Editing Flash Gordon (serial) (section)

==Release and reception==
Universal hoped to regain an adult audience for serials with the release of ''Flash Gordon'' and by presenting it in many of the top or "A-level" theaters in large cities across the United States.<ref name="Stedman1971" /> Multiple newspapers in 1936, including some not even carrying the Flash Gordon comic strip, featured half- and three-quarter-page stories about the film as well as copies of Raymond's drawings and [[Film still|publicity stills]] that highlighted characters and chapter settings.<ref name="Cline1984p17" />

The film was the first outright science-fiction serial,{{citation needed|date=September 2018}} although earlier serials had contained science-fiction elements such as gadgets. Six of the fourteen serials released within five years of ''Flash Gordon'' were science fiction.<ref name="Cline1984p32" />

For syndication to TV in the 1950s, the serial was renamed ''Space Soldiers'', so as not to be confused with the newly made, also syndicated TV series, ''[[Flash Gordon (1954 TV series)|Flash Gordon]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kinnard |first1=Roy |last2=Crnkovich |first2=Tony |last3=Vitone |first3=R.J. |title=The Flash Gordon Serials, 1936-1940: A Heavily Illustrated Guide |date=2015 |publisher=McFarland & Co |isbn=9780786455003 |pages=21–22}}</ref>

The serial film was also edited into a 72-minute feature version in 1936, which was only exhibited abroad, until being released in the US in 1949 as '''''Rocket Ship''''' by [[Sherman S. Krellberg]]'s Filmcraft Pictures.<ref>p. 40 Kennard, Roy, ''Science Fiction Serials: A Critical Filmography of the 31 Hard SF Cliffhanger'', McFarland & Co Inc, 1 October 1998</ref>

A different feature version of the serial, at 90 minutes, was sold directly to television in 1966 under the title ''Spaceship to the Unknown''.

''Flash Gordon'' was Universal's second-highest-grossing film of 1936, after ''[[Three Smart Girls]]'', a musical starring [[Deanna Durbin]].<ref>Daniel Eagan, ''America's film legacy: the authoritative guide to the landmark movies in the National Film Registry''. New York: Continuum, 2010 (p. 242). {{ISBN|9781441116475}}</ref> The [[Motion Picture Production Code|Hays Office]], however, objected to the revealing costumes worn by Dale, Aura and the other female characters.<ref>[[Al Williamson]] and Peter Poplaski, "Introduction" to Alex Raymond, ''Flash Gordon: Mongo, the Planet of Doom''. Princeton, Wis. : Kitchen Sink Press. 1990. {{ISBN|0878161147}} (p. 5).</ref> In response to those objections, Universal designed more modest outfits for the female performers in the film's two sequels.

In his review of the film in the 2015 reference ''Radio Times Guide to Films'', Alan Jones describes ''Flash Gordon'' as "non-stop thrill-a-minute stuff as Flash battles one adversary after another", and he states that it is "the best of the Crabbe trilogy of ''Flash Gordon'' films".<ref>''Radio Times Guide to Films 2015''. London, [[BBC Worldwide]], 2014. {{ISBN|9780992936402}} (p.442)</ref>