Dick Tracy (1937)

Doubly directed by Alan James and Ray Taylor this an excellent serial concerning the exploits of Dick Tracy. A master criminal called The Lame One runs The Spider Ring who engage in smuggling, espionage, murder and similar illegal activities and the valiant Tracy and his team go head to head with them. The Lame One has also captured Tracy's brother Gordon and with the evil doctor Moloch's skills ("a simple altering of certain glands"!) has turned Tracy into a pliable assistant for himself. The altered brother carries out most of The Lame One's schemes. Incident follows incident in some good locations until the breathless finish.Ralph Byrd is perfect as Dick Tracy, determined and dedicated to to his task. The identity of The Lame One is kept to the end. He hobbles about wearing a built up shoe and barks out orders from a desk. The mad Moloch is played by the creepy John Picorri (often stroking a black cat) and Carleton Young is effective as the changed Gordon Tracy, a streak of white hair on his head after his character changing operation, with an air of sadness about him that is poignant. Unfortunately the great Byron Foulger is only in it briefly as the gangster Korvitch.Smiley Burnette is one of Tracy's assistants Mike McGurk and is supposed to be the comic relief but who isn't at all funny. Also appearing in a couple of scenes are 'Oscar' and 'Elmer' who were a comic team at the time but they aren't funny either. Lee Van Atta as Junior gets more laughs. I. Stanford Jolley plays 'Roadside Thug' and 'G-Man' and 'Reporter' and 'Intern' to show his versatility.It has great model work by the Lydecker brothers including a wonderful flying wing that is used a lot. Indeed a lot of the scenes take place in the air. The fifteen packed episodes are a great start to the Dick Tracy serials.

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 just found this VHS double tape 30's matinée serial and thoroughly enjoyed viewing it. Great to see the pre-WW2 vintage cars, flying wing and clothes fashions of this fine show. It was well edited, shot, written and expertly acted. Great and interesting Dick Tracy casting with this beloved and loved comic-book character. Ralph Byrd surely makes the quintessential Tracy over all others. I always felt that in the later Dick Tracy serials, TV show, and Disney/Touchstone feature film could not hold a candle to this earliest '37 project. Republic Pictures is back and re-releasing their archive of films. The home studio of early John Wayne, Roy Rogers, and other matinée serials was in the present CBS Radford studio lot in Studio City, CA. The show still manages to hold-up in today's superheroes and was refreshing to see the stunt work and physical special effects and NO over used CGI.

Dick Tracy is on the hunt of a mysterious criminal known as the Lame One ( he has a bum foot, but I think the title describes the villian's general appearance ), leader of the mysterious Spider Gang. The Lame One along with his hunchbacked assistant kidnap Tracy's brother, alters his appearance, and goes out fighting him endlessly throughout this boredom. This serial moves incredibly slow ( mainly this isn't a Whitney/English chapterplay ), the acting outside of Ralph Byrd is dead wood, especially Smiley Burnette. Even when the master criminal is unmasked, the audience is forced to say, Who was this guy. Add a really dumb, sentimental ending, and well you get the pic. Don't judge the next three serials based on this one. In terms of serials, 4 out of 10.