Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Bell Tolls for Captain Midnight...., May 28, 2004
Dave O'Brien leaps into battle against evildoers as the famous radio adventurer Captain Midnight. Midnight seeks to protect a scientist and his daughter from invention-stealing bad guys out to wreck America's defense effort. The bad guys, lead by Ivan Shark and his daughter Fury, stoop to new lows as they battle the Captain and plot to destroy our war effort.O'Brien fills the role of Midnight well, despite looking and sounding a bit like a young Richard Anderson (Oscar Goldman from "The Six Million Dollar Man"). Dorothy Short as the scientist's daughter, Joyce Edwards, is mostly suitable as a sort of love interest for Midnight, but mostly useless in every other capacity. She brings the helpless-girl-who-gets-in-trouble-in-almost-every-chapter to heights never dreamed of by Noel Neill, who played Lois Lane in the classic Superman TV series. Short's continual screaming and helpless antics drag the serial down a bit. Far better (and a better choice for the Joyce character!), is the evil daughter of Ivan Shark, Fury, played by Luana Walters. Joseph W. Girard plays the gruff but concerned Major Steele, who lets Cap walk all over him (apparently, in Midnight's army, being a "mystery man" means a captain outranks his commanding officer). Guy Wilkerson and Sam Edwards lend a hand as Captain Midnight's pals, who, like Captain Midnight and all the crooks, share the strange inabillity to retain their firearms when they get their foes cornered. Ivan Shark, played by James Craven, is a great villain. He is a master of disguise, and has a fabulous secret lair. Several things fail Craven however, as his personal "Arab" outfit to hide his features is discarded about half-way through the story. Also dropped is the gang members going by numbers and not names. Worst of all, Shark's purpose and motivation for trying to wreck America's defense plants is never very clearly explained. As he sneers his evil way through confrontations with Midnight, all the while operating his dubious death traps, there never seems to be any connection with the Germans or Japanese, an element that would have added to the believability of Shark as an anti-American fifth-columnist villian. One gets the sense that this serial (released in early 1942) had originally been more about a gang of rogue, criminal aviators who are after the scientist's new bombsight to serve their own ends. That would make sense, seeing as how the oft mentioned but never seen defense plant attacks were probably incorporated into the story post-Pearl Harbor. The serial is pretty good overall, with moderately suspenseful cliffhangers and some good tricks, secret hideouts, and fights. It's probably two or three chapter too long, though, and things can get a bit tedious after a while. Probably Columbia's best effort, but it's no Republic serial, for sure.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Add 1 star for hero and villain, add 2 stars for Chapter 10, February 7, 2005
CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT is a) a Columbia serial, and b) directed by James W. Horne. That's two strikes on it right there, according to some serial purists who don't care for Columbia's illogical, six-against-one fight scenes and Horne's exaggerated, tongue-in-cheek approach. But this writer likes both Horne and Columbia, and this 15-chapter cliffhanger is about par for both.
Dave O'Brien, hero of Monogram East Side Kids melodramas, PRC Westerns, and M-G-M Pete Smith comedies, has to be the most authoritative serial hero on DVD. As Midnight he speaks very quickly! and urgently! and you MOVE when he tells you! O'Brien should have done more of these serials; he does his own stunts, too. James Craven, magnificent in Columbia serials as an easily exasperated villain, plays a master of disguise here. The script has too many "great impersonations" where Character A poses as Character B (you don't buy these at all because it's obviously the same actor twice) but at least it keeps the story interesting.
The cliffhangers are standard perils except for Chapter 10, which has a doozie: Craven traps Midnight in a sealed room, then he makes the floor revolve rapidly, then he removes the walls, THEN he sets the floor on fire, and THEN he lowers a stone block on his victim! This jaw-dropping overkill looks like James Horne at work, and must have sent Saturday-matinee audiences into ecstasies.
The supporting cast is adequate. Sam Edwards is good as Midnight's teenaged pal, Joseph Girard is wooden as O'Brien's superior officer, and ingenue Dorothy Short screams too much (but since she was Mrs. Dave O'Brien, we can understand the casting).
