JohnHowardReid Directors: RAY TAYLOR, ALAN JAMES. Screenplay: Barry Shioman, Winston Miller. Story: Morgan Cox, George Morgan. Based on the character characters created by Chester Gould. Photography: William Nobles and Edgar Lyons. Supervising film editor: Murray Seldeen. Film editors: Helene Turner, Edward Todd, William Witney. Art director: John Victor McKay. Set decorator: Morris Braun. Make-up: Bob Mark. 2nd unit director: William Witney. Music director: Harry Grey. Original music: Alberto Colombo. Special effects: John T. Coyle, Theodore Lydecker, Howard Lydecker. Process photography: Bud Thackery. Wardrobe master: Robert Ramsey. Wardrobe mistress: Elsie Horwitz. Production manager: Al Wilson. Script clerk: R.G. Springsteen. Sound recording: Terry Kellum, Daniel J. Bloomberg, Charles L. Lootens. RCA Sound System. Associate producer: J. Laurence Wickland. Producer: Nat Levine. Copyright 5 March 1937 (chapters 1-6) and 13 May 1937 (chapters 7- 15) by Republic Pictures Corporation. U.S. release: 20 February 1937. Each chapter consists of two reels, except for the first which has three. Total running time: 290 minutes.Chapter titles: (1) The Spider Strikes; (2) The Bridge of Terror; (3) The Fur Pirates; (4) Death Rides the Sky; (5) Brother Against Brother; (6) Dangerous Waters; (7) The Ghost Town Mystery; (8) Battle in the Clouds; (9) The Stratosphere Adventure; (10) The Gold Ship; (11) Harbor Pursuit; (12) The Trail of the Spider; (13) The Fire Trap; (14) The Devil in White; (15) Brothers United.SYNOPSIS: A notorious criminal, known as The Lame One or The Spider, kidnaps Dick Tracy's brother and turns him into a zombie who will obey the most fiendish orders without question, including the execution of his own brother!NOTES: Number five of Republic's 66 serials, filming commenced on 30 November 1936 and concluded on 24 December 1936. Negative cost: $127,640. Sequels: Dick Tracy Returns (1938), Dick Tracy's G-Men (1939), Dick Tracy vs. Crime, Inc. (1941). All three of these serials starred Ralph Byrd in the title role. COMMENT: One of Republic's most exciting and ingenious efforts, this solidly-made serial offers high-flying, non-stop entertainment from stop to finish, with only one exception. The economy chapter is number twelve. All the others are almost equally thrilling, combining an intriguing mystery element with super-fast action and stunts galore. There's little time for romance. Despite her billing, Kay Hughes has precious little to do. It's Fred Hamilton who makes a major contribution in each cliffhanger as Tracy's sidekick, with an assist from Smiley Burnette who offers a fair amount of comedy relief.Ralph Byrd is great in the role he was born to play. Also on hand is that glorious old trooper, Francis X. Bushman, who plays Tracy's boss, and Carleton Young who does a grand job in a role that actually amounts to chief heavy. (Fortunately, despite his elaborate introduction in Chapter One, Junior doesn't get into the line of fire too much and is not unduly in the way). The directors make absolutely brilliant use of their real locations including San Francisco's Oakland Bay Bridge and a disused power plant at San Pedro. And as for the Flying Wing, what a marvelous creation it is! Republic special effects wizardry at its zenith! Smart direction combined with impeccable photography and zestful film editing also deserve our unstinting applause. Each cliff- hanging dilemma presents us with a cleverly super-suspenseful fade- out too — except, of course, for that economy-conscious Chapter Twelve. In fact, (that dud twelfth episode notwithstanding) I would rate this entire serial as one of the Ten Best of All Time!

