Flashback
Hot hail! Hawkmen! Hotpants! Forty years after its original release, Flash Gordon roars back into cinemas in a stunning new 4K restoration. We gathered the key cast and director MIKE HODGES for a return trip to Mongo...
GETTING THE GANG TOGETHER
Dino De Laurentiis had first acquired the rights to Flash Gordon intending it to be an Englishlanguage directorial debut for Federico Fellini. But by 1978 Fellini had dropped out, and with the gargantuan success of Star Wars the year before, De Laurentiis decided to act. In place of one auteur, he hired another: Nicolas Roeg who, along with screenwriter Michael Allin, worked on pre-production for six months before their overtly sexualised, and increasingly expensive, take on the property fell out of De Laurentiis’ favour. Replacing them was screenwriter Lorenzo Semple Jr and Get Carter director Mike Hodges.
Mike Hodges: Nic Roeg was originally going to direct it. And Dino was looking to use his sets for a sequel. So Nic, who was a friend, suggested me. I met Dino in New York. I told him I didn’t think I was the appropriate director. I didn’t know enough about comics or special effects. And I was a different kind of director. You know, the cynic of Get Carter. Anyway, Nic and he finally fell out. Nic was fired and Dino, for reasons I still don’t fully understand, decided to chase me again.
Sam J. Jones [Flash Gordon]: I had done a little modelling and took acting classes. Then I found myself in Hollywood in late 1977 and the next thing I was doing a movie for Blake Edwards. It was a small role but I played Bo Derek’s husband in 10. While we were shooting I got called to meet Dino De Laurentiis. Blake was fantastic. He brought in a private helicopter to get me to LA from location in Hawaii. When I met Dino I embellished a little. He said, “I hear you’re in a movie for Blake Edwards? Is it a big role?” I said, “Oh yes, sir, it’s a very big role.”
Hodges: Flash was a murderous role to cast. Sam was the only person of all the actors that I saw who was even remotely possible. He had that chunky appearance that you get from Flash in the comics, and he had this kind of sweetness to him. When we were doing the fight sequence on the wing of the rocket ship there was a moment when I ran out of ideas about how to dispatch someone. The first AD said, “Why doesn’t Flash just pick up this bar and hit him on the back of the head?” Sam turned around, really upset by this suggestion, and said, “Flash Gordon would never do that!” He was very into the idea of Flash.
Jones: If you took a picture of Buster Crabbe
[who’d earlier played Flash] at the age of 23, and you put that picture next to me at the age of 23, I mean, we look like twins. And of course I played American football. Then after all the interviews in early ’79, Dino flew me to London for three days of screentesting. I remember being in his office at the end of that and him saying, “Okay, you de new Flasha de Gordon.”
Melody Anderson [Dale Arden]: When you’re that age — I think I was about 25 or 26, and you’re just starting off in the business — you just take anything you can get. I would have been the back end of a horse at that point in my career. I did a casting and we did a tape. And then I came and met with Dino. Talk about a unique man. No-one like him before or after. You know, when you’re in this business you just go onto your next project. Then out of the blue the phone rings. I was with my boyfriend at the time and he said, “It’s Dino.” I thought it was his stupid brother. But it was, “You hava to leave tonight fora de London!” It was very like Dino. Last-minute, crazy, chaotic. Brian Blessed [Prince Vultan]: I was born in Mexborough, halfway between Doncaster and Barnsley, in the war years. Very exciting. We had two local cinemas and we had Flash Gordon once a week in black-and-white. Afterwards we’d run down the embankment doing dares. I’d always jump over great bushes pretending to be Vultan. How could I have thought that one day I’d be playing him?! I remember going to the studios at Elstree and meeting Mike and Dino, and I walked in and to my amazement there were drawings of me everywhere. I said, “You’ve bloody cast me already, you bastards!” They said, “No, no, that’s Vultan from the comics!” I said, “It’s bloody me! If I don’t play this bloody part I’ll kill you.”
MAX POWER
The film’s greatest casting coup was Bergman regular Max von Sydow as evil Emperor Ming, a role for which, possibly to his surprise, he would become famous to a whole new generation of cinephiles.
Hodges: Dino had used Max several times before on films. And they were friends, very fond of each other. Max had such a wonderful time playing Ming. He was just incredibly professional. But he was also having such fun with it.
Jones: He was wonderful, a real mentor. Max told me, “Sam, I’ve been watching you pay for everybody’s lunch. You can’t do that! You have to save your money.”
Anderson: His presence, his grace, his wisdom and enormous talent kind of held us together. We were all young and kind of looked to him as what a professional actor does and how they behave — no matter how crazy things get.
