The influences behind Flash Gordon

1980

Flash Gordon

Film by Mike Hodges

New Hollywood blockbuster era. United Kingdom / United States. In English.

Mike Hodges' Flash Gordon (1980), produced by Dino De Laurentiis and written by Lorenzo Semple Jr., is a camp, brightly coloured space opera adapted from Alex Raymond's 1934 comic strip. In it, football player Flash Gordon and his companions defy Ming the Merciless, tyrant of the planet Mongo. Its lineage runs through the 1930s Universal serials, Star Wars and 1960s camp cinema back to the earliest literary voyages to other worlds.

Where it came from

Where to watch

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In the US, as of October 12. Prices and services change.

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1966

Batman

Film by Leslie H. Martinson

1960s pop camp. United States. In English.

A feature spun off from the television series, written by Lorenzo Semple Jr. Adam West's Batman faces a united front of four supervillains in a self-consciously absurd, comic-book manner.

What it handed down

To Flash Gordon (1980)

Stylistic influence, well documented.

Lorenzo Semple Jr., who wrote the 1966 Batman feature and developed the TV series, wrote the Flash Gordon screenplay. He brought the same deadpan, self-mocking treatment of comic-book heroics, with straight-faced absurd dialogue and villains played as grand theatrical turns.

Where it came from

Batman (serial), film by Lambert Hillyer 1943

Where to watch

Stream YouTube TV
Rent Amazon $3.99, Google Play $2.99, Apple TV $3.99, Fandango at Home $3.99
Buy Amazon $4.99, Apple TV $9.99, Fandango at Home $9.99, Google Play $9.99

In the US, as of October 21. Prices and services change.

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1943

Batman (serial)

Film by Lambert Hillyer

Classical Hollywood serials. United States. In English.

Columbia's 15-chapter wartime serial, the first screen version of Batman and Robin, in which they fight a Japanese spy ring.

What it handed down

To Batman (1966)

Thematic kinship, probable.

Revival screenings of the 1943 Columbia serial, shown to laughing adult audiences at the Playboy Club in Chicago in the mid-1960s, helped prompt ABC to develop the camp Batman series that produced the 1966 feature. The serial's stiff heroics and cliffhanger traps became material for parody.

Where it came from

The line stops here: drawn from Bob Kane and Bill Finger's comic books, which lie outside literature and film.

Where to watch

Free Tubi, Fawesome

In the US, as of October 21. Prices and services change.

Find “Batman (serial)” on Amazon

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Flash Gordon (1980)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Batman (1966)

Where it came from

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