Fun for serial fans, but not as enjoyably satirical as the Columbia/Horne "The Green Archer" and "Terry and the Pirates." Print quality is excellent throughout.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"VCI Entertainment King of the Serial DVD's present ~ Captain Midnight, October 1, 2005
VCI Entertainment and Columbia Pictures present "Captain Midnight " (1942) (Dolby digitally remastered), based upon the radio serial featuring 15 Chapters of cliffhangers loaded with all the excitement you would ever want and more...story line has our best fighting hero "Captain Midnight" in the skies leaping from the radio waves up onto the big screen...tracking down spies searching for some secret plans of loyal American John Edwards who has been kidnapped by fiendish enemy plotters at every turn...will Captain Midnight stop Ivan Shark leader of the gang of thugs from stealing the plans....can the we ever have a good nights sleep knowing that at Midnight some thing terrible will happen...well keep drinking your Ovaltine because this rousing adventure on the serial screen is not over...15 Chapters with great action sequences in a thrill crammed fight to the finish against criminals and spies...don't miss any exciting episode...and keep that dial tuned to our favorite hero of radio "Captain Midnight"...just the way we remember!
Under director James W. Horne with screenplay by Basil Dickey, George H. Plympton, Wyndham Gittens, Jack Stanley, original music by Lee Zahler...the cast include Dave O'Brien (Captain Albright, aka Captain Midnight), Dorothy Short (Joyce Edwards), James Craven (Ivan Shark), Sam Edwards ( Chuck Ramsey), Guy Wilkerson (chabod 'Icky' Mudd), Bryant Washburn ( John Edwards), Luana Walters (Fury Shark), Joseph W. Girard (Maj. Steel), Ray Teal (Borgman - Henchman), Ted Mapes ( Slim - Henchman), George Pembroke (Dr. James Jordan)...watch for some fine veteran character actors like James Craven (who always was one of the villianious of villians on the Columbia Pictures lot), Guy Wilkerson and Ray Teal great character actors
CHAPTER TITLES: (Disc One)
1. Mysterious Pilot
2. The Stolen Range Finder
3. The Captured Plane
4. Mistaken Identity
5. Ambushed Ambulance
6. Weird Waters
7. Menacing Fates
8. Shells of Evil
9. The Drop to Doom
10.The Hidden Bomb
SPECIAL FEATURES: (Disc One)
BIOS:
1. Dave O'Brien (birth name: David Barclay) (1912-1969)
2. Dorothy Short (1915-1963) (married to Dave O'Brien)
3. James W. Horne (Director) (1880-1942)
VCI CLIFFHANGER TRAILERS: (Disc One)
1. The Green Archer (Victor Jory)
2. The Secret Code (Paul Kelly & Ann Nagel)
3. The Vigilante (Ralph Byrd & Lyle Talbot)
4. The Iron Claw (Charles Quigle & Joyce Bryant)
CHAPTER TITLES: (Disc Two)
11.Sky Terror
12.Burning Bomber
13.Death in the Cockpit
14.Scourge of Revenge
15.The Fatal Hour
VCI CLIFFHANGER TRAILERS: (Disc Two)
1. Adventures of Red Ryder (Don "Red" Barry)
2. Zorro Cliffhanger Collection (Reed Hadley, John Carroll, Linda Stirling)
3. Dick Tracy's G-Men (Ralph Byrd)
4. Adventures of the Flying Cadets (Bobby Jordan)
5. Buck Rogers (Buster Crabbe)
6. Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (Buster Crabbe )
7. Jungle Girl (Frannces Gifford),
8. Jungle Jim (Grant Withers & Raymond Hatton)
9. Mandrake the Magician (Warren Hull)
10.Zane Grey's "King of the Royal Mounted" (Allan "Rocky" Lane)
11.Miracle Rider (Tom Mix & Tony Jr)
12.Secret Agent X-9 (1937) (Scott Kolk Henry Brandon & Monte Blue)
13.The Phantom (Tom Tyler)
14.Secret Agent X-9 (1945) (Lloyd Bridges & Key Luke)
If you crave action, drama and plenty of adventure then this is the place for all of the above...if you enjoyed this serial check out another release from VCI Entertainment and Columbia Pictures present "Captain Video: Master of the Stratosphere" (1951) (digitally remastered), 15 Chapters.finally for the first time on video the really great Columbia Serial that broke the mold...we have everything a serial fan would want...the tinted sequences by Cinecolor and unique inventions that were unlike any other serial out there in the '50s...get out there as they're going fast, this is the one you've been waiting for.
Great job by VCI Entertainment for releasing the digital transfere with a clean, clear and crisp print...looking forward to more of the same from the '40s vintage serial era...order your copy now from Amazon or VCI Entertainment, stay tuned once again with a top notch serial from VCI...just the way we like 'em!
Total Time: 270 mins on 2 DVD's ~ VCI Entertainment 8376 ~ (5/25/2004)
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