Flash Gordon: Box Set (Space Soldiers/Flash Gordon's Trip To Mars/Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe) (3DVD)

Description

All three Flash Gordon serials in one box! "Space Soldiers" (1936, 245 min., 13 episodes) - Internationally renowned polo player and Yale graduate Flash Gordon and the lovely Dale Arden are enlisted by Dr. Hans Zarkov on his quest to save Earth from being destroyed by the runaway planet Mongo. "Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars (1938, 299 min., 15 episodes) - A mysterious beam of light emanating from Mars is sucking the nitrogen from the Earth's atmosphere, and only Flash Gordon can stop it, battling Queen Azura, the Clay People of Mars, and his mortal enemy Ming the Merciless! "Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe" (1940, 234 min., 12 episodes) - A rocket is dropping purple dust into the Earth's atmosphere, causing instant death! Can Flash Gordon stop the madman from Mongo while retrieving the antidote to the death dust from the frozen planet of Frigia?

Space Soldiers - Flash is enlisted to save Earth from a runaway planet. "Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars" - A light beam from Mars is sucking away Earth's atmosphere! "Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe" - A rocket is dropping deadly purple dust onto the Earth! 3-disc box set.

Robert F. Hill, Ford Beebe, Ray Taylor, Frederick Stephani

Buster Crabbe, Charles Middleton, Jean Rogers, Frank Shannon, Richard Alexander, Carol Hughes

Customer Reviews:

for my dad..........2007-09-06

My dad loved this gift. wish they had all the movies set up like this in the box set.

Please read the review below.......2007-08-01

All three films appear to be from 35mm prints.
FCGTU has the best picture and sound quality of the three. Pict quality of good+ to outstanding. Sound quality is nearly very good. The sound is recorded in Dolby Digital 1.0. On many systems, it will come out of the center speaker with bass coming out of your sub. Some receivers and surround sound pre-amps may have a special mono movie mode which can drastically improve the sound. Many Pioneer receivers have TV MONO and this mode works very well.

FGTTM has a mildly warbly sound track. The fidelity is good and is listenable. Hearst should have found a better print, even 16mm prints have better sound than this and would have made a better audio transfer with good picture quality. I have better sound on my tapes from recording off of a tv station many years ago that showed the series from a 16mm print. There is about a 4 minute segment missing from one of the chapters, so therefore this series is incomplete. The picture quality is good to very good.

FG has a listenable but warbly sound track. The same comments that I made above applies to this series.

For those who have never seen these films, at the $17 price tag it is worth the purchase because it is the only decent print game in town.

I would have given this a 5 star review if the first two series had the picture and particular the audio quality of the 1940 series. So my review is in essence for the quality of the presentation. As for the movies themselves, this is the finest example of a film presentation on a low studio budget that has ever been delivered. The special effects are nifty considering when these films were made, but they are so beautiful surreal.
The firing of ray guns in the whole series is every bit as good as what has been done over the years and set the stage for other science fiction pictures. The sound effects are first rate and memorable. All three of the series are set to a classical music theme from various symphonic masters and movie score composers at that time. I think Franz Listz would have marveled at the way his Les Preludes were used In FGCTU.

FGCTU was the inspirational movie to George Lucas. Because of this film, he made STAR WARS. He realized the importance of a classical musical score as well as nifty visual and sound effects. That makes the Flash Gordon series a extememly major contribution to the art of movie making.

Finally!!!.......2007-07-29

I've made the mistake of purchasing other DVD's of Flash Gordon that were edited from the originals. Evidently, someone, somewhere along the line decided to edit out all the cliff hangers and resell it as a whole movie. ARGH!!! Why not just edit all the scenes with Flash and Ming while you're at it.
This edition does indeed preserve all the cliff hangers, which are INTEGRAL to this form.
This is the ORIGINAL stuff! If you like another big sci-fi franchise then take a look, because this is where they did it first. Enjoy!

Classic movie Serial.......2007-07-08

Flash Gordon: Box Set (Space Soldiers/Flash Gordon's Trip To Mars/Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe) (3DVD)This classic serial
together with Buck Rogers, The Phantom Empire, and The Adventures of Captain
Marvel were my favorites among the Saturday afternoon cliffhangers.

A Blast from my past........2007-06-05

I first saw these serials in the movie theatres in the 1940's. They were part of the magical joy of a child's early life, which brought us back to that same theatre every Saturday matinee until we had seen all the episodes. In those days one could see a triple feature, the Flash Gordon serial, and cartoons for 9 cents at the Old Loma Theatre in Burbank, California.
Later, in the early 1950's they appeared on television for the first time. Even the adults were part of the audience. Crude as those early special effects were, they just delighted my whole generation.
Now, all three of the serials are available for a huge savings on DVD, about the same price for one individual movie. Step back into time and relive another era, sadly gone forever.

