Hi everyone, I'm Em and welcome to Verbal Diorama, episode 296, Flash Gordon. This is the podcast that's all about the history and legacy of movies you know and movies you don't. That's for every one of us. Stand for every one of us. She saves with a mighty hand Every man, every woman, every child. It's the mighty M. Verbal Diorama. Flash Whatever. Welcome to Verbal Diorama. Whether you are a regular returning listener, whether you are a brand new listener to this podcast, whether you're just a visitor from the planet Mongo, thank you for being here. Thank you for choosing to listen to this podcast. I am so happy to have you here for the history and legacy of of Flash Gordon. This is an episode that's a long time coming to this podcast, I believe. I actually thought about doing this episode several years ago and I wanted to wait, to be honest, I wanted to wait until a special occasion. And whilst I did consider doing it for the 300th episode, which is coming soon, I decided, you know what? I want to predate the 300th episode extravaganza with Flash Gordon. So that is what I am doing. And on that topic, huge thanks to everyone who listens to this podcast, who supports this podcast, and who has continued to do so over the last six years and now 296 episodes. You will find out more about what's happening for the 300th episode in a little bit, but huge thank you for your support. It means so much to a small indie podcast with a host who does everything on her own to have people who regularly support and listen to this podcast. So huge thank you. And we're going from last week's episode on Sister act and a blessed time with his Holiness the Pope, enjoying some gospel infused hymns, to actual Brian Blessed and some rock infused science fiction of the highest order. I'm not gonna dilly dally with this one. It's time to dive. Sorry, Brian, you do it. Into the history and legacy of the science fiction space opera. No, not that one. This one. Here's the trailer for Flash Gordon.

American football hero Flash Gordon is skyjacked aboard Dr. Hans Zof's rocket ship, along with travel agent Dale Arden. The threesome are drawn into the influence of the planet Mongo, ruled by Emperor Ming the Merciless. The evil Ming has been testing Earth with unnatural disasters and deeming our world a threat to his rule. He also intends to take Dale as his concubine, attempts to execute Flash and intends to destroy Earth. Flash must avoid the amorous attentions of Ming's daughter and unite the warring kingdoms of Mungo to rescue Dale and save every one of us. Let's, as always, run through the cast. We have Sam J. Jones as Flash Gordon, Melody Anderson as Dale Arden, Max von Sydow as Emperor Ming the Merciless, Topol as Hans Zharkov, Onela Muti as Princess Aura, Timothy Dalton as Prince Baron, Brian Blessed as Prince Fultan, Peter Wingard as General Cloitus, Mariangela Mulatto as General Carla and Richard O'Brien as Vico. Flash Gordon has a screenplay by Lorenzo Semple Jr. An adaptation by Michael Allen, was directed by Mike Hodges and was based on characters created by Alex Raymond. In the summer of 1980, a long awaited space opera movie was released. A huge success. That movie was the Empire Strikes Back, the sequel to one of the biggest movies of the 70s, Star Wars. A few months later, in December 1980, another space opera movie came out with a dashing hero, a beautiful princess, various creatures and alliances made to overthrow an emperor. I'm sure many people at the time thought, what was this Star wars clone? Except what many moviegoers didn't realize was Star wars was the clone. Flash Gordon was the original, the one who inspired it all. The story of Flash Gordon doesn't start with Flash Gordon. It starts with Anthony Rogers, the lead of the short stories Armageddon 2419 AD and the Air Lords of Han in 1928. The character was renamed Buck Rogers in 1929, and the comic series he starred in, set in the futuristic 25th century, featured prominently in US newspapers, becoming one of the most successful comic strips in the country. Of course, Buck Rogers inspired a slew of clones Many of which just didn't come close to his success, except for one which surpassed Buck Rogers in every respect in his debut in 1934. Originally, King features Syndicate had attempted to get the rights to the John Carter of Mars stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Failing that, they enlisted one of their staff artists, Alex Raymond, to create a science fiction comic strip similar to Buck Rogers, following the adventures of Flash Gordon, a handsome polo player and Yale University graduate, and his companions dale Arden and Dr. Han Zharkov. The story begins with Earth threatened by a collision with the planet Mongo, where they come into conflict with Ming the Merciless, Mongo's evil emperor. Known for their vivid, colorful depictions of the future, it was a stark contrast to Buck Roger's black and white illustrations. The Flash Gordon comic strip became one of the most popular American comic strips of the 1930s and ran as a Sunday strip from 1934 until 2003 and a daily strip from 1940 to 1944 and 1951 to 1992. Reprints of the Sunday strip was syndicated by King feature syndicate from 2003 until 2023, when Flash Gordon was relaunched with a new daily and Sunday strip. In April 1935, the strip was adapted into the Amazing Interplanetary Adventures of Flash Gordon, a 26 episode weekly radio serial with Flash Gordon voiced by Gail Gordon. The series ended in October 1935. That same month, in October 1935, the further interplanetary Adventures of Flash Gordon debuted as a daily show