''Dick Tracy's G-Men'' (1939) is a 15-Chapter

Republic A republic, based on the Latin phrase ''res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a State (polity), state in which Power (social and political), political power rests with the public (people), typically through their Representat ...

movie serial based on the '' Dick Tracy''

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of 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 terminology#Captio ...

by Chester Gould. It was directed by

William Witney William Nuelsen Witney (May 15, 1915 – March 17, 2002) was an American film director, film and television director. He is best remembered for the action films he made for Republic Pictures, particularly serial film, serials: ''Dick Tracy Return ...

and John English. This serial was the fifteenth of the sixty-six produced by Republic, and the third Dick Tracy serial (there would be one more, '' Dick Tracy vs. Crime, Inc.'', in 1941). As with the other three Dick Tracy serials, Ralph Byrd plays the lead. This time he faces

Irving Pichel Irving Pichel (June 24, 1891 – July 13, 1954) was an American actor and film director, who won acclaim both as an actor and director in his Hollywood career. Career Pichel was born to a American Jews, Jewish family in Pittsburgh. He attended ...

as Zarnoff, the spy with a vendetta. Future

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

winner

Jennifer Jones Jennifer Jones (born Phylis Lee Isley; March 2, 1919 – December 17, 2009), also known as Jennifer Jones Simon, was an American actress and mental-health advocate. Over the course of her career that spanned more than five decades, she was nomin ...

(credited here under her birth name of Phyllis Isley) co-stars as Gwen Andrews. " G-Man" is a contemporary slang term for an agent of the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

. In the

, Dick Tracy is a detective in the police force of an unnamed

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

city resembling Chicago, but this was changed for the serial.

Plot

Zarnoff, an international spy in the employ of "The Three Powers" (presumably a fictionalized reference to the

Axis An axis (: axes) may refer to: Mathematics *A specific line (often a directed line) that plays an important role in some contexts. In particular: ** Coordinate axis of a coordinate system *** ''x''-axis, ''y''-axis, ''z''-axis, common names ...

) is captured by Dick Tracy at the start of the serial, tried and sentenced to death. However, through the use of a rare drug embedded by his agents in the evening newspaper, he escapes from the

gas chamber A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. Poisonous agents used include hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide. History Donatie ...

. His men pick up his "corpse" by ambushing the hearse and administering another drug to counter the effects. He continues his

espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information ( intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ...

plans, while taking the opportunity of revenge on Tracy.

Cast

* Ralph Byrd as Dick Tracy *

as Nicolas Zarnoff * Ted Pearson as Steve Lockwood * Phyllis Isley as Gwen Andrews. Phyllis Isley went on to win an

Academy Award for best actress The Academy Award for Best Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It has been awarded since the 1st Academy Awards to an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a lead ...

four years later in

1943 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 – WWII: The Soviet Union announces that 22 German divisions have been encircled at Stalingrad, with 175,000 killed and 137,650 captured. * January 4 � ...

for '' The Song of Bernadette'', under the screen name

. * Walter Miller as Robal, one of Zarnoff's henchmen. This was Walter Miller's last serial; he died shortly afterward. * George Douglas as Sandoval, one of Zarnoff's henchmen

Production

''Dick Tracy's G-Men'' was budgeted at $159,876 although the final negative cost was $163,530 (a $3,654, or 2.3%, overspend). Although the previous serial, '' Daredevils of the Red Circle'', came in under budget, that was an exception to the rule. Most Republic serials went slightly over budget and this one was not significantly so in comparison. It was filmed between 17 June and 27 July 1939 under the

working title A working title is a preliminary name for a product or project. The usage is especially common in film and TV, gaming, music and publishing. It is often styled in trade publications as (wt) and is synonymous with production title and tentative ...

''Dick Tracy and his G-Men''. The serial's production number was 896. The footage of the exploding airship at the end of Chapter 9 and the beginning of Chapter 10 was newsreel footage of the Hindenburg airship explosion of 1937. This serial, like all the sequels to the 1937 original Dick Tracy serial, was permitted by an interpretation of the original contract, which allowed a "series or serial". Therefore, Chester Gould was not paid again for the right to produce this serial.

Release

Theatrical

''Dick Tracy's G-Men''s official release date is 2 September 1939, although this is actually the date the seventh chapter was made available to film exchanges. The serial was re-released on 19 September 1955 following the release of Republic's final serial, '' King of the Carnival''. ''Dick Tracy's G-Men'' began a series of re-releases that accounted for all of Republic's remaining serial releases, finishing with a re-release of '' Zorro's Fighting Legion'' in March 1958. VCI released the serial on two 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

Movie serial historian William C. 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 Master Spy (29min 55s) # Captured (16min 42s) # The False Signal (16min 38s) # The Enemy Strikes (16min 44s) # Crack-up! (16min 39s) # Sunken Peril (16min 39s) # Tracking the Enemy (16min 40s) # Chamber of Doom (16min 41s) # Flames of Jeopardy (16min 37s) # Crackling Fury (16min 40s) # Caverns of Peril (16min 39s) # Fight in the Sky (16min 39s) # The Fatal Ride (16min 40s) - a re-cap chapter # Getaway (16min 38s) # The Last Stand (16min 41s) _Source:

References

External links

*
Dick Tracy's G-Men at Todd Gault's Movie Serial Experience
{{William Witney 1939 films American black-and-white films 1930s English-language films Republic Pictures film serials Dick Tracy films Films directed by William Witney Films directed by John English American mystery films 1930s mystery films 1939 crime films 1930s police procedural films 1930s American films English-language crime films English-language mystery films