Sunday, December 20, 2015

Forgotten TV: Dick Tracy (1950)

Chester Gould's seminal sleuth, Dick Tracy, made a transition from comic strips to movie serials to television, reaching the then-new medium in 1950 for a 2 year run. Ralph Byrd, who played Tracy in the serials, reprised here, but, other than that, the series wasn't anything to write home about.

Still, it was included on a TV Guide DVD compilation of classic detective shows, released by Mill Creek. Live action television really wasn't any more kind to Tracy than it was to, say, The Shadow, a couple of years prior.

Take for example "Dick Tracy & Flattop". Makeup just couldn't create Flattop's signature look. Shoot, the guy doesn't even have freckles!



15 years after the series ended, William Dozier had obtained the rights, but his pilot, which fell somewhere between Batman & Green Hornet, went nowhere. It wasn't until Warren Beatty's 1990 film that Tracy and his Rogues Gallery were finally given a proper amount of respect.

Rating: C.

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