airing 60 episodes, ending in February 1936. Flash Gordon is regarded as one of the best illustrated and most influential of American adventure comic strips. Alex Raymond was considered one of the most famous science fiction artists of all time, and his artistry and rich imagination led to Flash Gordon becoming a movie serial in 1936 starring Buster Krab as Flash Gordon. After Universal took the gamble and spent a large amount of money to make the serials a reality, Buster Krab was not only an Olympian, winning an Olympic bronze medal in 1928 for the 1500 meter freestyle and an Olympic gold medalist winning in 1932 for the 400 meter freestyle swimming event, he also starred as Tarzan in 1933. He was Flash Gordon in 1936, 1938 and 1940, and also Flash Gordon's rival Buck Rogers in 1939. The first 1936 serial was 13 chapters and aired exclusively in US theaters, usually before the main feature always ending on a cliffhanger so viewers would return the next week. Two sequels followed Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars, which was 15 chapters in 1938 and Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, which was 12 chapters in 1940. It cost a reported $350,000 to make. And like the 1980 movie I'm Coming to Cragg dyed his dark hair blonde for the role. Sets and props from Universal films like Frankenstein, Dracula, Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula's Daughter, and even the 1923 silent movie the Hunchback of Notre Dame all appeared in Flash Gordon. To keep costs low for syndication to TV in the 1950s, the serial was renamed Space Soldiers so as not to be confused with the newly made live action TV series Flash Gordon, which aired between 1954 and 1955 starring Steve Holland. There was also an animated series from 1979 to 1982 also called Flash Gordon and sometimes called the New Adventures of Flash Gordon. And there was also Flash Gordon, the Greatest Adventure of all, an animated TV movie in 1981. Flash also shows up as a main character in Defenders of the Earth, the animated series from 1986, where he teams up with fellow King features heroes the Phantom and Mandrake the Magician. Flash had another animated series in 1996 and a live action series from 2007 to 2008 starring Eric Johnson as Stephen Flash Gordon. There was an even more adult adaptation in 1976 called Flesh Gordon. I'm not going to elaborate on what that's about because this is a family friendly show video game wise. In 1986, there was Flash Gordon for the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum and MSX. But the 1936 serial was special and it did something rather extraordinary. It may have been kitsch, campy and full of cliches, but it pioneered the cliches. Almost every plot device used by more modern science fiction can be traced back to Flash Gordon, a dashing all American hero, damsel in distress, cliffhangers, last minute rescues, someone not being dead after all, repressed sexuality, a galactic despot, multiple beautiful space princesses, control rooms with elaborate consoles, death rays used as superweapons, ray guns, the mad Scientist Ally, love triangles, love quadrangles, arena combat, characters frozen in suspended animation, mind control, multiple species living harmoniously. It had it all. It influenced Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Doctor who, and most famously, Star Wars. And I'm coming to that. It would also ironically influence The Buck Rogers TV series from 1979 to 1981. Even though the original 1936 Flash Gordon serial wasn't the most elegant production, it stood out from other modern TV shows, thanks in part to its excellent casting and of course the screenwriter's excellent adaptation of the concept created by Alex Raymond. Due in part to financial constraints, but primarily to subpar screenplays and the perception of science fiction as juvenile entertainment, no subsequent serials were ever able to surpass or even come close to matching Flash Gordon. But the swashbuckling hero led space opera seemed the perfect thing for the big screen. And in the 60s, Dino de Laurentiis, fresh from producing the adaptation of Barbarella, acquired the rights to make Flash Gordon, with a desire for Italian director Federico Fellini to direct. Now, the name Dino De Laurentiis might not mean much to modern cinemagoers. He died in 2010, aged 91. But he was instrumental to Italian cinema as well as Hollywood cinema. He was a Hollywood mogul, in all senses of the word. Dino De Laurentiis had arrived in Hollywood from his native Italy at the start of the 70s with big ambitions. He produced over 500 films in his lifetime, with 38 of them receiving Academy Award nominations and one, La Strada, winning the Academy Award for Best Foreign language film in 1954. He was mostly known for producing or executively producing movies like Barbarella, danger, Diabolic, the 1976 King Kong remake, Serpico, Death Wish, and Three Days the Condor. He'd continued to produce after Flash Gordon, including cult favorites like Conan the Barbarian, Conan the Destroyer, Red Sonja, David Lynch's Dune, Halloween 2, Evil Dead 2, and army of Darkness. He also produced the first Hannibal Lecter film, Manhunter. And while he wasn't involved in Silence of the Lambs, he was with the follow ups Hannibal and Red Dragon and the prequel Hannibal Rising. And a lot of the roles that he took were also uncredited as well. La Strada, the only of his films to win an Academy Award, would be directed by Federico Fellini. Fellini would option the rights for Flash Gordon from Dino De Laurentiis, but ultimately wouldn't make the film. He would have