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A crime wave is underway in the city, all masterminded by the Scarab, a sinister genius who is actually respected citizen Dr. Cyrus Maldor (Lionel Atwill). District attorney Grant Gardner (Dick Purcell) is determined to stop this rash of murders and robberies, and if he can't do it in the courtroom, he'll do it in costume as Captain America, a two-fisted crime fighter. He's helped by reporter girlfriend Gail Richards (Lorna Gray), and he'll need all the help he can get to stop the Scarab and his array of fantastic weapons.

I have to wonder why Republic licensed the Captain America comic book character if they had no intention of having the character resemble the print version, except in costume. The comic character was a puny young man named Steve Rogers who was eager to join the army to fight in WW2, but he was deemed physically unfit for duty. He volunteers for an experiment which turns him into the perfect human specimen, with strength, speed, agility and endurance at near superhuman levels. He's also outfitted with a shield made from an indestructible alloy, and he takes off for the war front, where he battles the Axis powers. Unfortunately, Republic changes the character into a lawyer with a different name and a bit of a paunch, no shield, no experimental super-fitness, only a revolver that he has no compunction about frequently using. Oh, and bizarrely enough, no Nazis or other Axis enemies to fight, only homegrown crooks.

Purcell is the central weakness of this serial. As I mentioned, he's not in good shape, and he has no screen charisma either in or out of his costume. He actually died the week after filming was complete, with the cause attributed to overexertion while filming this. There is a lot of action, even for a serial, with several car chases, jumping and falling stunts, and dozens of fistfights and shoot-outs. I think they throw about 7 dummies off of high places, and use a crate of explosives to simulate grenade attacks or gunpowder explosions. Our hero Captain America is not above killing his foes, either, shooting several, throwing a few out of skyscraper windows, or forcing them off the side of a cliff during a high-speed chase.

Lionel Atwill is fun as the villain, whose secret identity is never secret from the audience, only from the film's good guys. He utilizes various high-tech devices, including a resurrection machine and a lightning generator. My favorite though, and a source of much unintentional hilarity early on, is an earthquake machine that its inventor refers to as his "giant vibra-tor". When Atwill demands the plans, the inventor swears that "you'll never get your hands on my vibra-tor!". Later, when a test of the device is planned, Gray's reporter character arrives with big eyes and a smile, declaring, "I can't wait to see a demonstration of your vibra-tor!" Indeed.

There have been countless film adaptations of comic strip, comic book and pulp magazine adventures. This has been true for the last 60 years or so. Hence, we have seen FLASH GORDON,BUCK ROGERS,TIM TYLER'S LUCK, JUNGLE JIM,THE SHADOW,THE SPIDER,SUPERMAN,CAPTAIN MARVEL,BATMAN and even such minor leaguers as CONGO BILL,TEX GRANGER and THE VIGILANTE (among many others)were seen on the silver screen matinée bill.

In the 30's,40's and 50's most of these were not produced as feature films, but rather in the form of the serial, AKA the chapter-play or cliffhanger. This was before the arrival of Television as the dominant media. All of the studios involved in sound serials at the time (Republic, Universal and Columbia)acquired rights to do some of these features as part of their serial output.

In 1944 Republic brought us the adventures of CAPTAIN America. One can only imagine that the juvenile audience of that time were highly excited in the expectation of CAPTAIN America being on the screen, as well in comic books published by Timley Publications (later known as Atlas and still later Marvel Comics).

Indeed, CAPTAIN America was the first Timley/Atlas/Marvel feature to be so adapted, but what happened? We all knew that C.A. was in reality Army Private Steve Rogers, a former 4F recruit who was transformed into a man of great physical power and physique (tho not super powered).Steve Rogers was to be the proto type, the first of an army of former 4F's. He had been a sort of human guinea pig for a kind of super vitamin injected into him (later accounts said a pill was used), in order to make him into the type of red-blooded fighting man we needed for World War II. (Did this foreshadow the emergence of anabolic steroids two decades later?) He wore a colorful costume, based on the American Flag. He had a juvenile assistant,"Bucky" (Bucky Barnes),who was much like Batman's Robin. He sported a shield, which functioned as a sort of giant boomerang-like weapon, as well as affording protection against enemy fire power.

He fought the Axis agents, 5th Column Sabateurs and soldiers from Nazi Germany,Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan. He actually existed because of WWII, and other than the familiar figure of Uncle Sam on the recruiting posters or maybe Lady Columbia, no symbol was more representative of the USA than Captain America.

