By Philip Schweier
If the government shut down is truly over, and federal employees have returned to work, that would include G-men such as Dick Tracy in his second outing, Dick Tracy Returns (1938), starring Ralph Byrd once again.
What’s that you say? In
the funny pages, Dick Tracy was a city detective? That’s right, but on the big
screen, c. 1940, he was a senior agent with the FBI, and his usual rogues
gallery of criminals were nowhere in sight. The only other character from the
strip to join Tracy on film was Junior, but more about him later.
The serial is introduced
by mystery author Max Allan Collins, who wrote the Dick Tracy comic strip
following creator Chester Gould’s retirement. He refers to the production as
“the Dick Traciest” of the four serials produced in the late 1930s. This is in
regards to the villain of the piece, criminal patriarch Pa Stark (Charles
Middleton). He and his five sons –
Champ, Slasher, Trigger, Dude and the Kid – head a criminal gang capable of
giving Tracy a run for his money.
Our story begins as
Tracy, following an extended period training F.B.I. recruits in Washington,
returns to Unnamed West Coast City, accompanied by new agent Ron Merton (David
Sharpe), whose first assignment is to protect a shipment from the Ward Bonding
(Really? Well, why not? It’s a Republic serial, after all) Company. But the
armored car is hijacked by the Stark clan, Merton killed and the Kid arrested
for the murder.
Naturally,
this makes the stakes rather personal for Tracy, and vice versa. Pa Stark vows
revenge against Tracy. Unlike his real life
inspiration, Ma Barker, Pa Stark is no mere outlaw. He’s also in cahoots with
an assortment of foreign spies and fifth columnists.
Tracy’s “gang” consists
of agents Steve Lockwood (Michale Kent), Mike McGurk (Lee Ford) and Gwen
Andrews (Lynn Roberts). The characters are consistent from the previous year’s
Dick Tracy serial, but the roles have been re-cast, and without any greater
success. McGurk is still the bumbling fool, and Gwen is reduced to mere
secretarial duties, rather than full-fledged agent status.
Junior Tracy, played by
Jerry Tucker, is nothing like his comic strip counterpart. Instead of plucky
and daring, the boy is annoying as all get out, akin to a Mouseketeer reject.
He spends the entire series dressed in an ill-fitting military school uniform,
which accents his doughy appearance. A bittersweet moment comes at the end of
chapter 9 when Junior dashes after a would-be assassin in an attempt to return
the man’s briefcase, which unknowlngly contains a time bomb. The chapter ends
with Tracy and Lockwood looking on in horror as the bomb explodes off-camera.
Did Junior get blown to smithereens, making this the best chapter ever? Well,
you just have to tune in next week.
If there’s a high point,
it’s Charles Middleton as Pa Stark. He is a perfect villain, but is that any
surprise? He played Ming the Merciless fer Crissakes. Over the course of the
15-chapter serial, the Stark boys each get theirs. One has a manure tower fall
on him, another gets shot in the back by a cohort while struggling for a
pistol. Pa Stark vows revenge for each killing. Unfortunately, it takes a while
for him to hit on the idea of taking it out on Tracy’s adopted son.
Otherwise, as serials go,
it’s no better or worse than any other. Special effects are typical, without
being too ambitious. Plenty of narrow escapes, usually due to strategic
editing. Of course there are a few moments where belief must be suspended, but
anyone who watches a 1930s-era serial is expected to take certain story
elements for granted.
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