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Manufacturer:

Alpha Home Video

DICK TRACY (1937) Republic Pictures- 15 Chapter Serial

Director:  Ray Taylor and Alan James Starring:  Ralph Byrd, Smiley Burnette, Francis X. Bushman

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The bygone days of the Saturday morning cliffhanger serial may be gone, but the good folks at Alpha Home Video are doing their damnedest to help keep their memory alive with several DVD releases of some classic serials. Republic Pictures' first entry in their quadrology (is that a word? The studio did four of the damn things) of cliffhangers based on the exploits of Chester Gould's immortal plainclothes detective, Dick Tracy,  is yer standard Saturday matinee fare of the day.  A mysterious villian so nefarious that he's known by two aliases, The Lame One and The Spider, is spoiling the fun for all law-abiding citizens, and "guv'ment" agent Tracy of the FBI (assisted by Smiley Burnette and a plucky kid) are constantly trying to bring the bad guys to justice.  Add an evil brother of Tracy's, a gang of fedora wearing hoods, and a flying wing that has a sonic powered weapon of mass destruction, and you've got a typical day in the life of the lantern jawed do-gooder.  Ralph Byrd is one of the few human beings on the planet that ever physically resembled Tracy somewhat, and was sadly typecast because of the fact, it seems. Alpha's discs (it's a two volume set) are incredible, as always.  It seems that their transfers (for at least the Republic serials stuff) are coming directly from those used in the late 1980's for Republic's own VHS releases.  Crisp, clean picture and excellent sound.

Our next victim:  The Witch's Curse Manufacturer:  Alpha Home Video Director: Riccardo Freda Starring: Kirk Morris Peplum (for the uninformed, that's sword and sandal and/or "gladiator" movies)  is a favorite film sub-genre of mine, for they speak to the testosterone driven caveman that lives in the back of my skull.  If Hercules ever had a problem, he didn't talk things out with his enemies.  Bah!  Crush them with a big rock or topple a temple, and people started to see things your way.  Plus, peplum actors always seemed to have names that you'd only find in porn, like Steve Reeves or Alan Steel or Slab Hunkchest.  Or, as in this instance, Kirk Morris.  But, that's beside the point.... This little jaunt into the surreal world of French hero Maciste is surely an oddity.  You have Kirk Morris as our hero riding around in 17th century England in a toga and sandals, trying to save a girl accused of witchery from an evil curse.

Charles Atlas ads had nothing like this....

Oh yeah....to accomplish this, he's gotta travel down a tunnel located under a gnarled old tree that leads directly to...HELL!   There in the nether regions, he must do battle with several evil beings to save the gal, finally coming in contact with the cursed's great grandmother, aka the Devil's Concubine.   Things are way too literal for my tastes in Maciste's world. Alpha's disc is nice, the transfer's not great, but at 7.99 retail, ya can't beat the price for this odd little Italian flick.