Comic to Movie Introduction
Movies based on comic books have reached quite the zenith in the last ten or so years. I mean, they've always been a big part in what's playing at a theater in near you. And lately, new aspects in telling comic book stories on the big screen have been imagined and executed. Some have been majorly successful. Others, disastrous and forgettable. Nowadays, the concept of a "cinematic universe" is the trend to be tried in Hollywood thanks in large part to Marvel Comic's various movies based on their heroes and villains.
Some comic book based movies changed the genre and created new standards and imagery for audiences such as Tim Burton's Batman (1989). His movie made the caped crusader a darker, grittier, and split character. General audiences at the time, especially those who weren't comic book readers, were more familiar with the campy colorful television version of Batman.
Even the most recent film Dick Tracy showed audiences that a film based on a comic strip can be a colorful production and a visual explosion unlike anything seen before.
But this genre of movie didn't just start with Superman (1978) or even with early comic book based serials like Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers in the 25th Century that played in air conditioned theaters our parents and grandparents told us about. In my search for such movies, I found some dating back to the silent era. Others, are adaptations I didn't know existed.
So, in this new year, I'm going to sort through over 30 obscure, forgotten, or overlooked titles based on comic books and comic strips. I'll see which ones still deserve appreciation, and which are better left in the garbage can of comic book cinema - forever disposed like those childhood comics your mom threw away when you moved out of the house. And I'm going to start with a comic that holds a special place in my heart.
Dick Tracy, Detective (1945)
"Who's Splitface?"
Director
William Berke
Cast
Morgan Conway - Dick Tracy
Anne Jeffreys - Tess Trueheart
Mike Mazurki - Alexis "Splitface" Banning
Lyle Latell - Pat Patton
First, Some History
Police Detective Dick Tracy is a character from the comic strip bearing his name created by Chester Gould. Dick Tracy debuted in the Detroit Mirror in 1931. He's based on real life U.S. Federal Agent, Eliot Ness - the prohibition agent who fought to ensure no one in Chicago drank booze, and brought down infamous gangster Al Capone while doing so.
What distinguishes Tracy in pop culture, aside from his yellow trench coat and matching yellow fedora, along with his two-way wrist radio watch, is the strange rogues gallery he's always up against. They're criminals with distinctly odd and loathsome features. Flattop, Itchy, Measles, Rhodent, Pruneface, Ribs...there are literally hundreds of villains in the Dick Tracy-verse spanning decades. Crime is just as ugly on the outside as it is on the inside.
As Hollywood possesses the talent to turn a popular character into a silver screen icon, they took the fictional police detective and made some movies around him. But Tracy's on-screen high point dwindled after the sixties.
The 1945 movie Dick Tracy, Detective wasn't Tracy's first on-screen performance. His film debut was in 1937 with the serial Dick Tracy which consists of 15 chapters. In that series, the detective locks horns with the infamous "Spider Gang" through 15 different cases while also searching for his brother, Gordon.
Other 15-episode serials came out between 1938 and 1941 - Dick Tracy Returns, Dick Tracy's G-Men, and Dick Tracy vs. Crime, Inc.
The 1945 movie, Dick Tracy, Detective, was the first in a four-part installment of film-noir pulp style movies. It's followed by Dick Tracy vs. Cueball (1946), Dick Tracy's Dilemma (1947) and perhaps the most famous title of the series, Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (1947). I say "famous" because the film stars Boris Karloff (Frankenstein) as the villain.
Morgan Conway plays Tracy in the first two films. Ralph Byrd, who played Tracy in the 15-chapter serials, reprises the role in the last two films.
Of course, I'll be watching all four films in the series, starting with this first.
Tracy also appeared in the TV series, Dick Tracy from 1950 to 1951 starring Byrd once again.
Incidentally, Byrd was always the actor closely associated with the yellow trench coat wearing detective, perhaps until Warren Beatty took the role in 1990.
