Shortly after The Punisher went into production 21st Century Films (founded by Menahem Golan, late of Cannon films) announced two Marvel projects in the trades: Spider-Man and Captain America. Spider-Man soon entered a legal morass of court battles between MGM, Carolco, Sony, Golan and God knows who else, eventually emerging in 2002 as the blockbuster directed by Sam Raimi.
Cap was not so lucky. Golan managed to get his film off the ground with Cyborg director Albert Pyun, a well-meaning guy who has made a career of schlocky independent films that valiantly try (and often fail) to be more than what they are. Pyun's heart was in the right place on this film, but unlike The Punisher - which is punctuated by well-staged action set pieces – nothing happens in this film.
Well, not exactly nothing. Stuff happens in the very beginning and the very end, but the middle is turgid and boring. Cap probably doesn't appear in costume for at least an hour, and you almost forget this is a superhero movie, which is about as big a sin as you can possibly commit. The Red Skull appears in some decent makeup for all of one scene before he reappears with some patchwork plastic surgery for the rest of the film.
Pyun claimed the plug was pulled on him before filming was done (but there seems to be plenty of footage to me) and it was placed on the shelf awaiting its inevitable straight-to-video fate. And just like The Punisher, I made it my mission in life to procure a copy.
I found a bootleg of Captain America sometime in 1990 or early 1991 which had a "Property of 21st Century" stamp on the screen (my Punisher wp was timecoded). I can't be sure if it had a temp track (The Punisher definitely did). It contained about five minutes of extra footage from what was eventually released (a Cap in costume scene no less!)
It always gave me a perverse sense of satisfaction to procure this stuff and it earned me a reputation amongst my peers as someone who could get his hands on anything he set his mind to (no small feat in the pre-Internet age!) Cap was eventually released on VHS and Laserdisc in 1992 (and I dutifully bought the LD).
And I have to give Albert Pyun credit. He tried – his heart was in the right place. With the limited budget he had he chose to focus on Steve Rogers' reacclimating to a strange world, and Matt Salinger (son of JD) really brings Steve's feeling of displacement home. But the film desperately needed more action and better pacing.
Interestingly, last year Pyun made available his own director's workrpint (with insightful commentary), sold directly to fans via his website. This was not the workprint I bought those many years ago, but a much longer cut that is interesting, but equally boring. Of course I bought it, as I did the recent Shout Factory special edition blu ray, which has an interview with director and star. None of these make the film any more palatable, but I'm compelled to buy anything hero-related.
Eventually, like The Punisher, Cap made his big-budget debut to great fanfare in his own stand alone film and even more successfully, in The Avengers. As a fan, I was really pleased with both films, but I'll always have a soft spot for these cheesy efforts, because for years that was all we got.
Next time, we'll discuss the most notorious of these "lost" films with Roger Corman's 1994 unreleased Fantastic Four! I'll give you one hint: I bought it at a convention!
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