Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars — Chapter 12: Ming the Merciless

A chapter from an American movie serial — the weekly chapter-plays that screened before the main feature through the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s. Each ran about twenty minutes and closed on a cliffhanger meant to bring the audience back the following Saturday, with the next week's opening often cheating a little on what had actually been shown. Republic, Universal and Columbia made nearly all of them, and the form died in the mid-1950s when television began giving away the same thing. Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938), chapter 12, "Ming the Merciless". Released 1938-06-07.