In 1967, a pilot episode was filmed for a live action Dick Tracy show produced by William Dozier and starring Ray MacDonnell. Dozier also produced the famous TV series Batman. At the time, Batman was suffering from low ratings which was a determining factor in ultimately scrapping Dick Tracy.
Based on the pilot, which can be watched online, it looks as though the Dick Tracy series would have had a similar style to Batman. On a side note, the show would have starred a young Eve Plumb who went on to play Jan Brady on The Brady Bunch.
The Dick Tracy Show was a short-lived animated series from 1961 to 1962, and includes the voices of Everett Sloane and Mel Blanc.
Though named for Dick Tracy, the show really centers around his detectives fighting against the rogues gallery the comic strip is known for. The only time audiences see Tracy is in the beginning of each cartoon. All Tracy does in each episode is sit behind a desk and hand out assignments.
Also, each detective in the cartoon is a racial stereotype audiences will easily find offensive - Joe Jitsu, Hemlock Holmes, Heap O' Calorie, and Manuel Tijuana Guadalajara Tampico "Go-Go" Gomez, Jr. I think their names pretty much speak for themselves.
Still, I was given the complete set of animated shows for Christmas one year. They carry a little nostalgia for me as they used to air them on a local station out in the Bay Area back in the early 90s when Tracy again surfaced into the spotlight with the movie Dick Tracy starring Warren Beatty and Madonna. I touched upon the movie's impact earlier on this blog.
Why Dick?
I picked an early Dick Tracy film to be my first movie to watch and discuss as I sit through more than 30 titles in what I'm calling "Comic to Movie" because the character holds a special place in my comic-loving heart. I saw the 1990 film upon its theatrical release. I was eight years old, and I became a fan despite not having heard of the detective before then. I looked to my dad, who was very familiar with Dick Tracy, for some history and insight to this new-found hero. Dad was born in 1938 so he was a witness when Tracy was in his heyday.
In fact, I still have my Dick Tracy action figures which were released alongside the Warren Beatty movie. Those toys are a story in and of themselves.
Those are the only toys from my childhood that I managed to save all these years. They were spared the trash can after I moved out of my mom's place, and are still in my possession. Also, with my dad having been a fan of radio serials, and owning various collections of serials on cassettes, Dick Tracy was a favorite of his. I listened to these old radio shows from an era I never lived through. In a word, they're a lot of fun. So, there's definitely a handed-down appreciation and fascination that has stuck with me all these years.
So, the movie
This is the quintessential film noir crime movie. And for fans of this genre, it being a Dick Tracy story makes it hit home.
Watching Dick Tracy, Detective is like reading a pulp fiction crime novel. Such books aren't meant to be read as pieces of well-written, thought provoking, brilliant literature. They're not. They're a quick escape from reality. You buy the book for a cheap price, You jump in and forget your problems for a good hour or so - however long you need - with your favorite hero in a situation you'd likely never deal with in real life, and then it's business as usual when the book is over. A movie like this is the same kind of experience.
The story doesn't waste time jumping into the action. Nor does it hold back on the seriousness of crime. Murder is murder, and that's what the audience is paying to see.
Dick Tracy, Detective has one murder victim after another.
When a young woman is found dead, it doesn't take Detective Tracy (Morgan Conway) too long to determine the suspect to be escaped convict, Splitface (Mike Mazurki.)
Our antagonist is the epitome of mafioso. He's got a long scar splitting his face from his forehead to his cheek.
Splitface, who escapes from jail, is seeking revenge on anyone who has crossed him someway or another.
As soon as the murderer realizes Tracy is closing in on him, Splitface kidnaps his girlfriend, Tess Trueheart (Anne Jeffreys.)
The film manages to produce great intrigue and drama, though the story line is a simple one, common among classic film noir crime flicks.
Conway plays a decent Tracy who's so wrapped up on fighting crime and solving the mystery at hand while struggling to pay attention to the other important things in his life - his relationship with Tess Trueheart, and just living a life outside his police work.