So, what of the serial from Republic? Other than the title, there is very little in common with the comic page version. His identity in the film is District Attorney Grant Gardner. He has no connection to the military.He had no Bucky, no wings on cowl and a plain .38 caliber pistol instead of the multi-purpose shield. For that matter, you'd think that there was no war going on in this story line.

This might have been okay as a serial if it was made in the pre-war years. It really should have been given a different title.

While this serial is action packed and entertaining, it doesn't offer anything new or original.They basically just put the generic hero in a Captain America costume with no explanation why.This version of Captain America is a district attorney who carries a gun,because that makes sense.He uses the gun as Cap too and I really like that.He shoots and kills people, that's what America is all about.The story is about The Scarab, a secretly evil scientist who is killing other scientists.He keeps stealing weapons that can destroy buildings and Cap has to save the day.The first episode is 25 minutes but the rest are 12-15 minutes with 3 minutes from the previous episode.I'm sure a 3 minute recap is nice if you saw the last episode 7 days ago but when you watch them all at once, it's quite annoying.This is only for fans of the old serials.Captain America fans will be extremely disappointed.

This serial isn't exactly what fans of the Captain America comic book character might expect. Here's the "bad" news: The hero in this serial isn't the same Captain America as in the comic books. This hero is called Captain America and wears a costume close to the one in the comics, but that's where the similarities end. This guy isn't Steve Rogers. He doesn't have a special shield and instead he just uses a gun!

Now here's the good news: This isn't bad! There's plenty of fun stuff in this one for serial fans. Some have commented on Dick Purcell's "pudgy" physique, but he still makes a fine 1940's serial hero whose quick on the trigger. I wouldn't mess with the guy. Purcell's Captain America is far more lethal than his comic book counterpart and he has no problem pulling a gun and sending his enemies to their graves. Purcell's Captain is one deadly superhero. His Captain America kills four different guys in just the first 15 minutes of the serial! The Captain's gal pal Gail Richards (who is very cute) also packs a pistol and knows how to use it!

The silly: There are always silly elements of comic book movies and my favorite bit of silliness in this serial is "the vibrator". The bad guys really want to get their hands on a brilliant scientist's "vibrator". At one point the scientists actually asks the chief villain "What do you know about my vibrator?"!LOL!

The verdict: Captain America is an extremely entertaining serial with plenty of enjoyable moments. This Captain America is a different guy from the comic version, but he's more of a straight shooting vigilante and I liked Purcell's Captain's style. This is fun stuff! It's a blast of entertaining escapism and I enjoyed every second of it. Captain America isn't the best serial you'll ever see, but that's part of it's charm. I give Captain America an A+ for being topnotch fun.

No, it's just a cheap 1940s serial using the Cap's good name. If you are a fan of the comic book, you will be greatly disappointed. They have radically changed the character. No shield, no Bucky, no fighting the Nazis, no wings on the side of his mask and most importantly: Captain America is now a District Attorney and no longer a GI.

Dick Purcell as Captain America? Don't look too closely when he changes into his costume. It is pretty obvious that he was not in the best physical shape when he made this serial(can you say flabby?). It is also VERY obvious that a stunt man is performing most of the action here. Almost every chapter has an obligatory fist fight that is shot and performed in exactly the same way. The villain is rather bland and although he uses an alias (The Scarab), he doesn't wear a disguise of any kind. The story is repetitive and very simple. The effects are laughable and the action is average. On the plus side we have sexy Lorna Gray as the D.A.'s assistant and the good Captain gets to ride on a cool looking motorcycle in one early chapter. Overall OK but nothing special.

According to marvel comics, a man was given extraordinary powers to fight Nazis during WWII. His arch-enemy, the Red Skull, was caught in an accident and perserved, while the hero himself was frozen in an ice cube. Both the heroes were revived, and Cap joined the avengers, who thawed him out (Austin Powers, anyone?. The Red Skull began a new criminal organisation. This is one of his adventures before being perserved. Like the 60s "Batman", some of his escapes from death are a bit cheezy, but they later got a bit less corny. It tells how he battles the Scarab, a villian who first murders with "The Purple Death", later steals a machine to revive corpses, and tries to rob a bank with a remote controlled armour car. At least better than the 70s movies of Cap!

