TV VOID » Dick Tracy

Dick Tracy’s Dilemma (1947)

admin — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 08:06:55 +0000

Dick Tracy’s Dilemma is a 1947 film starring Ralph Byrd as Dick Tracy.

Also called Mark of the Claw in the United Kingdom, Dick Tracy’s Dilemma is about police detective Dick Tracy investigating fur thefts. He soon finds out that the thief has a hook for a hand and calls himself The Claw!

Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (1947)

admin — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 08:09:57 +0000

Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (also known as Dick Tracy Meets Karloff and Dick Tracy’s Amazing Adventure (UK) ) is a 1947 thriller film starring Boris Karloff.

A gang of criminals discover a nerve gas, which can simulate death. They utilize this in their crimes.

Dick Tracy vs. Cueball (1946)

admin — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 08:05:32 +0000

Dick Tracy vs. Cueball is a 1946 film starring Morgan Conway as Dick Tracy. It is considered by many Dick Tracy fans to be the best of RKO’s Dick Tracy films.

Luxurious diamonds are stolen but before the thief can safely hide them he is strangled by ex-conman Cueball (Dick Wessel). Cueball takes the diamonds and continues on murdering people that he believes are trying to double-cross him. Dick Tracy (Morgan Conway) allows his girlfriend Tess to act as a buyer for the diamonds but what happens when Cueball vows to eliminate Dick Tracy?

Dick Tracy Serial (1937)

admin — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 08:44:09 +0000

Dick Tracy is a long-running comic strip featuring a popular and familiar character in American pop culture. Dick Tracy is a hard-hitting, fast-shooting, and supremely intelligent police detective who has matched wits with a variety of often grotesquely ugly villains. Created by cartoonist Chester Gould in 1931, the strip made its debut appearance on October 4, 1931, distributed by the Chicago Tribune Syndicate. Gould wrote and drew the strip until 1977.

Dick Tracy – 5 episodes (1951)

admin — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 03:48:23 +0000

Ralph Byrd, who had played the square-jawed sleuth in all four Republic movie serials, and in two of the RKO feature length films, reprised his role in a short-lived live-action Dick Tracy series that ran on ABC from 1950 to 1951. Additional episodes intended for first-run syndication continued to be produced into 1952. Produced by P. K. Palmer, who also wrote many of the scripts, the series often featured Gould-created villains such as Flattop, Shaky, the Mole, Breathless Mahoney, Heels Beals, and Influence, all of whom appeared on film for the first time on this series. Other cast members included Joe Devlin as Sam Catchem, Angela Greene as Tess Tracy (nee Trueheart), Martin Dean as Junior, and Pierre Watkin as Chief Patton. Criticized for its violence, the series remained popular. It ended, not in response to criticism, but because of Byrd’s unexpected, premature death in 1952. The series was filmed on a low budget, with many long hours and a rushed shooting schedule; the arduous shooting and the physical demands placed on Byrd may well have accelerated Byrd’s demise.

Dick Tracy Detective (1945)

admin — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 08:43:04 +0000

Dick Tracy graduated to four feature films, produced by RKO Radio Pictures. Dick Tracy (aka Dick Tracy, Detective) (1945) was followed by Dick Tracy vs. Cueball in 1946, both with Morgan Conway as Tracy. Ralph Byrd returned for the last two features, both released in 1947: Dick Tracy’s Dilemma and Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome. Gruesome is probably the best known of the four, with the villain portrayed by Boris Karloff. All four movies had many of the visual features associated with film noir: dramatic, shadowy photographic compositions, with many exterior scenes filmed at night. Lyle Latell co-starred in all four films as Pat Patton. Anne Jeffreys played Tess Trueheart in the first two, succeeded by Jeffreys double Kay Christopher and finally Anne Gwynne; Ian Keith joined the cast as the delightfully hammy Vitamin Flintheart for three films; Joseph Crehan played Chief Brandon. RKO stocked the films with familiar faces, creating a veritable rogues’ gallery of characters: Mike Mazurki as Splitface, Dick Wessel as Cueball, Esther Howard as Filthy Flora, Jack Lambert as hook-handed villain The Claw; baldheaded, pop-eyed Milton Parsons, mild-mannered Byron Foulger, dangerous Trevor Bardette, pockmarked, gently sinister Skelton Knaggs.