Synopsis:

With Flash Gordon, along with his faithful companions, Dale Arden and Doctor Zarkov, having twice before thwarted his evil plans for conquest of the universe, Ming the Merciless renews his assault on the Earth, this time by coating the inhabited portions of the planet with a deadly dust, which strikes its victims down with the unyielding Purple Death. Flash, Dale, and Zarkov must journey through the far reaches of space to the forest kingdom of Arboria, on the planet Mongo, to enlist the aid of Prince Barin and his Tree Men, where, with the additional assistance of Queen Fria of Frigia and her soldiers, Flash and his friends must discover a way to put a stop to the Purple Death and disrupt the nefarious plans of Ming and his minions. This is a feature-length cut of the 1940 public domain serial 'Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe', with Larry "Buster" Crabbe, Carol Hughes, Charles Middleton, Frank Shannon, and Anne Gwynne. Despite the dodgy science, improbable escapes, cheesy special effects, sometimes wooden acting, and juvenile story, 'Flash Gordon: Ming Strikes Back' provides a glimpse into how 'Star Wars' may have looked to an audience in 1940.

Intentions:

Two feature-length films condensed from the first and second halves of the 1940 serial, 'Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe', were released to television in 1966. The combined running time of these two features was 171 minutes (out of the original 234-minute combined run time of the complete serial), and in my opinion neither feature works very well as a standalone movie. My goal was to cut the entire 12-chapter serial into one coherent film that could be enjoyed by today's audiences.

Change List:

Cuts have been made to streamline the story, discard unnecessary subplots, and eliminate redundancy or filler. All but 37 seconds of chapter 8 has been cut, as well as all of chapter 9. Some scenes have been switched around to support the tightened narrative, and a couple of repetitive situations have been conflated to quicken the pace.

Additional Notes:

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Special Thanks: