Flash Gordon

Tala Birell's role is indicated in the credits (not "uncredited" as heretofore indicated). The episode was filmed in Berlin and was the only episode in which Tala appeared. She looked all of her 45 years and would die several years later from cancer. Tala's commanding presence as a vicious queen determined to rule the universe expands the range of camp performances, unfortunately her last role in a 30 years career on stage and in film.

Despite shoestring budget and primitive special effects this very original series still manages to fascinate viewers even today. It's easy to laugh at the cheesy costumes and makeup but to be perfectly honest the early Star-Trek episodes were little better except for being in color. Watching these today, I think the three lead players are terrific, Steve Holland's Flash is like a young but sandy-haired Rory Calhoun, and Irene Champlin's curvaceous but entirely decorous Dale is remindful of a young Ruth Roman. Dr. Zarkov is still distinguished, even if his science is highly suspect. (After all, these are the days when school children were taught to duck under their desks as shelter in case of a nuclear attack.) These were thrilling shows when I watched them on TV at aged six. They disappeared for years after that, and I've now revisited them with fondness via DVDs, but so far I've only found 8 episodes available. Sci-fi fans who haven't yet seen them are in for a real treat.

I have fond if hazy memories of this series, when I finally found one episode in a Woolworth's bargain bin 20 years ago I immediately purchased it. For a 1950's kid for whom TV was something exciting and wonderful-and with no exposure to the Buster Crabbe serials-this program was Flash Gordon come to life. Steve Holland looked the part and was fairly athletic, Joe Nash also made a good Dr. Zarkov, and yes Irene Champlin was an eyeful and holds up well. Having since learned that it was filmed in West Berlin and then France I can see that it does have a different look and feel from contemporary Hollywood productions. The stories were played straight, many of the episodes had a grim feel to them. almost a film noir feel. Yes the special effects are low budget and to our CGI spoiled eyes might seem a little cheesy and what science there is laughably out of date-hey, I recall seeing a "Star Trek" episode where one of the characters is awaiting a computer printout and the sound effects are clearly of a printing press- but part of the fun of watching yesteryear's science fiction is comparing it to what we have and seeing where they got it "wrong". "Star Trek" or "Star Wars" it's not, it's definitely not the Buster Crabbe productions. Think of it as a local theater group's production, sit back and enjoy the show. And go back 50 years.

This is a strange TV series, yet one which is at times oddly compelling. It was obviously made on the cheap, even for it's time, and is quite primitive from most standpoints, yet, like amateur theater, can be interesting.

The connection to the classic Flash Gordon of the classic newspaper comics and 1930's film series is tenuous...Our Heroes, Flash, Zarkov, and Dale Arden are the focus of the stories and they are in recognizable form, but rather than being contemporary adventurers they are instead duly deputized agents of the Galaxy Investigation Bureau, operating hundreds of years in the future as government agents in space.

In this manner, they fit in with most of the other TV space heroes of 1949-55 period, such as Rocky Jones, Commander Corey, Tom Cobett, Commando Cody and Captain Video, all military or quasi-military officers...which probably fit into the Cold War schema of lionizing military authority.

The principle characters, Flash, Dale and Zarkov are actually very good choices for the roles. Steve Holland is often derided for his portrayal of Flash, but I think this is unfair...he makes a good enough hero and was definitely muscular enough...I think simply that he wasn't Buster Crabbe, and Buster Crabbe was DEFINITIVE. Holland appeared younger than Crabbe, leaner, and with poofier blond hair...if he had been cast in one of the 'teen-age' monster pics circa 1957 or in one of the surfer pics circa 1962, I think he'd have been a success, at least within the schlock film genre.

Irene Champlin's Dale Arden appears a little closer to age 30, less submissive and more capable that of Jean Rogers...her sexiness is somewhat different than the original, but I like her. Joseph Nash as Zarkov is younger, stronger, and has a better beard than the guy in the serials, yet still is convincing in the role.

The scripts range from being horrible to decent with occasional moments of surprising brilliance here and there which make you tend to forget all the tedium. Sometimes the science fictional elements are plausible, but the writers seemed to have zero concept of the distances and time factors that would be involved for space travel, even in the solar system...this fact is underscored in one episode which established that the ships in this fictional universe lacked faster-than-light capability.

Most of the reviews mention that this show was filmed in post WWII Germany, a nation that still had lots of bombed-out and otherwise war-torn locations that were occasionally used to stand-in for dystopian landscapes. Besides showing you bombed-out ruins, the producers also had a liberal usage of stock footage, including buildings being blown up, and refugees fleeing en masse, which perhaps inadvertently serves to add a note of grimness.

Most of the minor parts in the series were played by Germans who spoke English with a heavy German accent. This works pretty well for the villains, since Captain Video, Space Patrol, and other scifi shows of this period favored villains with German or Russian accents, but for the 1st bunch of episodes, Our Heroes supervisor was a very somber-faced guy with a heavy accent...he was eventually replaced with a more acceptable American actor.

The whole German angle to this show is interesting for other reasons. Prior to WWII, there was a full-fledged movement of pioneer rocket scientists in Germany whose goal was manned spaceflight and the exploration of the solar system. These guys inspired and advised Fritz Lang, who created 'Frau im Mond,' which was probably the 1st attempt at a realistic vision of space travel. These pioneers included Werner Von Braun and Wiley Lee, and they were recruited into the Nazi war effort, their crowning achievement being the famous V-2 rocket, the 1st operational ballistic missile. As Nazi Germany collapsed, the German rocket scientists all either surrendered or were captured by the USSR and USA, with Von Braun and Ley eventually making huge contributions not just to the USA space program, but also promoting the very idea itself of manned space travel. So it can be fairly stated that the idea of practical manned space flight is very much a German idea.

The other way German culture plays into this is that Alex Raymond, creator of the original Flash Gordon comics, was strongly influenced, visually and thematically, by Germanic folklore. The planet Mongo is essentially a stand-in for Medieval Europe, and Flash, besides being blond, was clearly endowed with Teutonic physical features.

Universal Studios, which adapted Flash to the silver screen in the 1930's, employed set designers and artists who were heavily influenced by the German expressionist cinema movement and many technicians actually came from Germany itself. The sets and props of this impoverished series show some of this expressionist influence, a kind of strange hybrid of Fritz Lang and Ed Wood.

Based on the comics and the film serials of the 1930's, some intellectuals called Flash Gordon 'the American Seigfried,' a reference to the great hero of German myth. It is interesting to see this vision, translated via the ruins of the greatest period of hubris and tragedy the German nation ever knew.

Even though this live-action, Sci-Fi, TV show from the early 1950s was, pretty much, a bargain-basement special, it still contained enough goofy entertainment value in its half-hour episodes to earn itself a 4-star rating from me.

Set in the year 3203, Flash Gordon and his space-age pals, Dr. Zarkov & Dale Arden, boldly travel across the vast galaxy, battling cosmic villains, here, there, and everywhere.

Always in full command of his gleaming starship, The Sky Flash, you can always count on dashing, young Gordon and his diligent crew to keep the cosmos safe for one, and all.

Filmed in b&w, this German production ran for only one season, 1954-1955.