Captain America--the Star Spangled Avenger--minus the shield, his youthful sidekick, Bucky Barnes, and the Red Skull. The late Dick Purcell plays the crusading district attorney Grant Gardner in one of Republic's finest cliffhangers; who, attempts to uncover and stop the evil/cunning Scarab's "Purple Death" plot. Sadly, Purcell passed away before this serial's release. Lionel Atwill is great as the sinister Museum Curator, Dr. Cyrus Maldor. Maldor has been killing off members of his South American expedition to gain control of their wealth and stewardship of the museum. Lorna Gray is superb as Gardner's faithful assistant and the damsel in constant distress. The omnipresent George J. Lewis carries out the Scarab's evil plans as badguy, Bart Matson.

Cap must even combat Professor Dodge's (Hugh Southern) "Dynamic Vibrator"--ouch! Can Cap thwart the evil doctor's plans? Will Maldor manage to gain complete control of the scientific museum for his evil plans? Cap fights for truth, justice

This serial has nothing to do with the original comic book Captain America but is still entertaining. Some people considered the star, Dick Purcell, to be pudgy but this is simply not so. He just had a more realistic body type than a male growth hormone guzzling freak like Sylvester Stallone. The men of Dick Purcell's era had survived the Great Depression and when they were hungry they ate meat and potatoes. Go take a look at your own gut sometime! Overall, Purcell made a pretty good serial hero, tough enough to do the job convincingly, a reasonably good actor, not wearing his angst and self doubt on his shirt sleeve like some modern sissy boy hero. While not as great as Buster Crabbe or Tom Tyler, he was better than Kirk Alyn (sorry, Kirk).

This serial has lots of excellent fight scenes and great cliff hangers. Also, there is a sequence where Captain America rides the Republic motorcycle, which was also seen in 'Spy Smasher.' The villain, Lionel Atwill, is probably one of the best serial villains, perhaps even better than Charles Middleton as Emperor Ming. Perhaps it would have been wiser to do this in the usual 12 chapters, as opposed to 15, but then again, if I minded wasting my time, why would I watch these old serials? Overall, this is a pretty good serial, and as such it has a higher value for escapist fun than most modern super-heroic cinema. One significant criticism I will make, however, is the inexplicable exclusion of all references to WWII. When it's WWII out there, and you have Captain America, a character created to fight WWII, yet the story has nothing to do with WWII, well, that is an awfully big elephant in the room. It would be akin, say, to a nation that spends $200 million a day for 10 years on a war, with the public having no reliable knowledge of the causes, progress, or effects of the war.

It's like I was watching "Batman" from 1943 all over again, only with the lame version of Captain America instead of Batman in the leading role. Literally nothing new in it. Exactly the same pattern with minor details changed. Captain America is normally less fun than Batman, and here they destroyed him to such extension that it's beyond any comparison. Very disappointing.

3/10

In the 1940s, every studio had at least one genre they excelled at. Universal had horror films, Warner Brothers had crime dramas and social commentaries, MGM had lavish musicals and costume dramas. Republic Studios was near the bottom of the barrel, but they had something they did better than anyone else: serials, weekly chapterplays where the heroes faced a deadly peril at the end of each episode. No one did them better than Republic. They had the best writing, music, special effects, stuntmen, and these factors added up to the best serials of all time: `Zorro's Fighting Legion,' `The Lone Ranger,' `The Adventures of Captain Marvel,' `Spy Smasher,' and others.

But by 1944, the Republic formula had become just that, formula. `Captain America' is a product of a studio and a genre in decline. While the movie is technically proficient and slickly produced, the thrill and excitement is gone.

Any Captain America fan seeing this movie without prior warning is in for a shock: Republic was notorious for making arbitrary changes to characters, and Captain America had it worse than anyone. Instead of being Private Steve Rogers of the United States Army, now he was Grant Gardner, District Attorney of an unnamed American city. His trademark shield was gone, replaced by a mundane .38-caliber revolver. His sidekick, Bucky, was also missing, so Cap was assisted by an efficient secretary, Gail Richards (Lorna Grey). Most bizarre was ignoring the whole World War II angle – instead of having Captain America battle spies and saboteurs like he did in the comics, they had him battling a run-of-the-mill criminal mastermind, Cyrus Maldor (Lionel Atwill), alias the Scarab. It strikes me as an odd choice for an overtly patriotic hero in the middle of a world war, but…

Dick Purcell does a good job as Grant Gardner / Captain America, although he wasn't the best physical match for the part. Most of the young, trim guys were off fighting the war, so instead you have the nicely-rounded Purcell in the tights. Sometimes he looks more like Captain Dad than Captain America, but Purcell still does a decent job. Lorna Grey makes a surprisingly sexy sidekick (I can imagine younger moviegoers in 1944 lamenting Cap hanging out with a girl instead of his pal Bucky, while the slightly older audience would see the improvement). Lionel Atwill is appropriately scheming and menacing, but his climactic fistfight with Captain America stretches credibility a little too much.