Average customer rating:

All is Great
Mongo madness
Campy 1930's sci-fi fun
Get The Right Ones!
Don't be an Arangapoid!

Flash Gordon - Space Soldiers
Starring: Buster Crabbe , Jean Rogers , Charles Middleton , Priscilla Lawson , and Frank Shannon
Director: Frederick Stephani , and Ray Taylor
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: 6305701172
Release Date: 2000-01-11

Description

Buster Crabbe stars as Flash Gordon in this classic 1930s serial presented for the first time on DVD. Humanity is doomed to destruction! A distant planet has broken its orbit and is headed straight toward the Earth. While Dr. Hans Zarkov works feverishly to finish a rocket ship of his own design, internationally renowned polo player and Yale graduate Flash Gordon is a passenger on a small plane where he meets fellow passenger Dale Arden. When a meteor storm destroys their aircraft, Flash and Dale bail out and land near Zarkov's ship. The great scientist enlists them to join him on his quest to save Earth, and the heroic trio blasts off into space to rendezvous with the runaway planet Mongo.

Customer Reviews:

All is Great.......2007-04-11

Everything about it was just great, really enjoy doing business with you

Mongo madness.......2007-02-24

Well, this was my first exposure to the original Flash Gordon serial, after seeing clips of it for years and watching the laughably-bad 1980 feature film. I have to say that although I'm not ready to proclaim it a "classic," I was certainly entertained for four hours. And wasn't that really the point of this short films back in the early days of sound cinema? They packed plenty of action, colorful characters and outrageous situations into each 20-minute chapter.

As a lifelong science-fiction fan, I got a campy kick out of the "science" in this one. My favorite line from the opening chapter: As Dale Arden begins to have trouble breathing as the rocketship carrying Flash, Zarkov and her blasts from Earth's atmosphere, Zarkov apologizes thusly, "Sorry...in all the excitement, I forgot to turn on the oxygen."

If you don't mind leaving your brain at the door, or get a nostalgic thrill from such lurid theatrics, you could do a lot worse than this first Flash series.

Campy 1930's sci-fi fun.......2007-01-25

You'll laugh out loud at the "special effects" and some of the acting, but these Flash Gordon episodes -- originally shown in movie houses, and later on some television stations in the 1950s and 1960s -- are cool entertainment as well as history for sci-fi fans.

-donn-
Donn Pearlman

Get The Right Ones!.......2006-02-18

You're here because you love the Flash Gordon serials and want the best. Buster Crabbe was in the original three which Image Entertainment sells as Space Soldiers, Flash Gordon's Trip To Mars, and Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe. They were released in 2000, with package artwork from Hearst Entertainment done in 1996. The serials are un-cut, meaning each chapter includes its original beginning and ending titles/credits.

They are more pricey than the 2002 versions from Image Entertainment. But they are not chopped down with missing chapters to make 90 minute movies out of. And they are better in picture quality than other DVD brands.

Amazon may still have the box set available to save you some money.

Have fun watching them!

Don't be an Arangapoid!.......2006-01-08

World renowned polo player "Flash" Gordon must save the Earth from being destroyed by the insideous (and leacherous) Ming the Merciless-- played with sadistic relish by Charles Middleton. Both Buster Crabbe as Flash and Jean Rogers as Dale play their roles with an enthusiasm and sincerity that just no longer exist on the screen. But my heart was won by the luscious Pricilla Lawson as the scheming Princess Aura-- who's as hot for Flash as her dad is for Dale.

The production design is amazingly good, and mostly based on the Alex Raymond comic strip-- which is also where the plot originates. There are plenty of silly rubber monster suits, iguanas with glued on horns and dubbed-in bronchitis, space ships that backfire before they take off, and lotsa precode jiggle.

To me, it all spells one thing: PURE CINEMA!!!

Average customer rating:

All is Great
Mongo madness
Campy 1930's sci-fi fun
Get The Right Ones!
Don't be an Arangapoid!

Flash Gordon: Space Soldiers
Starring: Buster Crabbe , Jean Rogers , Charles Middleton , Priscilla Lawson , and Frank Shannon
Director: Frederick Stephani , and Ray Taylor
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

( F ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

ASIN: B00008RWVS

Customer Reviews:

All is Great.......2007-04-11

Everything about it was just great, really enjoy doing business with you

Mongo madness.......2007-02-24

Campy 1930's sci-fi fun.......2007-01-25

Get The Right Ones!.......2006-02-18

Don't be an Arangapoid!.......2006-01-08

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