Dick Tracy Returns
G-MEN VS. GUNMEN in an ALL-NEW thrill-packed series of adventures...with DICK TRACY...the greatest G-Man of them all leading the chase
Dick Tracy battles spies and saboteurs in his efforts to bring to justice the Stark gang, a criminal family led by the vicious Pa Stark.
Crime
Action
5.8
4 reviewsRuntime: 254 min.
Budget: N/A
Revenue: N/A
Release Date: 1938-08-19
Director(s): William Witney, John English
Production: Republic Pictures
Languages: English
IMDB: tt0030059
Collection: Dick Tracy Collection
Dick Tracy Collection Collection
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CinemaSerf★ 5/1011/3/2023
Fans of the "Flash Gordon" serials will instantly recognise the nasty "Pa Stark" here as none-other than the dastardly "Emperor Ming" himself - Charles Middleton. Thereafter, though, this has really little to remind you of anything as it condenses, rather clunkily, fifteen episodes of crime-fighting into ninety minutes. It's all about how the eponymous detective (Ralph Byrd) and his feisty stalwart "Gwen" (Lynne Roberts) get on the trail of the vicious and malevolent "Stark" gang. These guys are involved in just about every criminal activity known to man, but it's their international antics - including espionage and sabotage - that particularly interest our sleuth. Again, as with "Flash Gordon" these worked far better as weekly episodes with jeopardy points at the end of each instalment. Cutting it all together like this robs us of much of the anticipation we would have felt before the next episode and actually reduces the story to little better than slightly repetitive series of gun-battles, pistol whipping, seemingly irreversible disaster scenarios with the damsel always in distress but sadly no railway track onto which we could tie the hugely annoying kid "Junior" (Jerry Tucker). The production is basic and the script does little to inject much spice to this overly abridged adaptation that is really turns out to be all too forgettable. Original is definitely best.