Maniacal Movie Poster Monday #27!

When Captain America throws his mighty shield

All those who chose to oppose his shield must yield!

If he’s led to a fight and a duel is due,

Then the red and white and the blue’ll come through

When Captain America throws his mighty shield!

I think today's theme will be pretty apparent from the posters, if not from the lyrics above...

Captain America  (Republic, 1944)

Just four years after he leaped into the pages of comics, serial factory Republic gave the Star Spangled Avenger his first Big Screen adventure. It's not great, and Cap has no shield (!) but it's still the first, and always will be!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Captain America II: Death Too Soon  (Universal, 1979)
 

In 1979, when The Incredible Hulk and (briefly) The Amazing Spider-Man TV shows were doing well for CBS, they tried some more Marvel heroes as pilots. This is a second pilot for a Captain America series - neither resulted in a series, mainly due to not being very good. They are also the first signs of Marvel letting filmmakers make catastrophic changes to their characters. In any case, both Cap TV movies star Reb Brown, and this one scores Christopher Lee as a villain! This poster comes from foreign theatrical release.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Captain America  (21st Century Film Corporation, 1990)
 

 
 
In the late 80's, Stan Lee  - in his Stan's Soapbox column in all Marvel comics - started touting a new Captain America feature film that was going to be completed in time for Cap's 50th anniversary. He kept talking it up, and when it missed its first release date he said that although the movie was great they were going back and "packing in even more action and thrills" or some such. No. Sadly, they were trying to salvage a terribly wrongheaded superhero movie directed by Albert Pyun, who's still only made 1.5 good movies in a career that spans three decades. This Cap flick only shows its main character in costume at the beginning and end of the movie, and somehow decides to make the always-very-German Red Skull an Italian baddie (!?!) I went with the teaser poster here - because...despite what it says right up there - this Captain America movie was soooo bad it never even played US theaters! Let's think about that, now! A film about Captain America that never played in an American theater. Wow. Also, if I'm not mistaken - that "indestructible shield" up there on the poster is dented. Look straight down from the "PT" in "Captain." The movie dribbled out on video in 1992, and went under pretty quickly. You can order it on DVD manufactured on demand from somewhere on the web, but I wouldn't bother.
 
 
I would, however, bother with coming back for another similarly themed post soon, and until then, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!