Captain America

Captain America (1944)

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.

Date of release
1944-02-05
TMDB
5.3 / 10 (36)
Runtime
4h 4m
Genres
Action, Adventure, Science Fiction
Director
Elmer Clifton, John English

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Based on: Captain America

Captain America is a 1944 Republic black-and-white 15-chapter serial film loosely based on the Timely Comics character Captain America. It was the last Republic serial made about a superhero. It also has the distinction of being the most expensive serial that Republic ever made. It stands as the first theatrical release connected to a Marvel character. The film was re-released in 1953. It was released in Turkey and became popular, spurring the creation of other Turkish Captain America films such as the 1968 film Binbaşı Tayfun and the 1973 film 3 Dev Adam. It was the first live-action rendition of a Marvel character.

Production

Captain America was budgeted at $182,623, although the final negative cost was $222,906 (a $40,283, or 22.1%, overspend). It was the most expensive of all Republic serials (as well as the most over budget). It was filmed between October 12 and November 24, 1943. The serial's production number was 1297. Captain America was written by seven of the top serial screenwriters, including Harry Fraser’s only work at Republic.

The Captain America costume was really gray, white, and dark blue, as these colors photographed better in black and white. The costume also lost the wings on the head, the pirate boots became high shoes, and the chainmail became normal cloth. Miniature flags were added to the gloves, and the belt buckle became a small shield.

Republic was notorious for making changes in its adaptations. This occurred with Captain America more than most. Timely, the owner of Captain America, was unhappy with the omission of Steve Rogers, the lack of an army setting, and his use of a gun. Republic responded in writing that the sample pages provided by Timely did not indicate that Captain America was a soldier called Steve Rogers, nor that he did not carry a revolver.

The differences between the comic book and film versions of the title character in this serial are more extreme than with other Republic comic adaptations, such as Adventures of Captain Marvel and Spy Smasher. For example:

His secret identity is District Attorney Grant Gardner rather than U.S. Army Private Steve Rogers.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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