''Dick Tracy Returns'' (1938) is a

Republic A republic () is a " state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th ...

Movie serial A serial film, film serial (or just serial), movie serial, or chapter play, is a motion picture form popular during the first half of the 20th century, consisting of a series of short subjects exhibited in consecutive order at one theater, gene ...

based on the

Dick Tracy ''Dick Tracy'' is an American comic strip featuring Dick Tracy (character), Dick Tracy (originally Plainclothes Tracy), a tough and intelligent police detective created by Chester Gould. It made its debut on Sunday, October 4, 1931, in the ''De ...

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics ter ...

. It was the eleventh of the sixty-six serials Republic produced and a sequel to the 1937 serial ''

'', with

Ralph Byrd Ralph Byrd (April 22, 1909 – August 18, 1952) was an American actor. He was most famous for playing the comic strip character Dick Tracy on screen, in serials, films and television. Early life and career The son of George and Edna ...

reprising his role as the title character. It was successful enough that two further sequels were released in 1939 and 1941, and Byrd become so connected with the character he went on to play him in a subsequent

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...

. This serial charts Tracy's efforts to capture the gang of Pa Stark ( Charles Middleton) and his five criminal sons....Champ, Trigger, Dude, The Kid and Slasher.

Plot

Tracy and his group must battle saboteurs and spies in his effort to bring down the Stark gang, a major crime family syndicate led by the vicious and brutal Pa Stark. A young promising G-Man named Ron Merton (David Sharpe) is murdered by the Starks while trying to help Tracy bring the gang to justice. With the help of his friends Gwen, Junior and Mike McGurk, Tracy battles the vile criminal gang, and kills off Stark's sons one by one, until the only ones left are Pa Stark and his son Champ. Tracy faces off against Stark in a final battle aboard an out-of-control airplane three miles up in the sky in the final episode.

Cast

as Dick Tracy *

Lynne Roberts Lynne Roberts, also credited as Mary Hart, born Theda May Roberts (November 22, 1922 – April 1, 1978) was an American film actress during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She appeared exclusively in what were referred to as B-movies. Early ...

as Gwen Andrews * Charles Middleton as Pa Stark. Pa Stark was based on the real criminal

Ma Barker Kate Barker (born Arizona Donnie Clark; October 8, 1873 – January 16, 1935), better known as Ma Barker (and sometimes known as Arizona Barker and Arrie Barker), was the mother of several American criminals who ran the Barker–Karpis Gang ...

. * Jerry Tucker as Junior * David Sharpe as Agent Ron Merton, a newly trained agent. *Lee Ford as Mike McGurk * Michael Kent as Agent Steve Lockwood *

John Merton John Merton (born Myrtland F. LaVarre; February 18, 1901 – September 19, 1959) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 250 films between 1927 and 1959, mostly as a villain. He was the brother of filmmaker André de la Varre a ...

as Champ Stark *Raphael Bennett as Trigger Stark *Jack Roberts as Dude Stark *

Ned Glass Nusyn "Ned" Glass (April 1, 1906 – June 15, 1984) was a Polish-born American character actor who appeared in more than eighty films and on television more than one hundred times, frequently playing nervous, cowardly, or deceitful characters. ...

as Kid Stark * Jack Ingram as Slasher Stark *

Larry Steers Lawrence Wells Steers (February 14, 1888 – February 15, 1951) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 550 films between 1917 and 1951. He was born in Indiana, and died in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles. Partial filmography * ...

as Duke (uncredited) *

Harry Tenbrook Harry Tenbrook (born Henry Olaf Hansen, October 9, 1887 – September 4, 1960) was an American film actor. Henry Olaf Hansen was born in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway. His family migrated to the United States in 1892. Under the stage nam ...

as Thug (uncredited)

Production

''Dick Tracy Returns'' was budgeted at $156,991 although the final

negative cost Negative cost is the net expense to produce and shoot a film, excluding such expenditures as distribution and promotion. Low-budget movies, for example ''The Blair Witch Project ''The Blair Witch Project'' is a 1999 American supernatural ho ...

was $170,940 (a $13,949, or 8.9%, overspend). It was the most expensive Republic serial of 1938 and the most expensive Republic serial until ''

The Lone Ranger Rides Again ''The Lone Ranger Rides Again'' is a 1939 American Republic serial. It was a sequel to Republic's 1938 serial ''The Lone Ranger'', which had been highly successful, and the thirteenth of the sixty-six serials produced by Republic. The serial w ...

'' in 1939. It was the second most expensive of the four ''Dick Tracy'' serials (the most expensive was the last, ''

Dick Tracy vs. Crime, Inc. ''Dick Tracy vs. Crime, Inc.'' (1941) is a Republic Movie serial based on the Dick Tracy comic strip. It was directed by the team of William Witney and John English with Ralph Byrd reprising his role from the earlier serials. It was the last of ...

'' at $175,919). It was filmed between 10 June and 18 July 1938 under the

working title A working title, which may be abbreviated and styled in trade publications after a putative title as (wt), also called a production title or a tentative title, is the temporary title of a product or project used during its development, usually ...

