Capitão América

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.

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.

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.

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.

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