Chapter 106: Flaming Torture

Flash Gordon (serial)

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Chapter 105: The Destroying Ray	Chapter 107: Shattering Doom

Synopsis[]

Hit by the Melting ray Prince Barin's ship falls -- but it's saved by the gravity-defying rays of the Sky City. In the palace, Dale Arden resists the lusty King Vultan's advances, and the king is interrupted by the arrival of Flash Gordon, Barin, Princess Aura and Dr. Hans Zarkov -- now captured, and in chains.

Vultan surveys his prisoners. He sends Zarkov to his laboratory, and orders Flash and Barin to work as slaves in the Atom Furnace, which power the city's gravity-resisting rays.

In the lab, Zarkov learns that Vultan wants him to find a new source of energy to replace the radium that the Hawk Men currently use. Zarkov realizes that his friends are working with radium, which will kill them.

At Ming's palace, Ming the Merciless learns that his daughter is being held in the Sky City. He orders Officer Torch to take him there.

Meanwhile, Aura tells Dale that she can save Flash by pretending that she loves Vultan. Dale agrees to try.

While Dale tries to flirt with Vultan, Flash, Barin and Thun rebel against the slavedrivers in the Atom Furnaces. The Hawkmen bring the rebels back in line, and Vultan orders Flash to be taken to the Static Room.

To test Dale's love for him, Vultan brings her to the Static Room, so she can watch Flash being tortured with flaming sparks. She screams as she sees Flash losing consciousness on the torture rack.

Recap card[]

Scarcely had their rocket ship/ landed in the sky city, when/ Flash, Barin, Zarkov and Aura/ were taken prisoners by King/ Vultan, who promptly put Zarkov/ to work in his laboratory, while/ Flash and Barin were compelled/ to join Thun feeding radium to/ the atom furnaces.//

Princess Aura, determined to/ wed Flash, deceives Dale into/ believing that Flash's life depends/ upon her giving him up and/ professing to love King Vultan./ Heartbroken, Dale consents./ Vultan, to test Dale and prove/ she no longer cares for Flash,/ leads her to the static room/ where...

Trivia[]

Dale keeps up her fainting record in this chapter, dropping when she sees Flash being whipped by the slavedriver in the Atom Furnace.
- Dale Arden Faint Tally
  - Chapter 101: The Planet of Peril: 1
  - Chapter 102: The Tunnel of Terror: 2
  - Chapter 104: Battling the Sea Beast: 3, 4
  - Chapter 105: The Destroying Ray: 5
  - Chapter 106: Flaming Torture: 6
  - Chapter 107: Shattering Doom: 7
The dance number during the banquet scene is footage borrowed from a 1927 Universal movie, The Midnight Sun. This film is now lost, and the footage in Flash Gordon is the only surviving sequence from the movie.