a character named after him in the 1980 movie as a nod to him. George Lucas famously wanted to get the rights to Flash Gordon in the 1970s, but Dino de Laurentiis wouldn't give them to him. So George Lucas went off to make his own Flash Gordon, which he called Star wars. And the rest, as they say, is history. In the meantime, De Laurentiis hired Nicholas Roeg to make Flash Gordon. Roeg was most well known for directing Don't look now and the man who Fell to Earth. Roeg, a fan of the comic strip, would spend a year in pre production working with Michael Allen on the script with longtime friend of De Laurentiis, Danilo Donati as the production designer and costume designer. At that point, several movies were being mooted, sets were being built, and Mike Hodges was lined up to direct the sequel to Flash Gordon. And that's an important point that I'm going to come to. So they were originally talking about Nicholas Rogue to direct the first movie and Mike Hodges to direct the sequel. But Dino Darentis wasn't happy with the work that Nicholas Roeg was doing. He wanted something fun and playful that could start a franchise, rather than the idea that they were working with, which was Ming the Merciless chasing Flash and Dale across the galaxy just so he could procreate with Dale. The budget ballooned and Nicholas Rogue would end up leaving the project. De Laurentiis even asked Sergio Leone if he would be interested in directing Flash Gordon. Leone was a fan of the comic strip, but declined because he wasn't happy with the script that had been completed thus far. De Laurentiis went back to Mike Hodges, though, and instead of him directing the sequel, persuaded him to take on the first movie, with De Laurentiis persuading a reluctant Hodges that he was the man for the job. By the time Hodges joined the movie, Dino De Laurentiis had restructured everything, asking his King Kong collaborator, Lorenzo Semple Jr. To write a new script more in line with Flash Gordon's comic strip roots and had allowed Danilo Donati free reign over the design of sets and costumes, which were as creative as they were extravagant. Semple had previously worked with Dino De Laurentiis on Three Days of the Condor and Hurricane and was most well known for his writing work on the pilot and first four episodes of the 1960s Batman series and the 1966 Batman feature film. Which is understandable when you compare the campy tones of both Batman of the 1960s and Flash Gordon. Casting was underway for the movie, with notably both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Kurt Russell under consideration for Flash. Newcomer Sam J. Jones was noticed by Dino De Laurentiis mother in law after he was a contestant on the Dating Game. He had previously shot some saucy photos for the centerfold of Playgirl under the pseudonym Andrew Cooper iii. Safe to say those pictures were found and republished after Flash Gordon under Jones real name. Jones audition process lasted 10 months and 30 days of screen tests before it was confirmed he had the part. He had to dye his dark hair blonde and wear blue contact lenses, but the lenses ended up causing issues, so he didn't use them. Model Dale Haddon was originally cast as Dale Arden, but she was fired by Dino De Laurentiis, who called the replacement Melody Anderson mere days before filming started. Anderson was in New York with a friend when De Laurentiis called her and asked her to get on an immediate plane to London. She did negotiated the contract. On her arrival her blonde hair was dyed brown. She had a costume fitting and started filming the next day. This was a cast of relative newbies alongside thespians and established award nominated actors. The cast was rounded out with a variety of British and Italian stars as well as Israeli actor and singer Topol, who was most well known for his role in Fiddler on the Roof, for which he won the Golden Globe for Best Actor and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor as well. Topol would constantly sing on set and was the consummate entertainer. Also starring in this movie is the legendary Brian Blessed, who probably loves this movie more than anyone else in the world. There are so many interviews of him just singing the praises of Flush Gordon and how much he loves Flash Gordon and how much he loves the fans as well. He is a genuine delight to behold. Blessed watched the Buster Crab serials as a child and when he play acted them out with friends, he always played Voltan. So to him playing Voltan in the movie was a literal childhood dream come true. He even tried to get the production to hire Buster Krab to be Flash Gordon's father in the movie, but that didn't end up happening. Max Von Sydow had been in Ingmar Bergman's the Seventh Seal in 1957 and he had starred in several other Bergman films over the years. He was also Academy Award nominated and he brings real gravitas as well as a cheeky side eye to the role of Ming the Merciless. His performance would end up so iconic that when Von Sydow passed away in 2020 aged 90, many of the obituaries highlighted his role in Flash Gordon. He had been a fan of the comic strip as a child and so of course he wanted to play the role. This is also an actor who starred in Conan the Barbarian and Dune. He wasn't afraid of science fiction or fantasy roles and according to others in the cast, he was extraordinarily kind and gracious on set, happy to learn from Brian Blessed how to use his hands to elaborate Ming's behavior. And as for the future Bond Timothy Dalton, it was simply just a paycheck. All of the major cast were signed for multi picture