Dick Tracy made his film debut in Dick Tracy (1937), a 15-chapter movie serial by Republic Pictures starring Ralph Byrd. The Spider Gang was on the loose, tired of Dick Tracy's cunning skills. Through the 15-chapter serial, 15 different cases were solved, all plots by the Spider Gang. Dick Tracy was also in search of his missing brother, Gordon Tracy (Carleton Young). The Dick Tracy character proved very popular, and a second serial, Dick Tracy Returns, appeared in 1938 (reissued in 1948). Dick Tracy's G-Men was released in 1939 (reissued in 1955). The last was Dick Tracy vs. Crime Inc. in 1941 (reissued as Dick Tracy vs. the Phantom Empire in 1952).
The sequels were produced under an interpretation of the contract for the first Dick Tracy serial, which gave license for "a series or serial". As a result, Chester Gould received no further money for the sequel serials.
In these serials, Dick Tracy is portrayed as an FBI agent, or "G-Man", based in California rather than as a detective in the police force of a Midwestern city resembling Chicago, and, aside from himself and Junior, no characters from the strip appear in any of the four films.
However, comic relief sidekick "Mike McGurk" bears some resemblance to Tracy's partner from the strip, Pat Patton; Tracy's secretary, Gwen Andrews (played by several actresses in the course of the series, including Jennifer Jones under a variation of her real name, Phyllis Isley), provides the same kind of feminine interest as Tess Trueheart; and FBI Director Clive Anderson (Francis X. Bushman and others) is the same kind of avuncular superior as Chief Brandon.
Six years after the release of the final Republic serial, Dick Tracy headlined four feature films, produced by RKO Radio Pictures. Dick Tracy (a.k.a. Dick Tracy, Detective) (1945) was followed by Dick Tracy vs. Cueball in 1946, both with Morgan Conway as Tracy. Ralph Byrd returned for the last two features, both released in 1947: Dick Tracy's Dilemma and Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome. Gruesome is probably the best known of the four, with the villain portrayed by Boris Karloff. All four movies had many of the visual features associated with film noir: dramatic, shadowy photographic compositions, with many exterior scenes filmed at night (at the RKO Encino movie ranch). Lyle Latell co-starred in all four films as Pat Patton. Anne Jeffreys played Tess Trueheart in the first two, succeeded by Kay Christopher and finally Anne Gwynne; Ian Keith joined the cast as the actor Vitamin Flintheart for two films; Joseph Crehan played Chief Brandon. RKO stocked the films with familiar faces, creating a veritable rogues' gallery of characters: Mike Mazurki as Splitface, Dick Wessel as Cueball, Esther Howard as Filthy Flora, Jack Lambert as hook-handed villain the Claw; baldheaded, pop-eyed Milton Parsons, mild-mannered Byron Foulger, dangerous Trevor Bardette and pockmarked, gently sinister Skelton Knaggs.
Ralph Byrd, who had played the square-jawed sleuth in all four Republic movie serials, and in two of the RKO feature-length films, reprised his role in a short-lived live action Dick Tracy series that ran on ABC from 1950 to 1951. Additional episodes intended for first-run syndication continued to be produced into 1952. Produced by P. K. Palmer, who also wrote many of the scripts, the series often featured Gould-created villains such as Flattop, Shaky, the Mole, Breathless Mahoney, Heels Beals and Influence, all of whom appeared on film for the first time on this series. Other cast members included Joe Devlin as Sam Catchem, Angela Greene as Tess Tracy (née Trueheart), Martin Dean as Junior, and Pierre Watkin as Chief Patton. Criticized for its violence, the series remained popular. It ended, not in response to criticism, but because of Byrd's unexpected, premature death in 1952. The series was filmed on a low budget, with many long hours and a rushed shooting schedule.
Here is a great box set for that Dick Tracy fanatic in your family. Over 11 hours of Dick Tracy....from the 1937 film serial thru the 1950 TV series.....lots of great mysteries from the top detective in all the land!
