Product Description: Flash Gordon, Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars and Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, the most expensive and popular movie serials ever made, have been favorites of movie and comic fans for decades. The first serial was even designated a cultural treasure after being selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1996. This is the first book-length guide to the serials. Arranged in a chapter-by-chapter format conforming to the structure of the three original films, the work provides full cast and crew information, plot synopses, and production notes for each film. The work also includes a wealth of background information on the films and more than 150 photographs, along with interview quotations from cast members Buster Crabbe, Jean Rogers, and Caroll Borland. Three appendices provide an overview of the serial film Buck Rogers (1939), select filmographies for 50 of the most prominent Flash Gordon cast and crew members, a complete list of the serials' film and television remakes.
Fun for Old-Time Serial Fans I absolutely loved this book. It is loaded with great pictures and behind-the-scenes stories that explained a whole lot for me. When I was younger watching these serials, there was a lot of disjointed scenes as well as inconsistent names of people and places. I was amused to learn that my confusion was the result of how tightly-budgeted these movies were and how Universal severely-cut corners. If the actors blew their lines, someone redubbed their voices or let the blooper stand. Footage from old silent movies was frequently used for some action sequences. The musical soundtracks of all three serials were taken from many other Universal productions, yet have become so familiar to fans that we believed it was created primarily for Flash Gordon. There's a lot of great humor, too. (There was a scene in "Trip to Mars" where Prince Barin and Zarkov are up on a roof trying to break through a skylight to save Flash, and after frantically searching for something useful, Barin reaches off camera and produces a handy crowbar to do the job!) If you ever enjoyed these movies, I highly recommend this book to you.
Excellent book for Flash Gordon fans! This book is loaded with many great photos from the three Flash Gordon serials. Although a little pricey, the number of and quality of the photos made it worth the price. Each episode of the series is given a brief synopsis followed by comments. This is a great book for any fan of the Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon serials.
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