DICK TRACY MEETS HIS MATCH (Book Review)

Dick Tracy Meets His Match is a 1992 novel based on Chester Gould's comic strip, which Max Allan Collins had the pleasure of writing since Gould's retirement in 1977. It was the first of three paperback novels, the first was Dick Tracy (1990), a novelization of the Warren Beatty movie. Collins attempted to bring the screenplay's story more in line with that of the continuity of the comic strip; but at the same time, he understood he was telling a tale based respectfully if loosely on Gould.

In writing the second novel, Dick Tracy Goes to War (1991), Collins chose to continue on that course, and the same is true of this book, Meets His Match. Both novels were not a "novelization" of Dick Tracy newspaper strip stories; those stories already exist in Gould's own work, in their proper medium. It was Collins' intention here to write novels that gathers many of Gould's great characters into  new story was is faithful to the spirit of the source material. 

Dick Tracy Meets His Match (1992) was the third of the novels. The first, the novelization of the 1990 movie, covered the 1930s; the second took place during World War II. This third novel took place in 1949. It was Collins' intent to write a fourth novel that would take place in the mid fifties. But, sadly, that fourth novel never met fruition because Collins ceased work on the Dick Tracy comic strip -- and Dick Tracy altogether. 

That fourth novel was to have been titled Dick Tracy on the Beat and would have dealt with criminal infiltration of the music industry, such as the control of the jukebox business by Organized Crime, and the payola scandals. It would reportedly have featured Spinner ReCord and other music-themed characters. 

In Dick Tracy Meets His Match, Dick Tracy and Tess Trueheart agreed to be married as part of a new television series that Tess was producing for Diet Smith’s SBN (Smith Broadcasting Network) television network. The wedding was disrupted, however, by a sniper hired by T.V. Wiggles, a disgruntled former employee of the network. 

 

Over the decades, Dick Tracy delivered many lawbreakers to justice -- sometimes Judgment Day meant a courtroom, other times it meant the city morgue. The latter was, for example, the destination of the notorious Public Enemy Number One Flattop Jones, the "Robin Hood of the Cookson Hills" of Oklahoma, typical of the breed of outlaw who specialized in bank robbery and kidnapping. But such transplanted rural terrorists were not the detective's usual meat. More typical Tracy adversaries were gangsters like B-BEyes, conmen like Shaky, or contract killers like "Trigger" Doom. Trigger is hired by T.V. Wiggles in this novel, attempting to exact revenge against the detective, only to meet a grim fate.  

Wiggles manages to insinuate himself into the lives of many of the fledgling network’s popular celebrities, including Ted Tellum, Dot View, Tonsils, Spike Dyke, and Sparkle Plenty. But when Ted Tellum is murdered, Tracy must solve the crime while still finding time to marry Tess. The wedding is foiled more than once, as a result of this caper. But, in the end, as in the strip, Tracy and Tess were wed on December 24th, 1949.

I have always said that while the comic strip was primarily a cops-and-robbers formula, there was always an ongoing soap opera underneath. Tess and Dick were engaged, the engagement was called off, they were engaged again, married, had a daughter, and later got divorced. Junior, their adopted son, grew up, got married, lost his wife due to a bomb, got remarried, and so on. Characters such as Vitamin Flintheart, Gravel Gertie, B.O. Plenty and others were featured in this novel. This book captures that ongoing soap opera perfectly, while functioning as a detective caper.

Dick Tracy Meets His Match had a relatively low production run, and as a result it has become highly sought-after by collectors and Dick Tracy fans. The usual price is about $50 so if you find it for much less at a yard sale, book sale or flea market, grab it.

 

I would like to add that the book cover art depicts a red-haired woman shielding herself behind Dick Tracy. This is presumably meant to be Tess, as Tess had red hair in the 1990 feature film. However, in the book Tess is described as being blonde. Unlike the title of the first two novels, the title of this one ("Meet His Match") does not adequately fit the subject matter. Regardless of the cover art and cover title, this novel is an enjoyable read just like the other two.

ANN WORTH, HOUSEWIFE (1935 - 1938)

For two years Ann Worth, Housewife ruled supreme over the Michigan Radio Network as the only soap opera to originate from WXYZ, the Detroit radio station responsible for such adventure serials as The Lone Ranger, Sergeant Preston of the Yukon and The Green Hornet. Scripted by Tom Dougall, the soap opera premiered on morning of March 12, 1935, and ran three years, concluding on the afternoon of March 14, 1938. But regardless of the love affairs, trials and tribulations that occurred on the daily soap opera, the drama behind the microphone is even more entertaining. 

 

Ann Worth, Housewife was created as a starring vehicle for actress Joan Vitez, a blonde who looked and spoke beautifully. Her parents were Hungarian, but she was born in the Delray section of Southwest Detroit. With her low, vibrant voice, friends suggested she go into radio, so she applied for a job. Most of the men were in awe of her beauty, and it was Brace Beemer, then station manager, who saw potential for The Mills Baking Company, sponsor of The Happy Home Village, which was starting to wear thin. The sponsor wanted a new program. Timing could not have been more perfect. 

 

Enter stage left Tom Dougall, who co-starred in Norman Bel Geddes’ production of Hamlet, a frothy thing called Adam’s Wife, and a backstage noise in Lysistrata—all in New York. Having arrived in Detroit he tried to hire two other actors to play the lead in The Drunkard for a friend of his who was producing the show, but Dougall had to play the part himself. For seven weeks he portrayed the tragic role of the young man in the piece—the young man who was ruined by drink but finally managed to save the mortgage and his family by returning to the straight and narrow. So convincing was he in this melodramatic production that he caught the eye of James Jewell.