He plays the detective as being completely sure of himself. He knows he'll solve this crime. So, why worry. When something goes wrong in Tracy's line of thought, it makes it that much more of a serious deal. It's his job and his version of Tracy takes it straight to heart.
Otherwise, the plot is cut and dry. You know what to expect overall. Still, the intrigue is there and enough to grab audiences attention.
It's a fun film, and a trip into an era I never lived through but still enjoy. The noir style is so ingrained in American culture that it's still familiar. I look forward to the next in the series.
So, in this new year, I'm going to sort through over 30 obscure, forgotten, or overlooked titles based on comic books and comic strips. I'll see which ones still deserve appreciation, and which are better left in the garbage can of comic book cinema - forever disposed like those childhood comics your mom threw away when you moved out of the house. And I'm going to start with a comic that holds a special place in my heart.
"Who's Splitface?"
Director
William Berke
Cast
Morgan Conway - Dick Tracy
Anne Jeffreys - Tess Trueheart
Mike Mazurki - Alexis "Splitface" Banning
Lyle Latell - Pat Patton
First, Some History
Police Detective Dick Tracy is a character from the comic strip bearing his name created by Chester Gould. Dick Tracy debuted in the Detroit Mirror in 1931. He's based on real life U.S. Federal Agent, Eliot Ness - the prohibition agent who fought to ensure no one in Chicago drank booze, and brought down infamous gangster Al Capone while doing so.
What distinguishes Tracy in pop culture, aside from his yellow trench coat and matching yellow fedora, along with his two-way wrist radio watch, is the strange rogues gallery he's always up against. They're criminals with distinctly odd and loathsome features. Flattop, Itchy, Measles, Rhodent, Pruneface, Ribs...there are literally hundreds of villains in the Dick Tracy-verse spanning decades. Crime is just as ugly on the outside as it is on the inside.
As Hollywood possesses the talent to turn a popular character into a silver screen icon, they took the fictional police detective and made some movies around him. But Tracy's on-screen high point dwindled after the sixties.
The 1945 movie Dick Tracy, Detective wasn't Tracy's first on-screen performance. His film debut was in 1937 with the serial Dick Tracy which consists of 15 chapters. In that series, the detective locks horns with the infamous "Spider Gang" through 15 different cases while also searching for his brother, Gordon.
Other 15-episode serials came out between 1938 and 1941 - Dick Tracy Returns, Dick Tracy's G-Men, and Dick Tracy vs. Crime, Inc.
The 1945 movie, Dick Tracy, Detective, was the first in a four-part installment of film-noir pulp style movies. It's followed by Dick Tracy vs. Cueball (1946), Dick Tracy's Dilemma (1947) and perhaps the most famous title of the series, Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (1947). I say "famous" because the film stars Boris Karloff (Frankenstein) as the villain.
Morgan Conway plays Tracy in the first two films. Ralph Byrd, who played Tracy in the 15-chapter serials, reprises the role in the last two films.
 |
| Dick Tracy vs. The Mole (1941) |
Tracy also appeared in the TV series, Dick Tracy from 1950 to 1951 starring Byrd once again.
Incidentally, Byrd was always the actor closely associated with the yellow trench coat wearing detective, perhaps until Warren Beatty took the role in 1990.
In 1967, a pilot episode was filmed for a live action Dick Tracy show produced by William Dozier and starring Ray MacDonnell. Dozier also produced the famous TV series Batman. At the time, Batman was suffering from low ratings which was a determining factor in ultimately scrapping Dick Tracy.
Based on the pilot, which can be watched online, it looks as though the Dick Tracy series would have had a similar style to Batman. On a side note, the show would have starred a young Eve Plumb who went on to play Jan Brady on The Brady Bunch.
The Dick Tracy Show was a short-lived animated series from 1961 to 1962, and includes the voices of Everett Sloane and Mel Blanc.
