Dick Tracy Returns


Dick Tracy Returns is a Republic Movie serial based on the Dick Tracy comic strip. It was the eleventh of the sixty-six serials Republic produced and a sequel to the 1937 serial Dick Tracy, with Ralph Byrd 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.
This serial charts Tracy's efforts to capture the gang of Pa Stark 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 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

Dick Tracy Returns was budgeted at $156,991 although the final negative cost was $170,940. It was the most expensive Republic serial of 1938 and the most expensive Republic serial until The [Lone Ranger Rides Again] in 1939. It was the second most expensive of the four Dick Tracy serials.
It was filmed between 10 June and 18 July 1938 under the working title 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 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 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

Stunts

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 and Adventures of [Frank and Jesse James].
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

  1. The Sky Wreckers
  2. The Runway of Death
  3. Handcuffed to Doom
  4. Four Seconds to Live
  5. Death in the Air
  6. Stolen Secrets
  7. Tower of Death
  8. Cargo of Destruction
  9. The Clock of Doom - a re-cap chapter
  10. High Voltage
  11. The Kidnapped Witness/The Missing Witness
  12. The Runaway Torpedo
  13. Passengers to Doom - a re-cap chapter
  14. In the Hands of the Enemy
  15. G-Men's Drag-Net
Source:
''Note: This was one of two 15-chapter Republic serials of 1938. The other two were only 12 chapters long.''