Dick Tracy RKO Classic Collection. Dick Tracy from RKO is a film adaptation of the comics by Chester Gould. All the films in the series are curious enough to draw attention to them.
The series consists of:
Dick Tracy (1945)
Dick Tracy: Against the Billion Ball (1946)
Dick Tracy: The Dilemma (1947)
Dick Tracy: Meeting the Terrible (1947)
Each of the four films lasts an hour, which is great. It often happens that the creators stretch the movie to a standard hour and a half, and this affects the picture. It's different right now. Any of the Dick Tracy movies is immediately captivating. The scriptwriters have worked well, there are interesting characters (both heroes and villains), fascinating stories and everything is fine with the dynamics. But do not forget that they relied on the original source, in which much of this was already. Anyway, everything is great here, except for one point - some characters from the first / second film simply disappear, and in the next picture they are no longer (without explaining the reasons), although in theory they should be.
The directors of Dick Tracy changed from film to film (William Burke directed the first film, Gordon Douglas the second), and only the last two were directed by John Rawlins. Despite this, all four films look whole, and this is with casting in mind.
While watching any of these films, I never wanted to find fault with any of the actors, regardless of their age. All the actors were nice, but there were changes in the cast. In the first film, Mickey Coon played Junior, in the second Jimmy Crane (and in the sequels he simply disappeared). In the role of Tess was first Anne Jeffries (the first two films), after she was replaced by Kay Christopher, and then Anne Gwyn. But the most unexpected was the change of the performer role of Dick Tracy himself. Initially, he was played by Morgan Conway, but after two films he was replaced by Ralph Bird, who had already played this role in a number of TV series since the 30s. He will return to this role in the series 1950-1952. (strangely, the page of the series is not on KinoPoisk). But this TV series will never be finished. In addition, Lyle Latell was remembered as Pat Patton, Ian Keith as Vitamin and the main villains (one per film): Mike Mazurki, Dick Wessel, Jack Lambert and Boris Karloff.
The soundtrack of the film is not one that you want to listen to again and again. The main theme is inferior to many popular and immortal melodies, but within the framework of the film sounds more than good.
"Dick Tracy: Meeting the Terrible" adequately completes the series of films from RKO, behind the first film adaptations, and ahead of the new, including an animated series, but this is another story. The viewer, familiar with the adaptation of the nineties, may consider this series unnecessary, but in vain. There is a wonderful atmosphere, acting, directing, and despite the year of release (today - +/- 70 years), the films look with interest. If you like detectives, black and white movies and the year of the film’s release doesn’t matter to you, then Dick Tracy is a good choice. Good to see you!
7 out of 10