First we have the FULL 15 Dick Tracy Republic Pictures serial from 1937 starring America's favorite Dick Tracy, Ralph Byrd!
Dick Tracy (1937) is a 15-chapter Republic movie serial starring Ralph Byrd based on the Dick Tracy comic strip by Chester Gould. It was directed by Alan James and Ray Taylor.
Dick Tracy's foe for this serial is the crime boss and masked mystery villain the Spider/the Lame One (both names are used) and his Spider Ring. In the process of various crimes, including using his flying wing and sound weapon to destroy the Bay Bridge in San Francisco and stealing an experimental "speed plane", The Spider captures Dick Tracy's brother, Gordon. The Spider's minion, Dr. Moloch, performs a brain operation on Gordon Tracy to turn him evil, making him secretly part of the Spider Ring and so turning brother against brother.
Dick Tracy was budgeted at $112,334 although the final negative cost was $127,640 (a $15,306, or 13.6%, overspend). It was the most expensive Republic serial until S O S Coast Guard was released later in the year.
It was filmed between 30 November and 24 December 1936 under the working titles Adventures of Dick Tracy and The Spider Ring. The serial's production number was 420.
In this serial, Dick Tracy is a G-Man (FBI) in San Francisco rather than a Midwestern city police detective as in the comic strip. Most of the Dick Tracy supporting cast and rogues gallery were also dropped and new, original characters used instead (for instance the characters of Tracy's girlfriend Gwen Andrews and his detective partner Mike McGurk were stand-ins for Tess Trueheart and Pat Patton respectively). Dick Tracy creator Chester Gould approved the script despite these changes.
There were three sequels to this serial: Dick Tracy Returns (1938), Dick Tracy's G-Men (1939), and Dick Tracy vs. Crime, Inc. (1941). They were all permitted by an interpretation of the original contract, which allowed a "series or serial". That meant that Dick Tracy's creator, Chester Gould, was only paid for the rights to produce this serial but not for any of the sequels.
Chapters:
Dick Tracy was the only 15-chapter serial released by Republic Pictures in 1937.
Next we have 4 Dick Tracy movies from the 1940's produced thru RKO and starring Morgan Conway and Ralph Byrd as the crime stopper......
DICK TRACY DETECTIVE (1945)
Dick Tracy (Morgan Conway), a supremely intelligent police detective, must solve a series of brutal murders in which the victims, all from different social and economic backgrounds, are viciously slashed to pieces by the one known as Splitface (Mike Mazurki). Suspects abound but Tracy must find the common link of extortion and revenge before more are killed.
Dick Tracy (also known as Dick Tracy, Detective) is a 1945 American comic strip action film based on the Dick Tracy comic strip created by Chester Gould. The film is the first of four installment of the Dick Tracy film series, released by RKO Radio Pictures.
Getting the rights to produce Dick Tracy from the character's creator, Chester Gould, cost RKO pictures $10,000. This was the first in a series of Dick Tracy films produced by RKO.
DICK TRACY VS CUEBALL (1946)
Diamonds are stolen but before the thief can safely hide them aboard an ocean liner he is strangled by ex-conman Cueball. Cueball takes the diamonds and is given refuge by Filthy Flora, madam of the Dripping Dagger Bar, and then continues on murdering people that he believes are trying to double-cross him. Dick Tracy allows his girlfriend Tess to act as a buyer for the diamonds but is put in grave danger when Cueball vows to eliminate her.
Dick Tracy vs. Cueball is a 1946 American film based on the 1930s comic strip character of the same name created by Chester Gould. The film stars Morgan Conway as Dick Tracy in the second installment of the Dick Tracy film series released by RKO Radio Pictures.
