A crime wave is underway in the city, all masterminded by the Scarab, a sinister genius who is actually respected citizen Dr. Cyrus Maldor (Lionel Atwill). District attorney Grant Gardner (Dick Purcell) is determined to stop this rash of murders and robberies, and if he can't do it in the courtroom, he'll do it in costume as Captain America, a two-fisted crime fighter. He's helped by reporter girlfriend Gail Richards (Lorna Gray), and he'll need all the help he can get to stop the Scarab and his array of fantastic weapons.
I have to wonder why Republic licensed the Captain America comic book character if they had no intention of having the character resemble the print version, except in costume. The comic character was a puny young man named Steve Rogers who was eager to join the army to fight in WW2, but he was deemed physically unfit for duty. He volunteers for an experiment which turns him into the perfect human specimen, with strength, speed, agility and endurance at near superhuman levels. He's also outfitted with a shield made from an indestructible alloy, and he takes off for the war front, where he battles the Axis powers. Unfortunately, Republic changes the character into a lawyer with a different name and a bit of a paunch, no shield, no experimental super-fitness, only a revolver that he has no compunction about frequently using. Oh, and bizarrely enough, no Nazis or other Axis enemies to fight, only homegrown crooks.
Purcell is the central weakness of this serial. As I mentioned, he's not in good shape, and he has no screen charisma either in or out of his costume. He actually died the week after filming was complete, with the cause attributed to overexertion while filming this. There is a lot of action, even for a serial, with several car chases, jumping and falling stunts, and dozens of fistfights and shoot-outs. I think they throw about 7 dummies off of high places, and use a crate of explosives to simulate grenade attacks or gunpowder explosions. Our hero Captain America is not above killing his foes, either, shooting several, throwing a few out of skyscraper windows, or forcing them off the side of a cliff during a high-speed chase.
Lionel Atwill is fun as the villain, whose secret identity is never secret from the audience, only from the film's good guys. He utilizes various high-tech devices, including a resurrection machine and a lightning generator. My favorite though, and a source of much unintentional hilarity early on, is an earthquake machine that its inventor refers to as his "giant vibra-tor". When Atwill demands the plans, the inventor swears that "you'll never get your hands on my vibra-tor!". Later, when a test of the device is planned, Gray's reporter character arrives with big eyes and a smile, declaring, "I can't wait to see a demonstration of your vibra-tor!" Indeed.
