In what Hollywood movie does the headliner get upstaged by another actor? How so?

Flash Gordon – (1980) is a film that featured Sam J. Jones as the main star of the film. While every actor pretty much mugged and winked their way through this one, creating one of the most overacted films ever (Gordon’s ALIVE?!), Jones, as Flash, definitely tried his best to give a straight and serious performance. Only to be given a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor for his trouble.

Ming The Merciless was played by the reliably excellent Max Von Sydow, known for playing Jesus Christ in the film The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), as well as starring in The Exorcist (1973) and Three Days of the Condor (1975).

Behind the scenes, Jones and the movie producer, Dino De Laurentiis, clashed over what Gordon’s personality should be. De Laurentiis wanted him to be Ham Fest central and humorous, while Jones wanted to play the character much like how Adam West played Batman in the 1960s — seriously. It was an authentic tug of war and power struggle between the two. Things got so bad that Jones took his ball and went home just before post-production, which would result in much of his dialogue for the film being dubbed over by professional voice and dramatic actor Peter Marinker, whose identity was unknown, even to the main draw of the film Jones.

But Von Sydow, the master of actor gravitas and versatility, a man who played both Jesus and Satan, helped carry more than his part of the load in this film with his over-the-top evil performance. He was the epitome of the 1980s cheesy bad guy. With a stereotypical line such as, while referring to his nemesis:

“‘Ahhh…now my victory is complete. With Flash Gordon dead, nothing can stop me from conquering the universe!’

But somehow, the guy made the line and the character work. Von Sydow’s contribution was the best and most exciting performance in a movie filled with most of the characters hamming it up.

What was also cool about this movie is that Queen did the entire soundtrack. It was the rock band’s first of two soundtracks that they ever recorded.