Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

adonis98-743-186503 Superhero Captain America battles the evil forces of the archvillain called The Scarab, who poisons his enemies and steals a secret device capable of destroying buildings by sound vibrations. This 1944 Captain America film although good looking for it's time is very unfaithful to the source material and dare i say even pretty bland and boring? The villains of the film were just paper thin written and only there for Captain America to fight them plus the biggest downgrade of all? Captain America doesn't have his iconic shield which was pretty freaking stupid i mean think of Wolverine for example without his claws it just takes the cool thing out of the character and makes him ordinary. (5/10)

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.

John T. Ryan 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.

Albert Ohayon 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.