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It's easy to point and guffaw at the Flash Gordon serials. In fact, in this day and age it's hard to believe that audiences of any era were ever expected to accept bulbous rocket ships that flatulently trail sparks and smoke; preposterous, shambling space creatures; and spaceship interiors that look as though they were assembled from a plumbing warehouse. Despite the primitive sets and effects, Flash Gordon serials are as much a part of the roots of modern sci-fi as Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, or Ray Bradbury. This collection from Image Entertainment finds Flash battling a fiendish plot staged by Queen Azura of Mars, stealing the Earth's nitrogen to aid in the ongoing war against the Clay People. Flash soon discovers that Azura is in line with his mortal enemy, Ming the Merciless, who secretly is plotting to overthrow her and take over Mars himself. As usual, the hapless Professor Zarkov gets in predicaments from which Flash must rescue him, and Dale Arden is by Flash's side through all of it. Loaded with fisticuffs, sputtering, wobbly rocket ships, lasers, and, of course, the remarkable Clay People (Martians turned into animated mud), this is fast-paced sci-fi entertainment that was state of the art for 1938. The energy and raw enthusiasm of these serials are what make them so fun to watch, not to mention providing a downright quaint time-capsule look at what Depression-era audiences thought of as the future. --Jerry Renshaw
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