DVD Review: The Adventures of Captain Marvel
In this era of binge watching entire seasons of television shows, slogging through an entire twelve chapter serial is comparatively easy. This is especially when it happens to be one of the most exciting cliffhangers ever produced.
“The Adventures of Captain Marvel” has been released to blu ray by Kino Lorber’s wonderful Classics division.
During the era where a chapter would be shown each week, bringing eager young fans back to the theater to see what would happen next, serials like “The Adventures of Captain Marvel” were extremely popular with moviegoers, if not to critics and people in the industry. As a cultural artifact from a bygone era, a timeless piece of entertainment, or both, “The Adventures of Captain Marvel” is a total delight.
Frank Coghlan is cast as Billy Batson, who transforms himself into superhero Captain Marvel (played by Tom Tyler), in order to keep the evil Scorpion from controlling the powerful talisman that could enslave the world. It is pretty outrageous stuff, but that’s what makes it so irresistible. Released in March of 1941, at a time when there was so much unrest in the world (America had yet not become involved in World War Two), the idea of a super power that could battle even the most surreal level of evil was a popular fantasy.
Captain Marvel was already a popular comic book character when this movie was made, so it already had a ready made audience. The hero’s catchphrase – “Shazzam” – has somehow been eclipsed by Jim Nabors incorporating it for the Gomer Pyle character on television, but here it is uttered with great seriousness, as it allows the transition from Billy to Captain Marvel.
There is a historical context here that goes beyond the era in which the serial was filmed. “The Adventures of Captain Marvel” marks the first time a comic book super hero was transferred to the screen. In fact, this story was originally offered to DC comics for Superman, but they were not interested. Thus, Republic Pictures too the property to Fawcett comics and Captain Marvel made his movie debut. So, for all the films coming from DC and Marvel characters today, this is where it all started.
B actors like Billy Benedict and Louise Currie help enliven the proceedings, while the blu ray features commentary tracks by such welcome film buff giants as Leonard Maltin, Jerry Beck, Chris Eberle, Shane Kelley, Boyd Magers, and J.D. Whitney, among others. This makes the DVD release as informative as it is entertaining.
Direction by William Witney, a master of serials and B movies, keeps the action going and the narrative flowing, moving across the twelve chapters with effective pacing throughout. It really is a total delight, and perhaps the quintessential example of the movie serial.
The blu ray is available here.