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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1936

Flash Gordon (serial)

Film by Frederick Stephani

Classical Hollywood serials. United States. In English.

Universal's 13-chapter serial starring Buster Crabbe, the first screen adaptation of Raymond's strip. Flash, Dale and Zarkov fly to the rogue planet Mongo to stop its collision with Earth.

What it handed down

To Flash Gordon (1980)

Direct source, well documented.

Both films adapt Alex Raymond's strip, and Hodges' film keeps the serial's core cast of Flash, Dale, Zarkov, Ming and Prince Barin, along with the Hawkmen and the rocket journey to Mongo. The 1980 film exaggerates the serial's cliffhanger rhythm and cardboard heroics into knowing camp.

To Star Wars

Direct source, well documented.

Lucas has said that Star Wars began as an attempt to remake Flash Gordon. When he could not get the rights, he wrote his own space opera. The opening text crawl, the wipe transitions and the cliffhanger pacing come from the Universal Flash Gordon serials Lucas watched as a child.

To Barbarella

Thematic kinship, probable.

Jean-Claude Forest drew on the Flash Gordon tradition when creating Barbarella, the comic Vadim adapted. The film keeps its winged men, cruel queen, labyrinthine city and episodic captures and escapes, now played for erotic comedy.

Where it came from

Where to watch

Stream Prime Video, The Roku Channel
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1935

Bride of Frankenstein

Film by James Whale

Universal horror cycle. United States. In English.

Universal's sequel to Frankenstein, in which Dr. Pretorius forces Henry Frankenstein to build a mate for the creature, using an elaborate electrical laboratory.

What it handed down

To Flash Gordon (serial) (1936)

Direct source, probable.

The low-budget Universal serial reused props and sets from the studio's recent horror films. These include electrical laboratory apparatus from Bride of Frankenstein that dresses Ming's and Zarkov's laboratories, giving Mongo the look of Universal's mad-science pictures.

Where it came from

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, Mary Shelley 1818

Where to watch

Stream Prime Video, Peacock
Rent Amazon $3.99, Google Play $2.99, Apple TV $3.99, Fandango at Home $3.99
Buy Amazon $7.99, Apple TV $7.99, Fandango at Home $7.99, Google Play $9.99

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

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1818

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus

Mary Shelley

Romantic. England. Written in English.

Victor Frankenstein builds a living being from dead matter and abandons it, and the creature turns on him.

What it handed down

To Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Direct source, well documented.

Whale's sequel draws on episodes of Shelley's novel left out of the 1931 film: the creature's longing for a mate, his learning to speak and his time with the blind hermit. The film opens with a prologue showing Mary Shelley, Byron and Percy Shelley.

Where it came from

Paradise Lost, John Milton 1667

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1667

Paradise Lost

John Milton

Restoration England. England. Written in English.

A blank-verse epic of Satan's rebellion and the fall of Adam and Eve, retelling Genesis in the form of a classical epic.

What it handed down

To Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818)

Direct source, well documented.

Shelley's title page carries an epigraph from Paradise Lost: 'Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay / To mould me Man?' The creature reads Milton's epic and compares himself both to Adam and to Satan, framing the novel as a story of a creator and his abandoned creation.

Where it came from

Genesis (Hebrew Bible), Anonymous c. 550 BCE
The Odyssey, Homer c. 725 BCE follow this thread

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c. 550 BCE

Genesis (Hebrew Bible)

Anonymous

Babylonian exile and Persian period. Ancient Judah / Babylon. Written in Hebrew.

The first book of the Hebrew Bible. It covers the creation, the fall of Adam and Eve, the flood, the Tower of Babel and the patriarchs.

What it handed down

To Metropolis

Direct source, well documented.

Midway through the film, Maria tells the workers the story of the Tower of Babel from Genesis 11. Lang stages it as a parable in which the dreamers of the tower are cut off from the hands that build it. The film presents its city's master building as a new Babel.

To Paradise Lost (1667)

Direct source, well documented.

Milton's epic expands the first chapters of Genesis: creation, Eden, the serpent's temptation and the expulsion. Many passages paraphrase the biblical text closely.

Where it came from

This is one of the oldest surviving works in its tradition; the line ends here.

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Where it came from

What it handed down

To Flash Gordon (1980)

To Star Wars

To Barbarella

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Flash Gordon (serial) (1936)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Metropolis

To Paradise Lost (1667)

Where it came from

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