Customer Reviews

Captain Video

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I saw this serial in theatricial re-release in the late 50s without the tinted scenes. Actually, I didn't know it had tinted scenes until I got the new DVD. VCI Entertainment has done a great job of putting this DVD together. The picture quality and film transfer are excellent. The special features include a nice selection of Sci-Fi trailers and bios of the stars. The major flaw I found with the DVD was the VCI logo popping up in the bottom right corner of the screen every few minutes. That was disturbing. So much so that I phoned VCI and made a formal complaint to the customer service department. When I'm watching a movie I don't want to see on-screen logos and advertisement. That's one of my major objections to watching network T.V.. When I pay hard earned cash for a quality DVD I certainly don't want to see a logo pop up. This is one reason I purchase my DVDs and don't record them off TCM. VCI's response to me was very couteous. The service rep stated that the logo was inserted to dissuade pirating. Pirating is not my problem. Other home video companies manage to put copy guard inside their product. I didn't buy the DVD to copy it. There was no Paramount logo popping up in my new DVD of the original "War Of The Worlds." I will make sure that I phone VCI in the future before I purchase their products. If the logo is not a problem for you, then you will love this new DVD. If it is a problem, then save your money.

If you're looking for the 1949-1955 TV series with Al Hodge as Captain Video and Don Hastings as the Video Ranger, this is not it. Unhappily, most of all the footage from that series died when the old Dumont Network died in the late 50's.

For those of you like me who are nostalgic over the TV series, there are a number of websites about Captain Video, so see Wikipedia for a starting place with links: [...]

THIS DVD is the movie serial that was made with different actors, and seems to be the FIRST TV Show to be made into a movie!

Just thought you might want to know...

I have three Flash Gordons, a Phantom and now, Captain Video! First, the serious criticism. Wooden acting, cheap-looking sets, hand-drawn animation special FX, an impossibly involved, contrived plot, meaningless science-babble jargon. But those are also the charms of this serial. If you want to enjoy some campy fun with good guys versus bad guys, no blood and gore, action a-plenty and happy ending, welcome to Captain Video!!!!!

Captain Video rules! I bought this DVD on a whim not expecting much during amazon's sci fi dvd sale. This is actually a great serial. The quality of the DVD is really really good considering i've read that many of the episodes were destroyed in the 70's for its silver content. Great fun for the whole family if the kids can stand cheesy effects compared to tv today. But this show is clean and fun for all ages and you can't beat the $13 price tag for 2 DVD's. Also from reading many reviews of the VCI logo that appears in the corner of the screen, they must have re-released these DVD's because the logo has not popped up on my screen ever. The back of the box states copyright 2007 and it was originally released in 2005. Buy this collection you won't be disappointed!

First there is the problem of the VCI logo flashing every four minutes for twenty seconds. It is completely unacceptable to interfere with potential enjoyment of a product in that fashion.

That said, it is hard to enjoy this serial. Virtually the entire serial is a repeat of a basic car chase and the use of some ridiculous gadget at headquarters to resolve the cliffhanger.

Captain Video is frozen on a distant planet and headquarters just happens to locate him and send out a defroster beam. Pure cheese.

This serial is for completist collectors only. Others should look elsewhere

This serial arrived in a timely manner. Serial fans will recognize the robots as they appeared first in Dancing Lady and The Phantom Empire. Although the serial is a good print, unless you are a serial fan, this serial is not for you.

I've seen several other different videos and DVDs of this same serial and even if the tinted sequences weren't there, this is still by far the best quality picture of any of them! Speaking of the tinted sequences, it was nice to see those again since I hadn't seen them except for when I initially saw the serial when it first played at the Saturday matinees at our local theatre back in 1952. This is probably the closest approximation there has been to any serial being in color! I've always found it to be quite enjoyable and entertaining and I thought they made remarkable use of the special effects considering the minuscule budget they had to work with! One interesting footnote: this was the ONLY theatrically released serial that was actually based on a television program(it was usually the other way around) and I'm quite sure that at the time of its initial release back in 1951, Hollywood was beginning to acknowledge the growing power of television!

I doubt that I missed even a single episode of Captain Video on TV. I'm sure that my memories of it have been filtered by time, but there is no way it could have been as bad as this serial. I should have stopped it the moment I saw that one character was named Dr. Tobor. The most exciting sequence in the TV series was titled "I TOBOR" and featured a killer robot with the name stenciled on backwards so that it spelled "I TOBOR" instead of "ROBOT I." Recycling the name Tobor for the villain in the serial is just plain insulting. As it turned out, I made it through an episode and a half of the serial before I hit eject. If you remember Captain Video from your youth, keep that memory intact and skip this travesty.

"Captain Video," the 1951 Columbia serial is in 15 chapters, directed by Spencer Bennet and Wallace Grissell, based on the DuMont network live television program.

The plot has a villain, Dr. Tobor (George Eldredge), meddling with the Earth's weather, with help from Vultura of planet Atoma (Gene Roth), who wants control of the universe including the Earth, and has started by invading and mostly conquering planet Theros. Triangulating some measurements of magnetic impulses, Captain Video (Judd Holdren) and the Video Ranger (Larry Stewart) visit Dr. Tobor, who claims he is trying to counteract the evil forces causing the weather problem. Soon, however, Dr. Tobor takes off for Atoma, trying to make it look like he was abducted, and with Vultura's remote-control equipment tries to blast Captain Video's space ship by activating and guiding a couple dormant comets.

