Captain Midnight

While it's an interesting look at an entertainment product of its time, it's also a difficult show to fully engage with, even for fans of vintage cinema.

The serial's plot is simple and formulaic, following Captain Midnight and his sidekick Chuck as they battle a variety of villains intent on doing harm to the good people of the world. The formulaic nature of the story makes it somewhat predictable, but it still manages to be enjoyable at times due to the corny charm of the era.

However, the 1940s serial style of storytelling can be a bit challenging for modern audiences to fully embrace. Hanging chapter endings can be somewhat frustrating, as well as the overacting, cheesy dialogue, and campy special effects.

There are moments of excitement and action that are enjoyable, such as the aerial dogfights and fistfights, and the character of Captain Midnight himself has a likable quality to him. However, these moments can be few and far between, with many of the episodes feeling slow in pace and lacking in real tension.

A friend of mine once attempted to explain to me the basic difference between the Republic and Columbia serials. Both had lots of slam bang action and great stunt work. But generally, the Republic serials placed their hero in great peril---and somehow allowed him/her to escape the danger at the last minute through an ingenious solution. On the other hand, the Columbia serials placed their hero in similar great peril----but more often than not----he/she actually went through the exposed danger---and escaped unharmed!

Now how could this happen to mere mortals-----unless these folks were really unknown relatives of Superman? Of course we were led to believe that Columbia's heroes (like Captain Midnight) were just like you and me---except that somehow they were endowed with a special gift allowing them to walk out of plane crashes, auto explosions and collapsed buildings with nothing more than dirty clothes and occasional wooziness! We should all be so lucky!

This serial is very representative of those from Columbia at its peak. Such an observation is not necessarily a compliment. The continuing displays of immortality by a "regular" human being can get a bit tiresome after awhile, and the viewer often longs for a more clever resolution of the cliffhanger situation than just for the hero to experience it without major consequences.

"Captain Midnight" has the usual low budget assortment of cheesy sets, repetitious situations, low-grade special effects and varying degrees of non-acting. But it sure does move along! In its own low-key corny way, "Captain Midnight" can be great fun to someone who is willing to suspend belief and a critical eye for 15 chapters of pure escapism!

It's been two weeks since I watched Captain Midnight...and I'm still waiting for one thing to happen: Have a plot develop.

Now don't get me wrong, Dave O'Brien was great in the title role. This stuntman deserved another shot in front of the camera with his face unmasked for all the great work he's done over the years. But, I wish it could have been in something good.

Let's see, at the start there is some bombing being done, in such a way you can't tell if you should be cheering or jeering the bombers. Of course, the bombers are only mentioned again once later in the serial. There are a lot of bad interior plane sets, a lot of thugs going in and out of jail, a lot of impersonations with voice-overs, and the good Captain and Ikky, whose only real similarities to the radio series characters are their names and the fact they fly planes.

I love Columbia's serials...they produced by all-time favorite, The Vigilante, but this is definitely not one of their best efforts. Someone somewhere was definitely not drinking their Ovaltine.

Probably one of the best movie Serials, with Dave O'Brien in the lead role...close to the classic radio serial...had great production. .it followed main characters and ..moved rapidly without too much padding in any episode. Great stunts, camera work, and each chapter ended with an exciting cliffhanger, that grabbed your attention and filled the viewer with suspense ,and wanting more. Enough to show up at next week's installment to learn what happened...the rousing musical score added to it all, Just recently released on VHS to the cheers of serious Serial fans..the world over.

This series somehow never quite comes up to its potential. Dave O'Brien, who usually does better, totally overacts the title role. Though we usually associate Captain Midnight with an airplane, he spends much time chasing around in cars. Incidentally, why do all the aircraft in these serials have motors that sound like one-cylinder power mowers?

The plot is naturally about fighting some evil power wanting to control the world (good patriotic stuff for the war years). You can't criticize this series for being boring, because fights or gun battles break out every couple of minutes. Captain Midnight's military boss stands out as appearing much too old to be believable in an Army uniform, but his two sidekicks succeed in contributing the usual comedy relief (not really needed). The cliffhangers are above average, with all sorts of fiendish contraptions set up to finish the good Captain.

Overall, the series is not as good as I thought it would be but follows the standard formula of period serials. That means plenty of fights and chases across terrain that's very familiar to fans of 1940's serials and westerns.