Here, not that you're going to watch it all the way through, is Chapter One of the 1944 Captain America serial made by Republic Studios. This runs about 26 minutes, whereas the other fourteen chapters clocked in around sixteen each. As serials go, it was one of the better ones…and reportedly, the most expensive Republic ever made. The problem with it for some of us is that name and costume aside, it has nothing to do with the Captain America of the comic books. He has a different other identity, a different modus operandi, none of the same supporting characters, he uses a gun, etc. Legend has it that the script was written for another comic book hero, most likely Mr. Scarlet, a less-than-stellar crimefighter who appeared in Fawcett Comics.
There are two theories about what happened next, both of which presume that the guesses are right that it was Mr. Scarlet. One is that Republic discovered that Mr. Scarlet wasn't as popular as they thought; that Fawcett had decided to give up on the character and instead of cover-featuring him and giving him his own comic, they were about to relegate him to second-string backup status. This, some suggest, caused Republic to start shopping around for another, more popular comic book hero who could fit the existing script. The other theory is that Republic optioned the property from Fawcett, then got into a quarrel with them over the final contract.
Whatever the reason, Republic approached Martin Goodman at Timely Comics, publishers of Captain America. Mr. Goodman was not only agreeable, he apparently thought that getting a movie made of one of his properties (his first such offer…and maybe his last for more than twenty years) would hugely enhance the character's merchandising potential. He let the rights go for darn near nothing and demanded no approvals of the product.
He did send some copies of Captain America comics to Republic so they could get "his" character right but they weren't interested in that. They just changed the name of the hero in the script they were already developing and made pretty much the same serial they'd planned before it was going to be Captain America. I have never seen the actual correspondence but I'm told that someone unearthed some letters that flew back and forth between Goodman and Republic and they were along these lines: Goodman (or his people wrote), "Captain America never uses a gun," to which Republic responded, "Well, you didn't send us any samples that established that he never uses a gun."
The serial was modestly received but there was no clamor for a sequel, nor does it seem to have done a thing for the popularity of the star-spangled hero. One of many reasons for the latter was that Goodman does not seem to have known enough to demand, as did other proprietors of adapted comic books, a screen credit that said something like, "Based on the character appearing in Timely Comics." The creators of Captain America, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, were of course annoyed that their creation had been put on the movie screen with them receiving neither money nor credit. They were also both mystified that the serial so altered their great character.
So here's Chapter One. The other chapters are findable on the 'net with minimal Googling but I'm betting you won't bother. To watch all fifteen parts would take a little more than four hours. You have much better things to do with your life even if you do come to this site. Heck, you won't even make it a third of the way through this…
