|
Captain Midnight |  | Director: James W. Horne
Actors: Dave O'Brien, Dorothy Short, James Craven, Sam Edwards, Guy Wilkerson
Studio: Vci Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $11.44
as of 11/23/2009 02:41 CST details
You Save: $8.55 (43%)
New (24) Used (4) from $11.44
Seller: mediathrill
Rating:  8 reviews
Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 2
Running Time: 270 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: UTED8376D
UPC: 089859837623
EAN: 0089859837623
Theatrical Release Date: February 15, 1942
Release Date: May 25, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Studio: Video Communications Inc. Release Date: 05/25/2004 Run time: 270 minutes Rating: Nr
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 8
 Average serial August 23, 2009
John J. Ryan
I have watched many serials and I would rate this as avg. for the genre.If you are a serial fan you will probably enjoy it,if not you will fast foward thru some of it.
Captain Midnight vs. Ivan Shark June 14, 2009
J. Moore (Jonesville, NC USA)
Columbia Pictures Corporation presents Captain Midnight. And the fun begins. The serial begins with Ivan Shark's men bombing many key parts of the city from the air. Next we are introduced to Major Steel of military intelligence. His staff is busy trying to locate Captain Albright aka Captain Midnight. Albright is a former serviceman who has promised to lend a hand fighting crime if needed. Inventor Edwards has developed a range finder for use in wartime. Ivan Shark & his henchmen are out to steal the device at any cost. Most of the cliffhanger endings feature awesome airplane gun battles between Shark & Midnight. The 2 best cliffhangers are at the end of chapters 6 & 10. In chapter 6 Ivan Shark has Midnight trapped in a sealed room. Midnight is standing on a platform when suddenly Shark throws a switch that surrounds him in water! A grated drain cover falls across the device to prevent Midnight's escape. In chapter 10 Midnight is trapped in a sealed room again. This time Midnight is on a platform with a raging fire under him! The platform has a top half as well & a pole shaft through the center. Suddenly Ivan Shark throws a switch & the top & bottom begin to come together nearly crushing Midnight to death! How did Captain Midnight escape these to deathtraps? Come back to your dvd player next week-or tomorrow- or anytime you like & watch chapters 7 & 11 to learn the thrilling answers! I'm sure you'll enjoy the rest of this fine serial too. By the way watch the cast list closely when it plays. Actor Ray Teal plays Borgman 1 of Ivan Shark's henchmen. Many years later Ray Teal played Sheriff Roy Coffy of Virginia City on tv's Bonanza. Ray Teal also appeared in the Adventures of Red Ryder serial in 1940 by Republic Pictures.
 "Reefer Madness" star takes to the skies! January 22, 2009
Mark Shanks (Portland, OR)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Do you remember the character in "Reefer Madness" who demands the piano player to "Play faster....Yeah, faster! Faster! Play it FASTER!!"? Well, he's the star of this over-the-top Columbia serial. Dave O'Brien IS "Captain Midnight"! Holy smokes! He delivers dialogue at a machine-gun pace and doesn't hesitate to take on half a dozen bad guys at a time. He has two totally lame-brained "assistants" who seem to exist solely for comic relief, the skull-faced Guy Wilkerson as mechanic "Icky" Mudd and 27-year-old Sam Edwards as his.....ward? Oh, never mind. They face off against the evil "Ivan Shark", who occasionally dons silky bloomers and a scarf on his face to intimidate his captives. (He should really have been featured as one of the "Lightning Bug"'s disguises in "J-Men Forever" - guess they didn't check out Columbia serials.) Why, "he even interferes with OFFICIAL BUSINESS!", barks our intrepid narrator. Shark's battle cry is "Fools! Idiots!!", since his henchmen aren't the sharpest tools around. As usual with Columbia and Horne, the plot is all over the place. Shark starts off by bombing (as in a squadron of bombers!) some factories, but even though this is 1942, he doesn't seem to have any ties to the Germans or Japanese. He loses interest in that and focuses his attention on obtaining a new "range finder", going to all sorts of trouble, includng kidnapping, torture, and other assorted nastiness. It's never really clear what his ultimate goal is, but there's plenty of action, including at least one huge fistfight per episode, plus the astonishing aerobatics of the various "aircraft" used by Midnight and Shark. Midnight is the alter-ego of Captain Albright, who reports to 71-year-old Joe Girard as "Major Steel", but again, what the whole point is remains....obscure. Picture and sound quality are very good - surprisingly good, considering the source material. Great fun all around - never takes itself as seriously as the Republic serials and is all the better for that. The "death traps" get increasingly outrageous and reach what must be an all-time pinnacle with the wild setup at the end of Chapter 10. Highly recommended for first-time serial viewers, and veterans will savor the outrageous cliffhangers.
Dave O' Brien At His Best April 15, 2008
Ted Herrmann (Los Angeles CA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Dave O'Brien is hilariously over-the-top as the Captain, in one of the goofiest serials you'll ever see, and I've seen quite a few. Anyone who's interested in buying one of these movies knows by now that they all have pretty huge script problems - funny how those problems eluded us when we were little kids thrilling to these adventures on the big screen. I won't give away many of the details - suffice it to say not much of the story makes sense on a logical level. But the action! Lots of fights, endless car chases (dig Captain Midnight being arrested by Motorcycle cops) and of course, 15 death traps.
My favorite moment comes in chapter 12 or 13. After escaping a dozen death traps, Midnight has been knocked to the ground. Henchman #2 is about to shoot him. The Evil Boss yells at the henchman "No, don't shoot him. I want to finish him MY way." You just want to shout at the guy "But your way never works!"
The Evil Boss is a master of disguise - check out how he's able to make himself look EXACTLY like the chief of police, a medical doctor, even Captain Midnight himself - and this was before CGI.
And finally, there is Dave O'Brien. He never speaks his lines or enters a room - he shouts and runs! And runs! And shouts! It's truly the runningist, shoutiningest performance of 1943.
"VCI Entertainment King of the Serial DVD's present ~ Captain Midnight October 1, 2005
J. Lovins (Missouri-USA)
16 out of 17 found this review helpful
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)
Showing reviews 1-5 of 8
|
|
|
CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON SERVICES LLC. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’ AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME. Thanks for shopping with us! | |
