Dick Tracy

Superb serial. The only one that matches it in quality is the first Flash Gordon. The production values are exceptional and eclipse many better known B movies. Ralph Byrd is perfectly cast in the title role. The only explanation I can think of for some viewers to rate this any lower than an "A" is that they just haven't seen very many serials. One of the few efforts in this line that actually has some atmospheric touches and, as another commenter has pointed out, the special effects are genuinely good.

Folks who don't really like serials are....well, they're folks who don't like serials (probably don't much like Christmas either). For those who do like serials, this is like a trip to the circus. Good action and WAY better than usual script and acting. As movies go, this probably only deserves a 7 but for a serial it deserves a perfect 10.

I've watched only 4-5 serials, so I don't have a lot to compare this

to, but so far it's easily the worst of the lot. The overlap from

chapter to chapter is too great (too much material repeated in the

new episode that was seen in the previous episode). The acting is

poor, especially Ralph Byrd (if he stood still for a moment, he'd be

attacked by a woodpecker). The "comedy" of Smiley Burnett is

nothing to smile about (he's even worse here than in the Gene

Autry movies). The character with the most brains in this serial is

actually the 12 year old kid, played by Lee Van Atta. And perhaps

most of all, has anybody seen Dick Tracy in this film? I must have

missed him, because no one in this movie even remotely

resembled the comic strip character. Low budget is not enough of

an excuse for low tech here. At least the director could have put a

watch on Ralph Byrd's wrist, & pretended it was radio controlled.

The two low budget jungle serials I watched with Phyllis Coates

("Panther Girl of the Congo" & "Jungle Drums of Africa") were way

better than this, & so was a low budget jungle serial with Clyde

Beatty ("Lost Jungle"). Not that those were great serials, but they

were better than this one, so tells you something about Dick Tracy.

If you'd like to watch a better crime serial, I recommend "The Green

Archer." That & the serial I'm in the middle of now, "Captain

Marvel," are far superior to Dick Tracy. I rate it 3/10.

Today's youth has no idea that smartwatches (I-Watches) began with detective Dick Tracy, a comic strip character first drawn by Chester Gould in 1931. His two-Way Wrist Radio inspired the invention of the mobile phone-and then the I-Watch. Six years after his newspaper debut, Dick Tracy's first portrayal on the screen was released by Republic Pictures in February 1937's "Dick Tracy: Chapter One-The Spider Strikes."

"The 1937 serial seems to be the first work to pit the hero against a foe of marvelous metaphenenomenality; e.g. A villain," noted film reviewer Gene Phillips. The villain, named the Spider or the Lame One, is the head of the crime syndicate named the Spider Ring. One of Spider's associates is a mad scientist with a hunched back, "Moloch," who surgically operates on honest men to convert them into criminal pawns. The Spider also assigns top inventors to construct an acoustic pulsating weapon capable of knocking down the strongest structures, specifically the Golden Gate Bridge. In Dick Tracy's first episode, the Spider threatens to use his 'flying wing' plane containing his weapon to destroy the massive bridge during its opening ceremony.

The "Dick Tracy" serial didn't quite follow the backgrounds of some of Gould's comic characters. The artist was originally inspired by U. S. Treasury Department Agent Eliot Ness to base his strip around. His Tracy was a detective in a Midwestern city, similar to Chicago. But in the Republic Pictures series, Tracy (Ralph Byrd) is a special agent for the FBI operating out of San Francisco. In Chapter One, "The Spider Strikes Back," Tracy's brother Gordon (Carleton Young) is kidnapped by the Spider gang and Moloch transforms him into a criminal.

Actor Ralph Byrd starred as the detective throughout the 15-episode series. So successful was the first "Dick Tracy" serial, Republic Pictures churned out three additional Tracy series: 1938 "Dick Tracy Returns," 1939 "Dick Tracy's G-Men" with future Academy Award Best Actress winner Jennifer Jones as Gwen Andrews, and 1941 "Dick Tracy vs. Crime, Inc." Author William Cline in his book 'In the Nick of Time,' noted that the serials were "unexcelled in the action field. The four Dick Tracy adventures from Republic must stand out as classics of the suspense detective thrillers, and the models for many others to follow." Four feature films on the detective, including Warren Beatty's portrayal in 1990 "Dick Tracy," followed after the final Republic serials concluded. Ralph Byrd starred in two of them, 1947's "Dick Tracy's Dilemma" and "Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome" the same year. Byrd's characterization as a FBI agent was physically demanding for the number of action scenes he had to labor through. His early death in 1952 at the age of 43, from either a heart attack or cancer, occurred when he was waiting in his car for his wife Virginia to finish shopping.

Republic Pictures were clearly hitting their stride in superior (and super) serial production with this quite sensational 15 chapter crime-terrorism drama made in 1936, released in early 1937. For any faults: too long as 12 chapters would do; the tedious antics of the infantile Smiley Burnette, there is a dozen truly astonishing and eerie/creepy moments that easily compensate. The first episode is so weird, and on a huge screen in a giant old theater full of screaming kids (or even adults) has several hair raising scenes where master evildoer The Lame One has maximum effect. The first chapter ending sees The fabulous Lydecker Brothers in full big budget special effects mode on a thrill set piece aboard the Golden Gate Bridge. The opening two chapters also features an astonishing triangular flying wing plane (looks like a cross between a stealth bomber and a flying sandwich) which for its day is a genuine masterpiece of inventive and graphic/realistically clever sci fi imagination. The recent film SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW owes a huge debt of imagination to this one flying apparatus alone. Republic clearly intended this serial to play to adults and it is not a G rated serial at all...given the menace, action and violence. It has three great villains one of whom is Gordon Tracy (Dick's brainwashed bro) who, after getting the treatment, sports a very fetching Bride Of Frankenstein hair stripe along with a mean scar. Another hideout menace is Moloch, a cat patting hunchback akin to a lost Uncle of Peter Lorre. Incredible action stunt sequences abound and very inventive use of miniatures and special effects..the chapter endings of 9 and 10 especially with a huge blazing Zeppelin and then a sheet of hull metal swinging from a repaired ship are very well thought out. Often the resolves cheat with Dick just getting up and running off, or rolling out of the way, but given the very high standard of the rest of all parts of this huge and complex production it was a major step forward for Republic at the time proving their willingness to make a serial for all ages that employed excellent craftsmen...especially the incredible Lydecker Brothers they inherited in their merger with Mascot Pictures. Remove them and the serial industry would have been all chases and fights. No wonder this serial was so successful it offered a big marker for two more Dick Tracy epics in 38 and 39. Excellent! Beware of dud dvds though, the one I saw was awful and bleached, in good quality this 15 chapter pre-noir horror serial must be a knockout.

THE FILM & GENRE -- Serial of 290 minutes. Besides the usual futuristic devices, this also has the "flying wing" aeronautical marvel, a hunchback, and a mad doctor. There is also a TV-Movie Feature created from the Serial.

THE VERDICT -- I'm not a big serial lover but this one kept my attention, and the flying wing is impressive.

FREE ONLINE - Yes. The serial for sure. As for the feature, I found one on YT at 102 minutes which matches IMDB DICK TRACY (1990) at 101 minutes. Wiki has a different duration of 72 minutes but I've never seen that.