By Philip Schweier
Ivan’s note: I’m still having trouble jumpstarting Riders of Death Valley (1941) for Serial Saturdays…so for the next two
weeks, we’ll hear from Thrilling Days of
Yesteryear’s utility reviewer, Mr.
Schweier…who’s finished watching all of the Republic Dick Tracy chapter plays
that he won in the blog’s giveaway back
in November of 2012.
Once more, Ralph Byrd
takes to the silver screen in the 15-chapter serial, Dick Tracy’s G-Men (1939). In my opinion, it’s a weaker outing than
its predecessor, Dick Tracy Returns
(1938), but one thing in its favor is it does away with the character of
Junior, who in the Republic serials has become a bit of a twerp.
Tracy’s nemesis this time
out is Zarnoff, a foreign spy whose capture by Tracy is recounted via newsreel
in the opening chapter. However, he manages to escape the death penalty (how?
By dying!) and carry on his fifth columnist activities.
Zarnoff is played by
Irving Pichel, who in his Van Dyke beard and bouffant hair style comes across
as a cheap imitation of Paul Muni as Emile Zola (I’ll confess, I’ve never
actually seen that movie, so your mileage may vary). Zarnoff’s senior henchman,
Robal, is played by Walter Miller, his swan song as an actor, as he died
shortly afterwards.
Tracy’s assistants,
agents Steve Lockwood and Gwen Andrews, are once again re-cast. Pearson plays
Tracy’s #2 man, Lockwood. Gwen Andrews, seen in previous Dick Tracy serials,
returns also, her role progressively being diminished to that of a mere
secretary. However, this time she is played by Phyllis Isley, who would later
change her name to Jennifer Jones before winning a Best Actress Oscar in 1943
for The Song of Bernadette.
Zarnoff works for the
“the Three Powers,” a thinly veiled reference to the Axis, and spends his
screen time attempting to steal formulas, assassinate dignitaries and cause
other forms of political mayhem, all under the nose of uber-cop, Tracy.
As serials go, it is full
of the typical last-moment escapes one might expect, but with three of them
under my belt in recent months, it’s clear to me the writers went the extra
mile to create more imaginative death traps. The first chapter ("The Master Spy")
features Dick Tracy descending from an airplane onto a boatload of explosives
in effort to keep the craft from blowing up a nearby dam. Later, Chapter 9 (“Flames
of Jeopardy”) incorporates footage from the Hindenburg disaster.
Danger comes in various
forms, but never as often as it does when involving Ralph Byrd getting wet.
Dumped in the harbor, squeezed into a diving helmet, fighting the enemy on the
shore of the lake, Byrd ends up almost as waterlogged as Jack Larson would
later become in The Adventures of Superman.
Speaking of kid
sidekicks, while Junior is absent, the audience is forced to endure the brief
(two chapters) appearance of Sammy (Sam McKim), a young cowpoke with all the
sophistication of a pre-adolescent Jimmy Dean. When Tracy determines Zarnoff’s
radio transmissions are originating in a ghost town, Sammy and his invalid
grandpa (George Cleveland), lend assistance.
Overall, Dick Tracy’s G-Men lacks the punch of Dick Tracy Returns, but one might argue
that that serial’s villain, played by Charles Middleton, is a hard act to
follow.
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