Middleton was great as Ming because, first of all, he just looked exactly like him. When I saw him in a Laurel and Hardy comedy (the French Foreign Legion one), I instantly recognised him as Ming even though I didn't know the actor's name. Second, he was utterly convincing as the absolute ruler of an entire planet. His accent never interfered with his portrayal. Midddleton was that good as an actor.
In fact, the casting of the first and second Flash Gordon serials was excellent. Everyone did a great job with their roles. OK, so Dale had the wrong hair color in the first serial, and Barin looked more like a pro wrestler than the bald Robin Hood of the comics. But Jean Arthur's hair got fixed by the 2nd serial. And Richard Alexander was so believable as a heroic and loyal ally that I missed him in the 3rd serial, even though his replacement looked a lot more like the comic character. John Lipson's acting as Vultan rivaled that of Brian Blessed for the obvious enjoyment he was getting out of the role.
Still, I've had some ideas as to possible alternate casting choices for some of the characters in both the serials and the 1980 remake:

Ming-Walter Pigeon, Vincent Price, Basil Rathbone, Christopher Lee, Christopher Plummer
Flash- Herman Brix, Richard Denning (but wrong age, maybe?), Reb Brown
I think Lugosi could have been good as either Ming (bald with stringy goatee makeup) or Zarkov (bushy beard and minor aging makeup). He already had the kind of accent you'd expect from a guy named "Zarkov".

Having just finished watching the first Flash Gordon serial followed by the 1980 movie, I would have to say that the serial has the FEEL of the comic down pat, while the movie best captures the LOOK of Alex Raymond's art. Ideally, the next time somebody tries to do a new Flash Gordon movie, it will combine these 2 things. The recent Sci-Fi channel series falls into the same category as the Steve Holland series from the 1950's. It's FINO: Flash In Name Only.


Last Edited By: gorgozilla Sep 19 11 11:09 PM. Edited 1 times.