Superbly researched. Interestingly, the character of Gail was used as Cap's girlfriend in the Ultimate comics. Nice little nod there. Also, I've recently discovered Lionel Atwell. Fantastic actor. All these stories are fascinating. Thank you for this video.
@@davidam9454, absolutely, but America had not yet joined the fight. Cap's creators used him as a way to shame the American leaders keeping us out of the war, and to encourage the average citizen to see how important being involved was.
@@davidam9454WW2 may have been underway, but the US wasn't fully involved. Sure, we gave assistance to the allies through stuff like the cash and carry policy, but the attack on Pearl harbor came almost a year after Captain America was introduced.
Thanks for the excellent research. I always wondered why the changes were made. Sometimes Grant takes time to change into costume before a fight and sometimes he just fights as himself. They could have called it the Fighting D.A. As both a Cap fan and a serial fan, I think it's a great serial, even though it doesn't follow the comic. Serial Squadron does a great job restoring the old serials.
Copper Head was the first VHS movie serial I bought and loved it. I grew up on afternoon Charlie Chan, Mr Moto and Sherlock Holmes. They would have movie serial and Three Stooges shorts recreateing the old time movie experience. I remember seeing the Captain America serial and my reaction was pretty much the same as the Reb Brown version……”Huh, what? This isn’t Cap.” I still watched it because that was all we had. Thanks for making this video
Crazy history - Superman turned in Captain Marvel turned into Copperhead turned into Captain America! Don't believe the studio didn't look at the pages they were sent, the action scenes are VERY Kirby-esk, not like any other serial before or after.
First I would like to say Jackie Chan should take up the roll as Mr. Moto Peter Lorre played in the 30's. That said. DON"T READ THIS!! This is going to be bore as hell for anyone who reads it. HA!John Hamilton is all over the place till he gets to the TV show Superman,But he is in Mr. Moto's Gamble (1938) playing Philip Benton. A Peter Lorre films from 30's. Lionel Atwill also so played Dr James Mortimer(The Hound of the Baskervilles 1939 film) Dr. Moriarty in Secret Weapon (1943) and George Zucco played(Moriarty)The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939) and Mr. Stanley(Heinrich Hinkel) in Sherlock Holmes in Washington and Henry Daniell played William Easter. But in the one of the last Holmes movies Henry Daniell played Professor Moriarty(Woman in the Green dress).
Yes, I do own this, and the 2 Batman serials and Blackhawk! There are not many Science Fiction movies and things before the 1960s, so I put these and the Flash Gordon's and the Buck Rogers into my Classic Science Fiction section Pre-1960s.
Thanks for watching Nigel! I agree. I think a large part of that is Elmer Clifton's directing. If you look at his poverty row work versus his contemporaries, his movies are still very watchable. He understood filmmaking at a high level.
My dream is for a film noir Namor film. I love his second appearance in FF where he's the Hollywood director. Mining that for a film similar and setting it in golden age Hollywood would be just about my perfect film. Love your channel!
Are you seriously going to bring up Birth of a Nation as some historically important movie and *not* acknowledge that it's one of the most infamous racist propaganda films of all time?
Same shit happens today. The “Joker” script was written as “comedian “ years before they got the idea to use the DC character The Joker and do that weak ass tie in to the DC universe. Hollywood is TRASH
I was right! I called repurposed script when I read about this serial! Usually when producers of serials rewrite origins or premises of adaptation it’s due to budget constraints. There was nothing about Cap that needed to be rewritten, and all they had to do plot wise was give him Nazis to fight. Any hack writer could churn out a plot like that in his or her sleep! I usually like Republic serials but they really dropped the ball on this one. If I was a 10 year old Captain America fan when this aired back in the day I would have been very disappointed.
