A somewhat cropped, B&W version of promotional artwork for a (probably) 1960’s heavy lift helicopter design. The sum total of what I have on this design is wrapped up in this single image. I would guess that it’s Sikorsky, but that’s just a guess.
Sometimes these odd bits of art come from even odder sources. Did I find it in an archive? No. In a book? No. Magazine? Nope. It’s a screenshot from the classic (as in “classicly bad”) movie “Flash Gordon.” In the scene where Dr. Zarkov’s mind is being erased, a series of images are flashed onscreen for precisely one frame each (though for some reason the same images of tigers kept being flashed over and over). And somehow this image was included. Also included was a photo of a mockup of the Lockeed CL-1700, an attack helicopter that competed for the role won by the AH-64 Apache. Why these? Dunno. I guess the art-guy for “Flash Gordon” just happened to have them lying around. Other aircraft images were clearly Grumman and General Dynamics promo shots, so there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of logic to it. But then, this was “Flash Gordon.”
Without getting into a review of “Flash,” I’ll say this: It had way too many shots like Zarkov getting zapped in the head…
… and not near enough of Princess Aura in her “Jabba The Hutt brand slavewear fashion line” outfit.
15 Responses to “Heavy Lift Helicopter artwork”
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Flash Gordon “bad”?
Bring me The Bore Worms! 🙂
Anyway the copter does look like some sort of Sikorsky design, and considering how useful the Skycrane ended up being, it’s a shame they didn’t make this scaled-up variant, although the turboshafts look a bit small on it.
(Are there two or three?)
> Flash Gordon “bad”?
Yes, bad. Especially the acting. The secondary characters tended to be surprisingly good… but he main characters – especially Dale and Flash – were either played by people who didn’t know how to act, or were directed to act like they didn’t know how to act.
The big exception, of course, was Max von Sydow. He kicks ass in pretty much anything he does, and he *made* Ming. Every other version of Ming, and virtually every sci-fi/fantasy “magical emperor of the galaxy,” has to be compared to Sydow’s Ming, and they usually fall short.
And it looks like three turboshafts to me, but I can’t be sure.
I think there was logic in this depiction. Clearly Zarkov was an aerospace enthusiast amongst his many activities… and the evil Ming was wiping that particular part of his mind. Those layers of memory devoted to late 60s, early 70s aviation development are what cushioned Zarkov’s more practical memories so he was later able to restore his mind and contribute to the saving of the world.
The big question about Flash Gordan is why can’t a birdman glide? One blast of a laser and they drop like a rock… not a very practical evolution for a flying creature.
I understand that actor Sam J. Jones, who portrayed “Flash” Gordon, had his voice dubbed and his brown hair was dyed blonde. I think that we are all agree that they could have done a better casting job with the lead.
Melody Anderson was just OK as Dale Arden. Nothing spectacular and she looks rather plain when compared with Italian sex kitten Ornella Muti. It begs the question, why was Ming even interested?
Kudos should also be given for casting Brian Blessed as Vultan and Timothy Dalton as Barin.
>I understand that actor Sam J. Jones, who portrayed “Flash” Gordon, had his voice dubbed
http://flashgordonmovie.googlepages.com/flashgordon–dubbingmystery
That said, I thought he did a good job on that episode of “Stargate.”
> It begs the question, why was Ming even interested?
A common enough stereotype in fantasy/sci-fi. The evil overlord has a whole haremfull of uber-hot sex slaves, yet goes bonkers for Our Heroine. I *suppose* one could get jaded with even a constantly rotating stable of hotties, and only want the plain Earth chick for no better reason than you haven’t nailed an Earthgirl before, and she’s the only one around.
Ahh… Princess Aura was his daughter… Destroying worlds was one thing but incest… Come on, even Ming has his limits.
Yeah, but Von Sydow _ruled_ Ming.
And talk about a magnificent job of costuming…. and those Mongo spacecraft were perfect looking as well.
It wasn’t meant to be taken seriously, but rather just having fun with the concept.
“Star Wars” started out as Lucas filming Flash Gordon, but he couldn’t get the rights to it at a price that 20th Century Fox wanted to spring for.
_This_ could be a lot of fun though: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401729/
Jabba’s antigravity yacht and Princess Leia running around in her metal bra were ripped off from it anyway, so let’s get back to the true source, radium pistols and all. 🙂
Ironically, George Lucas wanted to made Flash Gordon movie back 1975
but owners of the rights refused, so Lucas made STAR WARS
with success of SW the “Flash Gordon” owners run to Dino de Laurentiis
for a Movie version and have a big “cash in”
and all they got was this wunderfull Italian Trash Movie…
i wonder how Lucas version had look like with
Mark Hamill as Flash, Carrie Fisher as Dale and Peter Cushing as Dr. Zarkov
P.S.
I love the 1936 serie with Buster Crabbe.
“I love the 1936 serie with Buster Crabbe.”
That’s okay, but if you really want to see where a lot of things that showed up in later Sci-Fi TV and movies came from, check out the old “Buck Rogers” serials with Buster Crabbe…they’ve got Star Trek-style transporters in those among other things.
> check out the old “Buck Rogers” serials with Buster Crabbe
oh yes they are wounderfull
and i mean not the 1980 version but good old 1930s series
> _This_ could be a lot of fun though: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401729/
I could’ve swore that “Princess of Mars” was going to be a Peter Jackson flick, but this says Pixar. I’d rather Jackson did it.
Admin said:
“I could’ve swore that “Princess of Mars” was going to be a Peter Jackson flick, but this says Pixar. I’d rather Jackson did it.”
It got started as a project by Kerry Conran (the guy who did Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow), with funding by Harry Knowles of “Ain’t It Cool News”, but after Sky Captain went south at the box office, things got very shook up, as Harry didn’t like his script.
There was a rumor running around a few years back (he denied it) that Jackson was going to re-film “The Dambusters”, which would be a real ball with modern effects…as would “Sink The Bismarck” for that matter.
If Jackson does a war film, don’t be surprised if it’s a WW I aviation film – as he’s a big fan of WW I aircraft, and owns a Fokker triplane and Bristol F.2b.
>Jackson was going to re-film “The Dambusters”,
but what would they call Guy Gibson’s dog????
Robin wrote:
“but what would they call Guy Gibson’s dog????”
Canine X. 🙂
The other name was its slave name, and it must be excised from history.
Canine X.
The other name was its slave name, and it must be excised from history.
WOOF!!!!!!!!!!