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Appearances

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Dr. Cyrus Maldor/Scarab (First appearance)
    • Bart Matson (First appearance)
    • Gruber (First appearance)
    • Dirk (First appearance)

Other Characters:

  • Professor Lyman (First appearance)
  • Dryden (First appearance)
  • Randolph (First appearance)
  • Professor Eldon Dodge (First appearance)
  • J. C. Henley (First appearance)
  • Clinton Lyman (First appearance)

Locations:

Items:

  • Captain America's Uniform (First appearance)
  • Thermodynamic Vibration Engine (First appearance)
  • Electronic Fire Bolt (First appearance)
  • Life Restoring Machine (First appearance)

Vehicles:

Plot

The city was gripped by a series of strange suicides, seemingly all members of an expedition to a Maya ruin. This was secretly the work of Maldor Cyrus, who used the guise of the Scarab to murder his fellow explorers who he felt had snubbed him, and robbing them of their inventions and money. It was then that the District Attorney Grant Gardner resumed his identity of Captain America, destroying the Scarab's supply of the drug he used on the explorers, as well as saving a few would be victims of a vibration machine.

The Scarab suspected a link between the DA and Captain America, and mesmerized the DA's secretary Gail Richards with his remaining supply of the Purple Death drug. He compelled her to give him the location of Professor Dodge, a man who had invented an Electronic Fire Bolt. Though Captain America rescued Dodge, the Scarab's men were able to force Dodge to decode the plans for the Fire Bolt, which they used on several robberies. However, Dodge was able to design a tracking device for the Fire Bolt, and after a struggle assembling it, Captain America used the tracker to reach the Fire Bolt and captured it along with a “robot control car.” Grant tried to stow away in it when it was remote controlled away, only for the agents of the Scarab to capture him. They rigged the van to explode in order to kill Professor Dodge, as he was going to receive the Maya jewels that the Scarab coveted. Grant escaped and as Captain America he forced the van to crash before it could kill the Professor. The Scarab learned that Dodge was planning to leave for a new expedition and had him assassinated, but Grant and Gail moved to track him down. Gail followed the clues to a service station where she was captured by the Scarab's men. They attempted to intimate her with a guillotine but she held firm until Captain America could rescue her.

Next, the Scarab moved to blackmail J. C. Henley. Henley went to the DA and Gail dropped off the money, but Cap followed the criminals into a mine. While the crooks got away with the money, the newspapers the next day had a list of each dollar's serial number, making the blackmail money worthless. The Scarab fought back by plotting to blow up Henley's Techni Gas Oil Plant, while Grant investigated a criminal who had died in the mine. The man had bought a broken van and had it repaired at Martin's Garage, where Grant found evidence the van had been modified to look like a Techni Gas Oil Plant truck. Cap pursued and found two of the Scarab's men messing with the plant's valves, building the pressure to explode. Cap defeated them and released the pressure, saving all but one building.

Frustrated, the Scarab attempted to have Henley assassinated using a blowgun. At that time, Henley had insisted to Grant to let him leave his apartment, as he had important business elsewhere. When the assassin tried to target Henley Grant spotted him, and shoot him dead. The blowgun was recovered though Maldor was unconcerned about it being traced to him, as the only expert who knew Maldor possessed it had died. However Maldor learned that the expert's grandson had followed in his footsteps. worried, the Scarab had his men rig the DA's plane to explode, to destroy the blowgun when it was flown out of the city. Gail flew it out but Grant noticed a man was tied up in the airport. As Captain America he freed the man and learned of the bomb, alerting Gail who bailed out in time. The blowgun was destroyed, but Grant sent a rumor in the underground that a replica had been made, to bait a trap. The Scarab's men investigated the city and discovered a hotel when the grandson was claimed to be visiting. Grant entered the hotel to draw them out with a fake blowgun, while Gail waited to follow the crooks. The criminals attempted to poison Grant, but he lay onto of a vent and stayed conscious. One took the fake blowgun and left, while the other aimed to kill Grant. Grant fought and killed him, before contacting Gail who was following the other crook. She traced him to a barn, where the Scarab revealed over radio that his agent who had meant to kill Grant had not responded. The crook started to leave to check on him, but Gail entered the barn and pulled a gun on them. They managed to trick her into falling in a trap door, before rigging the barn to blow to hide the evidence. At that point Captain America showed up, frighting them and freeing Gail in time to escape the explosion.