This was probably Stan Lee's first experience with Hollywood, and that long and interesting relationship will no doubt be closely studied by film historians in the years to come
Stan Lee was in the military when this serial came out. He was stationed in Hollywood. He was assigned to the Hollywood Film unit. They made propaganda and training videos for the U.S. military. That would have been Stan Lee's first taste of Hollywood. I believe that unit was led by Jack Warner (President of Warner Brothers) and Oscar winning director Frank Capra. I also think I heard somewhere that Dr. Suess was also assigned to that unit.
I wasn't aware that I would learn so much about early Hollywood from a video about the captain America serial. Unfortunately the only thing that will stay with me till the day I die, is the thought of a bunch of Hollywood perverts scattering out of a house, getting busted by the cops.
I actually LIKED this serial - I think it's one of the better serials. As a Captain America adaptation, it doesn't hold up -- since it isn't one -- but you've got Lionel Atwill outacting pretty much everyone in the cast, and that is never a bad thing. I look forward to hearing what you have to say about it. Thank you!
Hi Kali! It was fun to watch. I go into the back stories on the three main actors/directors/stunt people/special effects...I think they all had interesting stories. Atwill is a great actor...he is head and shoulders above the other actors in this. In the video, I go over his downfall in Hollywood--but there's a lot more about him I had to edit out.
I actually have this serial. Captain America is pretty wimpy, he has trouble fighting 2 normal guys, even 1 guy. Nowadays he plows through 20 trained SHIELD/Hydra Agents like they were rag dolls!
The Dick Purcell "Captain America" tunic, cowl, and belt buckle from the Captain America Serial sold for $39,000.00 at Heritage Auctions June 29, 2016.
Look like the Shield of Archie comics. Captain America doesnot have shield, why? But I want to see his movie classic 1944. Wow it was working dangerous of stunman.
Like the vid man... Two in one day FiZZFOP! that is grand. Been watching the Live action Cowboy BEBOP. I my digging it. This is not the place to talk about it.
A lot of what is said here at the beginning is just wrong. Republic had an open contract with Fawcett comics after the success of CAPTAIN MARVEL which allowed them to decide to schedule an adaptation of any Fawcett comics character without notice to Fawcett in exchange for Fawcett's permission to use any content from the serials in their comics. After the success of CAPTAIN MARVEL Republic scheduled serials for Spy Smasher, Bulletman and Mister Scarlet, and developed scripts for all of them. But when DC comics sued Fawcett and tried to put Captain Marvel out of business, saying he was a copy of Superman, Republic abruptly pulled the plug on the Bulletman and Mister Scarlet serials because one of the characters flew and the other wore a cape and a red suit. The scripts for Bulletman and Mister Scarlet were used pretty much as is afterward with name replacements for the D. A. who was Brian Butler in the Mister Scarlet comic and his secretary in MISTER SCARLET, and Bulletman's script was reworked as KING OF THE ROCKET MEN. No sequel to MYSTERIOUS DOCTOR SATAN was ever planned; there's no evidence for that whatosever. It's a fan legend. The MISTER SCARLET script sat around for several years until Republic decided to re-use it and the license for the use of the Captain America character was agreed upon over the telephone, very hastily. Timely asked that Republic simply pay for some ads in their comics and that was that. CAPTAIN AMERICA the serial was the Republic Mister Scarlet script with names changed, that's all there was to it. I really don't get why people make these pseudo-documentaries with made-up "facts" included and lack of research. If you make a "documentary" but make up half the information in it yourself you're not doing anyone a service. And you're welcome for the use of the Serial Squadron restoration of the serial in this video.
Great video man I am a huge Captain America fan I believe my dad told me something about this I definitely got to check this out I do love the classics.
I have this. I hunted this down in DVD. Poor Captain America could barely beat 1 Villain! Nowadays Captain America could stomp 20 trained Hand Ninjas without breaking a sweat! I am trying to collect the various Super Hero serials. I have the 2 Batman, the Blackhawk, the 3 Flash Gordon, the Buck Rogers, and the Captain America. Still need the Superman and Captain Marvel.
