Chester Gould, creator of the Dick Tracy character and comic strip, saw his gritty cop star in several classic Dick Tracy serials and feature films. They are action-packed, hard-hitting thrill rides that I have enjoyed for many years. After the four Dick Tracy serials, the detective would move to RKO Radio Pictures and star in four one-hour movies in the forties.
In 2008, VCI Entertainment released a great DVD set of the four Dick Tracy films from RKO studios which are Dick Tracy Detective, Dick Tracy vs Cueball, Dick Tracy’s Dilemma and Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome. VCI has now taken those four films out of DVD purgatory and have given them the Blu-ray treatment! This new Blu-ray set, entitled “Dick Tracy RKO Pictures Collection” features these classic films now in HD for the first time ever!
Morgan Conway played Dick Tracy in the first two films, while Ralph Byrd, who starred as Dick Tracy in the serials from the thirties, returned to play the hard-nosed rough and rugged detective for the last two films. The movies are loaded with action blended with Film Noir overtones with dark, foggy streets and creepy villains.
The first film, simply entitled Dick Tracy Detective has Tracy (Morgan Conway, Charlie Chan in Reno, Brother Orchid) hunting down an escaped criminal named Alexis “Splitface” Banning (Mike Mazurki, Murder My Sweet, Night and the City) who has been brutally killing members of a jury that had convicted him. Tracy, and his sidekick Pat Patton (Lyle Latell, Shadows Over Chinatown) must find a way to stop Splitface before he gets revenge on the rest of the jurors! Banning is nicknamed Splitface because he has a long scar going down his neck.
Dick Tracy vs Cueball has our favorite detective (again played by Morgan Conway) looking for the villain Cueball (Dick Wessel, Unknown Island, The Gazebo) known for his large round bald head who leads of gang of jewel thieves. Cueball, an insane murderer strangles all his victims, and some without any real reason!
In Dick Tracy’s Dilemma, Tracy (Ralph Byrd, Jungle Goddess, Radar Secret Service) faces off against the monstrous heavy, Steve Michel (legendary character actor Jack Lambert, The Killers, Bend of the River, 99 River Street) who is known as “The Claw” as he has a prosthetic hook for a right arm. The Claw is linked to some expensive fur coats being stolen and part of an insurance scam. These components turn out to be one of Tracy’s most difficult cases, as he tries to link the Claw to the missing furs and the bogus insurance scheme!
Screen icon Boris Karloff (Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Targets) stars as Gruesome in Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome. In this picture Gruesome is working with bandits who rob banks with the help of nerve gas that causes people to freeze into suspended animation. There are lots of great scenes where the actors freeze and struggle to stay “frozen”. This movie is my favorite from the Dick Tracy movie series because it features the great horror king, Boris Karloff, who was top-billed over Dick Tracy himself!
VCI Entertainment presents the Dick Tracy RKO Pictures Collection on a Region Free, 2-disc Blu-ray set and given new restorations, with each film receiving a 4K scan. I was pleased with the image quality for all four films as they looked remarkably stunning, crisp and clean. The films to me all looked identical in terms of the image quality, which was the same for their 2008 DVD release. The black levels are strong with nice dark blacks, creamy whites and a balanced grey scale. Details to the scenery, interior and exterior shots look so much clearer with the new 4K scan. Film grain is present throughout and no DNR has been applied. The image has a nice smooth polished look to it and is satisfactory.
For their Blu-ray, an English LPCM 2.0 soundtrack was used, with the sound quality for the four films being excellent with clear, robust dialogue. The musical scores by Roy Webb, Phil Ohman, Paul Sawtell and action sounds all sound perfectly balanced with none the audio coming in over-powering or too dominating. It is crystal clear without hissing, drop-offs or other age-old anomalies. English subtitles are available for this release.
VCI has provided some extras for this release, most if not all were from the DVD release. There were commentaries on the DVD release, but now there are now even more commentary tracks with Max Allan Collins. All four films have the same introduction by Max Allan Collins which were on the VCI DVD set. Collins wrote the Dick Tracy newspaper strip after creator Chester Gould retired.
Each movie contains commentary tracks galore, which will give you hours of listening to behind the scenes and other information about the movies, characters and the directors.
This is a list of the commentary tracks for each film:
Dick Tracy Detective has a pair commentary tracks, one with Max Allen Collins, and a second track featuring Jason Ney.
Dick Tracy vs. Cueball has two commentary tracks with Max Allan Collins and Bernard M. Prokop.
Dick Tracy’s Dilemma and Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome also include a pair of commentaries films that feature Max Allan Collins and Toby Roan.
Even the serials have been given some love for this release. The original 1937 Dick Tracy serial and Dick Tracy vs. Crime, Inc. have the first chapters as extras on this Blu-ray.
There is also a 12-page booklet called “Gruesome by Name: When Karloff Met Dick Tracy” by Stephen Jacobs, which has a vast amount of information on the Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome film.
Photo galleries for the films round out the extras for this release.
VCI’s Dick Tracy RKO Pictures Collection Blu-ray is a lot of fun and is a pleasure to watch these in HD. The video quality for this Blu-ray is excellent with the new 4K scans, to go with the strong audio and eight commentary tracks for the four movies. Let’s hope the Dick Tracy serials also get some Blu-ray attention in the future! Highly recommended!
Dick Tracy RKO Pictures Collection
Directors – William E. Berke, Gordon M. Douglas, John Rawlins
Cast- Morgan Conway, Ralph Byrd
Country of Origin- US
Distributor – VCI Entertainment
Number of Discs –2
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date – 7/29