In the air of the incident, Grant learned that the brother of the late Professor Lyman had invited a way to bring the dead back to life, and he would demonstrate this to the Maya Explorer's club. Grant attempted to warn him that this would draw the attention of the Scarab, but failed to convince Clinton Lyman to stop. At the demonstration Lyman successfully brought a dog back to life, but it ran outside. Grant pursued it, just as some crooks came in and restrained the guests. Rant returned and chased a crook in his car, only for the foe to hurl grenades and blowup the bridge. Grant returned to the others to learn Lyman had been kidnapped and the invention stolen. Still, Grant had killed one crook, and his identity led Captain America and Gail to an old shack. The Scarab gave orders to blowup the shack, but fought the Scarab's men and Gail escaped, while longtime agent of the Scarab Matson fell off a tower. He was captured but died of his injuries before he could talk. However, the Scarab had some of his men intercept the truck taking Matson's corpse to the morgue. Grant suspected the Scarab might try to steal the corpse, and he and Gail headed to the morgue only to stumble onto the abandoned truck and the dead guards. One guard had written a license plate number in the dirt, and the pair investigated. Meanwhile, the Scarab forced Clinton Lyman to resurrect Matson, but as he was beginning to revive, Captain America broke into the building and began fighting the gangsters in another room. The Scarab sent Matson to a getaway car before repeatedly firing through the door to prevent Captain America from barging in. Lyman tried to take advantage and hurled his machine at the Scarab, but the Scarab dodged and gunned down the inventor. The mastermind managed to escape as Captain America was attacked by another henchmen in a generator room. Captain America narrowly avoided being electrocuted, and successfully captured an agent of the Scarab named Dirk.

Cast

  • Dick Purcell as Captain America (Grant Gardner)
  • Lorna Gray as Gail Richards
  • Lionel Atwell as The Scarab (Dr. Cyrus Maldor)
  • Charles Trowbridge as Dryden
  • Russell Hicks as Randolph
  • George J. Lewis as Bart Matson
  • John Davidson as Gruber
  • Norman Nesbitt as the Newscaster
  • Frank Reicher as Professor Lyman (Chapter 1)
  • Hugh Sothern as Eldon Dodge (Chapters 2-5)
  • Tom Chatterton as J. C. Henley (Chapters 6-8)
  • Robert Frazer as Clinton Lyman (Chapters 10-12)
  • John Hamilton as G. F. Hillman (Chapters 13-14)
  • Crane Whitley as Dirk (Chapters 11-12)
  • Wilson Benge as Lyman's Butler

Alternate Posters

Trivia

  • Republic Studios was notorious for making arbitrary changes in their adaptations. This occurred with Captain America more than most.
    • His secret identity is District Attorney Grant Gardner rather than U.S. Army Private Steve Rogers.
    • The "Super-Soldier Serum" origin is not used.
    • His famous shield does not appear, replaced by a standard revolver.
    • Despite the fact that this serial was made in 1944, and Captain America regularly fought Nazis in the comics, the Nazis are not part of the story in any way.
    • His sidekick, Bucky, does not appear.
  • Timely Comics 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. They also noted that the serial was well into production by this point and they could not return to the original concept without expensive retakes and dubbing. Finally, they pointed out that Republic was under no contractual obligation to do any of this.
  • The Captain America costume was really grey, 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 chain-mail became normal cloth. Miniature flags were added to the gloves and the belt buckle became a small shield.
  • The serial was re-released on September 30, 1953, under the new title Return of Captain America.
  • In Captain America #219, it is revealed that a Captain America serial also exists within the Marvel continuity. In this version, Captain America himself plays the role (in secret), taking the place of the stunt man who was shot during production due to the prop master being the Nazi spy Lyle Dekker. Like the real-life serial, Cap's shield is replaced with a standard gun, his identity is changed, and his sidekick Bucky is absent.[1]

See Also

Links and References

References

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