Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars dvd movie.|
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List Price: $39.99 Our Price: $35.99 You Save: $4 Features • Black & White • DVD-Video • NTSC In Theaters : 21 March, 1938 DVD Release : 28 March, 2000 |
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Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars description It's easy to point and guffaw at the Flash Gordon serials. In fact, in this day and age it's hard to believe that audiences of any era were ever expected to accept bulbous rocket ships that flatulently trail sparks and smoke; preposterous, shambling space creatures; and spaceship interiors that look as though they were assembled from a plumbing warehouse. Despite the primitive sets and effects, Flash Gordon serials are as much a part of the roots of modern sci-fi as Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, or Ray Bradbury. This collection from Image Entertainment finds Flash battling a fiendish plot staged by Queen Azura of Mars, stealing the Earth's nitrogen to aid in the ongoing war against the Clay People. Flash soon discovers that Azura is in line with his mortal enemy, Ming the Merciless, who secretly is plotting to overthrow her and take over Mars himself. As usual, the hapless Professor Zarkov gets in predicaments from which Flash must rescue him, and Dale Arden is by Flash's side through all of it. Loaded with fisticuffs, sputtering, wobbly rocket ships, lasers, and, of course, the remarkable Clay People (Martians turned into animated mud), this is fast-paced sci-fi entertainment that was state of the art for 1938. The energy and raw enthusiasm of these serials are what make them so fun to watch, not to mention providing a downright quaint time-capsule look at what Depression-era audiences thought of as the future. --Jerry Renshaw |
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| ♥♥♥♥♥ | OF MING AND MAGIC |
| Of the three Flash Gordon serials, the Trip to Mars is my favorite. Ming, for unexplained reasons has escaped death on Mongo and landed on Mars [which bears an uncanny resemblence to planet Mongo]. He is nasty as ever. I really, really hate that Ming!
I have a confession, however. I am really, really in love with Azura, Queen of Magic! [I don't want that to get around]! For some reason, she presented me with my first prepupertal sexual awakening. I was eight. It may have been her glacial beauty, her imperious disdain or her ability to turn grown men to clay and vanish on the spot. I don't know. She died in chapter 13. It's an ignominious death in a tacky suburb of Mars. Even worse, it was at the hands of her own guards. I only know, had I been there, it would have turned out differently! The computer has granted me magic beyond her dreams. I could obtain this DVD and perform a search for my Queen. Queen Azura was played by Beatrice Roberts. The actress was born in Manhattan in 1905. As a young woman she entered several beauty contests including Miss America. She had a short term marriage to Robert Ripley [Believe It or Not], and a long term dalliance with Louis B. Mayer [MGM]. She appeared in a string of grade B [maybe C] movies, often uncredited. I still bear a torch for her. In truth she would be as old as my grandmother. On the screen, however, she retains a regal appeal. Beatrice Roberts vanished finally into obscurity and apparently is buried in Plymouth, Massachusetts near my hometown. If I ever find her grave I'll stop and plant some violets. |
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