Too much about what other work the people involved in the serial did. Not enough about the actual plot of the Captain America serial, or what other aspects of the comic book character differ from the film character. All you mentioned was the absence of a sheild and soldier motif, and use of a pistol and a district attorney secret identity. Is that all that's different? Also, you said "something happened, and the Copperhead sequel was nixed" without explaining what happened. You also mentioned that Purcell died after production wrapped, but did not explain whether or not that was the reason not other Captain America serials were made (probably not, considering that different actors played Batman & Robin in those two serials) or how well or poorly the Captain America serial was received by critics and audiences and the box office.
Thanks for the tip on where to find it. I recently saw The Phantom serial (1943). Unfortunately, he wasn't very Phantom-like, although he was presented as the latest in a long line of Phantoms, true to the comic strip.
a great serial, just not a captain America story. Great action scenes, solid cast, one of the prettiest girl sidekicks and alot of unintentional humor from the scientific maguffin, the vibrator! Shame more marvel characters never got serials. DC had enough that you could have created a team, a weird team, but a team nevertheless.
Very interesting background. The serial is pretty good. Though I always thought the Scorpion's Vibrator was poorly named for modern audiences. But after what you said about Atwill....
Side note, The Mysterious Dr. Satan was also a rewritten/ recycled script written for a proposed Superman Serial. National Publications who owned the character at the time chose Columbia instead. Leading to a similar if reverse situation with The Copperhead character.
Hi David, thanks for watching. I came across an article not too long ago that stated that the contract with the Fliecher Studios wasn't well thought out. Superman was completely tied up for film due to the cartoon and they couldn't move on another film project until the contract date ended.
Hey man, I enjoy your videos and I really enjoyed this one, though when mentioning birth of a nation and stating that your audience probably has little to no clue abouth silent era movies, it would be good to talk about both the technical achievements of the movie and the blatant racist plot of it. Just to inform people about it. I don't mean any offense and I bet you just didn't deem it necessary, but just praising the movie for the technical chops of the director can come off as one sided and can give some people the idea you agree with the subject material. Hope you have a wonderful day.
hey fizz im trying to find the reason they made rick jones cap's sidekick for all of 5 minutes then made falc his partner. do you know the story behind that?
I have no idea why they did that. I always thought the Falcon could never reach his potential because he was overshadowed by Cap. Even when they try to turn Falcon into Cap, he's still overshadowed. It's a shame they never gave Falcon a good back story that people could identify with.
As a comicbook loving kid in the 60s I was obsessed with the old superhero serials, especially Capt America and Capt Marvel (From pics in a library book). I was so excited when I finally got the interweb and got to actually watch them all. I still find these old serials super entertaining.
I've known about this serial since forever, but I'd never really seen anything from it. This was SO great! I like Cap's suit (no shield, but cool wrestling vibe). I think the stuntman, Dale, should've played Captain America instead. I know there was a big divide between actors and stunt folks, but he was an on-camera talent already, and he could've done it well. Jock Mahoney was a great stuntman first , and then my favorite Tarzan actor! Finally, learning about "Lorna Gray" was awesome! I love that she lived till almost 100!
I heard rumors of the Submariner becoming part of the MCU,along with the Fantastic Four and the X-Men.Also the Human Torch was an "easter egg" in Captain America the First Avenger...!
They "watched her grow up on screen" is fine. To "literally" "grow up on screen" would take over 20 years worth of film. And someone to actually sit there.
@@jaspermcminnis5538 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5N-yHzjyhT8.html Dark Corners review so you don't have so sit through the whole thing.
I am a fan, and I always love these videos you make. But, 1, how you gonna show Perry White at 9 min in, and not mention that cool connection, especially since you showed some Superman footage? And, 2, how can you talk so extensively about Griffith and Birth of A Nation without mentioning its racism and ties to the Klan?
Yep, my bad all the way around. I dropped the ball on the racism in Birth of a Nation. I decided not to show offensive material from the film and it slipped past me that I didn't mention anything about it until I posted the video and saw viewers commenting on it.