deals because this was always envisaged as a franchise from the get go that didn't happen for reasons I'll come to. But Dino De Laurentiis was nothing if not unconventional when casting the Hawkman. He saw the Welsh rugby team and told Mike Hodges he wanted number nine, number five, number four and number one. Hodges had to tell him they couldn't just cast rugby players as hawk men and they wouldn't probably want to be dangling on wires for six months either. Hodges, as the director, wanted to keep a very chilled, light hearted set. But on a Dino De Laurentiis film, the person really in charge is always Dino De Laurentiis. He and production and costume designer Danilo Donati were close, and Hodges soon realized the only way to shoot what he wanted to shoot was, was to keep everything relaxed. Donati would provide costumes and props and Hodges would shoot with what he was given. It would lead to filming that wasn't necessarily under the director's immediate control, but it would lead to a set full of improvisation and that sense of fun and freedom would translate into the finished movie. It wasn't always fun, though. Two weeks into shooting, Hodges left the production frustrated with De Laurentiis being so hands on and so open with his dissatisfaction with the crew. Hodges would take a meeting with De Laurentiis and set ground rules on private discussions going forward. And Hodges return to set. He worked out a system of suggesting ideas to De Laurentiis in the early evening. De Laurentiis would say he would think about it and then the next morning come to set with the same idea, which Hodges would then agree with. And that was how the director actually got stuffed done. Scenes improvised include the memorable football fight sequence, which was never in the original script. Sam J. Jones had noted that the Faberge style eggs being carried by one of the alien races resembled an American football. He wondered, since his character was supposed to be this great American football star, whether he should find a way to play with them. The actor and the crew then spent some time planning it out and they ended up with one of the most memorable scenes in the movie, elevated even further by Queen's music, which I'm also going to come to. The fight was supposed to be serious, but Hodges insisted it was comedic and fun and it added to the tonal mashup of the finished film, which is in part comedy, part horror and part overtly sexual. And the tone kind of makes sense when you realize they had English crew and Italian crew and there was a language barrier and both thought what they were doing was correct. Flash and Dale, as the two straight roles in the movie, were the hardest to do since Mostly everyone else was hamming it up and having a great time. Sam J. Jones took his role as Flash extremely seriously, reading the comic strips to understand the character. So much so that when the first assistant director suggested Flash hit someone over the head with a bar, Jones replied that Flash would never do that. Flash may not be the brightest star in the galaxy, but. But he was a man with integrity. Flash Gordon had a budget of $27 million, which was almost three times the original Star Wars. The greatest special effects and creative teams from all around the world were assembled, so there was no lack of skill either. Filming commenced at Shepperton Studios, occupying all available areas at the big facility, eventually spilling over into a disused aviation hangar in Weybridge, Surrey, due to the enormous amount of sets required. Make no bones about it. While we may look back and see a cheesy, vibrant, campy adaptation, Flash Gordon was a lavish production with some of cinema's greatest talents both in front and behind the camera, including talent from Star Wars. Gilbert Taylor was a cinematographer on Star wars and also on Flash Gordon. And many of the same individuals who worked on the special effects for Star wars also contributed to the visual effects for Flash Gordon. The production being filmed in England meant that legendary Italian costume designer Danilo Donati couldn't utilize the Italian costume houses he originally worked with. So instead he had the costumes made at the Theatre of the Primitive Future, a British costumia that had fabricated and supplied costumes for music videos, film and television, including Adamant's regal suit for the Prince Charming music video. Star wars had been rather monochromatic. It was set in space with lots of greys and blacks. Flash Gordon was going to be the complete opposite. Bold and colorful. Donati used color everywhere, from the costumes to the sets and props. Millions of bugle beads were used to create the elaborate shimmer of the costumes. Thousands were used for Ming's elaborate chest emblem alone. While the inhabitants of Mongo have lavish designs, the costumes for the humans were plain in comparison, with lots of khaki white T shirts and muted colours. Not so for Ming, who is bathed in bright reds, pinks and golds with his army also in pink and red. Cloitus and Carla are in black leather with gold embellishments, as are all the secret police. Ming's daughter, Princess Aura, also predominantly wears gold, pink and red. Dale wears red when she is announced to be Ming's new bride, then white the night before her wedding, before borrowing a slave girl's gold dress, being captured and wearing a two tone teal and pink dress, which is Gorgeous, by the way, before ultimately getting married in black, which may be some sort of sign that this marriage won't be the best for her. All outfits are completed with either