FLASH GORDON: CHAPTER 3: WALKING BOMBS

Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe is a 1940 American twelve chapter black-and-white science fiction serial film from Universal Pictures, produced by Henry MacRae, directed by Ford Beebe and Ray Taylor, that stars Buster Crabbe, Carol Hughes, Charles B. Middleton, Frank Shannon, and Roland Drew. The serial was written by George H. Plympton, Basil Dickey, and Barry Shipman and was adapted from Alex Raymond's syndicated newspaper comic strip of the same name. It was the last of the three Universal Flash Gordon serials made between 1936 and 1940.

During the 1950s, all three of these Flash Gordon serials were directly syndicated to television by Motion Pictures for Television, along with many of Universal's other serial output. To avoid confusion with the Flash Gordon TV series airing around the same time, they were retitled Space Soldiers, Space Soldiers' Trip to Mars, and Space Soldiers Conquer the Universe.

A deadly plague is ravaging the Earth, known as the Purple Death because of a purple spot left on victims' foreheads. Flash Gordon and Dr. Zarkov learn that Ming the Merciless is behind the plague, when they spot one of his spaceships spreading the "Death Dust" in the Earth's atmosphere.

Flash Gordon, along with Dr. Alexis Zarkov and Dale Arden, return to the planet Mongo to find a possible cure, first seeking the assistance of their old friend Prince Barin. The trio continue to battle Ming and his allies, led by henchman Captain Torch, who has been charged with stopping the Earthlings by any means.

The three eventually find an antidote, called polarite, in Mongo's remote northern Kingdom of Frigia. They must now get the cure back to Earth in sufficient quantities to stop the ravaging plague.

Flash and Zarkov are able to successfully distribute the antidote by rocketship, the very same way the original Death Dust was first spread. Ming sends in an army of robot bombs after the three, and he succeeds in capturing Zarkov for a short time before Flash is able to set Zarkov free.

Before Flash, Zarkov, and Dale leave Mongo, they are finally able to triumph over Ming and his henchmen, who by accident have become locked in the highest tower of Ming's castle. Flash is able to parachute away from the rocketship he is piloting just in the nick of time. His spaceship is loaded with volatile Solarite, and its rapid momentum carries it forward directly into the tower, where a large explosion ends Ming's tyrannical reign. Shortly thereafter, Prince Barin takes his rightful place as the ruler of Mongo.

Ming's last words to Flash were "I am the universe!" Zarkov observes that with Ming's death "Flash Gordon has conquered the universe".

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