hwg1957-102-265704 Doubly directed by Alan James and Ray Taylor this an excellent serial concerning the exploits of Dick Tracy. A master criminal called The Lame One runs The Spider Ring who engage in smuggling, espionage, murder and similar illegal activities and the valiant Tracy and his team go head to head with them. The Lame One has also captured Tracy's brother Gordon and with the evil doctor Moloch's skills ("a simple altering of certain glands"!) has turned Tracy into a pliable assistant for himself. The altered brother carries out most of The Lame One's schemes. Incident follows incident in some good locations until the breathless finish.Ralph Byrd is perfect as Dick Tracy, determined and dedicated to to his task. The identity of The Lame One is kept to the end. He hobbles about wearing a built up shoe and barks out orders from a desk. The mad Moloch is played by the creepy John Picorri (often stroking a black cat) and Carleton Young is effective as the changed Gordon Tracy, a streak of white hair on his head after his character changing operation, with an air of sadness about him that is poignant. Unfortunately the great Byron Foulger is only in it briefly as the gangster Korvitch.Smiley Burnette is one of Tracy's assistants Mike McGurk and is supposed to be the comic relief but who isn't at all funny. Also appearing in a couple of scenes are 'Oscar' and 'Elmer' who were a comic team at the time but they aren't funny either. Lee Van Atta as Junior gets more laughs. I. Stanford Jolley plays 'Roadside Thug' and 'G-Man' and 'Reporter' and 'Intern' to show his versatility.It has great model work by the Lydecker brothers including a wonderful flying wing that is used a lot. Indeed a lot of the scenes take place in the air. The fifteen packed episodes are a great start to the Dick Tracy serials.

jetan Superb serial. The only one that matches it in quality is the first Flash Gordon. The production values are exceptional and eclipse many better known B movies. Ralph Byrd is perfectly cast in the title role. The only explanation I can think of for some viewers to rate this any lower than an "A" is that they just haven't seen very many serials. One of the few efforts in this line that actually has some atmospheric touches and, as another commenter has pointed out, the special effects are genuinely good.Folks who don't really like serials are....well, they're folks who don't like serials (probably don't much like Christmas either). For those who do like serials, this is like a trip to the circus. Good action and WAY better than usual script and acting. As movies go, this probably only deserves a 7 but for a serial it deserves a perfect 10.

ptb-8 Republic Pictures were clearly hitting their stride in superior (and super) serial production with this quite sensational 15 chapter crime-terrorism drama made in 1936, released in early 1937. For any faults: too long as 12 chapters would do; the tedious antics of the infantile Smiley Burnette, there is a dozen truly astonishing and eerie/creepy moments that easily compensate. The first episode is so weird, and on a huge screen in a giant old theater full of screaming kids (or even adults) has several hair raising scenes where master evildoer The Lame One has maximum effect. The first chapter ending sees The fabulous Lydecker Brothers in full big budget special effects mode on a thrill set piece aboard the Golden Gate Bridge. The opening two chapters also features an astonishing triangular flying wing plane (looks like a cross between a stealth bomber and a flying sandwich) which for its day is a genuine masterpiece of inventive and graphic/realistically clever sci fi imagination. The recent film SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW owes a huge debt of imagination to this one flying apparatus alone. Republic clearly intended this serial to play to adults and it is not a G rated serial at all...given the menace, action and violence. It has three great villains one of whom is Gordon Tracy (Dick's brainwashed bro) who, after getting the treatment, sports a very fetching Bride Of Frankenstein hair stripe along with a mean scar. Another hideout menace is Moloch, a cat patting hunchback akin to a lost Uncle of Peter Lorre. Incredible action stunt sequences abound and very inventive use of miniatures and special effects..the chapter endings of 9 and 10 especially with a huge blazing Zeppelin and then a sheet of hull metal swinging from a repaired ship are very well thought out. Often the resolves cheat with Dick just getting up and running off, or rolling out of the way, but given the very high standard of the rest of all parts of this huge and complex production it was a major step forward for Republic at the time proving their willingness to make a serial for all ages that employed excellent craftsmen...especially the incredible Lydecker Brothers they inherited in their merger with Mascot Pictures. Remove them and the serial industry would have been all chases and fights. No wonder this serial was so successful it offered a big marker for two more Dick Tracy epics in 38 and 39. Excellent! Beware of dud dvds though, the one I saw was awful and bleached, in good quality this 15 chapter pre-noir horror serial must be a knockout.