The two words that best describe `Captain America' are `competent' and `tired.' The serial goes through all the paces and delivers some excitement, but the classic Republic crispness, the snap, is gone. The serials would die slowly over the next twelve years, doomed to exhaustion and competition from television, but the glories of those years live on in memory.

The parent company to Marvel Comics, Timely Comic Inc., created its most enduring superhero, Captain America in 1939. Republic Pictures realized how popular the seminal patriotic hero had become by producing a series based around him, February 1944's "Captain America," the studio's most expensive serial.

Timely Comic's 'Captain America' was the last of the three superheroes the company initially came out with, the first the Human Torch, followed by Namor the Sub-Mariner and then Captain America. When Republic adapted the Captain for the screen, its film character departed dramatically from the one in the comic books. The series' "Captain America" doesn't carry his trademark shield, he has no wings on his boots, Bucky as his sidekick is nowhere to be found, and he possesses no special extraterrestrial super powers. In the comic books his primary mission is to fight the Nazis, but not so in the 1944's serial. His comic book's name, Steve Rogers, was changed to Grant Gardner. Timely artist John Kirby's rendition of the Captain saw youngster Steve Rogers as a scrawny kid afflicted with a variety of physical ailments. He enlists in the United States military, and miraculously turns into a super-strong and all-powerful soldier. For the film serial, Grant (Dick Purcell), is a big city district attorney who battles criminals solely with his gun and fists. Seven Republic studio writers worked on the project to script the 15 episodes, each 15 minute in length.

Reviewer Kim Newman observed, "For matinee kids in the 1940s, this was probably value for money: there are a lot of spectacular explosions (very good miniatures) and the Captain is cheerfully homicidal, with a special line in tossing goons out of high windows. Watched in a lump, it gets a tad mind-numbing: the all-action format means that a fight or some destruction is never more than a minute away." In its first introductory episode, 'The Purple Death,' the villain, Dr. Maldor (Lionel Atwill), is tied to a string of suicides by members of his sponsored Mayan expedition in Mexico. Dr. Maldor finds out after they returned with extensive treasures, the group is taking both the riches as well as the fame. He administers a hypnotic chemical called the 'purple death' to each one, making them suicidal. Later, a friend of Dr. Maldor, professor Lyman (Frank Riecher), discloses to his buddy about his invention, a 'Dynamic Vibrator,' a super weapon capable of destroying everything. Dr. Maldor wants the machine's plans. The city's commissioner and District Attorney Gardner smell a rat with all the suicides occurring, and connect the dots, zeroing in on Dr. Maldor, spurring Captain American into action.

Producer William O' Sullivan wanted to retain the famous Captain America shield for the series. But actor Purcell found it way too bulky and heavy to maneuver during his initial scenes. Stuntman Dal Van Sickel substituted Purcell for the action fighting, but in one scene he accidentally injured a colleague with the shield, all the while its retaining strap kept loosening. Directors Elmer Clifton and John English had enough with the shield, deciding to dump it for a handgun.

Purcell performed a tremendous amount of physical fighting throughout the Captain America series, which took its toll on the out-of-shape actor. Soon after finishing the serial, Purcell collapsed and died in the club's locker room in April 1944 after golfing.

In the Captain America comic book after the series' run, its creators decided to have Steve Rogers cease fighting Nazis, and turn his attention to battling city criminals just as in the movie serial. The superhero's popularity in the comic books dwindled by the late 1940s. Besides a few rare appearances Captain America wasn't seen in the Marvel Comics until he was relaunched with the Iron Man, Thor and the Wasp in March 1964's Issue #4 'The Avengers.' The Captain emerged as one of the most enduring and most popular superheroes in both the comics and on the screen ever since.

A classic, honestly, but not as good as some of the more recent classic movies!

