Captain America
by Elmer Clifton, John English
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DVD details
Actor: Charles Trowbridge, Dick Purcell, Lionel Atwill, Lorna GrayDirector: Elmer Clifton, John English
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown)
Format: Full Screen, NTSC
Running Time: 242 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-02-04
Studio: PR Studios
DVD Reviews of Captain America
DVD Review: A Fairly Classic Serial
Summary: 4 Stars
While the old Video Treasures VHS release of the Captain America serial actually claimed on the box to contain comic-book style adventures of Captain America and Bucky fighting the Nazis, hopefully purchasers of this DVD will know they are getting a fairly typical Republic serial of its period, with no connection to the comic book beyond the name and costume. It has been plausibly suggested that the scenario was originally developed for Mr. Scarlet, a Fawcett comics hero who was secretly District Attorney Brian Butler and was aided by his secretary, who knew of his double identity; like Captain America, Mr. Scarlet was originally drawn by Jack Kirby. Timely Comics apparently was so pleased by Republic's previous adaptations of the Fawcett characters Captain Marvel and Spy Smasher that they offered Republic the serial rights to Captain America at no charge, and Republic decided to switch the story to the much better known character--or at least to switch the name and costume. Timely reportedly was not pleased with the resulting mongrelized portrayal; and in any case, as others have noted, there is no rationale for the D.A. character to don any costume at all, since he gets into the exact same type of scrapes whether in costume or not. Despite that, and unusually for a mid-forties Republic serial, really solid performers are cast as both heroes and villains (usually one or the other fell short); on the downside (also unusually), some special effects are almost pathetic, though others are as terrific as expected. The fight scenes, the main selling point for most Republic serials, are certainly good, but, oddly, less reminiscent of Simon and Kirby's comic-book fight scenes than those in many other cliffhangers from the studio. As for the DVD itself, I've seen several copies of this serial on VHS and one other on DVD, apparently all deriving from the same film original, and this is second to none: not restored from archival materials, but very watchable quality from public domain collector sources. ON THE OTHER HAND, the fifteen "chapter" breaks on the DVD do not in any way correspond to the actual fifteen chapters of the serial!!! So if you watch one chapter, put the DVD away, and come back to watch the next chapter a day or a week later--the recommended way to watch these old serials at home--you are going to have some trouble finding where it was you left off. People, this is not the way to do it--there is just no excuse for not making the DVD chaptering match the actual chapters of the serial. (As of August 2010, CultRetro, the video alter ego of A. C. Comics, is offering this serial on 2 discs with correct chaptering.)
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