Considered by many as the finest serial ever made, Adventures of Captain Marvel chronicles the exploits of “The World’s Mightiest Mortal” as he combats The Scorpion, a hooded villain intent on obtaining 6 optical lenses that, when aligned properly, can turn ordinary stone into gold or destroy their target completely. Radio reporter Billy Batson (Frank Coghlan Jr.) is granted the ability to transform into Captain Marvel (Tom Tyler) by the wizard Shazam and is tasked to protect the lenses, facing all manners of danger including hails of bullets, electrocutions, and cave-ins. Marking the very first time a comic book superhero’s adventures appeared on the silver screen, William Witney and John English’s 12-chapter serial is an achievement in effects, excitement, and entertainment still capable of inspiring belief that a man can actually fly.
Adventures of Captain Marvel
The Heroic Serials of Republic Pictures
Eclipse is a selection of lost, forgotten, or overshadowed classics in simple affordable editions. Each series is a brief cinematheque retrospective for the adventurous home viewer.
Movies serials were an iconic part of the cinema experience and none did it better that Republic Pictures and filmmaker William Witney. Filled with spectacular stunts, break-neck editing, and iconic clashes of good and evil, these serials entertained young and old and their legacy is still felt in the summer blockbuster, special effects bonanzas that sell-out theaters today. Collected here are three of Republic’s greatest efforts adapted from comic books and inspired by pulp literature, sure to entertain with their daredevil feats, magnificent sets, and cliffhanger endings.
Adventures of Captain Marvel
Radio reporter Billy Batson works to keep a powerful weapon out of the hands of evil mastermind the Scorpion, needing only call out the magical word “SHAZAM!” to transform into the nigh-invulnerable Captain Marvel when fists are thrown and bullets fly.
Spy Smasher
America may not yet be at war, but that is no deterrent to independent agent Spy Smasher fighting the Mask and his Nazi agents both at home and abroad in this jaw-dropping, stunt-filled spectacular by William Witney.
Perils of Nyoka
Nyoka, while searching for her missing father in northern Africa, agrees to join an expedition searching for the lost Tablets of Hippocrates and finds herself and her colleagues racing against the wicked queen Vultura and her conspiring mole Count Benito Torrini through a series ancient traps that protect untold treasure.
With notes of the films by film critic and historian Leonard Maltin.
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