Captain America II: Death Too Soon

• Directed by Ivan Nagy
• November 23, 1979
• CBS
• Based on Captain America created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby

A terrorist plans to poison America with a chemical that accelerates the aging. I guess this is a case of a worse you through chemicals…

Captain America II: Death Too Soon opens with a photographic montage of the assorted major players in this much like you might get from the opening credits of a TV series of the time. The music is mildly exciting and then that music gives way to an aerial shot of Steve Rogers (Reb Brown) driving around in a sweet van accompanied by music that’s almost romantic. Weird transition, bro.

Once again events take place in sunny Southern California. This time around Steve wears a costume much more in line with the Captain America comic than what he had last time. Less Evel Knievel and more Marvel Comics but still with a spraypainted motorcycle helmet.

The last part of the title-Death Too Soon-pretty much tells you what the whole plot of the villain is. Not to mention it’s a catchy title that informs you of the plot without actually saying a thing. I hope whoever came up with the title got a little extra cash for their work.

With the presence of the great Christopher Lee as the terrorist Miguel, this received an undeserving sheen of quality. General Miguel has taken over a penitentiary to use as his headquarters by impersonating the warden. That sounds like a James Bond plot. Francisco Scaramanga much? Miguel is a world-famous terrorist and there isn’t one member of the staff that knows who he is?

After about 20 minutes of fluff we get to Miguel’s plot. Miguel has kidnapped a scientist who was working on an anti-aging formula. Why does Miguel pick this guy? To create an aging formula to use for terrorism which Professor Ian Ilson (Christopher Cary) had developed in order to figure how to fight aging. Makes sense.

Events take Steve Rogers to Small Town USA that’s being run by Miguel’s henchmen where he occasionally uses his slightly better than average abilities to quite literally fight his way through the mystery. You know Steve Rogers is using his super strength when you get the generic sound and if you’re a child of the 70s or 80s you know what I’m talking about. Very much The Six Million Dollar Man.

Reb Brown is actually better in this than he was in the last one. Maybe he took some acting classes, but something was improved. Not a great thespian but actually putting in some effort or rather some consistent effort throughout. Unfortunately his Steve Rogers performance is hampered by silly things like being the new guy in town and disguising himself with a floppy hate one might use while gardening.

Connie Sellecca joins the cast as Dr. Wendy Day replacing Heather Menzies in the part. Sellecca was certainly an improvement over Menzies. She comes off more professional and thus more believable. Day was just the brainy female with all the answers to compress runtime but you could believe Sellecca did indeed have all the answers in comparison to Menzies.

In the end Captain America figures it all out and breaks into the prison to stop the evil terrorist. The weird thing is Miguel decides to order his henchmen to gas a bunch of the dogs with the aging serum to attack Steve Rogers when he comes in. How is a bunch of rapidly aging dogs a good idea? Hold them off for a few minutes and eventually old age will slow them up.

Death Too Soon is a little more action oriented than the last one. The scenes are a little better done. In strength and abilities Captain America is more in line with Arnold Schwarzenegger who would make it big in film a few years later.

It was a bit cliché for the time and TV movies where somebody would do something really big for something relatively small. Miguel who’s mysterious and true origins are completely unknown has a weapon that can age people and plans on using it just to ransom for money. It strikes me as a bit limited. Lee as always was a high point. He could turn the trite into gold and does just that. If this were any other actor, I don’t think the villain would’ve been kind of threatening. Nor would any of his ideas felt plausible to the viewer.

As a TV movie this is probably what we should’ve gotten the first time around. It’s a little better acted and just a little better done. It’s interesting to note that both these TV movies introduced the idea of Captain America riding a motorcycle, being an artist, and having a souped-up van. All these were elements were used eventually in the comics later on.

I found Captain America II: Death Too Soon charming. Not the greatest TV movie I ever watched but good comfort food. It’s a dessert. It’s enjoyable and fun and I could easily watch this movie again.