"Dick Tracy vs. Crime, Inc." (1941) was the last of the four Dick Tracy serials produced by Republic. In the story, Tracy (Ralph Byrd) and his allies find themselves up against a villain known as The Ghost, with the impossible ability of becoming invisible. Tracy's gal pal Gwen Andrews does not appear in the serial. Instead, we have Jan Wiley as lab assistant "June 'Eve' Chandler."
This last of the Tracy serials features less location shooting at actual factories, gas works, dams, etc., and also draws on stock footage from the preceding three Tracy serials from time to time.
The serial was re-released on 8 October 1952, under the title "Dick Tracy vs. Phantom Empire."
Although Dick Tracy creator Chester Gould was only paid for the first of the Republic serials, he had a chance for a second payday when RKO Radio Pictures decided to produce a DICK TRACY feature film. Reportedly, Gould was paid $10,000 by RKO for the rights to the character.
The 1945 picture starred Morgan Conway as Tracy, and co-starred Anne Jeffreys as Tracy’s paramour “Tess Trueheart,” and Lyle Latell as "Pat Patton," Tracy's bumbling assistant. RKO brought Conway from Broadway to star in the title role. William Berke directed the film. A 4-minute suite from Roy Webb’s score appeared on a 1995 Cloud Nine Webb compilation CD.
In the film, Tracy must solve a series of brutal murders in which the victims, all from different social and economic backgrounds, are viciously slashed to pieces by someone known as Splitface (Mike Mazurki). Splitface is a psychotic ex-con whose weapon is a sharp surgical knife. He has a big disfiguring scar across his face. Suspects abound but Tracy must find the common link of extortion and revenge before more are killed.
Morgan Conway returned as Tracy and Anne Jeffreys’ reprised the role of “Tess Trueheart” for the 1946 sequel DICK TRACY VS. CUEBALL. This time Gordon Douglas directed, and Phil Ohman provided the unreleased score.
In the film, diamonds are stolen, but before the thief can safely hide them aboard an ocean liner he is strangled by ex-conman "Cueball" (Dick Wessel). Cueball takes the diamonds and is given refuge by "Filthy Flora" (Esther Howard), madam of the Dripping Dagger Bar, and then continues on murdering people that he believes are trying to double-cross him. Dick Tracy allows his girlfriend Tess to act as a buyer for the diamonds, but she is put in grave danger when Cueball vows to eliminate her.
Morgan Conway's two "Tracy" films were successful at the box office, but theater owners thought a return to the "original" Tracy, actor Ralph Byrd, would make the series even more of a draw. Byrd, of course, had played Tracy in four highly successful serials from Republic released from 1937 to 1941. Creator Chester Gould wanted Conway to continue in the role, but Conway was assigned to another "B" unit film and his contract, which expired in 1947, was not renewed.
So, Ralph Byrd was brought in to play Tracy in the third Tracy feature, 1947's DICK TRACY'S DILEMMA. In this film, Tracy investigates the theft of a fortune in fur coats, a possible insurance swindle, and several murders, all linked to "Steve 'The Claw" Michel," a huge thug who wears a hook in place of his right hand. (The one-sheet poster below erroneously suggests that it's his left arm that has the claw.) Kay Christopher appeared as "Tess Trueheart" in this installment. Paul Sawtell provided the unreleased score.
DICK TRACY MEETS GRUESOME was the fourth and final installment of the Dick Tracy film series released by RKO Radio Pictures. In the film, Tracy (Ralph Byrd) goes up against the corpse-like gangster "Gruesome" (Boris Karloff), who robs banks using a nerve gas. In this installment, Anne Gwynne plays "Tess Trueheart," who is a witness to one of the robberies.
Boris Karloff was a bigger star than Ralph Byrd and got top billing on this film, marking the first and only time that Byrd did not get first billing in a Tracy serial or film. RKO considered calling the film "Dick Tracy Meets Karloff," but that title was vetoed by Boris Karloff himself.
John Rawlins directed the November 1947 release, which was scored by Paul Sawtell.
In 1950, Ralph Byrd returned to the role of Dick Tracy for a television series that aired on the fledging ABC network. Co-starring with Byrd were Angela Greene as "Tess Trueheart," Pierre Watkin as "Police Chief Pat Patton," and Jo-Carroll Dennison as "Breathless Mahoney."
ABC debuted the series on Monday, 11 September 1950 at 8:30 PM. The show was opposite "The Voice of Firestone" on NBC and "The Al Morgan Show" on the Dumont network. But the real competition came from CBS's "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts," the 8th-highest-rated show on television that season. "Dick Tracy" couldn't compete, and was cancelled after a single season of 22 episodes. Here is the show's rather unusual, music-less opening:
But the producers weren't willing to give up on the show that easily, so they produced additional episodes for syndication for the 1951-52 television season. Twenty-six more episodes were produced, and a new show opening was created:
This opening used one of the best known stock Main Title themes from the MUTEL (Music For Television) Music Service library. It had also been used as the last theme for the radio series "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar". The theme was composed by Joseph Mullendore.
The syndicated version of "Dick Tracy" was rather popular with television stations and likely would have continued. But on August 18, 1952, Ralph Byrd suffered a massive heart attack and died at the age of 43, thus putting an end to the series.
Here's a great example of the humorless stereotypes that populated the "Dick Tracy" cartoon series. I watched them all when I was a kid. Fortunately, the media has never stereotyped Italians.