Rocket Ship

As near as I can figure, this is an original "Flash Gordon" serial from the thirties, edited into a feature length film for television. I discovered this on a DVD in the bargain bin at a local pharmacy, and was delighted, I watched the serials in their uncut form on WPIX New York almost 40 years ago, and have long wanted another look.

The editing down results in a crazy faced-paced narrative that 21st century viewers will probably find particularly enjoyable. It just races from one wild plot point to the next-- the tournament of death, the invisibility ray, the atomic furnaces... it never ever stands still.

Considering the far-out plot, and ridiculous dialog, the acting is pretty good. Charles Middleton is especially effective as Ming the Merciless, completely deadpan in his interpretation.

ROCKETSHIP is frequently confused with a second (and very similar) film cut from the original 1936 FLASH GORDON serial, the 1966 TV movie SPACESHIP TO THE UNKNOWN. (While SPACESHIP contains most of the material found in ROCKETSHIP, that second film has a longer running time.) As with MARS ATTACKS THE EARTH (a feature made from the 1938 chapter-play FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS that hit theaters soon after Orson Welles' infamous WAR OF THE WORLDS panic broadcast), ROCKETSHIP was playing the big screens before the small screens become a household staple.

Curiously the third/final Flash Gordon serial, FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE, did not result in a theatrical feature from Universal. When the decision was made to make new features from the old serials in the mid-Sixties, CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE yielded no less than two instant TV movies, THE PURPLE DEATH FROM OUTER SPACE and THE PERIL FROM PLANET MONGO. (The new film made from FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS was called THE DEADLY RAY FROM MARS.)

Buster Crabbe was a big, good-looking guy who could act. The Flash Gordon serials of the 1930s used several big guys (most of whom really weren't actors) to bring to life the characters of a serialized cartoon. This TV movie condenses the first series. If you have a choice, watch the serial as it was originally made, and avoid this. the serial was hectic enough, but compressed into this format, the entire drama is rushed - like a string of fight scenes with some vaguely important dialog in between.

Flash starts out as a young man on a plane who is preoccupied about the planet which is about to slam into the earth, destroying everything, and the very pretty girl sitting next to him (Jean Rogers). The passengers bail out and the plane crashes. Flash saves the girl and lands near a rocket ship designed to solve the interplanetary problem by a seemingly deranged but very brilliant scientist (Frank Shannon). And the adventures have just begun.

We meet Ming the Merciless - self-proclaimed Emperor of the Universe; an enormous jovial winged king with the attention span of a chickadee; an honorable and huge prince clad in Roman armor with a sword and a fleet of rocket ships; a conniving princess who wants to possess Flash, a despicable high priest, and a tribe of enslaved space hippies who Flash will eventually inspire to great deeds.

Some of the dialog is predictably corny, but overall, the main story arc is cleverly plotted. The special effects are good for their time, and the costumes are terrific. Most of the acting is surprisingly good, but there are a few glaringly bad exceptions. These little problems don't really reduce the entertainment value of the film.

There are no great philosophical points you can take home from this film, but they do exactly what they were intended to do quite well - they entertain and stimulate the imagination. Good enough for me!

Rocket Ship (1938) is a spin-off of the original Flash Gordon series and a movie I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline follows a planet fast approaching Earth led by Ming the Merciless. Ming looks to use his planet much like the Death Star to destroy Earth. His planet is also filled with all kinds of strange and unique aliens from other planets he's conquered. Flash Gordon is a scientist who believes he can fly into space, land on the invading planet and stop it from destroying Earth.

This movie is codirected by Ford Beebe (The Invisible Man's Revenge) and Robert F. Hill (Shadow of Chinatown) and stars Buster Crabbe (Buck Rogers), Jean Rogers (Charlie Chan in Panama), Charles Middleton (Duck Soup), Priscilla Lawson (Rose Bowl) and Frank Shannon (Blonds at Work).

The storyline for this is classic science fiction and while very straight forward it's executed well. The invading planet is so well created and contains fun landscapes and creatures, with the creatures made up of people in suits and iguanas. The acting is actually very good as are the props, costumes and sets. The monster in the cave was cool and the fight with the guy in the gorilla suit was hilarious and fun. Ming was perfect in this with a good mix of diabolical and arrogance.

Overall this is a science fiction gem that isn't perfect but is very entertaining for a 1930s picture. I would score this a 6.5/10 and strongly recommend it.

With another planet hurtling towards Earth, "Flash Gordon" (Buster Crabbe) decides to board an airplane in order to be with his father when the end finally comes. Sitting in the next aisle is an attractive young woman named "Dale Arden" (Jean Rogers) who becomes visibly shaken when the airplane runs into turbulence and the pilot advises everyone to bail out. Flash escorts her out of the airplane and they descend together safely in the pitch black night. Upon a landing they are greeted by a scientist named "Dr. Hans Zarkoff" (Frank Shannon) who tells them he has built a rocket ship which he intends to fly to the oncoming planet and try to divert it from its collision course. Figuring that they have nothing to lose, Flash and Dale volunteer to go with him. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this film was initially broken down into three or more pieces with each played separately for a short period of time in conjunction with the featured presentation. It was only later that these pieces were put back together to form a complete movie. At least, that is what I understand. In any case, as one might expect from a movie produced in 1936 it was filmed in black and white and the special effects were extremely basic. Both of those are to be expected and I can't really fault the movie for either of these. However, what I didn't particularly care for was the dialogue which was about as elementary as anything I have ever seen. Likewise, the acting was rather poor and a number of the scenes could have used a bit more depth. But other than that this was an adequate movie for the most part and I rate it as about average.