Yes it's the Captain America of the comics, but only in regard to the suit. Instead of a super soldier fighting Nazi's here we have a district attorney fighting the scarab who is killing off the members of an archaeological expedition using a gas that leave purple blotches. Starring Dick Purcell as the Captain and Lionel Atwill as the Scarab this is neat little serial. Neat as in fun, not in regard to story. Well acted and well filmed, the story is a complete nonsensical mess. Nothing makes any real sense, trust me your brain will go into knots if you take it seriously, even on its own terms. Mostly you watch it because of the cast having such a great time and because the action is some of the best in any serial. The action scenes are huge explosions of chaos that seem bigger and more dangerous then almost any other chapter play. Usually they end in wild cliffhangers that are so daunting that the only way for the hero to escape is for the filmmakers to cheat. And cheat they do. There is a reason that the documentaries I've seen on serials use footage from this film to illustrate how the serials cheated, namely almost every cliffhanger involves a cheat. Even though it makes no sense and the cliffhangers cheat this is still a blast to watch. There is something to put on when you want some mindless (wholesome) action. Recommended.

Captain America (1944) is a 15-chapter serial movie and I had a lot of dumb campy fun watching all of it.

Positives for Captain America (1944): This movie is very campy with everything and it was very entertaining. The fight scenes are awesome. There are some decent enough practical effects. And finally, I was smiling through these 15 chapters of the movie.

Negatives for Captain America (1944): The movie is very dated with its fights, dialogue and performances. This movie will not work for everyone.

Overall, Captain America (1944) is a movie that knows what it wants to be and it works for the most part.

In the words of the Oldsmobile commercials, "This is not your father's Captain America!" (well, at least my father). Shield-slinging, two-fisted Super Soldier battling Nazis? Nope, this is a pudgy DA battling ordinary criminals, with a revolver!

First off, let me preface this by saying there is a big difference between watching a serial in weekly installments and watching the whole thing on video. The repetition was necessary to recap the previous week's chapter. On video, it gets tiresome by the third chapter. Still, that's what the fast-forward button is for.

Poor Cap! He never got a break in 50 years. He's an orphan, 4F, Bucky is killed by Baron Zemo, the Red Skull just wont die, Nixon, Rob Liefeld, and September 11! On top of it all, he has never been done justice on the silver screen or the tv screen. Captain America should have been great; you have two-fisted action, that cool shield, Nazis, the Red Skull, and a great costume. So where is all of that in the film? The fights are there, but the rest of the package is missing. And these fights don't measure up to those in Spy Smasher, Masked Marvel, or the Adventures of Captain Marvel.

Republic's adaptation of comic book heroes were vastly superior to Columbia's, but this one just doesn't quite work. There's no hook to pull you into it. Still, it's better than "theatrical" effort, nearly 50 years later.

Captain America. Good villain and bad hero. This is what you watch for 15 episodes. Lionel Atwill perfectly showed the main villain in the person of The Scarab. The main character, Captain America, is an ordinary person, but completely invulnerable. There are always 2 people against him, they beat him, but he is nothing. If at the beginning it looks interesting, then after episode 4 it is already boring.

Captain America was far and away my favourite hero when I was growing up in the 1960s. A lot of this was do do with artist Jack Kirby's dynamic drawings of Cap in the Marvel Comic Tales of Suspense. I especially enjoyed the war-time setting of the comics and the hero's battles with his arch-nemesis The Red Skull. When CA joined the Avengers, I bought every one of those comics, too. All this is by way of saying I was (and am) a major fan of the character.

It wasn't until years later, as I was getting more into movies and hunting down classic Hollywood serials, that I got to see CAPTAIN America.

Now, this serial has taken a lot of stick on this site for not following the comics ... but I have less of a problem with this than some people here.

Yes, the plot is a bit repetitive - but folks, it's a serial. You're supposed to watch it one episode a week. It's going to look a bit cheap, because the budget was tiny. It's going to have second-grade actors, because A-listers would never agree to appear in serials. This was where the studio tested out new talent and put old actors (and stunt men) out to pasture.

As serials go, it's one of the better ones. I was astonished at just how much the stunt men in this throw themselves into the fight scenes. How these guys weren't hurt, I'll never know. The direction from John English (who, incidentally WAS English and was responsible for all the best serials of the period) it very slick and Lionel Atwill (one of the great b-movie actors) is excellent as the villain - though he does seem to forget his lines from time to time.

All in all, one of the better serials of the 1940s - great fun if you fast-forward past the lengthy episode recaps. And I don't mind a bit if it doesn't follow the comics exactly. What comic book adaptation does? This serial is quite enjoyable enough to stand on its own terms.

I must admit, the movie is not bad at all; The story is good, the villain has good motivation and the special effects are good. But the wardrobe is lousy and the atpres are very handy. I do not recommend it for any one, but I recommend it to fans of super heroes.