FLASH GORDON (1980 UK) — It’s a cult classic. The writer of the script for this turkey (in an interview on the DVD) candidly admits that the film is “campy and confusing.” The Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis was only interested in making a “Star Wars” like film. Screen writer Lorenzo Semple Jr. said De Laurentiis could neither read or speak English so he didn’t bother with the script which is a series of unrelated confrontations with evil forces. Semple didn’t understand Italian so they worked through a translator who only spoke French. The script could have benefited from criticism but that never happened, said Semple.
Director Oliver Stone in his autobiography recalls difficulties working with De Laurentiis.
I was a teen when the entertaining 1936 Flash Gordon serial with Buster Crabbe was shown on KXLY-TV at 3 pm weekdays so I hustled home from school to see the latest installment. The movie is based on a 1930s comic strip. In the 1980 version, credible actors were recruited for supportive roles — Max von Sydow as Ming and Timothy Dalton as Prince Barin, but the lead is an unknown, Sam J. Jones. Would Laurence Olivier as Flash have made a difference? https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080745/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
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Yes, Flash Gordon was not around when I was growing up in the early to mid 60s and neither was Hopalong Casidy, but they lived on when my grandpa Barer blurted those names out.
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