''Return of Dick Tracy''. The serial's production number was 791. Like in the other three serials of the Republic series, Tracy is depicted as a West Coast FBI agent instead of being, as he is in the original comic strip, a local police detective for a large

Midwestern The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. ...

city. This serial and all the sequels of the original 1937 ''Dick Tracy'' serial were permitted by an interpretation of the original contract, which allowed a "series or serial". Therefore,

Chester Gould Chester Gould (; November 20, 1900 – May 11, 1985) was an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of the '' Dick Tracy'' comic strip, which he wrote and drew from 1931 to 1977, incorporating numerous colorful and monstrous villains. Ea ...

was not paid again for the right to produce this serial.

Special effects

The special effects were created by Republic's in-house team, the

Lydecker brothers Howard and Theodore Lydecker, always known—and billed—as such, were Howard "Babe" Lydecker (June 8, 1911 – September 26, 1969) and Theodore Lydecker (November 7, 1908 – May 25, 1990), a special effects team primarily working as contract ...

Stunts

* Earle D. Bunn *

Yakima Canutt Enos Edward "Yakima" Canutt (November 29, 1895 – May 24, 1986) was an American champion rodeo rider, actor, stuntman, and action director. He developed many stunts for films and the techniques and technology to protect stuntmen in performing t ...

George DeNormand George DeNormand (1903 – 1976) was an American actor and stuntman. DeNormand was an amateur middleweight boxer in the 1920s. He was a prolific though often uncredited actor and stunt double in movies such as ''The Raven'' and ''Bride of Fran ...

as Dick Tracy (doubling Ralph Byrd) *

Duke Green William Howard Greene (1895–1956) was an American cinematographer. Career Greene was a cinematographer on many early Technicolor films, including '' Legong: Dance of the Virgins'' (1935) and '' A Star Is Born'' (1937). Awards * 1937: Special ...

* George Magrill * Eddie Parker * Allen Pomeroy *

Loren Riebe Loren is a given name, nickname and surname which may refer to: Given name Men * Loren Acton (born 1936), American physicist and astronaut * Loren C. Ball (born 1948), amateur astronomer who has discovered more than 100 asteroids * Loren M. Berry ...

Ted Wells Theodore V. "Ted" Wells, Jr. (born April 28, 1950) is an American lawyer who works in the field of criminal law. A litigation partner at the New York law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, Wells has been selected by the Nationa ...

Bud Wolfe Roland "Bud" Wolfe (January 12, 1918 – January 28, 1994), was an American pilot who parachuted from an RAF Spitfire plane into a peat bog on the Inishowen peninsula in County Donegal, Ireland, on 30 November 1941. The incident initiated a dip ...

Release

''Dick Tracy Returns official release date is 20 August 1938, although this is actually the date the seventh chapter was made available to film exchanges. The serial was re-released on 17 July 1948 between the first runs of ''

Dangers of the Canadian Mounted ''Dangers of the Canadian Mounted'' is a 1948 Northern Republic film serial. Plot A criminal gang discovers a Genghis Khan treasure ship on the Canada-Alaska border. However, the treasure itself is hidden on land. In their efforts to find the h ...

'' and ''

Adventures of Frank and Jesse James ''Adventures of Frank and Jesse James'' is a 1948 Republic film serial directed by Fred C. Brannon and Yakima Canutt and starring Clayton Moore, Steve Darrell, Noel Neill, George J. Lewis, John Crawford, and Sam Flint. Plot Cast * Clayton ...

''. VCI released the serial on 2 dvd discs in 2008. It was later released together with the other three Dick Tracy serials in a boxed dvd set by VCI in 2013.

Critical reception

Cline states that the ''Dick Tracy'' serials were "unexcelled in the action field," adding that "in any listing of serials released after 1930, the four ''Dick Tracy'' adventures from Republic must stand out as classics of the suspense detective thrillers, and the models for many others to follow."

Chapter titles

# ''The Sky Wreckers'' (29min 51s) # ''The Runway of Death'' (16min 34s) # ''Handcuffed to Doom'' (16min 20s) # ''Four Seconds to Live'' (15min 39s) # ''Death in the Air'' (16min 35s) # ''Stolen Secrets'' (15min 23s) # ''Tower of Death'' (14min 34s) # ''Cargo of Destruction'' (16min 12s) # ''The Clock of Doom'' (16min 4s) - a re-cap chapter # ''High Voltage'' (16min 15s) # ''The Kidnapped Witness/The Missing Witness'' (15min 45s) # ''The Runaway Torpedo'' (15min 33s) # ''Passengers to Doom'' (16min 19s) - a re-cap chapter # ''In the Hands of the Enemy'' (16min 30s) # ''G-Men's Drag-Net'' (16min 24s) _Source: ''Note: This was one of two 15-chapter Republic serials of 1938 (with ''

The Lone Ranger The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked former Texas Ranger who fought outlaws in the American Old West with his Native American friend Tonto. The character has been called an enduring icon of American culture. He first appeared in 1933 in ...

''). The other two were only 12 chapters long.''

References

External links

* *
''Dick Tracy Returns'' at Todd Gault's Movie Serial Experience
{{William Witney 1938 films 1930s crime films American black-and-white films 1930s English-language films Dick Tracy films Republic Pictures film serials Films directed by William Witney Films directed by John English 1930s police procedural films 1930s American films