Flash Gordon: The Complete Series (6 Discs)

Is it still worth travelling back to the black and white weekly cinema serials of the late thirties? Well having waded through this 7 disc set I would guardedly say yes as the exciting adventures of Flash Gordon, Dale Arden and Doctor Zarkov are generally worthy of revisiting. It appears that no digital restoration of the original prints have been done so the quality is somewhat patchy across the titles entire content. The worst to suffer occasional minor picture and sound degradation are the first two discs containing the 12 chapter "Space Soldiers" with each part abruptly concluding but this (apart from chapter 5) doesn't overtly detract from viewing enjoyment. Of the cast I particularly enjoyed John Lipson whose portrayal as crusty old bird King Vultan made me smile a few times. Vultan's hawkmen flying in chapter 5 and the fire beast in chapter 9&10 are certainly noteworthy positives. I thought the sword fight in chapter 7 was too long and Flash being invisible during chapter 11 could possibly mean that the actor took a holiday. The best picture/sound and indeed most satisfying story is offered on "Trip To Mars", 15 chapters spread over 3 discs each bar 1st starting with comic strip recap plates on a screen scrolled along by uniformed figure. Worthy of praise here are the clay people blending into walls and the special effects of the Queen of Magic. I find it difficult to believe Flash bringing down other rocket ships with a simple handgun out of the window (chapter 2) and personally feel that the story was needlessly padded out with flashbacks from the previous serial no less than three times (chapters 6, 10 & 14). Of fairly average picture and sound quality (although it is particularly bad on chapter 7) I personally felt that "Conquers The Universe" is definitely the weakest story of the three which this time offered an initial scrolling text with vocal narrative recap similar to the 'Star Wars' movies, albeit over a mountainous backdrop. Aside from a brief arctic expedition where the principle cast were decked out as Russian Cossacks the costume of choice for this serial seemed to be taken from Robin Hood. For me there was little of memorable significance during these 12 chapters however I note the fairly worthy hexagonal headed robots (chapter 2) and then later rock people (chapter 7) whose foreign language was clearly backwards. Although overall it feels rather like a mixed bag when considering whether it is satisfying viewing entertainment it's when viewed as a historical document of cinema from a bygone era it's indeed great to see its first appearance on DVD. However maybe cleaning up the prints, better chapter pointing and possibly a subtitles option would for me certainly improve its appeal on a future re-release.