DICK TRACY'S DILEMMA (1947)
Ruthless killer Steve Michel is known to the public as "the Claw" for his way of killing his victims with his prosthetic hook. After his accomplices Ryan and Taylor have broken in and stolen furs from the Flawless Furs warehouse, Steve kills the guard with his hook. When the police arrive at the crime scene in the shape of Detective Dick Tracy, he talks to Humphries, who is the owner of the store; Peter Premium, who is a representative for the insurance company; and a man named Cudd, who is the insurance investigator. The insurance company only has 24 hours to find the stolen goods, or they have to reimburse the fur company. Tracy and his semicompetent assistant Patton examine the dead body at the morgue and find a note on it stating that three perpetrators performed the hit against the warehouse. It also mentions that they used a truck with the name "Daisy" on it. Unfortunately, the three perpetrators disguise the truck before Tracy can find it, and the lead is a dead end. The robbers soon leave their hideout in a local junkyard and go to a nearby bar to phone their boss and get new instructions. As they speak with the boss on the phone, their conversation is overheard by an informant, a blind beggar called Sightless, who goes to pass the information on. Sightless is sloppy and noisy when eavesdropping, and is nearly caught by the Claw. Still, he manages to escape the bar.
Sightless goes directly to Dick Tracy, but is stopped at the door by Tracy's friend, Vitamin Flintheart. Vitamin believes the beggar is up to no good, and denies him entrance to the house. After listening to Sightless' message, Vitamin gets rid of him. Still, he passes the message on to Tracy later, and Tracy and Patton manage to find the fence who the three robbers were meeting, Longshot Lillie. Lillie is taken into custody and questioned, but is unable to identify the robbers. At the same time, the Claw finds Sightless' apartment and kills the blind man with his hook. Soon after, Tracy and Patton arrive, and the Claw flees the scene. Patton pursues the killer, fires a shot and wounds him, but still, the Claw manages to escape.
Tracy notices that the Claw had tried to make a phone call from Sightless' phone, and can identify the first digits from hook scratches on the phone dial. He sends Patton to find the rest of the phone number. Tracy himself goes to the insurance company and accuses them of stealing the furs from the warehouse. They protest against the charges when Patton arrives and tells them that the number leads to the storeowner Humphries. Humphries' plan was all along to sell back the furs to the insurance company after the 24 hours had passed and collect the penalty fee stated in the policy. He calls the robbers at the same bar as before, instructing them to tell the insurance company to come to the bar with $50,000. Feeling guilty about sending Sightless off to a certain death before, Vitamin goes to the bar to find the killer, pretending to be a blind beggar himself. Sam and Fred make an attempt to steal the money for themselves, but the Claw, wounded but still capable of fighting, manages to kill them both. The killings are witnessed by Vitamin, who also hears the Claw talk on the phone to Humphries, telling him the furs' whereabouts.
Meanwhile, Patton and Cudd have gone to Humphries and are watching him as he talks to the Claw. Humphries tells the Claw over the phone about his predicament, and the Claw becomes suspicious towards Vitamin and his blind-beggar performance. Tracy arrives to the bar just in time to save his friend from the Claw, and a chase back down to the junkyard happens. Tracy chases the Claw to a high-voltage generator, and the killer is killed by an electric shock when he touches a wire with his hook.
Dick Tracy's Dilemma, released in the United Kingdom as Mark of the Claw, is a 1947 American pulp action film based on the 1930s comic-strip character of the same name created by Chester Gould. Ralph Byrd stars as Dick Tracy, reprising the role after Republic Pictures's 1937 Dick Tracy serial and its three sequels. Preceded by Dick Tracy vs. Cueball, the film is the third installment of the Dick Tracy film series released by RKO Radio.
DICK TRACY MEETS GRUESOME (1947)
Just out of jail, Gruesome (Boris Karloff) goes to the Hangman's Knot saloon, where his old crime crony, Melody (Tony Barrett), is now playing piano. Gruesome takes him to a plastics manufacturer, where X-Ray (Skelton Knaggs) and a mysterious mastermind are in possession of a secret formula and hatching a sinister plot.
Ignoring a warning not to touch anything, Gruesome sniffs the gas from a mysterious test tube; he escapes the toxic fumes but collapses upon returning to the Hangman's Knot and is taken to the city morgue, where his body stiffens dramatically.
