Starring Buster Crabbe, Carol Hughes, Charles Middleton, Anne Gwynne, Frank Shannon
Directed by Ford Beebe & Ray Taylor
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)
An attempt by Emperor Ming to spread a deadly plague across the Earth leads Flash Gordon and his friends to return to planet Mongo to thwart Ming's schemes once and for all.
The third and final Flash Gordon serial returns Crabbe, Middleton, and Shannon as Gordon, Ming, and Dr. Zarkov, but fans will be disappointed the other regulars are recast, notably Carol Hughes replacing Jean Rogers as leading lady Dale Arden. Still, the fun factor of the serial remains high, with adventures in the woodland kingdom of Arborea, the frozen wasteland of Frigeia, and the desolate cliffs of the Land of the Dead, underscored by classic music cues from Universal's library, particularly the Frankenstein films. Future Universal horror staple Anne Gwynne has a meaty villainous role as a spy employed by Ming. There's not as much of an emphasis on fantastic sights as the earlier serials, with the exception of some stock footage used from the first one, but there's spaceship battles, mid-air rescues, and fire and electrical traps that Flash must brave. Fans of the past entries should find enough to enjoy, although it doesn't measure up to the gold standard of the first serial.
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