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Captain-America.US
Classic Captain
America Posters
Captain America Republic Movie
Serial poster pictured below here with Dick Purcell as Captain
America and Lorna Gray as Gail Richards.
click for larger image
Cap first appeared in first
appeared in Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941), and it was
only until 1944 that he got his own movie serial.
Captain America Serial click for larger pic
click for larger pic of Cap Serial Poster
Cap first appeared in first
appeared in Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941), and it was only
until 1944 that he got his own movie serial. District Attorney Grant
Gardner was Cap's identity instead of Steve Rogers. The actor
playing Cap was Dick Purcell who died a few weeks later of a massive
heart attack. It's been said the filming of the serial was too much
strain for him. He was only 35 years old at the time of his death.
Captain America was budgeted at $182,623 although
the final negative cost was $222,906. It was the most expensive of
all Republic serials. 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 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
their adaptations from the original material. This occurred with
Captain America more than most. Timely, the owner of Captain
America, were 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 Examples of changes
from comic book
example:
* His secret identity is District Attorney Grant Gardner rather than
U'S. Army Private Steve Rogers.
* The "Super-Soldier Serum" origin is not used.
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* His famous shield does not appear, replaced by a standard gun.
* 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.
It's been speculated that Republic was just using a script
originally meant for another character.
References in comic books to the serial
In Captain America V1 issue 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 Decker. Like the real-life
serial, Cap's shield is replaced with a standard gun, his identity
is changed, and his sidekick Bucky is absent.
In 2007, after Marvel's Civil War event, Captain America (Steve
Rogers) was killed off. News channel CNN produced a special on the
death, showing the serial with Grant Gardner as Captain America
while it was focusing on the death of Steve Rogers. In Issue 27 of
Captain America, the movie poster is seen in The Captain America
Museum.
Steve Rogers' ex-girlfriend in the Ultimate Marvel continuity is
named after Gail Richards, Grant Gardner's secretary.
1979 Captain America TV Movies
The 1970s live-action
television movies
* Captain America appears in two 1979 live-action television
movies that aired on CBS: Captain America, which aired January 19,
1979, and Captain America II: Death Too Soon, which aired November
23, 1979, both starring Reb Brown in the title role. The character
differs significantly from the comics in both his origin and his
operations. For instance, Steve Rogers is a character in
contemporary times whose father was a 1940s government agent. The
very patriotic attitude of Steve's father earned him the nickname
Captain America, and his father is spoken of as having been
murdered. Rogers, a former Marine now making what little living he
makes as an artist, was inspired by this story to sketch a
super-hero. After receiving potentially fatal injuries in an
accident, he was administered an experimental chemical called the
FLAG—Full Latent Ability Gain—formula (at one point referred to as a
"super-steroid") which not only saves his life but also enhances his
body with heightened strength and reflexes. These new abilities lead
Dr. Simon Mills (Len Birman), the research biochemist and
intelligence official who had told Rogers about his father, to
recruit him and give Steve a costume based on his drawing. As
Captain America, he also makes significant use of a specialized
reconstruction of the van he has been driving, out the rear of which
can be launched a modified motorcycle. The bike has a round
windshield, described as being made of "Jet-Age plastics," with
concentric circles that alternate between red and transparent around
a centered star, blue in color. He is able to detach this, and he
uses it as his shield when he goes on foot. At the end of the first
movie, Rogers briefly appears in a redesigned costume--more
accurately a uniform--that bears a stronger resemblance to the
uniform Captain America is seen wearing in the comics, and he wears
this uniform in the sequel.
Captain America II: Death Too Soon
* In Captain America II: Death Too Soon, Brown's Steve Rogers is
first shown sketching a portrait of a Mrs. Shaw (Susan French), who
complains to him about a gang of muggers who have been stealing the
proceeds from cashed Social Security checks; she denies having
cashed hers. He bids her do this in order to set a trap for the
muggers, and springs the trap as Captain America. In the meantime, a
free-lance revolutionary terrorist calling himself General Miguel
(Christopher Lee), planning to fight an unspecified war, kidnaps a
Professor Ian Ilson (Christopher Cary) and forces him to resume his
research in manipulative gerontology. Ilson has managed to formulate
both a chemical that accelerates aging and the antidote to the same
chemical, and Miguel, posing as the warden of a prison in Oregon
near Portland, plans to use the chemicals in question to hold
Portland hostage for a multi-million-dollar ransom. Ultimately
Brown's Captain America and Lee's General Miguel directly clash
face-to-face, and when Miguel throws a glass bottle of the aging
accelerant into the air, hoping it will shatter against Captain
America's body, the Captain throws his shield into the air, where it
shatters the bottle in such a manner that the aging accelerant
splashes Miguel instead, aging him literally to death in less than a
minute.
1990 Captain America Movie Posters
Produced by 21st Century Film Corporation,
filming was completed in 1990, but after test marketing the film to
a preview audience more stunts were added at the end.
The film was intended for release in the summer of 1990, to coincide
with the 50th anniversary of Captain America. Posters appeared in
movie theaters displaying the superhero's iconic shield, but the
film never materialized. Several release dates were announced
between fall 1990 and winter 1991, but the film went unreleased for
two years before debuting direct to video and on cable TV in the
United States in the summer of 1992. It was given a limited
theatrical release overseas.
Click for larger image
Notice the spring theater release date
mentioned on the poster that never occurred. |
This poster was released for the vhs video
release version of the movie. |
This one was posted on ebay the seller described the poster as a
1970 Captain America poster with art by Jack Kirby. It's also from
the cover for issue #106. It was part of a Marvelmania kit gotten
through mail order.
I'll be on the lookout for
classic Captain America posters if you have one in your collection
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Here's some Captain America posters to buy. |