Dick Tracy (Ralph Byrd) is at headquarters speaking with college professor Dr. A. Tomic (Milton Parsons), a scientist who suspects someone has been following him. At the morgue, Tracy's sidekick Pat (Lyle Latell) has his back turned when Gruesome wakes up and knocks him out. Pat describes him to Tracy as looking a lot like the actor Boris Karloff (a gag cribbed from Arsenic and Old Lace).
At a bank where Tess Trueheart (Anne Gwynne) happens to be, Gruesome and Melody drop a grenade with the gas into a wastebasket; when it goes off, everyone but Tess freezes in place. They rob the place of more than $100,000 and shoot a cop on the sidewalk before Tracy and his men arrive. Gruesome demands half of the loot from X-Ray .... or else.
Tracy tries to learn the secret of the formula from Dr. Tomic's top assistant, Professor Learned (June Clayworth), before going after Gruesome and his gang. Over the course of the film, Learned is shot dead, and Melody dies in a car accident. As an offhand comment, Tess quips "dead men tell no tales", which gives Tracy an idea: since Gruesome will resort even to murder to keep his secret weapon a secret, if he thinks Melody is alive, he will hunt Melody down to prevent any leaks. Tracy decides to run a false flag operation: put out word that Melody has been captured alive, and pose as Melody hoping Gruesome will show up. Gruesome takes the bait and abducts what he thinks is Melody from the hospital. In a climactic shootout at the plastic factory, Tracy shoots Gruesome in the back.
Tracy retrieves one last gas grenade with the intent of analyzing the contents. Back at the office, in the closing scene, the grenade inadvertently goes off, freezing everyone in place just as Dick and Tess are about to kiss.
Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (also known as Dick Tracy Meets Karloff and Dick Tracy's Amazing Adventure (UK) ) is a 1947 thriller film starring Boris Karloff, Ralph Byrd, and Anne Gwynne. The film is the fourth and final installment of the Dick Tracy film series released by RKO Radio Pictures.
And also included in this fantastic set are 4 rare episodes from the first Dick Tracy TV series, which aired on ABC for one year in 1950 before moving to syndication for another year........
Dick Tracy, the character, next made the move to television. The program ran for 39 episodes in the 1950–1951 season.
Ralph Byrd, who had played the square-jawed sleuth in all four Republic movie serials, and in two of the RKO feature-length films, reprised his role in a short-lived live action Dick Tracy series that ran on ABC from 1950 to 1951. Additional episodes intended for first-run syndication continued to be produced into 1952. Produced by P. K. Palmer, who also wrote many of the scripts, the series often featured Gould-created villains such as Flattop, Shaky, the Mole, Breathless Mahoney, Heels Beals and Influence, all of whom appeared on film for the first time on this series. Other cast members included Joe Devlin as Sam Catchem, Angela Greene as Tess Tracy (née Trueheart), Martin Dean as Junior, and Pierre Watkin as Chief Patton. Criticized for its violence, the series remained popular. It ended, not in response to criticism, but because of Byrd's unexpected, premature death in 1952.
And as an added BONUS, you get to see the documentary, SAGA OF A CRIMEFIGHTER...reliving the story of Dick Tracy thru rare photos, artwork, film clips and radio broadcasts!! A great treat for that fanatical Dick Tracy lover!!
All this is included on this 6 Disc DVD BOX SET!!!!
Over 11 incredible hours of Dick Tracy!!!!! Just a fantastic set!! This is a DVD set you can watch with the whole family!!! As a fan of old shows from the late 30's and during the 50's, this collection is wonderful. The late 30's cliffhangers were exciting to watch and the shows from the 50's gave life to all the characters of the Dick Tracy comic strip. I recommend watching this collection.
HAPPY SLEUTHING!!!!!
This BOX SET is BRAND NEW....NEVER OPENED!!!!!!
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Will be shipped VERY SECURELY!!!!
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"The characters and events depicted in these episodes are fictional. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental."
-Opening Credits to every Dick Tracy program