Flesh Gordon (1974)

Emperor Wang (the Perverted) is leader of the planet Porno and sends his mighty "Sex Ray" towards Earth, turning everyone into sex-mad fiends. Only one man can save the Earth, football ... See full summary »

Directors:

Michael Benveniste, Howard Ziehm

Writer:

Michael Benveniste (screenplay)

Stars:

Jason Williams, Suzanne Fields, Joseph Hudgins

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jason Williams	...	Flesh Gordon
Suzanne Fields	...	Dale Ardor
Joseph Hudgins	...	Dr. Flexi Jerkoff
William Dennis Hunt	...	Emperor Wang the Perverted (as William Hunt)
Candy Samples	...	Chief Nellie (as Mary Gavin)
Mycle Brandy	...	Prince Precious
Steve Grumette	...	Priest (as Steve Grummette)
Nora Wieternik	...	Queen Amora
Lance Larsen	...	Emperor Wang's Guard
Judy Ziehm	...	Zerig
Leonard Goodman
Donald Lee Harris	...	(as Don Harris)
Howard Alexander	...	Balding Airplane Passenger
John Rowe	...	(as Jack Rowe)
Alan Sinclair

Storyline

Emperor Wang (the Perverted) is leader of the planet Porno and sends his mighty "Sex Ray" towards Earth, turning everyone into sex-mad fiends. Only one man can save the Earth, football player Flesh Gordon. Along with his girlfriend Dale Ardent and Professor Flexi-Jerkoff, they set off towards the source of the Sex Ray, unaware of the perils that face them!

---

Plot Keywords:

sex | parody | emperor | erotic comedy | midnight movie | 

---

Taglines:

The Space Age Sex Spoof that is out of this World!

---

Genres:

Comedy | Sci-Fi

---

Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 July 1974 (USA)

Also Known As:

Flesh Gordon - Andata e ritorno... al pianeta Korno!

Filming Locations:

Producers Studios - 5330 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$700,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Graffiti Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

78 min 90 min (collector's edition) 72 min (cut)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (in Metro Color) (credited on poster only)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The enduring popularity of the film has led to several pieces of merchandising including resin kit models of the monsters, a 1982 home video game, and a 1992 comic book series.

---

Goofs

After Flesh, Dale and Jerkoff's brief orgy on the way to the planet Porno, Dale is seen starting to get dressed. In the next shot she is naked again, and stays naked until Jerkoff gives her something to wear.

---

Quotes

Emperor Wang the Perverted: Out of my way, dildo!

---

Alternate Versions

The 1988 UK video release was cut by 1 min 16 secs by the BBFC to heavily edit the forced seduction of Dale by one of the lesbian warrior women and to remove a closeup of the shaved pubic region of one of Chief Nellie's guards. The 2001 widescreen Special Edition DVD is fully uncut.

---

Connections

Featured in Monsters, Madmen & Machines: 25 Years of Science Fiction (1984)

User Reviews

A "must see" for those who enjoyed the original Flash Gordon cartoon film many years ago.

Probably in part due to the success of magazines such as Playboy during the 1960's, the 1970's became a decade when numerous rather indifferent sex comedies that exploited nudity - (principally female) were released. Few made any pretence of being erotic, although "Emmanuelle" (1974) was one exception; and most had virtually no plot, although again there were exceptions such as "Victorian Fantasies" (1975) which made gentle fun of Victorian hypocrisy whilst showing clearly that the young Victorian woman had more command of her own life than is generally appreciated today. Collectively these films were an often depressing group which found ready audiences among teenage youths when first released but have now mostly disappeared without trace, except for a few of the best that have survived and can still be purchased on videotape or, more surprisingly, DVD. (Some have even attracted quite charitable comments on this database from viewers who remember how bad the worst of them used to be.) Flesh Gordon was primarily produced to parody the worst of the releases of this type which were concurrent in 1974.

Simultaneously this film is also a delightful parody of the cartoon hero film featuring Buster Crabbe as Flash Gordon, which was immensely popular when released in 1936. For those who remember this original work, and who are not upset by a little nudity on the screen, it provides compulsive viewing; but for anyone who wants to view an orgy, or is attracted by the prospect of seeing a highly erotic work, the best advice is to keep well away. Its main appeal lies in the clever way that the episodes of the original Flash Gordon film (which were featured in some cinemas as a serial) are reproduced, with a relatively small degree of parody, so as to create a very amusing sex comedy that exactly parallels the original teenage thriller. Thus Flash Gordon undergoes remarkably little change in becoming Flesh Gordon and Emperor Ming, the ruler of planet Mongo, can be clearly recognised in Emperor Wang who rules planet Porno. Dr Zarkov is closely mimicked by Dr Jerkoff, and there are of course many other parodies the keen film-goer will appreciate - for example in a well made step motion animation sequence, Emperor Wang's giant metal monster captures Dale Ardor (nee Arden) to mimic the famous sequence in which Fay Wray was captured in the 1933 version of "King Kong".

In principle this film is a pure fantasy which is fairly timeless - the space travel theme is of course a feature of the original Flash Gordon series that dates back to a time when space travel was regarded as only achievable in some very distant period far into the future; whilst the name penisauraus, given to one of the stop motion creations, is clearly intended to convey a close link to the distant past. In isolation, some of these names and other connotations may give the impression that this is a fairly racy film, but in practice this is not so. Many of the sequences would be somewhat interminable, but for the humorous links which are so enjoyable for those who saw the original film, and which fully earn this film its reputation as a classic. At the moment both the original teenage cartoon film and its definitely adult Flesh Gordon counterpart are listed as DVD's; but early teenage films do not sell well today. Whilst there still appear to be enough of us old fogies who remember the cartoon to maintain reasonable sales for its parody, this may not continue much longer. Once my generation has passed into history there will be very few buyers who, without having seen the original film, would experience any great pleasure from watching a 1974 parody of it.

Perhaps however both these films will continue to be sold - with the original 1936 version and its 1974 parody paired on opposite sides of the same disk. This would surely be sensible, such a combination would provide an ideal nostalgia disk, ensuring both a continuing income for the two distributors and ongoing recognition that the later film, whilst certainly not a masterpiece, has become a classic example of parody in the cinema.