Consume All Media! Captain America: "Chapter One: The Purple Death"

Joe Heath is a big fan of comic books and watching things in order. So they made this spreadsheet containing every serial, short, film, television episode, commercial, motion comic, and web series based on a comic book. Now they're watching them all. Previously, Joe finished the first Batman serial. This time, they start the first Marvel serial.

Captain America

Film Info

Release date: February 5th, 1944

Studio: Republic Pictures

Written by Royal Cole, Harry Fraser, Joseph Poland, Ronald Davidson, Basil Dickey, Jesse Duffy, & Grant Nelson

Based on the Timely/Marvel Comics character created by Jack Kirby & Joe Simon

Produced by Rudolph C. Flothow

Directed by Elmer Clifton & John English

Writer Highlights

Royal Cole (1907-1993) Other comic book media credits: Superman (1948), Batman and Robin (1949), Blackhawk (1952), & the 1954 episode of Adventures of Superman: “Beware the Wrecker”

Harry Fraser (1889-1974) Other comic book media credits: Batman (1943)

Joseph Poland Other comic book media credits: Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941), Spy Smasher (1942), Superman (1948), Batman and Robin (1949), & Atom Man vs. Superman (1950)

Ronald Davidson (1899-1965)

Other comic book media credits: Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941), Spy Smasher (1942)

Creator Highlights

Jack Kirby (1917-1994)

Other comic characters adapted: Ant-Man, Black Panther, the Eternals, the Fantastic Four, Groot, the Hulk, the Inhumans, Iron Man, MODOK, Thor, the X-Men, and so many more.

Other comic book media credits: Kirby was a storyboard artist on the 1978 animated series The New Fantastic Four and had a cameo as a sketch artist in a 1979 episode of The Incredible Hulk.

Director Highlights

John English (1903-1969)

Other comic book media credits: The Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941)

Captain America was Republic Picture’s third comic book serial after The Adventures of Captain Marvel and Spy Smasher. It was also their last and most expensive. It wound up costing over $40,000 more than its original $182,623 budget.

Cast as the title character, Dick Purcell had previously appeared in a decent number of films, but Captain America was to be his last. Some reports indicated that the 38-year-old actor's health struggled thanks to the shoot. He died of a heart attack a few weeks after filming, collapsing in a LA country club locker room after playing a round of golf.

Timely Comics (which would later become Marvel Comics) were also very unhappy with liberties taken with the character. Republic responded to their complaints by saying none of the stuff they were complaining about was in the original source material they were sent to work off of, it would cost too much to refilm, and also we can do whatever we want, so there.

What were these changes anyway? And with all of these production problems, how did the actual serial turn out?

Let’s dive in to find out more.

Captain America: “Chapter One: The Purple Death” - 25:17 (Available on Archive)

In a really cool opening montage, the voice of The Scarab tells a variety of people to kill themselves in a variety of different ways and leaves behind a little scarab calling card.

A radio newscaster fills us in on some exposition: A bunch of people involved in a Mayan ruin expedition are turning up dead with a scarab in their possession and poison in their system. Who will look into these murders?

Captain America is no longer the army super soldier Steve Rogers as he is in the comics, but is instead District Attorney Grant Gardner. No origin is given for why he decides to dress up like a superhero and he doesn’t appear to have any super strength like his comic counterpart. In fact, other than the name “Captain America” and his costume, nothing else from this serial originates from the comic book. And the costume doesn’t even have the wings above the ears!

A surviving member of the expedition, Professor Lyman, nervously talks about the murders with another member of the expedition, Doctor Maldor (Lionel Atwill). Maldor soon reveals himself to be the villainous Scarab.

Lionel Atwill is mostly known for acting in horror films, including four Frankenstein films. His role as the one-armed inspector in Son of Frankenstein was even parodied in the classic Mel Brooks film Young Frankenstein. His career hit a bit of a snag when he was indicted for perjury in a case related to Christmas party orgies at his home.

Speaking of orgies, The Scarab wants a vibrator created by Professor Lyman (Frank Reicher).

Actor Highlights

Frank Reicher (1875-1965)

Other memorable roles: Captain Englehorn in King Kong (1933) & Son of Kong (1933)

Other comic book media credits: A hospital superintendent in Superman and the Mole Men (1951) which would be his final acting role.

Before revealing himself as The Scarab, Maldor had given Lyman a cigar. The smoke in the cigar puts Lyman in a hypnotic state. Another reason to just say no to smoking, kids.