Though named for Dick Tracy, the show really centers around his detectives fighting against the rogues gallery the comic strip is known for. The only time audiences see Tracy is in the beginning of each cartoon. All Tracy does in each episode is sit behind a desk and hand out assignments.
Also, each detective in the cartoon is a racial stereotype audiences will easily find offensive - Joe Jitsu, Hemlock Holmes, Heap O' Calorie, and Manuel Tijuana Guadalajara Tampico "Go-Go" Gomez, Jr. I think their names pretty much speak for themselves.
Still, I was given the complete set of animated shows for Christmas one year. They carry a little nostalgia for me as they used to air them on a local station out in the Bay Area back in the early 90s when Tracy again surfaced into the spotlight with the movie Dick Tracy starring Warren Beatty and Madonna. I touched upon the movie's impact earlier on this blog.
Why Dick?
I picked an early Dick Tracy film to be my first movie to watch and discuss as I sit through more than 30 titles in what I'm calling "Comic to Movie" because the character holds a special place in my comic-loving heart. I saw the 1990 film upon its theatrical release. I was eight years old, and I became a fan despite not having heard of the detective before then. I looked to my dad, who was very familiar with Dick Tracy, for some history and insight to this new-found hero. Dad was born in 1938 so he was a witness when Tracy was in his heyday.
In fact, I still have my Dick Tracy action figures which were released alongside the Warren Beatty movie. Those toys are a story in and of themselves.
Those are the only toys from my childhood that I managed to save all these years. They were spared the trash can after I moved out of my mom's place, and are still in my possession. Also, with my dad having been a fan of radio serials, and owning various collections of serials on cassettes, Dick Tracy was a favorite of his. I listened to these old radio shows from an era I never lived through. In a word, they're a lot of fun. So, there's definitely a handed-down appreciation and fascination that has stuck with me all these years.
 |
| Mike Mazurki as 'Splitface' and Morgan Conway as Dick Tracy. |
This is the quintessential film noir crime movie. And for fans of this genre, it being a Dick Tracy story makes it hit home.
Watching Dick Tracy, Detective is like reading a pulp fiction crime novel. Such books aren't meant to be read as pieces of well-written, thought provoking, brilliant literature. They're not. They're a quick escape from reality. You buy the book for a cheap price, You jump in and forget your problems for a good hour or so - however long you need - with your favorite hero in a situation you'd likely never deal with in real life, and then it's business as usual when the book is over. A movie like this is the same kind of experience.
The story doesn't waste time jumping into the action. Nor does it hold back on the seriousness of crime. Murder is murder, and that's what the audience is paying to see.
Dick Tracy, Detective has one murder victim after another.
When a young woman is found dead, it doesn't take Detective Tracy (Morgan Conway) too long to determine the suspect to be escaped convict, Splitface (Mike Mazurki.)
Our antagonist is the epitome of mafioso. He's got a long scar splitting his face from his forehead to his cheek.
Splitface, who escapes from jail, is seeking revenge on anyone who has crossed him someway or another.
As soon as the murderer realizes Tracy is closing in on him, Splitface kidnaps his girlfriend, Tess Trueheart (Anne Jeffreys.)
The film manages to produce great intrigue and drama, though the story line is a simple one, common among classic film noir crime flicks.
Conway plays a decent Tracy who's so wrapped up on fighting crime and solving the mystery at hand while struggling to pay attention to the other important things in his life - his relationship with Tess Trueheart, and just living a life outside his police work.
He plays the detective as being completely sure of himself. He knows he'll solve this crime. So, why worry. When something goes wrong in Tracy's line of thought, it makes it that much more of a serious deal. It's his job and his version of Tracy takes it straight to heart.
Otherwise, the plot is cut and dry. You know what to expect overall. Still, the intrigue is there and enough to grab audiences attention.
It's a fun film, and a trip into an era I never lived through but still enjoy. The noir style is so ingrained in American culture that it's still familiar. I look forward to the next in the series.
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