DVD : Adventures of Captain Marvel

In association with Amazon.com

Rating:

- One of the better Saturday Matinee Serials
If I were a kid in the thirties of forties, I know I would have liked this serial.

Sure, you can see the wires sometimes. And yeah, that dummy they use for long shots of our hero flying is a hoot. But hey, that's what these serials were all about.

This was one of the more cleverly written serials. The plot was quite good. Captain Marvel even killed a few of the bad guys!

Rating:

- SHAZAM!
I saw this serial for the first time(I was a small kid,then) at my neighborhood movie theatre, in 1952 (eleven years after it was made).Boy,what a thrill!The menace of "THE SCORPION",the young Billy Batson,old SHAZAM'S(silent movie star Nigel de Brulier) cavern.THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL was the first serial who depicted the exploits of a comic book super hero:THE BIG RED CHEESE,Captain Marvel himself!Of course, I'm not forgeting cartoonist Charles Calvin Beck(C.C.Beck)& writer Otto Binder,the talented creators of the great comic book super hero,phisically modeled on the actor Fred MacMurray.Tom Tyler is a great silver screen Captain Marvel;Frank Coughlan,a perfect Billy Batson.Without doubt,the best serial ever.SHAZAM!

Rating:

- How did they do it?
This Republic serial has been almost universally hailed as the finest of all the old movie serials: it works on just about every level, and is about as exciting as you could want. The true wonder are the special effects: with careful photography of a dummy suspended from wires and truly ingenious stunts (aided by very thoughtful and careful direction), Captain Marvel's flying at time seems more believable here than Superman's in the multimillion dollar film of the late 70s. The storyline departs in many ways from the original comic book series (here the old wizard Shazam specifically turns teenage reporter Billy Batson into Captain Marvel only to protect a Thai mystic relic that is the key of the serial's entire plot), but the series really captures the feel of Golden Age comics, from the inventively scary deathtraps into which Billy and his friends are placed ito the mellifluously voiced villain, The Scorpion, who wears a shiny embroidered silken robe with a matching hood. The actors are terrific, especially the very winning Frank Coghlan Jr. who is ideal as Billy Batson--he has a appealling smile he flashes only rarely, but always to great effect.

Rating:

- Better than the Superman serial!!!
I have to admit I have seen quite of few of these old time movie serials when I first purchased my VCR back in 87'...Captain Marvel stands out ahead of the pack because the story stil holds up after all these years. It may be still about the traditional good vs. evil; however it's paced much better than any of the others...but it on DVD if you still can..you won't be sorry!

Rating:

- whoever
It was a great serial and all, but Billy Batson got tied up and gagged 4 times in the movie

page 6 of 14