it's quite powerful. Strangely, 0:22:02.560 --> 0:22:04.119 I think you know what I'm talking about, Like the 0:22:04.240 --> 0:22:05.480 mind conditioning scene. 0:22:05.920 --> 0:22:07.680 Yeah, yeah, that'll be a good one to talk about, 0:22:08.119 --> 0:22:10.840 all right, let's get into Ming's court though, this is 0:22:10.960 --> 0:22:13.479 like the centerpiece of the film. And of course, as 0:22:13.560 --> 0:22:17.440 we mentioned already, we have Max Foncido playing Ming the Merciless. 0:22:17.600 --> 0:22:20.960 Foncito lived nineteen twenty nine through twenty twenty. 0:22:21.560 --> 0:22:23.640 So one of the things that has not aged well 0:22:23.680 --> 0:22:27.080 about this movie is that I think it's pretty undeniable 0:22:27.200 --> 0:22:30.159 that there are some elements of racial caricature in the 0:22:30.240 --> 0:22:32.359 way Ming the Merciless is imagined. 0:22:33.200 --> 0:22:35.520 Yeah, it is important to note that the character Ming 0:22:35.880 --> 0:22:38.360 is along with the likes of fictional characters like Fu 0:22:38.440 --> 0:22:42.600 Manchu and more than a couple of characters from like 0:22:43.280 --> 0:22:46.080 Marvel Comics and so forth. There are examples of the 0:22:46.840 --> 0:22:50.199 quote yellow menace trope, and it's also a character here 0:22:50.240 --> 0:22:56.040 that's steeped in orientalism and racial stereotypes. Various later adaptations 0:22:56.080 --> 0:22:59.720 of Flash have sought to distance the character from these origins, 0:23:00.800 --> 0:23:03.240 and I don't know. In this picture we see kind 0:23:03.240 --> 0:23:06.359 of like a mixed approach there where certain things are done, 0:23:06.520 --> 0:23:09.399 but also you could make a strong argument that not 0:23:09.640 --> 0:23:11.840 enough is done, certainly by modern standards. 0:23:12.320 --> 0:23:15.440 Yeah, So from what I understand, I'm not deep on 0:23:15.720 --> 0:23:18.359