gadgets. Six of the fourteen serials released within five years of Flash Gordon were science fiction. 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. The serial film was also edited into a 72-minute feature version in 1936, which was only exhibited abroad, until being released in the USA as 1949 as Rocket Ship by Sherman S. Krellberg's Filmcraft Pictures. 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. The Hays Office, however, objected to the revealing costumes worn by Dale, Aura and the other female characters. 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". Sequels Two sequels to Flash Gordon, also in serial form and starring Buster Crabbe, followed the popular 1936 production: Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars (15 chapters) in 1938 and Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (12 chapters) in 1940. Between the releases of those two later productions, Crabbe starred in an entirely separate but similarly structured Universal science-fiction serial portraying Buck Rogers, another popular character also featured in magazines, comic strips, and on radio in the late 1920s and 1930s. See also 1936 in science fiction References External links Flash Gordon essay by Roy Kinnard at National Film Registry Flash Gordon essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010, , pages 240-242 1936 films 1930s science fiction action films 1930s science fiction adventure films 1930s superhero films American black-and-white films American science fiction action films American space adventure films American superhero films 1930s English-language films Flash Gordon films Films based on comic strips Films directed by Ray Taylor Films set on fictional planets Films set in New York City Live-action films based on comics United States National Film Registry films Universal