crowns, headdresses or helmets. Prince Baron probably has the least glamorous costume, with a green tunic and tights to blend into the forests of Arboria. Prince Voltan has a black and gold leather armor piece, along with all his Hawk men. The Hawkman costume wings were so heavy the actors couldn't sit and they had to lie on their stomachs between takes. Max von Sydow also struggled with his elaborate costumes for Ming the Merciless, which weighed over 70 pounds and he could only stand in them for a few minutes at a time. But this isn't a movie of just primary actors decked out in elaborate costumes. No. All of Ming's dignitaries and representatives in his throne room, all his slaves, all his armies, they are all as elaborately dressed as everyone else's, including little people, complete with rigid sequin tunics and headpieces. This movie is gorgeous. And there is so much flesh on show as well, mostly with the female characters. Luckily, Ornella Nutty was a model as a teenager, and I can imagine her being the sexual awakening for a lot of people, but everything looks beautiful on her. Speaking of beauty, Flash Gordon is the rare sci fi movie that doesn't just show dark black skies. Everything has color. They weren't sure how to do the skies until the special effects team came up with a way of forming clouds by injecting colors into saline water and slowing the footage down. Traditional matte paintings were used as backgrounds and scale models created by model makers Martin Boa and Bill Pearson, who'd previously worked on Alien. Miniature sets were also used. Ming's palace was a 20 foot tall model against a massive blue screen. It took about three days to prepare the Ajax sequence and put everything, including dozens of hanging Hawkmen, in place. Brian Blessed put in his own special effects, going pew, pew, pew. As he shot his bazooka. He had to be reminded that they add the sounds in post production, and because of this, they had to take another day to reset and refilm. Originally, Ming causes Flash to hallucinate that Dale had turned into an attacking spider. Flash sees an image of Dale as a monster who's about to eat him. Melody Anderson was covered in green body paint, had vampire teeth and a headpiece that weighed about 25 pounds with real glass eyeballs and blood dripping from her mouth after she'd been in makeup for four hours. And on set for another six, the director came in and said, this is wonderful, but we can't use this. It has absolutely nothing to do with the script. The highly saturated vivid colors of Flash Gordon would mean that nothing could be hid in darkness. And this would be an issue when you had no way of hiding wires. Most of Flash Gordon's effects were practical in camera effects, including animatronic and puppet work, prosthetic makeup and practical creature costumes. Even Ming's ring power was a light projection. It also used false perspective to create scale illusions. And the movie may end a little anticlimactically with Ming impaled and then disappearing as his ring disseminates him. But that wasn't going to be the original ending. The movie was going to end with Flash crushing the wedding and Ming turning into a variety of creatures to fight Flash, the Hawkman and the Arborians in an epic final battle. But they simply ran out of time to film it. So that ending was pulled and we got what we got instead. After the movie finished, 17 weeks of principal photography at Christmas 1979, everyone went on a two week break and everyone was expected back after that break to carry on, do reshoots and do post production work. But quite famously, one person did not return. In the recent documentary Life After Flash, Sam J. Jones is remarkably down to earth, no pun intended, humble and gracious about the role of Flash and how grateful he is to the movie, to the cast and crew, and to the fans. Now, if you are a fan of this movie, I'd highly recommend that documentary. It's on Amazon prime here in the uk. But the Sam J. Jones of today isn't the Sam J. Jones of 1980. The Sam J. Jones of 1980 was cocksure and arrogant. And pretty much after he touched down in London for filming, that's when the problems started. He got into fights. At one point he was in the hospital with a big scrape on his face and Dino De Laurentiis barged into the operating room to make sure they fixed his face so as not to leave a visible scar. Jones also arrived late to set and had arguments with Dino De Laurentiis about money. Jones representatives suggested he walk off the film, effectively holding the film to ransom if he didn't get his way. After Flash Gordon wrapped, Jones was not invited to take part in reshoots and additional dialogue recording sessions and was replaced by a stand in and voice actor. Luckily, most of his filming had finished and he could be filmed from the back for the Hawkman attack scene. This means that some of Jones's voice work in the movie is actually dubbed. How much exactly is not fully known. Some people say 5 to 10%. Jones himself says it's more like 90%. The vocal stand in was anonymous for many years, but is now widely recognized as being Peter Marinka. But there's no actual proof it was him. And whoever it was is attempting to do a Sam J. Jones impression rather than use their real voice. It left the marketing for the movie without its actual Flash Gordon, and instead Max Von Sydow was heavily focused on the promotional material instead. Speaking of Max Von Sydow, this is the perfect way to segue into the obligature Keanu reference of this episode. And if you don't know what that is, it's where I try and link the movie then