Under hypnosis, Lyman gives Maldor the combination to his safe. Inside the safe are the plans for Lyman’s dynamic vibrator, a device powerful enough to vibrate buildings to the ground.

Hubba hubba.

Lyman is then taken away by two of The Scarab’s henchmen, Matson (George J. Lewis) and Gruber (John Davidson).

Actor Highlights

George J. Lewis (1903-1995)

Other memorable roles: Don Alejandro de la Vega in the 1957 Disney show Zorro. Other comic book media credits: Stuart - Warehouse Spy in Spy Smasher (1942), Burke in Batman (1943), John Hancock in the 1955 episode of Adventures of Superman: “Test of a Warrior,“ & an uncredited Spanish Delegate in Batman: The Movie (1966).

John Davidson (1886-1968)

Other comic book media credits: Tal Chotali in Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941)

Matson and a random henchman are given some purple death bombs and head off to open Lyman’s safe. But they are caught in the act by Captain America, wielding his traditional weapon…

GUN.

Republic claimed Captain America’s shield was too cumbersome to work with, but they did place an image of the shield onto his belt buckle. So I guess Captain America’s shield now solely protects him from the embarrassment of his pants falling down.

A very well-choreographed fight breaks out. Matson gets away, but Captain America puts his shield replacement to good use and shoots the random henchman.

Captain America finds the purple death bombs they left behind and gets his secretary Gail Richards (Lorna Gray) to help him figure out where they originated.

While not from the comics, a version of Gail Richards would appear in the 2002 comic The Ultimates where she was Steve Roger’s wartime girlfriend. After Steve got himself all frozen, she went on to give birth to Steve’s kid and marry his friend James “Bucky” Barnes. The drama!

Anyway, this Gail takes the purple bombs around to a variety of florists because the poison inside comes from a rare flower. One particular florist acts a bit suspiciously, so she drops a bomb to see his reaction. He reacts like she dropped a bomb. Knowing that the gig is up, the florist ties her up.

Grant shows up shortly afterwards and gets a gun pulled on him. Grant punches the florist and takes his gun. They both go to the back where Grant starts to untie Gail.

In an attempt to escape, one of the henchmen pulls the other in front of him as a shield. Grant cares very little about the sanctity of human life and even less about shields, so he immediately shoots the guy.

The other henchman drops the body and instead holds up a vial of purple death. If Grant doesn’t put down his gun, he’ll drop the vial and they will all die.

Grant Gardner doesn’t fear death... he causes it. He shoots the henchman and shoves Gail out of the room before the fumes can get to them.

The Scarab realizes that Captain America seems to be in cahoots with the district attorney, so he makes a plan to get rid of him. A henchman forces a guy to call Grant saying he has a hot tip on the deaths and tells him to meet him at his hotel room. The henchman shoots the guy after he makes the call, then waits for Captain America to show up.

Cap arrives and suspects foul play. He opens the door a little, but doesn’t enter. The henchman gets impatient and shoots through the door. Cap falls inside, presumably dead. But when the henchman comes to check him out, Cap jumps up and takes his gun.

He questions the henchman about The Scarab’s plans. When the henchman won’t say anything, Cap takes some bullets out of the gun, spins the chamber, and fires at him. THIS CAPTAIN AMERICA IS HARDCORE. I LOVE IT.

Cap learns that The Scarab is planning to destroy the Dynamic Vibrator so no one can have it.

Meanwhile, Gail is at a demonstration of said Dynamic Vibrator.

My, that’s a big one.

Professor Dodge (Hugh Sothern) turns on the Dynamic Vibrator and it vibrates a miniature building to dust.

Meanwhile The Scarab’s henchmen break in. They lock everyone in a closet and set the vibrator to destroy the entire building.

Captain America arrives and fights the henchmen, punching one out of the window where he falls to his death.

Cap knocks out the other henchman, frees everyone from the closet, and runs to turn off the machine as the building completely vibrates apart around him.

Should you watch it, though? While this doesn’t feel like Captain America at all, it’s actually pretty fun! The fight scenes are great, even if the majority of them are resolved by Captain America just shooting a dude. The Dynamic Vibrator is an interesting concept and it’s well visualized, if terribly named. (Or wonderfully named?) Though this is the second comic book serial I’ve seen about an expedition getting killed off one by one (Adventures of Captain Marvel) and the second I’ve seen about mind control (Batman), it’s executed well and different enough to not feel like a retread.

Tune in next time for Captain America: "Chapter Two: Mechanical Executioner" (Available on Archive.)

A version of this article was previously published on The Dipp.

Support Consume All Media on Patreon.