Better isn’t always better, and the distance between the 1936 and the 1938 Flash Gordon serials is a case in point. Flash ’38 has a tighter, more cohesive narrative than the earlier one. For example, a parachute jump in the first episode prefigures several batwing jumps that are important on Mars, and though there are still some narrative gaps, they aren’t as numerous here as they are in Flash ’36. Even the acting of Buster Crabbe has some of its rough edges chipped off. Crabbe was positively bursting with enthusiasm in the ’36 Flash, hopping into the air as he ran short distances across a stage to simulate effort; in ’38, he doesn’t hop quite as high.
There’s a bit more self-consciousness in Flash ’38, too, and less of the “golly, gee” that’s endearing in the ’36 series. We have the new character of the reporter, Happy Hapgood, whose wiseacre comments give this serial a distance, even irony, that it completely missing in the first serial. Flash Gordon ’38 even winks self-consciously at the audience when the earth, as seen from space, resembles the Universal Studios logo.
But despite these updates, Flash Gordon ’38 is still a load of fun. Sparking switches still typify the laboratories on Mars, and smoke drifts uncooperatively above the model spaceships as they circle and land. The Incense of Forgetfulness shows the persistence of an interest in mind control. A little, two-person car that runs in tunnels underground helps Flash and friends infiltrate the castle of Queen Azura, who is herself decked out like a contestant in the swimsuit competition of a beauty contest. Ming is even more vile here than in the ’36 serial, and though Crabbe has clearly toned his acting down, he is no less committed to the role. He shows less skin and pecs here than in the ’36 series, but his sense of honor propels the narrative and inspires. Having saved the earth, Flash stays on Mars to honor his word and help free the Clay people from Queen Azura.
Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars still works today. Its visual inventiveness and cheesy gusto engage us, and even the drifting spaceship models and flat line delivery are a part of a cohesive whole that, no matter how contrived the ending of one episode, on some basic level, we want to find out what happens next.
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