Saturday 17 January 2009

You're my favourite waste of time

I watched my FLASH GORDON video a couple of times over the holidays. I love it more than ever, I think. I had to watch it twice because i had a gnawing suspicion that, although the film was playing in front of my eyes, I was actually watching my memory of it inside my head. Like a man in the stocks, I was struck by lots of things but Dale Arden's lovely piece of idiocy in the scene where Flash is chained up prior to his execution was especially special. Klytus tells her that time will be up when the big egg timer* runs out of sand and she wastes about half that time struggling to turn it over. She also grunts about how it won't turn over. Can you imagine getting a postcard from this woman?

Hello. Gosh, these postcards are quite small,       Alex Livingstone
aren't they? I'd better choose my words wisely      28 Success Gardens
because I'll be running out of space soon. It's        Edinburgh
already about half gone. I'll write a bit where        Ecosse
the stamp goes and you can steam it off when 
you get it, okay? Really run out of space now
Love Dale x

Of course, Dale's a genius next to Li Mu-bai from CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON. He's got one breath left and he uses it up saying "I've wasted my life"

*They have big eggs on Mongo. Ming's daughter probably lays them - she lays everything else.

6 comments:

D Cairns said...

I love Flash Gordon, and Melody Anderson. A shame her career was so sparse -- Flash, Manimal, and little else. But still, that's a considerable legacy.

kassy said...

"It won't turn over, it won't turn over!" If I knew Flash was about to die I certainly wouldn't have wasted time on that darn hourglass either. Oh I do love that movie though.

alex said...

My only Manimal memory consists of a pulsing hand, a panther's eye, the screech of a hawk and a raw flash of excitement from deep in my gut. Please tell me this is from the title sequence and not some dimly recollected onanistic fantasy.

I like to imagine that Melody Anderson's motivation for that line was to think about a wonderful crepe that has stuck to the pan. I also like to imagine that Timothy Dalton's individual pots of sorbet are still liquid: "Freeze, you bloody bastards!"

Are there any more lines from Flash Gordon that could have been motivated by the prospect of a disastrous meal?

S Condy said...

Manimal was essential viewing. Can't say I remember much about it either but still struggle to think of a non big cat related crime or situation that could only be dealt with by morphing into a panther.

Speaking of which......

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6iQ-mzYRl3s

alex said...

Hi Stuart, thanks for the link and also thank you for visiting my information supersite. That transformation sequence seems to go on forever but I'll forgive it because it led me to the title sequence of Automan!

Simon MacCorkindale (whose name only just fits on the screen in the Manimal title sequence) is married to Susan George. They own a stud farm.

S Condy said...

You're welcome and you're welcome. It's good to see you contributing to the world. It's only a matter of time before the study of this site is on the national carriculum.

Can't imagine how I let Automan pass me by in my youth, it looks incredible. Like Knight Rider meets Tron... Or Nitron.

"With "CURSOR" as himself"

Nice touch.