1980 - FLASH GORDON, campy remake of the old serial

George Lucas had wanted to remake the 1936 Flash Gordon serial.  He was unable to obtain the rights from producer Dino De Laurentiis who controlled them. Instead he went ahead with his own idea for a science fiction/fantasy film, Star Wars, or so the story goes. DeLaurentiis went ahead and British director Mike Hodges who seemed like a very odd choice for this kind of material was hired.  De Laurentiis also brought on Lorenzo Semple Jr. to write the film.  Semple specialized in campy films and TV shows like, The Green Hornet which introduced American audiences to Bruce Lee, the Adam West Batman series and the remake of King Kong with Jeff Bridges.

Probably the most important contributor to this version of Flash Gordon was Danilo Donati, an Italian costume and production designer usually associated with Fellini and Pier Paolo Pasolini.  Donati's fingerprints are all over this film from the crazed sets to the costumes.  Taking a chance De Laurentiis assembled a couple of performers without a lot of performing experience.  Sam J. Jones as Flash and Melody Anderson.  Physically they look like the comic book characters and they are adequate.  Also showing up was Swedish actor Max Von Sydow as the evil Asian emperor Ming, and Topol as Dr. Hans Zarkov.

Universal studios clearly looking for a Star Wars type of hit financed the film.  However the box office returns and the reviews were only so so.  No sequels to this film.

 

For a camp fest like this, Flash Gordon plays fairly well.  The photography is colorful, the special effects have a kind of charming retro feel to them and the whole film moves along fairly well.  Just for the look of the film alone, Flash Gordon is worth watching. 

The running time is 114 minutes.