Dick Tracy Returns
| Dick Tracy Returns | |
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| Directed by |
William Witney John English |
| Produced by | Robert M Beche |
| Written by |
Franklin Adreon Ronald Davidson Barry Shipman Sol Shor Rex taylor Chester Gould (comic strip) |
| Starring |
Ralph Byrd Lynne Roberts Charles Middleton Jerry Tucker David Sharpe Lee Ford |
| Cinematography | William Nobles |
| Distributed by | Republic Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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15 chapters / 254 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $156,991 (negative cost: $170,940) |
Dick Tracy Returns (1938) is a Republic Movie serial based on the Dick Tracy comic strip. It was the eleventh of the sixty six serials Republic produced and a sequel to the 1937 serial Dick Tracy, with Ralph Byrd reprising his role as the title character. It was successful enough that two further sequels were released, in 1939 and 1941, and Byrd become so connected with the character he went on the play him in a subsequent television series.
This serial charts Tracy's efforts to capture the Stark Gang of Pa Stark (Charles Middleton).
Tracy and his group must battle saboteurs and spies in his effort to bring down the Stark gang, a major crime family syndicate led by the vicious and brutal Pa Stark...
Dick Tracy Returns was budgeted at $156,991 although the final negative cost was $170,940 (a $13,949, or 8.9%, overspend). It was the most expensive Republic serial of 1938 and the most expensive Republic serial until The Lone Ranger Rides Again in 1939. It was the second most expensive of the four Dick Tracy serials (the most expensive was the last, Dick Tracy vs Crime Inc at $175,919).
It was filmed between 10 June and 18 July 1938 under the working title Return of Dick Tracy. The serial's production number was 791.
As with the other three serials in the Republic series, Tracy is depicted as a West Coast FBI agent rather than as the local police detective for a large Midwestern city he is in the original comic strip.
This serial, like all the sequels to the original 1937 Dick Tracy serial, was permitted by an interpretation of the original contract, which allowed a "series or serial". Therefore, Chester Gould was not paid again for the right to produce this serial.
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