Dick Tracy (serial, 1937)

Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy comic strip was immensely popular back in the 1930s (it began is run in 1931). Inevitably Hollywood took an interest. Four serials were made by Republic with Ralph Byrd as Tracy and four feature films from RKO followed. The two-way wrist radio that later became such a recognised trademark of the strip did not put in an appearance until 1946 and therefore does not feature in either the serials or the movies.

At the moment we’re concerned with the first of the serials, Dick Tracy, made in 1937.

The enemy of ace G-Man Dick Tracy in this story is the Spider Gang, led by a sinister lame man. The Spider Gang have kidnapped Dick’s brother Gordon and have performed brain surgery on him, turning him evil. The gang has plans to destroy the Bay Bridge in San Francisco (the famous bridge had been opened in 1936).

The Spider Gang have some high-tech weaponry at their disposal, such as a disintegrating sound gun and a huge flying wing aircraft (which looks extremely cool).

The Lame One comes up with a host of sinister plans involving everything from jewel thefts to counterfeiting to espionage. Much to his disgust Dick Tracy keeps thwarting those plans.

Dick’s biggest problem is that his kid brother Gordon (also a G-Man) has fallen into the hands of the Spider Gang and the Lame One’s outrageously malevolent hunchbacked mad scientist accomplice has performed brain surgery on him. Gordon Tracy has been turned into a ruthless conscienceless killer.

The cliffhangers are not as inspired as the ones you’ll find in William Witney-directed serials such as Daredevils of the Red Circle (1939) or Spy Smasher (1942) but they’re competent. And nobody ever got close to matching Witney’s skills when it came to cliffhangers.

On the plus side there’s a lot of aviation stuff, and I love 30s aviation serials. And there’s a zeppelin! The aerial stuff is done pretty well, with a mix of real aircraft and miniatures. Today it would all be done with CGI and would probably look less convincing.

In 1937 everything in this serial would have seemed ultra-modern. Aircraft, zeppelins, powerboats, submarines, two-way radios, a miniature radio transmitter. And Dick’s young ward records radio programs off the air onto phonograph records. Cool stuff in 1937.

Ralph Byrd is a perfect square-jawed Dick Tracy. The acting of the other cast members is mostly bad, but it’s bad in a really fun B-movie way. The villains are sinister melodrama villains. Dick Tracy’s assistant are fairly incompetent but that’s OK because it keeps the focus on the main hero. His only competent assistant is Gwen, who runs his forensic science laboratory.

When considering the fairly minor flaws in this serial you have to bear in mind that serials were pitched at a young audience. Dick Tracy’s young ward Junior is mildly annoying at times but having a kid in the cast (who provides the hero with some vital clues) gave the kids in the audience someone with whom to identify. Smiley Burnette as Mike McGuirk, one of Tracy’s G-Man, provides excruciating comic relief but kids like that sort of obvious comedy. Kay Hughes as Gwen has little to do. She would have made an obvious love interest for Dick Tracy but presumably it was felt that younger viewers wouldn’t have gone for all that soppy love stuff.

There are plenty of pluses to compensate. There’s no shortage of action and excitement. The action scenes are well executed, the stunt-work is good and the flying wing aircraft really does look impressive. There’s stacks of cool 1930s technology. There are hair’s-breadth escapes from danger. There’s a decent mystery involving the true identity of the Lame One. There’s some mad scientist stuff. And there’s suspense involving the final fate of Dick’s brother Gordon - can the brain surgery that turned him evil be reversed?

Overall this is a very entertaining serial and it’s recommended.

VCI’s DVD release (in a boxed set containing all three Dick Tracy serials) offers quite acceptable image and sound quality.

I’ve also reviewed a couple of the RKO movies - Dick Tracy, Detective (1945) and Dick Tracy vs Cueball (1946).