There have been a few rather unjustified complaints about the serial adaptation. First, that "Tobor" is a cheap reuse of a character name from the TV show. I did extensive research (at least 15 minutes with Google) and found that the episodes usually called "I TOBOR" and written by Isaac Asimov didn't air until 2 November 1953, almost two years after release of this serial. There seem to be a few references suggesting that Tobor was used earlier but nothing specific mentioned in descriptions available for those shows. The 1946 Columbia serial "Hop Harrigan" includes a Dr. Tobor, and is likely why the name was used here.

There has also been a complaint that the serial doesn't have much connection with the television program, but the few episodes that exist from before 1951 are mostly different in the pacing, owing to the amount of action that could be presented on live TV, and a desire to stretch the stories out longer for the daily program. The writers were careful to include many standard gadgets and procedures used on the television show, and reference Dr. Pauli, the main villain in the early days. Columbia's plot has to follow the conventions of serial movies, so there are a lot more fights, but the basics of the show are included.

Careful examination reveals a few minor technological blunders. We know from "Undersea Kingdom" that it is dangerous to be near operating rocket motors, yet Dr. Tobor and Vultura have their similar spacecraft launch from their laboratories. It's good that Captain Video had his version of the spacecraft launch from the next room; Gallagher (Don Harvey) is needed to operate many scientific devices to save his boss and the Ranger from certain death. At one point our hero is dumped into space, beyond normal gravitational pull, but he apparently still has enough air to breathe; the concern expressed is getting him back to Earth. The number of clever scientific devices carried by Captain Video is a little high, but I doubt the original theatre audience members were concerned about this. It is also unlikely that those involved at Columbia Pictures thought what they were doing was "cutting edge" unless that meant "cutting the budget" with the garage-sale acquisition of the robots last seen 16 years earlier in "The Phantom Empire." Columbia's animated space ships, recycled from the Superman serials are even tackier in their own way than the sparkler-powered ones in the 1936 Flash Gordon serial, which were far from "cutting edge" at that time. But mention should be made of the "cosmic vibrator" which can stun adversaries, and even open locked doors. This appears to be a prototype for the "sonic screwdriver" used on "Doctor Who" many years later.

As for plot and acting, one shouldn't expect much, and while Judd Holdren may seem a bit wooden, he, Larry Stewart and Don Harvey are to be commended for their ability to keep a straight face, even while mentioning the "opticon scillometer." George Eldredge as Dr. Tobor gives a better performance, but Gene Roth as Vultura deserves sympathy; about all he gets to do is talk into a microphone while flexing his mighty stomach muscles. The cliffhangers are resolved with too many handy devices, often remotely controlled from Captain Video's headquarters, and the threat from Atoma is only occasionally present. There are a number of continuity errors but great drama this isn't, and such details are less obvious when watched with a day or so between chapters. At least the plot moves along, with far better dialogue than what Republic had at the time. And there is good nostalgia in some of the equipment, such as mechanical calculators, the 8mm movie projector that activates "Dr. Pauli's cloak of invisibility" and the Brush tape recorder with reels that turn in opposite directions. While it isn't used, Captain Video's laboratory includes an oscilloscope; one made by DuMont, of course.

The tinted sequences, while unusual for the 1950's and the only example I've heard about in sound serials, were fairly common during the silent era, though not by Cinecolor. The current tints are doubtless a "restoration" based on what is known about them. The tinting is only used on Atoma (red) and Theros (green) while the bulk of the action is on planet Earth, where everything is in shades of gray.

VCI's release, #8428 is on two DVD's, and is a mostly clean transfer, though there are a few problems. The image is reasonably free of scratches and dirt, and the gray scale is fine, but it could be a little sharper. Edge focus is decidedly soft, suggesting a 16mm reduction print, and a few splices interrupt the dialogue and narration. There are two recurring vertical scratches, not seen often but present in more than one chapter, about a third of the way in from each edge of the screen, and it is at these points that the restored image pulls in with a "funhouse mirror" effect for a few seconds in a couple places. The sound often has some audible flutter and sprocket-induced buzz along with a little noise and distortion, but none of this is too serious. Overall this is a fine edition, and as an update, the "pop-up logo" issue mentioned in other reviews has been corrected; new copies do not have them. The "extras" include trailers for serial movies "Superman," "The Green Archer," "Captain Marvel" and "The Phantom Empire" plus the one for the 1954 feature "Target Earth." There are "bios" of Judd Holdren, Larry Stewart, Gene Roth, Spencer Bennet and Wallace Grissell, and a "promo" of other serials available from VCI with brief trailer clips.

This is an entertaining serial, for those tolerant of such nonsense, and VCI's transfer, if not ideal, is quite good. The animated menu, while amusing the first time it is seen, requires a long wait before the selections become active and the sound is loud, so when watching one chapter at a time be sure to use a player that remembers where it was stopped.

VCI built a huge reputation for providing high quality serial transfers. Much better than Alpha who freeze frames opening credits, adds their logo in the corner, and add sound effects to the sound tracks. VCI did a superb job with this release. My only two gripes. I wish they did NOT put their VCI logo on the corner of the screen. It's so large it almost takes up the bottom fourth of the screen! Why they did that, I don't know. Word has it they stopped doing that, thankfully. Secondly, this was historically the only serial to be theatrically released in color. Actually, color tints. So they added color tints for many scenes. I consider this an alteration, not a restoration. Odd thing. I have a copy of this same serial I bought from the same person who supplied serials to VCI and my copy was almost the exact beautiful quality, but with no color tints, and no logo. So you can get an un-altered version floating out there.