Cast:

Dick Purcell as Grant Gardner/Captain America
Lorna Gray as Gail Richards
Lionel Atwill as Dr. Cyrus Maldor/The Scarab
George J. Lewis as Bart Matson, Scarab's henchman.

Captain America (1944):  This is the most unfaithful live-action adaptation of Captain America ever produced.  The most accurate portrayal to date would be the 1989 film.  Despite the fact that this serial is Captain America by name only, it's surprisingly watchable.  The strengths of this serial are the actors, especially Lionel Atwill and Lorna Gray, the stuntwork, and the special effects.  Add the fact that this is when cars were cars and women were women and you have some watchability; In nostalgia, if nothing else.  It's fun to see those stylish old cars racing around, and Lorna looking fine in her outfits.

    What I don't like, though, is the fact that they took an excellent superhero character and transformed him into typical B-movie serial Hollywood schtick.  Everything you see here you've already seen in a million other serials, it just happens to be done better than some.  You'll see what I mean if you actually see the serial.  There is absolutely NO reason for the character to dress up as Captain America.  He just does it every so often because why?  I dunno...I guess he likes tights.  A lot of the action is done by Captain America out of uniform, so there really was no motivation for the double identity.  They could have just forgotten the Captain America costume and called this movie, "Grant: The Butt-Kicking DA".  Another faux pas:  How can a DA know so little about legal procedures?  The police chief is ALWAYS correcting him on things.  What's really bad is that this serial had about eight writers, and none of them saw how bad the writing was.

    So what is NOT Captain America here?  They really departed from the character in the comics for this serial.  It's said that Republic Pictures started filming the movie without even researching the character.  Timely Comics (now Marvel Comics) later told Republic about the character, but the studio rejected it...basically for the fact that they would have to do many retakes.  Here are the most noticable differences from the serial Captain and the comic Captain:

• No wings on his head (although they're shown in the illustrated advertisements for the serial).
• No shield.
• A gun.
• No muscles.
• No superhuman strength.  It takes him forever to knock out a bad guy.
• His real name is Grant Gardner and not Steve Rogers.
• Grant Gardner is a District Attorney, not a soldier in the Army.
• No sidekick Bucky.  During this time in the comics, he had a sidekick named Bucky.  The sidekick in this movie is his secretary Gail Richards.
• The villain is Scarab, an original villain.  Popular villains from the comics that could've been used here were Red Skull or Baron Zemo.
• Nothing is mentioned of Captain America's origin or why he's even called Captain America here.  Hence, no mention of the Super Soldier Serum.
• Captain America kills people frequently in this serial.  He doesn't kill that often in the comics.  I'll actually keep a count of how many people Cap kills in each chapter.

    The hero of this tale could've been called anything, but Captain America was a hot comic book property so the name was used.  And even over 60 years later, it draws curious geeks like me into watching it.  If I wasn't so open-minded, I'd be ticked.  But I can still appreciate a show if it's good.  And this was pretty well done for the time and budget/technology limitations.  I do think it could have and should have been more than the typical movie serial.  However, I've always liked Lorna Gray as an actress, so she is a strong plus.

    Lionel Atwill plays criminal mastermind The Scarab and does it very well.  Everything this villain does and his general attitude matches the Red Skull character completely.  All he would've needed is a red rubber mask (at that time in the comics, the Red Skull's face WAS a mask, not for real) and a name change to the Red Skull and he would've been IT.  They wouldn't have even needed to make him German.  Just the general idea of the character could've given the serial a closer feel to the comic adventures.  This serial has absolutely nothing to do with WWII or Nazis.

    The absence of Bucky...that's a tricky one to justify one way or another.  With the storyline they had, it would have been hard to work him in unless he was the adopted child of Grant Gardner or something like that, and what does THAT sound like?  It was probably wise to skip it.  I love Lorna Gray as Cap's sidekick Gail Richards.  It might have been interesting if they made HER into Bucky.  A female Bucky would've been cool.  But in serials they always had to have a sexy female second-stringer who shared only a plutonic relationship with the male hero (have to keep it safe for kids to watch, you know...even a kiss could be misconstrued as "risque").  Basically what I'm saying is the absence of Bucky did not hurt the serial, for Captain America had another great sidekick.  But if they COULD have convincingly squeezed the character in, it would have been nice.


