ManiakJiggy This is How Movies Should Be Made

WasAnnon Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

tavm With the release of a Captain America feature this summer, I thought I'd look at the first time this costumed hero from the comic books was depicted on the big screen nearly 70 years ago. Among several big differences between that character created by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby and the one shown here: He's Grant Gardner, district attorney, not Steve Rogers, Army soldier. He uses a gun, not a shield. And the villains are not Nazis. In fact, the actual bad guy is one Dr. Cyrus Maldor (Lionel Atwill) a.k.a The Scarab. Oh, and instead of a teen boy named Bucky for a sidekick, Gardner has his secretary Gail Richards (Lorna Gray) helping him in his investigations. Now while I was initially along for the ride in following the story, it got a little repetitious when each chapterplay ended with a big fight that results with an explosion that always has the hero escaping just before it happens being revealed in the start of the next entry. So this would have probably been a little better at 12-instead of 15-chapters. Still, it was worth it to see how it all ends. Oh, and those fights were just as exciting to see in a Republic serial as it was on their earlier Adventures of Captain Marvel. I just wish the print I saw didn't have so many scenes playing off-sync on the soundtrack. But, all that said, I thought the three leads I mentioned did well together and Ms. Gray was certainly easy on the eyes whenever she appeared. So on that note, this version of Captain America is worth seeing.

Victory_Over_Trolls While this serial is about as unfaithful an adaptation of a comic book character as there has ever been, it's still an entertaining piece that almost (not quite) holds up today.Captain America in this serial is not a private named Steve Rogers, but a District Attorney named Grant Gardner. Instead of Bucky (and, in later years, Falcon, Battlestar, Diamondback, and various Avengers) he has an assistant named Gail. The bad guy is not one that's found in the typical Captain America rogues gallery, but a mind controlling fiend called the Scarab. And instead of a "mighty shield," he carries a pistol and that's about it.Given that, the serial is a fast paced adventure that is big on action. The various fight scenes in the movie are far beyond those in many serials of the day (and even later day action films, such as a certain 1989 excursion featuring another costumed crimefighter) and the stuntwork in the many cliffhangers is excellent.The story is fairly standard: a scientist creates a device. The bad guy steals it. The heroes try to find out who he is. Interestingly, the film gives the audience his secret identity in the first chapter. While mysteries are better in theory, this works because it allows the Scarab to have more of a personality.Dick Purcell is likable as Captain America, although it takes time before you get used to seeing him in his costume. He almost looks more "Captain America-ish" as Grant Gardner. Lorna Gray is superb as Gail rivaling most serial-era heroines. The serial isn't perfect, of course, including sometimes lackadaisical cliffhangers. There is no origin provided for Captain America. That he has any abilities similar to those he had/has in the comics (given to him by the so-called Super Soldier serum, which is also mentioned not once) is never even implied. In fact, his reason for donning the costume in the first place is unknown. The scenes wherein Grant Gardner takes matters into his own hands underscore the notion that Captain America never seems to do anything that a really tough DA couldn't do. The relationship between he and Gail is also hard to understand. They never seem to be romantically involved, no matter how intense the situation. They could be related, but there's no allusion to that. The mundane truth seems to be that she simply works for a DA who decided to become Captain America. Interestingly (and, for some, disappointingly, no doubt) there is no mention of wartime concerns such as, well, the war.Despite this, the serial is engaging, charming and often suspenseful. The action sequences are miles ahead of many of the era's best stunts and the sheer charm of the movie makes it an entertaining watch.

Shield-3 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 Peacemaker 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!