a featuring with Keanu Reeves for no reason other than he is the best of men. And really the easiest way to link Keanu to this movie is through Max Von Sydow, who was the Bill and Ted of his day because he famously challenged Death to a game of chess in the Seventh Seal, which technically Bill and Ted also challenged Death to a variety of games in Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey. And so that is the easiest way to link Keanu to this movie. And I can't talk about this movie without talking about the astonishingly good soundtrack. The production team Flash Gordon made initial contact to ask whether Queen would score the film in late 1979. But Dino de Laurentiis actually wasn't aware of who Queen was, since he didn't listen to rock music. His first question on learning of the collaboration was, who are the Queens? The first choice for Mike Hodges had apparently been Pink Floyd, who used an image of Charles Middleton as Ming the Merciless from the 30s Flash Gordon serials to advertise their concert at Sacramento sound factory in 1968. Pink Floyd's dark side of the Moon was actually playing on the set when Queen came to visit. The band was shown a clip of the finished movie and Brian May would go on to say, quote, we wanted to do something that was a real soundtrack. It's a first in many ways, because a rock group has not done this type of thing before, or else it's been toned down and they've been asked to write mushy background music, whereas we were given the license to do what we liked, as long as it complemented the picture. And Queen were very hands on with the soundtrack, with each member of the band writing distinctive tracks for it. It was the band's idea to use snippets of dialogue to give a sense of narrative and structure to the album. And it was Freddie Mercury who designed the distinctive Flash Gordon logo for the album sleeve. Queen's work on Flash Gordon was kept secret so as to not overshadow the film's December 1980 premiere. The soundtrack was released less than six months after their 1980 album The Game, which featured hits like Another One Bites the Dust and Crazy Little Thing Called Love. Flash Gordon was one of two film soundtracks that Queen produced along with Highlander, and they took the making of the Flash Gordon soundtrack so seriously they delayed their proposed greatest hits album for a year. Flash's Theme was the only single to be released from the album under the title Flash. The album reached number 10 here in the UK charts and number 23 in the US, and it would go gold here in the UK too. Queen would also receive a BAFTA nomination for Best Original Music alongside Howard Blake, who worked on the Flash Gordon score. Blake was only given 10 days to finish the orchestral score. He fell ill with pneumonia due to the exhaustion and then the movie didn't even use the majority of his work. But this is an absolutely stonking soundtrack and so unique. I actually listened to it before I started preparing this episode because it is genuinely that good. Thrash's Theme might have been the first Queen song that I ever listened to when I was a child. And so really this movie introduced me to Queen in six so many ways. Flash Gordon was released on 5th December 1980 in the US and topped the box office in its first week. It dropped 50% in its second week and by its fourth weekend of release in the US it was being pulled from major markets. Of course it didn't help that its star player, Flash himself, wasn't on the promotional circuit. A few days after its release on 8 December 1980, the awful news of John Lennon's assassination outside his apartment in New York City broke. The following day, during Queen's concert at London's Wembley arena, they paid tribute to Lennon by playing a version of imagine. On 10 December 1980, Flash Gordon was released in the UK and despite being released three weeks before the end of the year, just before a bitter winter and a recession, Flash Gordon became the third highest grossing movie of 1980 in the UK. It also performed well in Italy due to two prominent Italian actors. On its 27 million dollar budget, Flash Gordon would gross $27.1 million domestically in the US and $19.4 million internationally, for a total worldwide gross of $46.5 million. It received positive reviews overall. Currently sits at 83% on Rotten Tomatoes, with a consensus of campy charm and a knowing sense of humor help to overcome a silly plot involving a space faring ex football player, his adoring bevy of groupies and a super villain named Ming the Merciless. Now obviously in Rotten Tomatoes. Original reviews are mixed with contemporary critical reviews, but it celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2020 with many retrospective reviews praising the movie for its iconic sets, costumes and for being something so completely different to the dark, moody comic book adaptations we would later get. Sanjay Jones's performance was overwhelmingly criticized, but you know Flash is supposed to be a bit of a himbo. The lack of Universal's marketing attempts also extended to award nomination campaigns. Despite this, Flash Gordon was nominated for three baftas for Best Costume Design, Best Original Film Music and Best Art Design, as well as three Saturn Awards for Best Costumes, Best Science Fiction Film and Best Supporting Actor for Max Von Sydow. It would win none of them, but it also wouldn't win Worst Actor at the inaugural Golden Raspberry Awards for Sam J. Jones either. Now, Dino De Laurentiis, as hopefully I've put across, was a man with grand ambitions, and that led to his vision for Flush