The following is excerpted from film historian Charles Lee Jackson II's ebook, The Story of the Making of the Flash Gordon Movie Serials, expanded from his classic Filmfax article.
When the Earth finds itself the victim of a mysterious plague, the "Purple
Death", Dr. Zarkov, suspecting interplanetary foul play, ascends once
again like Little Eva to the heavens, accompanied of course by Flash and Dale.
On Mongo, Flash learns that Ming has again seized power, and is indeed
responsible for the Purple Death – which kills only intellectuals, leaving the
Great Unwashed Masses ready for enslavement.
Zarkov
determines that a mineral found only in the frozen north of Mongo can be used
to make a cure, and, with Queen Fria's blessing, the adventurers and their new
friends rocket to icy Frigia. Without protection (of course invented by
Zarkov), Ming's men cannot venture there, so they send "annihilatons",
walking bombs, to destroy the good guys.
Ming's
forces fail, and Zarkov saves Earth, but Flash and company must return to Mongo
to foil additional plans of their enemy. After a sojourn in the Land of the
Dead (home of the aboriginal Rock Men), and despite the counter-plots of the
evil Sonja, posing as one of Aura's courtiers, Flash eventually corners Ming in
his tower. When Captain Sudin, supposedly Ming's trusted guard, locks him in,
the emperor is helpless as an explosive-laden rocket homes in on the tower. (A
line of dialogue was included to indicate that there was another way out, if only Ming weren't too terror-stricken to
think of it – in case a fourth serial
was made.)
Patting
each other on the backs, the heroes prepare to return home. Told that he's
saved the universe, Flash reminds his friends that Ming claimed in his mad
ambition to be the universe. So
Zarkov decides he'll radio Earth, "Flash Gordon conquers the
universe". Wow.
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