Dick Tracy (1937 Serial)
Picture: C Sound: C Extras: C+
Film: B-
Dick Tracy is a comic
strip character that has been minimalized to practically nothing these days
thanks to a few outlets. The first
(worst?) being the 1990 Warren Beatty film, which was a very stylized film, but
offered very little in terms of character development or a story that had much
interest. Then there was the short-lived
cartoon series that capitalized on some fresh interest in the character, but
even that died within time. However, VCI
Entertainment has issued to DVD the original serial, which ran back in the late
30’s.
This
set is of the 1937 Republic Pictures starring Ralph Bird in the lead role. Some of the inventions from these episodes
almost seem like a direct influence on the Batman
TV series of the mid-1960s starring Adam West, as Tracy must battle deadly weapons such as an electronic
tuning fork that could crush a bridge and the list goes on. All of the characters are based on Chester
Gould’s original characters and have been developed here by Barry Shipman and
Winston Miller as their script brings shape to the comic characters.
Most
will be glad to finally have these hard to come by episodes, but VCI has made
that easy with the DVD format. This is a
2-disc set, which runs a total of 290-minutes and is the complete 1937
serial. The show was all in black and
white, which takes away slightly from the colorful character of Tracy in his comic form.
However, the black and white adds a more Noir-like feel, despite the
wacky nature of the episodes. The
purpose here is to have fun with these and never take the material more serious
than it should.
Presented
in its original 1.33 X 1 aspect ratio, the black and white is certainly showing
its age. Being this old and coming from
a second or possibly third generation source you can tell that this is
something that would need major restoration in order to secure the quality in
years to come. The prints have missing
information around the edges, but are rather clean giving the age and lack of
care that has been placed on them.
The
2.0 Dolby Digital Mono is never impressive nor bad, but offers all the
limitations one would expect. The sound
range is all over the place with some parts being louder than others and a fair
amount of hiss on the soundtrack as well.
Max Allan Collins provides a super insightful commentary for the serial
and is a major reason to own this set!
His comments are very interesting as he informs us on certain aspects of
each segment and various other tidbits of facts throughout.
This
2-disc set also contains other extras, like biographies, a stills gallery,
lobby cards, and the Musical Radio program from 1945 called Dick Tracy in B Flat, which was designed
for the U.S. Army. In this, Bing Crosby
plays Tracy, Dinah Shore is Tess Trueheart, and Bob Hope is Flat-Top, how’s that for
entertainment! As if that isn’t a
line-up enough the remainder of the cast is comprised of Judy Garland, Frank
Morgan, Jimmy Durante, Frank Sinatra, and The Andrew Sisters. Those that still enjoy the old RKO Radio
programs found on many of the Criterion Edition discs will love this!
It
is becoming harder and harder to find a new target audience for such items like
this. Part of the reason is that the
market is flooded by such garbage, and it becomes hard to decipher the good
from the bad, but this is definitely a set that is sure to please. This Dick
Tracy set also ranks as one of the best from VCI alongside their Somewhere in Dreamland set, which is
reviewed on this site.
- Nate Goss
