Director: JAMES W. HORNE. Screenplay: Basil Dickey, George Plympton, Wyndham Gittens, Jack Stanley. Photography: James S. Brown. Film editors: Dwight Caldwell, Earl Turner. Music director: Lee Zahler. RCA Sound System. Copyrighted by Columbia Pictures Corp., chapters one through fifteen on 15 February 1942, 22 February, 1 March, 3 March, 15 March, 22 March, 29 March, 5 April, 12 April, 19 April, 26 April, 3 May, 8 May, 15 May, and 21 May, respectively. Chapter titles: Mysterious Pilot, The Stolen Range Finder, The Captured Plane, Mistaken Identity, Ambushed Ambulance, Weird Waters, Menacing Fates, Shells of Evil, The Drop to Doom, The Hidden Bomb, Sky Terror, Burning Bomber, Death in the Cockpit, Scourge of Revenge, The Fatal Hour. Each chapter is two reels in length, except for Mysterious Pilot which has three. Total running time: 271 minutes.COMMENT: A well-loved serial, despite a basic story-line that's even more preposterous than usual. Plot and characters originated in an "Ovaltine" radio serial, which accounts for its juvenile quality.However, some episodes (six, for example) are crammed with action, and often handsomely staged. We also enjoyed Craven's various impersonations which give the actors impersonated a chance to really show their stuff. Joe Girard — otherwise dull and conventional — is especially convincing in these sequences. And who could resist Luana Walters as the villain's incorrigible daughter? O'Brien makes a fair fist of Midnight.

I believe, like most serial buffs, that Republic made the best serials. After watching the 1948 Columbia serial Superman which was mostly talk and poor special effects, I was reluctant in purchasing the 1942 Captain Midnight. Boy! was I surprised. This serial did not let up for a minute. Dave O'Brien was perfect as Captain Midnight and James Craven was one of the best heavies ever. Something must have happened after 1942 because all the Columbia serials that I saw from that time on were cheasy. If Superman had been made with the Captain Midnight production values and stuntman Ted Mapes as Superman, that would have been a great serial.

It's been two weeks since I watched Captain Midnight...and I'm still waiting for one thing to happen: Have a plot develop.Now don't get me wrong, Dave O'Brien was great in the title role. This stuntman deserved another shot in front of the camera with his face unmasked for all the great work he's done over the years. But, I wish it could have been in something good.Let's see, at the start there is some bombing being done, in such a way you can't tell if you should be cheering or jeering the bombers. Of course, the bombers are only mentioned again once later in the serial. There are a lot of bad interior plane sets, a lot of thugs going in and out of jail, a lot of impersonations with voice-overs, and the good Captain and Ikky, whose only real similarities to the radio series characters are their names and the fact they fly planes.I love Columbia's serials...they produced by all-time favorite, The Vigilante, but this is definitely not one of their best efforts. Someone somewhere was definitely not drinking their Ovaltine.

Probably one of the best movie Serials, with Dave O'Brien in the lead role...close to the classic radio serial...had great production. .it followed main characters and ..moved rapidly without too much padding in any episode. Great stunts, camera work, and each chapter ended with an exciting cliffhanger, that grabbed your attention and filled the viewer with suspense ,and wanting more. Enough to show up at next week's installment to learn what happened...the rousing musical score added to it all, Just recently released on VHS to the cheers of serious Serial fans..the world over.