Gordon. His plan was allegedly to buy Hollywood studios and film three Flash Gordon movies back to back with the second. According to Brian Blessed, based on the second movie serial, Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars, where Flash Gordon meets the Clay Men and other people on Mars when Ming has set up a base. But Ming died in the first movie, didn't he? No, because Ming's evil advisor Clytus was actually one of many Ming clones, thus allowing both Max Von Sydow and Peter Wingard to return to their villainous roles. But after Flash Gordon released and flopped, Sanjay Jones sued Dino De Laurentiis for breach of contract, demanding that De Laurentiis honour his option for two further Flash Gordon films. Sadly, Jones lost, and while they could have easily recast Flash, the original just didn't do the business they expected and the sequels were never made. A new Flash Gordon has been in the works since 20th Century Fox hired J.D. payne and Patrick McKay to write a script in 2014, with Matthew Vaughan in line to direct. This adaptation was mooted till 2018, with Disney then buying 20th Century Fox and obtaining the rights to the material. An animated film was then in the works with Taika Waititi, who had taken inspiration from Flash Gordon for Ragnarok in line to direct, but in 2019 the animated version was cancelled. In 2021 it was revived but this time as a live action remake. But I put this to Hollywood, an animated version of Flash Gordon would be pretty perfect and would mean many of the original cast who are still with us could reprise their roles. So what I'm saying is, does anyone have Brian Blessed's number? Despite the plans for a remake, Flash Gordon has never really left our screens. From Star Wars, Star Trek, Guardians of the Galaxy, Ragnarok, even arguably Disney's ill fated John Carter owes a debt to Flash Gordon. Despite Flash Gordon actually owing a debt to John Carter. Everything takes inspiration from everything else and a new Flash Gordon probably would go some way to fix the issues of the original. Ming the Merciless has often been attributed to the so called Yellow Peril xenophobia along with Fu Manchu and Marvel's the Mandarin and coded as an East Asian character with his hair and makeup despite Max von Sydow not portraying him with yellow face. Times have changed when it comes to depictions of discriminatory racial stereotypes. So Much so the BBFC, the board in charge of UK film ratings, recently reclassified Flash Gordon as a 12A due to these outdated stereotypes. A new version would have to go some way to recategorize Ming, but sometimes that's where these remakes can actually excel. Flash Gordon is one of the ultimate science fiction and fantasy cult classics with many famous fans including Taika Waititi, Mark Millar, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino, Edgar Wright and the late Stan Lee. From the original comic strip in the 1930s to the modern day adaptations and spin offs, Flash Gordon has inspired countless filmmakers, TV producers and comic book creators to create amazing and imaginative stories and has left an indelible mark on pop culture. We're still talking about Flash Gordon and the fans still love Flash Gordon because Flash Gordon is a good movie and it looks great on Blu Ray. Unfortunately, I haven't actually seen it in 4K yet. Sam J. Jones appears playing himself in Seth MacFarlane's 2012 comedy Ted, with the characters of Ted and John being fans of Flash Gordon and the movie's reference several times throughout that film. He also appears in the sequel Ted Too in Life After Flash. He is remarkably honest about his attitude back then and the mistakes he made. He called Dino De Laurentiis to apologize for his behavior and De Laurentiis accepted his apology. Brian Blessed's performance as Prince Boltan became a pop culture icon when the veteran stage and screen actor uttered the immortal line Gordon's alive. Which 40 years later remains the most repeated, reused and recycled quotation from both this film and Blessed's entire career. He is more than happy to repeat the line and does so often. Blessed is a genuine blessing and he adores this movie and its everlasting legacy. He often tells stories from the set, including the time when the late Queen Elizabeth II told him that Flash Gordon was a particular favorite Christmas movie she would watch with her grandchildren. I can just imagine her doing a Gordon's alive. Cinema owes a huge debt of gratitude to Flash Gordon. But cinema also owes a huge apology to Flash Gordon as well. Both the original comic strip and the serials and this movie. It shaped so much of science fiction and fantasy, and yet so many discredit this movie for its cheesy, campy, colorful version of Mongo. Without Flash Gordon, we wouldn't have Star Wars. George Lucas has acknowledged that Flash Gordon was a significant influence. How could it not be? Look at any level and they're very similar. Maybe Ning was going to turn out to be Flash's father too. Which would mean his feelings for Princess Aura are interesting to say the least. But hey, that also happened in Star wars, so samesies. Flash Gordon may not be to everyone's taste, but it succeeds at doing what it sets out to do. It wanted to create a lowbrow action adventure that doesn't take itself too seriously. And it's not only a space opera, but a full blown rock opera. And it does this to a spectacular level. It really, truly is in the realest sense, a spectacle. Does it completely make sense on a character level to trust the guy who captured you in a rocket and flew you into space? No. And how can