The opening bars of Queen's soundtrack for Flash Gordon accompany the opening scenes. Maybe not a film I would have chosen for Sky Arts collection of classic movies, but I was willing to be convinced. Never having seen the film. I was immediately struck by the vivid colours on display. Ian Nathan and Steven Armstrong takes us through the history of Flash Gordon, the 1934 cartoon strip for a magazine drawn by staff illustrator Alex Raymond. It was designed to compete with the very successful Buck Rogers adventures. Different in it's approach, it was an immediate success. It was followed by black and white filmed serials from 1936 to 1940.
We hear how top producer Dino de Laurentis bought the rights, Steven gives us a run down of his career. The casting was amazing. Sam J Jones was cast as Flash. A marine and American Football player he just had the look that the producers wanted. It had taken a year to finally cast him. Max von Sydow was perfect for the baddie Ming, he looked very much like the character drawn in the comic strip, but with that additional menace only a great actor can bring. Steven says he had "intelligence, weariness and real class". He cannot believe he is beaten by Flash. But he looks as if he is enjoying himself. Maybe he was the template for many future villains.
It's Neil Norman who says that Melody Anderson who plays Dale Arden is just "perfect". The horrible Princess Aura, daughter of Ming, is played with relish by Ornella Muti. Other members of the cast include, amazingly, Peter Duncan, John Osborne, Richard O'Brien and Peter Wyngarde. There are also two other British actors "who absolutely get it right". Timothy Dalton in a Errol Flynn type roll, and Brian Blessed who was born to play Voltan.
The team discuss the choice of Mike Hodges as director. We hear he knew nothing about the comic strip and only on the plane to see de Lorentis did he first take a look. His immediate reaction was to use the comic strip as the storyboard. There are ground breaking special effects and the use of other sets already in the studio. Shot on British sound stages in a converted aircraft hanger in Weybridge, the production designer Danilo Donat brought that art deco look to the movie: "the skies an inky colour as if painted by Dali". Neil thought it was "beautifully designed".
Ian talks about the Queen soundtrack that even then "sounds like a rock opera". Steven adds that this was the band's first use of synthesisers. Ian says that the film was a "splendid success in the UK and Europe but less so in a bemused America". Neil thought that people were less ready for this "mutant film", although this is all about nostalgia. The rockets are from the comic so nothing like their modern equivalent. In the end it became a cult film. There are, apparently so many one liners that fans would "use in the pub". Neil was impressed that the "colour was extraordinary". Maybe this was the future of films for superheroes, although Flash is a mere mortal. Just.
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