Blessed: Max came and sat next to me and said, “Brian, I’m about to make my entrance,
I don’t really know how to play
Ming.” I said, “Well, Max, I’ll tell you what. Ming is a magician, he’s always using his hands. And he’s a sexual creature. He takes sex potions all the time.” I said, “Just use your hands.” And if you watch him in the film, he’s always using his hands.
SETS APPEAL
Designing both sets and costumes was Danilo Donati. The legendary designer provided an astonishing visual sense to the film. But his designs were often militantly impractical.
Hodges: I loved Danilo. But I don’t think he ever read the script.
Anderson: He just loved beautiful things.
Beautiful sets! Beautiful costumes! But nothing was practical from Danilo. I had one headpiece, one I wore most, from the orange set, and you can watch — it’s sitting straight up but as you go through the movie the weight of it means it just kind of sinks down my head.
Hodges: It was absolutely out of the question that it could resemble Star Wars. That was a very grey film. This was full of primary colours. We really made it as a strip cartoon.
Blessed: The best set was my Sky City — it was so exciting and vibrant and magical, the colours of silver and gold. I just thought Danilo’s work was marvellous. We were all having so much fun on that set that nobody wanted to die. Peter
Wyngarde [Klytus] said he’d rather not die because there might be a sequel. Mike Hodges had a bit of a short fuse that day because Dino was always on his back. He said, “Well, you do bloody die. Flash, you come in, you insult Klytus; Klytus, you insult Flash, he grabs you by the shoulder, throws you on the spikes and you’re fucking dead!”
Hodges: Danilo never cared about anything technical. He just liked to build things. I remember the first day shooting the Arboria set that he had built. I had said to Dino, who seemed to be delighted with it, “Dino, it’s a terrific set, but... where am I going to put the camera?” He said, “Mike, how many da films you make?” He always asked that. I said, “Nine.” He said, “I makea de thirty!” I said, “Well, Dino, I tell you something, it’s going to be a problem getting a camera in.” So the first day I couldn’t shoot a bloody foot of film because we couldn’t get the camera into position properly.
Jones: I’m proud to be the first male star to wear hotpants in a major motion picture.
MUSIC FOR MING
Mike Hodges’ decision to eschew a traditional orchestral score in favour of the rock-opera stylings of Freddie, Brian and co would further distance the film from its main rival, Star Wars.
Hodges: While we were shooting I was actually playing Pink Floyd. Dino met the manager of Queen and got them to do it. It was a terrific idea. Whilst I’m mad about Pink Floyd, Queen were more versatile and they have a lighter touch.
Blessed: The music by Queen is sensational. Everybody talks about the main theme, which is fantastic. But that opening scene where they’re in the rocket. Dale’s head falls onto Flash’s shoulder and they fall asleep. It’s wonderful, the music is so romantic.
Hodges: I think a John Williams-style orchestral score would be totally wrong for Flash. It would have given it a gravity which I’m not sure it could really take [laughs]. It would have even been pretentious, and Flash Gordon is certainly not that.
Anderson: When Tim Dalton and I went to see an early screening without the Queen soundtrack we were very concerned. The music is so powerful. I was lucky enough to meet Freddie Mercury and Brian [May], and I think without that score those scenes would not have been so powerful.
Hodges: I was in the studio for 21 days with them. They came into the studio individually, they weren’t there all together. And then they would overdub. But they were long days — from two o’clock in the afternoon until seven or eight in the morning. It was really absolutely exhausting, but I had to be there.
Jones: Even now I hear kids saying, “You know that movie about the superhero that Queen did the soundtrack to...?”
THE FUTURE
Flash Gordon opened to mediocre reviews but strong box office in the UK and Europe. But in the US it failed to perform, nixing a sequel, despite its rather hopeful final title card (“The End?”). Remakes are constantly floated. But what next?
Jones: It was a life-changer for me. I love it. It’s a triple blessing. The first blessing is when we get hired. The second blessing is that it does well, and the third blessing is what we’re talking about now. Its longevity. So it’s wonderful.
Hodges: Oh, I hope they don’t remake it. They did a dreadful remake of Get Carter which I’ve never seen, but I’m told it’s dire. I think it stands alone and should stay alone.
Jones: I think a remake or sequel is a great idea. It’s a timing thing. Over the years a lot of producers, big names, have been attached. The last one in particular was Fox, who brought in Matthew Vaughn and John Davis. But then Disney bought Fox and they wanted to do an animated version. But I’d love to be part of it, whether I play Flash Gordon or his dad. Anderson: Look, you can’t remake The Wizard Of Oz. I don’t think you can redo Flash Gordon.
Blessed: They must do a sequel! Me and Sam have talked about it. I could be in an ice-cave and he has to come and rescue me. Set on Mars.