Random Behind-The-Scenes Stories From Set Of '80s 'Flash Gordon' (14 items)

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  (#8) Flash Gordon's Lines Are Mostly Dubbed

  After principal photography for the film wrapped, actor Sam Jones disappeared and kept his whereabouts a secret. When the second-unit crew reconvened to shoot the CGI-heavy scenes, they had to finish the film without Jones, which included finalizing the audio. 

  The team had to perform voiceover work, as Director Mike Hodges explained:

  After Christmas, I came back and did all of the second unit stuff, too. For instance, I had to do the shots with the flying men and that sort of thing - what passed as special effects back then. So I also had to shoot a whole bunch of other stuff with a stunt double for Sam, and I had to re-voice the occasional line of dialogue, too. Not much but some - and I got somebody to impersonate Sam's voice. You would never know it wasn't him.

   
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  (#1) Italian Translators Are To Blame For The Weirder Scenes

  If you've seen Flash Gordon, you know the dialogue is weird at best and borderline incoherent at worst. This is because the screenwriter had initially composed the script in English, then had it translated to Italian for the foreign crew to read. Lastly, a non-native English speaker translated the screenplay back to its original language. 

  According to screenwriter Lorenzo Semple Jr., known for works like Batman (1966) and King Kong (1976), the entire situation was surreal:

  [Producer Dino De Laurentiis] reads English better than many people realize, but translates all of his scripts into Italian. We were living in Nantucket at the time, and his translator was a woman whose name I forget. She could barely translate the scripts; if it said, "The tall, beautiful woman walked into the room," she'd say, "Oh, what a beautiful cat."

  When Semple told De Laurentiis the translations were off, the producer reportedly didn't care. Semple said, "I told him the translator was horrible, her translations aren't any good; he said, 'I do not want to be fooled by the words; I do not want to be fooled by written words. I want to know the story.'"
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  (#5) The Creators Made The Film Up As They Went Along

  The biggest problem with Flash Gordon's production was that the crew lacked a day-to-day filming schedule. This became such a prominent issue that director Mike Hodges called Flash Gordon, "the only improvised $27-million movie ever made." The filmmakers reportedly conceived the famous football-styled squabble during production. Actress Melody Anderson explained:

  In the beginning scene, all these people are bringing gifts, and one group brings these eggs. Sam Jones was saying, "Flash Gordon was supposed to be a quarterback, so why don't I use one of these as a football?" 

  Then I thought, "Well, I'm the All-American Girl, shouldn't I be a cheerleader?" It was very funny... that's how the whole film went because there was no time to prepare. We would just create and throw things in as we went along.

  Hodges decided to roll with this style of impromptu filmmaking, telling Empire: 

  So I had a producer who spoke mangled English and a production de­signer who spoke none at all. Both, like Ming, seemed to have ar­rived from an­other galaxy. Once I realized the film was in many ways out my control, I relaxed and made it up as I went along. I loved it.
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  (#11) The Production Team Used Real Foliage To Build Miniature Trees

  Bill Pearson was one of many who handled the miniatures for Flash Gordon. Rather than phone in his work on the campy film, he created intriguing designs, such as when Flash goes to Dr. Zarkov's greenhouse. For the miniature, Pearson built tiny trees out of hedges, making them one of the few organic pieces in the film. 

  Pearson described to Futurism his experience creating miniatures for Flash Gordon:

  As everyone familiar with the Flash Gordon story knows, Flash and Dale meet Dr. Zarkov when their plane crashes near his laboratory. Martin and I had to construct Zarkov's greenhouse and the grounds around it. Richard Conway wanted us to build the miniature trees from scratch, so we went all around the studio grounds in search of the proper foliage.

  We found these amazing bushes outside this producer's office. Armed with a pair of sheet-metal cutters, we just snipped away at these bushes for about half-an-hour... The producer certainly had a less obstructed view of the studio when we finished!
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  (#7) The Cast And Crew Played The Movie Straight

  As high camp as the film appears, the cast never hammed it up for the cameras. It was their goal to play everything as straight as possible even though they were aware that the film was ridiculous.

  According to director Mike Hodges, producer Dino De Laurentiis was the only person who didn't realize the movie was kitschy:

  That's why the movie's so funny, because we didn't try to make it campy. In fact, I'm surprised that (people) are laughing, because we weren't out to make a funny film. In fact, De Laurentiis was very upset when he showed the film and people started to laugh, because he thought they were laughing at it and not with it. In fact, he re-did the cheerleading scene. He wanted it to be serious.

   
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  (#13) The Hawkmen Couldn't Sit While Wearing Their Costumes

  Prince Vultan and his hawkmen are easily some of the weirdest parts of Flash Gordon. Their attack on Mingo City is a trippy spectacle that demonstrates the film's poor visual effects at the time. These characters' costumes, which appear to be a mix of Roman gladiator armor with giant bird wings, were apparently impossible to wear while sitting.

  Actress Melody Anderson told Starlog Magazine about her co-stars' uncomfortable costumes: 

  They could never sit down, because when they did the wings would dig into their backs. When we had a rest period, you'd see all these guys lying on their stomachs with wings, like they were ready to take off. It was a very funny sight.

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