Flash Gordon: Ming Strikes Back (1940)

I've just completed my feature-length cut of the 1940 public domain serial FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE, with Larry "Buster" Crabbe, Carol Hughes, Charles Middleton, Frank Shannon, and Anne Gwynne.

With Flash Gordon having twice before thwarted his evil plans for conquest of the universe, Ming the Merciless renews his assault on the Earth, this time by coating the inhabited portions of the planet with a deadly dust, which strikes its victims down with the unyielding Purple Death. Flash, Dale Arden and Dr. Zarkov must journey through the far reaches of space to the forest kingdom of Arboria, on the planet Mongo, to enlist the aid of Prince Barin and his Tree Men, where, with the additional assistance of Queen Fria of Frigia and her soldiers, Flash and his friends must discover a way to put a stop to the Purple Death and disrupt the nefarious plans of Ming and his minions.

Two feature-length films condensed from the first and second halves of this 1940 serial were released to television in 1966. The combined running time of these two features was 171 minutes (out of the original 234-minute combined run time of the complete serial), and in my opinion neither feature works very well as a standalone movie. My goal was to cut the entire 12-chapter serial into one coherent film that could be enjoyed by today's audiences. 

The result is a 139-minute film that hopefully streamlines the story, discards unnecessary subplots, and eliminates redundancy or filler. Despite the dodgy science, improbable escapes, cheesy special effects, sometimes wooden acting, and juvenile story, FLASH GORDON: MING STRIKES BACK provides a glimpse into how I think STAR WARS may have looked to an audience in 1940.

Since I expect that this edit will probably appeal to a rather limited audience, I won't go into detail on the cuts that have been made. In brief, numerous cuts have been made throughout the serial, and all but 37 seconds of chapter 8 have been deleted, as well as all of chapter 9. Some scenes have been switched around to support the tightened narrative, and a couple of repetitive situations have been conflated to quicken the pace.  

The edit is available in an MP4 standard definition file. Since the serial is in the public domain, I hope that I'm not out of line by mentioning that it's currently available on YouTube. Here's the cover:

AWESOMENESS!!!!   I too have thought about editing the Flash Gordon serials into movies but have always been daunted by the size of the project.   Congrats on completing your project!  I will definitely be watching this one.  

Billy Batson said:

dodgy science, improbable escapes, cheesy special effects, sometimes wooden acting, and juvenile story

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AKA the stuff dreams are made of.   

In all seriousness, though, there's something about early 20th-century soft science fiction (in both literary and cinematic forms) that provides its own unique (and to me at least) highly appealing charm.

I've always liked the idea of serial-to-movie fanedits of the Flash Gordon serials, and I'm happy to see that you made one.

Thanks, I really appreciate the interest. The edit was a lot of fun to do, and I think it came out very well. 

As usual, audio is not my strong suit, but most of the awkward audio transitions in the cut are from the original source material. Since the soundtrack was mono, there wasn't much I could do to fix them. The studio editing on this one was a bit crude in places. For example, I noticed a couple of flash frames in a transition fade that had been carried over from some stock footage that was reused from the first serial. I cleaned up this particular transition, just because I didn't want to get blamed for the sloppy edit. 

Flash Gordon is easily one of my favourite all time pulp-esque heroes.   Raymond's comic strip is filled with action packed drama and glorious illustrations.  The Buster Crabb serials are a pure delight.   The first serial made in 1936 may be the most faithful comic adaptation ever put to screen, though I think the two sequel serials are more fun and have a stronger narrative.

Which brings me to the fan edit MING STRIKES BACK!  I watched this on Youtube a little while ago, and I was thoroughly impressed.   Billy Batson has taken the longest and most convoluted Flash Gordon serial and nicely streamlined it to it's core elements.  And while the story moves swiftly, due to the nature/style of the material I couldn't help wonder if it would play better as two 70 minutes movies rather than one long epic?  Still, I was highly entertained.   And when you watch the story in this configuration, it really hits home how much George Lucas "borrowed" from this amazing serial series.  Almost to the point, I asked myself, was it loving homage or blatant theft? LOL.

Technically, some very minor audio and cut issues but nothing that detracts from the viewing pleasure.
All in all, a fun edit.
Thanks for the nostalgia trip Billy Batson, it left a smile on this old man fanboy's face. 

Well, thanks, bionicbob, I'm very pleased that you enjoyed it. I agree that it's a bit long, but I felt somewhat justified in that it's about as long as an average Star Wars film. And the parallels with George Lucas's films are quite remarkable.

I've watched the first half of this and need to finish it. Have been enjoying it so far (I've never seen the original) and I agree there are some interesting parallels with Star Wars. There's also a brief moment in the score at 45:24 which I thought was very John Williams-esque. 

As Bionic Bob has noted, there are a few audio cut issues, but given the age and nature of the serial it's rather hard to pinpoint which ones are from editing and which ones are simply inherent in the source. Nevertheless, I've taken notes and will provide some feedback when I review it on IFDB.

Thanks, The Scribbling Man, I'm looking forward to your review.

Here's a poster I started some time ago for your excellent edit, finally finished:

Early on I decided it was going to take too long to try and get the likenesses right so I just had fun with the whole thing and draw the best Flash, Dale, Zarkov and Ming I could. Most of the rocket ships are my own doodles but a few are based on rockets from the original comic strip.
Special thanks to @"bionicbob" for providing invaluable feedback.

^ Wow! That might be your best yet @"Rogue-theX" . I love the squiggle above Flash's left eye (right side of drawing), it's minimal but so descriptive of his expression, yet looks like a free moment with the pen/brush.

stunning!

Wow!! I'm blown away!

Excellent job. Beautiful. Love it.

BB

Rogue-theX said:

Here's a poster I started some time ago for your excellent edit, finally finished:

Early on I decided it was going to take too long to try and get the likenesses right so I just had fun with the whole thing and draw the best Flash, Dale, Zarkov and Ming I could. Most of the rocket ships are my own doodles but a few are based on rockets from the original comic strip.
Special thanks to @"bionicbob" for providing invaluable feedback.

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Thanks! I'm glad you like it 

Might you make serial-to-movie edits of the first two Flash Gordon serials as well?

I'm not sure about the first two. I don't believe that they are in the public domain, which was one of the attractions of making this one.

Thanks for your interest.