Chapters:

Chapter 1- The Purple Death:

• Captain America kills four people in this chapter.  I'm not counting the people that the bad guys kill, only Cap because it's unusual for him to kill so much and I'd like to make count of it.
• Gail is bound and gagged one time in this chapter.

Chapter 2- Mechanical Executioner:

• Captain America kills three people in this chapter.  A total of 7 so far in this serial.
• Captain America is knocked out once in this chapter.
• Gail is drugged by a needle in a ring and temporarily hypnotized.

Chapter 3- Scarlet Shroud:

• Cap doesn't kill anybody in this chapter.
• Gail kills one man by gunshot in this chapter.

Chapter 4- Preview of Murder:

• Captain America kills three people in this chapter.  A total of 10 so far in this serial.
• The motorcycle you see in the introduction for the serial makes its first appearance in this chapter.

Chapter 5- Blade of Wrath:

• Captain America doesn't kill anybody in this chapter.
• Gail is bound and placed under blade of guillotine.  This is the second time she's bound in this serial.
  

Chapter 6- Vault of Vengeance:

• Cap kills one person in this chapter.  A total of 11 so far in this serial.
• Cap gets knocked out once in this chapter.  That makes a total of 2 times so far in this serial.
• Gail faints once.  It's the first time she's unconscious in this serial.

Chapter 7- Wholesale Destruction:

• Cap kills two men by gunshot.  He has killed a total of 13 people so far in this serial.
• The oil plant explosion is awesome!  What a great effect!

Chapter 8- Cremation in the Clouds:

• One thug, knocked unconscious, was killed in the oil plant explosion.  Cap kills another man by gunshot.  He has killed a total of 15 people so far in this serial.
• The man with the blowgun falls from a tall building.  That was a cool effect.  I also like the idea that they show Gail piloting a plane.  That was extremely unusual for the time period.  The plane later blows up in mid-flight, another interesting effect (Gail lives).

Chapter 9- Triple Tragedy:

• Cap punches a man out a window and he falls to his death.  He has killed a total of 16 people so far in this serial.
• Gail is knocked out once by falling through a trap door.  This is the second time she's unconscious in this serial.
• The barn explosion is another awesome effect!

Chapter 10- The Avenging Corpse:

• One thug, knocked unconscious, was killed in the barn explosion.  Cap shoots, and kills, two other men.  He punches another man over a balcony, who falls to his death.  Cap killed 4 men in this chapter alone, and has killed a total of 20 people so far in this serial.
• A bridge blows up, which is another great effect.

Chapter 11- The Dead Man Returns:

• Bart Matson (George J. Lewis), who was shot and essentially killed in the last chapter, is brought back to life by a machine in this chapter.
• Cap doesn't kill anybody in this chapter.

Chapter 12- Horror on the Highway:

• Cap kills one guy in this chapter, by leaving him in the electricity room to fry.  That makes a total of 21 people Cap has killed so far in this serial.

Chapter 13- Skyscraper Plunge:

• Cap shoots a man dead.  That makes 22 people he's killed so far in this serial.

Chapter 14- The Scarab Strikes:

• Cap doesn't kill anyone in this chapter.

Chapter 15- The Toll of Doom:

• Captain America knocks out two thugs and they're blown up in a house.  He shoots and kills three more men.  This is 5 people he's killed in this chapter, for a total of 27 people in this serial.
• Gail is bound and gagged.  This is the third time she's been bound in this serial.  She is also put in a glass tank and gassed.
• The Scarab is caught.  He and the remaining members of his gang (unknown number) are sent to the electric chair.  I don't put this in Cap's death-count because he wasn't the one to kill them, although you could argue his capturing them made it possible.
• Captain America's secret identity is revealed to the public.