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Dr. Zarkov (Chaim Topol) blasts off with quarterback Flash Gordon (Sam J. Jones) and travel writer Dale Arden (Melody Anderson) to the planet Mongo to do battle with Earth's would-be destroyer Ming the Merciless (Max von Sydow). Laudably based on an actual storyline from the Flash Gordon comic strip (the very first storyline, as a matter of fact), but misguided in every other respect, this film features a Playgirl centerfold as Flash and a script that vacillates randomly between action-adventure and farce, only rarely succeeding at either. Tries hard to look like a comic strip without bothering to treat this particular strip with any respect. With Ornella Muti as a pretty Princess Aura, Timothy Dalton as the dashing Prince Barin, and Brian Blessed as the yells-every-line-of-dialogue leader of the Hawkmen, Prince Vultan. Music by Queen.
Dr. Zarkov (Chaim Topol) blasts off with quarterback Flash Gordon (Sam J. Jones) and travel writer Dale Arden (Melody Anderson) to the planet Mongo to do battle with Earth's would-be destroyer Ming the Merciless (Max von Sydow). Laudably based on an actual storyline from the Flash Gordon comic strip (the very first storyline, as a matter of fact), but misguided in every other respect, this film features a Playgirl centerfold as Flash and a script that vacillates randomly between action-adventure and farce, only rarely succeeding at either. Tries hard to look like a comic strip without bothering to treat this particular strip with any respect. With Ornella Muti as a pretty Princess Aura, Timothy Dalton as the dashing Prince Barin, and Brian Blessed as the yells-every-line-of-dialogue leader of the Hawkmen, Prince Vultan. Music by Queen.