Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy comic strip began its run in 1931. It’s still running today.
In this serial Dick Tracy has become an F.B.I. agent.
Dick’s latest case puts him up against Pa Stark and his five sons (obviously a reference to Ma Barker and her notorious boys).
Ralph Byrd plays Dick Tracy and it’s fair to say that he was the definitive screen Dick Tracy. He makes Tracy a square-jawed hero but not too much of an an exaggerated comic-book hero. He resists the temptation to go over-the-top. His Tracy is a remorseless but quietly efficient crime-fighter.
Pa Stark dabbles in various kinds of criminality, from a relatively straightforward armoured car robbery to extortion and even espionage. His plans are elaborate but his boys don’t always execute those plans successfully.
That murder rap is a personal matter for Dick Tracy. The murdered G-Man was one of his protégés.
Pa’s solution is to eliminate the witnesses, but that solution just seems to create more witnesses to more crimes. Dick Tracy becomes a witness but eliminating him is going to prove to be quite a challenge.
The science fictional elements of the first Dick Tracy serial have been dropped but there is still plenty of technology.
The Republic serials directed by Witney and English are always fast-moving. Never give the audience time to worry too much about the plots, just make sure that there is always something breathlessly exciting or tense happening. Have lots of things getting blown up. Witney and English always did superior action scenes.
Naturally Pa Stark’s criminal schemes tend to involve cars, aircraft and explosions and some modern technology (just as a new high-powered astronomical telescope), and abandoned mines and all the stuff that makes 1930s/40s serials so much fun.
VCI’s released a DVD boxed set containing three Dick Tracy serials. It offers perfectly acceptable image and sound quality and it’s a very good buy.
The first of the Republic Dick Tracy serials, Dick Tracy (1937), was not directed by Witney and English and has a different feel but it’s very enjoyable. I’ve also reviewed the two best Witney-English serials - Daredevils of the Red Circle (1939) and the magnificent Spy Smasher (1942).
Massively entertaining, without being as outlandish as the first one. As I mentioned in my comments on your review of the first serial, both the villain and the hero are motivated by revenge. And Middleton and Byrd are both fantastic (the rest of the cast are OK to good, but rarely outstanding IMO).
ReplyDeleteAlthough as I've also mentioned, Dick Tracy is often his own 'damsel in distress' - it's usually him that gets into trouble for the cliffhanger lol
I would also HIGHLY recommend getting a box set of these serials (although my VCI dvd set also has Byrd's 4th serial)
Yes, I like the fact that the first two serials have a different feel. Both great fun in their own ways.
DeleteA weakness of some serials is that the villain isn't outrageous enough but with Charles Middleton you don't have to worry about that.
If you want an outrageous villain, you should definitely try to find the fourth serial, Dick Tracy Vs Crime Inc. It's actually a fairly standard serial, in a good way, but with a lot of action footage re-used from earlier Dick Tracy serials - however, the villain has an invisibility suit! And, also, you don't know who it is until the final episode.
DeleteI'm hoping to work my way through the third and fourth serials in the fairly near future.
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