that man survive a memory draining machine just by reciting Shakespeare? He probably can't. Should you be talking about the kids you're going to have with the woman you've known for about a day or 48 hours at the most? Probably not. And should the most powerful emperor in the galaxy be killed by the end of the spaceship? Highly unlikely. And what is hot hail exactly? How does the hail become hot when hail is cold? So many questions. But I care about none of these things. Because where this movie shines is aesthetically, it's stunningly beautiful to look at. The costume design is absurdly good. It's a sexy fever dream of a movie that stands alone. The practical creature work is memorable. The death scenes are pretty horrifying, but the matte paintings and model work are terrific. This movie means more to me than I ever realized. But memories of watching it as a kid just came flooding back to me of how much I wanted to be Princess Aura and wear her beautiful dresses. And I just want to recommend again the documentary Life After Flash. Sam J. Jones came across as nothing but a humble and lovely person who just listened to his greedy advisors rather than his own gut. He accepts his behavior at the time was awful and that he squandered a potentially good career, but he regularly attends conventions and he loves meeting fans. He seems like a great guy to meet and chat to and in many ways is the perfect Flash Gordon. Flash Gordon was simply always meant to be a one and done, and it's the most perfect one and done. It balances the bombast of its visuals and soundtrack with the kind of blandness of its leading actor, but there's a balance there. Flash Gordon may be 45 years old this year, but while the chances of seeing a remake anytime soon are probably a little bit dead right now, this movie is there. It's fun, it's crazy and silly. And you know what? Gordon's alive. Sorry, Brian, you do it.

Gordon's alive.

He loves it. You've just got to let him do it. He. He's happy now. Thank you for listening. As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on Flash Gordon and thank you for your continued support of this podcast. And if you want to get involved and help this podcast grow, you could tell your friends and family about this episode or about this podcast. You could leave a rating or review wherever you found this podcast. Or you can find me and follow me on social media. I am at Verbal diorama all across social media and you can find posts, you can like share and comment on posts and that all helps with visibility as well. Now for the next episode. I'm actually not going to tell you what's coming next because what's coming Next is a five episode extravaganza for the 300th episode of this podcast. So I'm actually not going to tell you right now, but you can find out in a special announcement episode that is due out on your podcast feed the day after this episode comes out. So if you're listening to this episode on release day tomorrow, you will get an episode explaining what's happening. If you're listening to this episode later, it is the next episode in your podcast feed. Please have a listen. Hopefully you'll be as excited as I am. But that is what's coming for the 300th episode extravaganza. Now this podcast is free and it always will be free. However, it's not free to make a podcast and I rely on some incredibly on some incredibly valuable support from fellow listeners of this podcast who really seem to love what I do and are happy to contribute financially to the upkeep of this podcast. Now, you are under no obligation to join them and you never will be. However, if you have some spare change and you want to support an indie podcast creator, and most importantly, you enjoy the work that I do on this podcast, then you could choose to support this podcast financially if you wish. There are two ways you can do that. You can go to verbaldiorama.com tips and give a one off tip or you can go to verbaldiorama dot com patreon and you can join these incredible people. They are Claudia, Simon, Laurel, Derek, Kat, Andy, Mike, Luke, Michael, Scott, Brendan, Lisa, Sam, Jack, Dave, Stuart, Nicholas, so, Kev, Pete, Heather, Danny, Ali, Stu, Brett, Philip M. Xenos, Sean, Rhino, Philip K, Adam, Elaine, Kyle, and Aaron. If you want to get in touch, you can email me verbaldioramail.com you can also message me on various social medias erbaldiorama or you can go to verbaldiorama.com and you can fill out the little contact form. I do try to reply to every message that I receive and I always love to hear from people. So please feel free to send me a message. Let me know what you've listened to recently and feel free to give me some feedback or suggestions too. And finally, they all want me to say Gordon's alive. Can you give us the line from Flash Gordon? Because I know the Mexican Flash.

You want the life of Flash Gordon.

Gordon's alive. Gordon's alive. Gordon's alive. Here's some gin. Gordon's alive. Gordon's alive.

Gordon's alive. You're thinking about that now. In the news this week, the polls continue to slide for Gordon Brown. And some people are saying he's dead and buried. But I think the opposite. I say Gordon's al. Hey, darling, I have been asked by the public, would I say Gordon's alive? Ready? Gordon's alive. Please, please, Mr. Bless, say Gordon's alive. Gordon's alive. Gordon's alive. Gordon's alive. By the way, I haven't said it, have I? To you all. I've got to say it to you. Everybody wants me to say it, don't they? Gordon's Alay. One of our greatest peacetime prime ministers has died. But don't worry, Gordon's alive. Gordon's alive.

Bye,