SHAZAM! Rob Kelly’s REEL RETRO CINEMA returns with a look at Billy Batson’s fantastic ’40s film series… — UPDATED 8/11/22: You know what I watched for this first time this week? The 1941 serial Adventures of Captain Marvel. Know what else? Star Tom Tyler was born 119 years ago this week on Aug. 9, 1903. Perfect time to re-present this 2017 gem! Shazam! — Dan — By ROB KELLY With one magic word, not only does young Billy Batson transform into the superhero Captain Marvel, but Republic Pictures created the finest comic book-based movie serial of all time. Republic, never an “A” studio but one that had more resources than the others on Poverty Row, spent a long time trying to acquire the rights to make a Superman movie serial. But by then DC had sold those rights to Fleischer Studios, which was hard at work on a series of lushly animated shorts starring the Man of Steel. Republic then turned their attention to Superman’s #1 rival for comics readers’ sticky dimes, Fawcett Comics’ Captain Marvel. Produced by five writers and directed by the team of William Witney and John English, 1941’s Adventures of Captain Marvel — which will become available on Blu-ray on 9/19 — opens in Thailand, at an archeological expedition at the volcanic Valley of the Tombs. Inside a sealed crypt, a mysterious, powerfully destructive device called the Golden Scorpion is discovered. When the Golden Scorpion’s series of quartz lenses are aligned, it emits a powerful beam, which seals the tomb. A member of the expedition, young radio broadcaster Billy Batson (Frank Coghlan Jr.), heeded the crypt’s seal not to enter, so he is chosen by an ancient magical wizard named Shazam (Nigel De Brulier) to be the recipient of amazing powers. All Billy has to do is utter the wizard’s name, and he is transformed into…Captain Marvel! The expedition’s team of scientists decides that the Golden Scorpion is too powerful to risk falling into the wrong hands, so the various lenses that power it are divided among them upon returning to the States. But a mysterious, hooded figure simply known as the Scorpion steals the device, and starts knocking off the various scientists in order to possess the lenses. Hot on his heels and threatening to ruin his plans is Captain Marvel (Tom Tyler), who uses...