The Flash Gordon
Collection (Passport)
Picture: C
Sound: C Extras: C+ Serial and TV Series: B-
Flash Gordon continues to be one of the survivors of the
early years of heroes in Pop culture, with the memorabilia continuing to climb
in value and the various programs produced staying in print. There is still plenty of Gordon material
that is not as easy to find as it should be, which is a problem Passport 5 DVD Flash
Gordon Collection tries to remedy.
The first 2 DVDs offer the oft-issued Flash Gordon Conquers The
Universe serial, while the last 3 offer ten of the half-hour episodes from
the 1950s TV show.
The serial has been issued before a few times, most
notably from Image Entertainment and VCI Entertainment. We have already covered the VCI version and
I agree with that critic about how it is fun and one of the best serials ever
made, while the VCI version fared well against all previous copies. This version looks almost as good and sounds
about the same, with its 1.33 X 1 black and white image and Dolby Digital 2.0
Mono. Image has annoying Dolby 1.0
Mono, so this version is as passable as any.
That brings us to the next material.
The TV series was produced in Germany, though it was in
English and the actors flew over to shoot it.
It debuted in 1954 and did not last long. It had its moments and has never been issued on DVD before except
the first show, which Radio Spirits put out on a DVD set with The Lone Ranger,
et al. Now out of print, each disc had
a show of each of three characters form TV, followed by three of their radio
dramas. That show also looked cleaner,
clearer, crisper and had fine video black.
This copy is fuzzy, but the later shows look much better. For fans, the episodes are:
1) Flash
Gordon & The Planet of Death
2) Akim The
Terrible
3) The
Claim Jumpers
4) The
Breath Of Death
5) Flash
Gordon & The Race Against Time
6) Flash
Gordon & The Brain Machine
7) The
Forbidden Experiment
8) The
Earth’s Core
9) Deadline
At Noon
10) The Subworld Revenge
Steve Holland became Flash and was not bad in the role,
making for a good successor to Buster Crabbe, who remains the best-known actor
in the role 70 years later. The effects
are a hoot in a different way, but this was early TV with a limited budget and
was good for what it was. That is a
great set of chapters and TV episodes for any Flash fan or those who just want
something older and fun to watch. The
picture and sound are comparable to the serial. That makes it one of the best box sets Passport has issued to
date. Then there is a bonus.
There were space heroes other than Flash and even Buck
Rogers, and one of them was Rocky Jones.
Rocky Jones – Space Ranger had a following and was not a bad show
either, popular enough to have some episodes edited together and theatrically
issued. That film called Manhunt In
Space (1956) is included as a bonus and just ups the value of this nice
set. Richard Crane is amusing as Rocky
and this runs 78 minutes. This is the
second of two such theatrical compilations.
Only 39 half-hour shows were produced, but they played often enough
early on to cement Rocky as an early space hero and TV hero. See Captain Video elsewhere on this site as
well for even more information.
As for Flash, another feature film is being discussed,
while the popularity of the 1980 camp classic by Mike Hodges is finally due to
come out in a special edition from Universal, while the underappreciated
Filmation animated TV series from the late 1970s is long overdue for DVD
release and remains some of the best Flash adventures ever committed to film. When they come out, we’ll be there to catch
them. Until then, this Flash Gordon
Collection will entertain you more than you’d expect.
- Nicholas Sheffo
