Amid war fears, the world is struck by the Purple Death plague. Up in the stratosphere in a rocketship, Flash Gordon, Dr. Zarkov and Dale Arden discover a ship belonging to Ming the Merciless of the planet Mongo dispensing a dust into the atmosphere that is causing the plague, so it's off to Mongo they go to fight Ming yet again. They arrive in the forest land of Arboria where they reunite with their old ally Prince Barin (married to Ming’s daughter Aura) who is trying to help Queen Fria of the frozen land Frigia in her own battle against Ming. Ming is testing a new formulation of the Purple Death that will kill only people of higher intellect, leaving others ("men of simple intellect") alive to become slaves. This time it's not just Earth but the entire universe that is at stake. Flash's gang breaks into Ming's palace to free a captured Frigian general. Soon, Flash's folks (including Barin, Captain Ronal and Captain Roka from Arboria) and Ming's minions (Captain Torch, Lt. Thong, and a spy named Sonja who was installed as a handmaiden to Aura) begin a series of clashes. First, in the frozen wastes of Frigia (with a fair amount of stock footage from a German mountain movie, The White Hell of Pitz Palu), Flash and Zarkov discover polarite, an element that can counteract the Purple Death. Ming deploys walking bomb robots against them, one of which, in a cliffhanger moment, appears to kill Flash, but not really. Flash heads back to Earth and dispenses the polarite dust, then returns to save Zarkov from a Destroying Ray, rescue Dale who is again being claimed as a bride by Ming, and save Roka from a rocketship on fire. Our heroes also face a gigantic lizard, risk capture by the Rock Men (who speak backwards English), have to avoid an electrified rug, and must stop Ming's ships from bombing Arboria. In the end, Ming is killed (as he was at the end of the two previous serials) and, since Ming had madly proclaimed "I AM the universe," Zarkov names Flash conqueror of the Universe.
The third and final Flash Gordon serial is, at 12 chapters and a little over three hours, much shorter than
TRIP TO MARS. That's generally a good thing, although to make up for the shorter time, this one packs in lots and lots of action, not always very coherently. I frequently lost track of where people were, which people had been captured, and who was working as a spy (in addition to Sonja, at least two of Ming's men are working for Flash and Barin). I also got some actors confused. It seems like every male supporting character has dark hair, a medium build, and often sports a mustache. Buster Crabbe is back as Flash and we’re in good hands with him. Frank Shannon remains bland as Zarkov, but Charles Middleton continues to improve as Ming, looking and sounding quite menacing. This time around, Dale is played by Carol Hughes (pictured with Crabbe) who is about on a par with the previous Dale, Jean Rogers. However, replacing Richard Alexander as Barin with Roland Drew was a mistake; Alexander had a commanding size and tone of voice that Drew lacks completely. In fact, I kept getting the mustached Drew mixed up with the mustached Donald Curtis (who is actually quite good as Ronal) as they are frequently in scenes together. Also with Lee Powell as Roka, Byron Foulger as a Ming minion who joins up with Flash, Anne Gwynne as Sonja, and Don Rowan as Capt. Torch. I did like the outfits that the Arborian men wore: tunics and tights and feathered caps just like Robin Hood's Merry Men—fans of nicely proportioned male asses will enjoy themselves. The recaps at the beginning of each chapter are put in a crawl up the screen, just like George Lucas did in the Star Wars movies. Despite the fast pace, I felt that the middle chapters dragged, so I would mark this as the least of the three Flash serials, but it's still awfully fun. [DVD]
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