Captain America: Episodes 14 and 15

 

 Episode 14: The Scarab Strikes

"We have nothing to worry about from the District Attorney!"

Not much time to blog tonight, so I'm glad these are short.

A long reprise this time, in an episode full of fistfights- and including a rather nasty whipping to show just how nasty the Scarab is.  

It's the penultimate episode, but there isn't much to show this- even Gardner tracing a call doesn't (yet) led to the Scarab's headquarters. But Gardner's careless comment to where hes going (as Cap) to a goon will have consequences later.

The final cliffhanger- a building being bombed from the air- is admittedly a good one.

 

Episode 15: The Toll of Doom

"It's obvious the District Attorney and Captain America are the same man."

It's the final episode, so the plot has to stop. Gardner and the Scarab discover each others' secret identities in ways they could easily have done much earlier; Gail is put in some intriguing type of peril yet manages to be damn clever; the baddie gets a brutal comeuppance in a way that blatantly condones judicial killing as though no one would object. Wow.

Surprisngly, Gardner is outed as Cap, and it sticks. That's an interesting move.

This was, it has to be said, quite a good movie serial overall. It's a movie serial nevertheless, though. I don't think I'll be seeing another any time soon.

Captain America: Episodes 8 and 9

 

Episode 7: Cremation in the Clouds

"I wonder what's keeping the DA..."

Sigh. This is a perfectly decent movie serial, it really is, but movie serials are just one damn set piece after another. This serial is fine, but if, like myself, you only watch the genre because of superhero completism or some such reason, they start to try the patience by the halfway point, especially as we start with a cliffhanger resolution that is yet another blatant re-editing cheat. And that within a serial that is only sort of about Captain America.

Lionel Atwill is good, it's amusing to see Grant Gardner walk yet again into the Scarab's lair unwittingly, and the stuff with the blowpipe is a rather fun way of seeminly engineering a sdden absence of Henley from the plot.

Whats this? A cliffhanger of Gail piloting a plane with a time bomb on it? How very original...

 

Episode 9: Triple Tragedy

"Don't start anything unless you absolutely have to..."

This cliffhanger is the most blatantly dishonest piece of re-editing since... last episode. Yes, this time we splice in some footage of Gail jumping out with a parachute. This kind of cliffhanger cheating really is becoming a hallmark of this serial. 

This is the point where the serial really starts to bcome repetitive, and the lack of actual plot progression starts to feel really annoying. Yes, I like how Grant trusts Gail as a woman to be badass even though it's 1944, and badass she certainly is, but this episode ends yet again with another bloody building blowing up.

Another six to go...

 

Captain America: Episodes 2 and 3

 Episode 2: Mechanical Executioner

"All the wealth and art treasures of the world will be mine!"

So, er, Cap jumps out of the collapsing building on to the next building. Ok...

Again, this is Captain America in name and costume (minus those silly wings) only- but so far it's solid, if stolid, movie serial. Lionel Atwill continues to be excellent as the greedy, arrogant Scarab, there's plenty of action, and it's all nice and simple.

It's already clear that this is going to be a succession of set pieces rather than a plot as such, but we knew this- it's a movie serial. Who cares if we start with a cliffhanger resolution cheat: this time Cap is in a barn and, er, about to be run over by a little tractor...

 

Episode 3: Scarlet Shroud

"He's a brave man, but I'd feel better of Captain America was with him."

This is still enormous fun. Like any movie serial it lives and dies by its set pieces, but they're good ones. It matters not that Dick Purcell isn't that great an actor- he isn't exactly called ipon to d much acting as such, but he's great as a stuntman, which is pretty much what he is.

The Scarab seems a pretty cultured baddie, only stealing Old Masters and priceless manuscripts. Gail is unexpectedly good with a gun. And it's always fun (as per The Adventures of Captain Marvel) to see a sequence where the hero's vehicle is booby trapped to explode once a certain gauge reaches a certain point.

It's all very straightforward, but it's a movie serial. And this is good, solid fun.

Captain America: Episode 1

 The Purple Death

 "You'll never get away with this!"

This is easily the first Marvel screen action of any sort, from a time long before Marvel as we know it in 1961. But Marvel was an offshoot of Martin Goodman's Timely Comics, and creators such as Bill Everett, Carl Burgos, Jack Kirby and Joe Simon had already created the Sub-Mariner, the first Human Torch, Captain America and more. This serial is the only screen relic of that strange proto-Marvel time which, perhaps, we never quite see in its own terms as opposed to what came later.

Yet neither, on the evidence of this episode, does this serial. Captain America wears the costume and is a hero, but there the similarities end. Here he is not Steve Rogers but Grant Gardner, district attorney in an unnamed city and conveniently close to the mayor and commissioner. There is no shield to be seen, but Cap is always toting a pistol, which is the most jarring thing.

However, even if this is Captain America in name and costume only, it's an impressive start. The Scarab, a scientifically hungry criminal, who mind controls people via poison to suicide(!), is a worthy foe, ably played by a monocled Lionel Atwill- and, in a brave departure from conention, we learn the villain's identity in the first episode. 

This is a strong opening episode wgich looks to be a superior example of the genre. So far, so good.