Cheesy 1940s melodrama
Sep. 30th, 2007 08:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pegkerrThe fun part about watching the old Flash Gordon serials is hearing the girls' comments and critiques. They are extremely scornful, in particular, about the wimpy Dale Arden, who badly needs karate lessons. That girl cannot go one episode without fainting, tripping over her own feet and falling off a mountain ledge, or being kidnapped by a malevolent robot by the simple expedient of being seized by the wrist. Good heavens, even a lowly white belt knows perfectly well how to break a grip like that.
Various observations:
Ostrich feathers apparently are an unmistakable sign of Teh Evil. Ming the Merciless is very partial to parading around with feathers floating from his headdress. (Dale might melt into crying helplessness whenever he sneers at her, but I suspect my girls could take him down singlehandedly. That I'd like to see.)
Ming the Merciless really needs to get smarter minions. And they need to wear less gold braid.
Buster Crabbe apparently has something in his contract that requires him to wear only skin tight pants. He obviously dyes his hair, and I suspect his shoulders are padded. And you'd think he'd learn after the first time that he's probably not going to prevail by aiming a bare-fisted punch to the cheek of the minion wearing the metal helmet.
Despite mimicking his caterpillar mustache and Robin Hood apparel, Prince Barin really has nothing on Errol Flynn.
Doctor Zharkov is quite a pessimist. He keeps saying things like, "Another shot like that and we're finished." Everyone says that he is a genius, which is apparently the screenwriters' excuse to allow Zharkov to come up with approximately 2.5 deux ex machina inventions per episode.
1940s rocket ships are apparently immune to the basic rules of physics.
Various observations:
Ostrich feathers apparently are an unmistakable sign of Teh Evil. Ming the Merciless is very partial to parading around with feathers floating from his headdress. (Dale might melt into crying helplessness whenever he sneers at her, but I suspect my girls could take him down singlehandedly. That I'd like to see.)
Ming the Merciless really needs to get smarter minions. And they need to wear less gold braid.
Buster Crabbe apparently has something in his contract that requires him to wear only skin tight pants. He obviously dyes his hair, and I suspect his shoulders are padded. And you'd think he'd learn after the first time that he's probably not going to prevail by aiming a bare-fisted punch to the cheek of the minion wearing the metal helmet.
Despite mimicking his caterpillar mustache and Robin Hood apparel, Prince Barin really has nothing on Errol Flynn.
Doctor Zharkov is quite a pessimist. He keeps saying things like, "Another shot like that and we're finished." Everyone says that he is a genius, which is apparently the screenwriters' excuse to allow Zharkov to come up with approximately 2.5 deux ex machina inventions per episode.
1940s rocket ships are apparently immune to the basic rules of physics.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-01 01:53 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-01 03:45 am (UTC)Back then the Studios had more power than they do now.