Captain America

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.