Captain Video: Master of the Stratosphere
| Captain Video | |
|---|---|
Judd Holdren and a native of Atoma
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| Directed by |
Spencer Gordon Bennet Wallace Grissell |
| Produced by | Sam Katzman |
| Written by |
Royal K. Cole Sherman L. Lowe George H. Plympton Joseph F. Poland |
| Starring |
Judd Holdren Larry Stewart George Eldredge Gene Roth Don C. Harvey Skelton Knaggs |
| Music by | Mischa Bakaleinikoff |
| Cinematography | Fayte Browne |
| Edited by | Earl Turner |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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15 chapters (287 minutes) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Captain Video: Master of the Stratosphere is a 15-chapter serial released by Columbia Pictures in 1951. It was directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet and Wallace A. Grissel with a screenplay by Royal G. Cole, Sherman I. Lowe and Joseph F. Poland, based on a treatment by George H. Plympton. The serial is unique for several reasons--- in particular, it is the first and last film serial ever based on a television program, Captain Video and His Video Rangers.
Judd Holdren, in what was only his second starring screen role, plays Captain Video, the leader of a group of crime-fighters known as the Video Rangers. He faces an interplanetary menace, as the evil dictator of the planet Atoma, Vultura (Gene Roth) and his lackey, the traitorous earth scientist Dr. Tobor (George Eldredge) are planning to conquer the earth.
Captain Video: Master of the Stratosphere was the only serial adapted from television.
It was one of Katzman's first forays into science fiction and was soon followed by The Lost Planet.
As produced by Sam Katzman, the serial had a production budget much larger than the famously small budget of the DuMont Television Network's live daily teleseries.
The Captain Video chapterplay is a bit more satisfying to science-fiction fans, because it does make an effort to keep the action interplanetary, instead of earthbound. Captain Video and his teenaged sidekick, the otherwise nameless "Video Ranger" (Larry Stewart), must make frequent visits both to Atoma and to another distant planet, Theros. Both Atoma and Theros are filmed at Bronson Canyon, and Vasquez Rocks, so to distinguish the two, the Atoma footage is tinted pink and the Theros footage is tinted green in the original release prints. These colored scenes were processed by Cinecolor.
In the Captain Video teleseries, "Tobor" is the name of a large robot, who was one of the series' most popular characters. Calling a villain "Dr. Tobor" may have been intended to fool young theater-goers into thinking they would see the robot in the serial. In fact, the only robots on view are the odd fedora-wearing robots from the 1935 Gene Autry serial The Phantom Empire.
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