 

Jewell was directing all the dramas out of WXYZ, including The Lone Ranger. So thanks to Jewell, Dougall was hired. Tom Dougall started work at WXYZ in 1934 as an actor on Warner Lester, Manhunter, having co-starred in The Drunkard with Harriet Livingstone, and earlier had gone to the University of Michigan with Charles Livingstone (assistant director for radio at WXYZ). 

 

At the request of Brace Beemer, who hired Joan Vitez, Dougall created Ann Worth, Housewife, a soap opera which aired five mornings a week. Dougall himself played numerous roles including the father, and the Simon Legree sort on the program. Vitez was asked if she would be willing to star on the series for thirteen weeks—gratis—until they found a sponsor. She had already performed in two Lone Ranger broadcasts without being paid; Jewell referred to those as her “auditions.” She was green; she was naïve; but she was no fool. Vitez demanded to be paid since a radio program was worth something to somebody… and she was hired at $18 a week. When the Mills Baking Company signed up as a sponsor after having heard a number of broadcasts, Vitez received a raise to $35 a week.

George W. Trendle, the owner of the radio station, never thought much of Ann Worth, Housewife. Reportedly the series was created and premiered while he was on vacation. Upon returning from Florida, he listened to an episode and asked for an explanation, prompting him to ask, “Who’s responsible for that?” Fran Striker, who was writing The Lone Ranger, was happy to say he had nothing to do with it. Nevertheless, it was a good enough show and had the backing of an important sponsor. After all, a paying client is a paying client. Trendle let the matter drop. Trendle was in favor of another soap opera on the network, Love Doctor (May 1935 to February 1936) but it was not as successful financially, never attracting a sponsor.

 

By 1937, when WXYZ signed with the NBC Blue Network, Ann Worth, Housewife aired in between Pepper Young’s Family and The O’Neills, which originated from the NBC studios in New York. In January or February 1938, with Brace Beemer no longer working for the station, Joan Vitez bumped into the former station manager at a cocktail party. After a little conversation, he asked the actress if she was aware that she was getting paid half of what the sponsors were paying for. Vitez looked puzzled, so Beemer explained all about “the clip.” 

 

To justify the expense of sponsoring a radio program, the sponsor was provided a breakdown of costs on a monthly basis. Accounts payable were submitted monthly, with the sponsor unaware that not all of the money was being allocated properly. The role of the producer was to distribute funds accordingly, and his salary was dependent on the lowest price he could produce. Within the breakdown, the Mills Baking Company was paying $150 a week solely for the talent of Joan Vitez; her salary was $75.

 

Tom Dougall

The next morning, following the completion of the next episode of Ann Worth, Housewife, the actress paid a visit to James Jewell. She confessed that she knew about “the clip,” and with disappointment she was exercising a clause in her contract that gave her the right to quit the show and to leave WXYZ at the end of the present 13-week term. Jewell thought she was joking until he coincidentally noticed her at the local bank closing her account and withdrawing her savings. Jewell begged for her to stay, and she agreed to remain for one week, long enough for him to find a replacement. She planned to go to New York City for greener pastures. A girl named Lenore Collins spent the week watching Vitez, during rehearsals and the actual broadcast, listening to her, learning to imitate her. Lenore was a buyer from Hudson’s Department Store, known for having a low voice much like Joan Vitez. But Collins was not a sufficient replacement.

 

Ruth Rickaby gathered some of the cast together for a little farewell. Joan told them about “the clip.” They had all suspected, but none of them knew definitely. 

 

“Look,” said Malcolm McCoy, picking at a hangnail and looking at Joan. “Do us a favor. Go to Mills Baking and tell them what’s going on.” 

 

“That would be great,” said Petruzzi.

 

“What have you got to lose?” Rickaby asked.

 

“You’re leaving anyway,” Petruzzi pointed out.

 

“All right,” said Joan. “Why not?” True to her word, Joan Vitez looked up a man in the advertising department at Mills Baking. She had met him before in connection with Ann Worth. She told him why she was leaving the show. He tried to persuade her to stay. She had already made up her mind and added, “the other actors wanted me to come to you and ask if you knew about the clip?” He didn’t know what she meant. She explained it. As Joan Vitez walked away from the Mills Baking Company, she erased the whole affair from her mind. She never went back to WXYZ. Lenore Collins took over the role of Ann Worth, Housewife, but—for reasons that remained unknown to the management of the radio station—Mills Baking cancelled their account a short time later, and the show went off the air in March of 1938.

TERRIFIED (2017), A Worthy Halloween Treat

Like many people who enjoy watching movies, October is reserved for horror movies. My personal preference are the Universal horrors of the 1930s and 1940s, and the British Hammer horrors of the 1950s, 60s and 70s. But my wife and I enjoy a good horror film from time to time that was more recent and none have been more blood-curdling than Terrified (2017). 

This Argentinian addition to the horror genre is a refreshing submission from a fledgling director. Written and directed without the usual hubris that we as humans can solve any supernatural problem by basically willing it away, the movie is shot in just a way which evokes a feeling of being lost from the beginning. 

Told in a non-linear format with the vantage point being that of multiple characters, each with their own observations and fears, keeps the movie fresh through the relatively short run time of 87 minutes. But then again, the length of time should never be dictated for commercial value, but in the amount of time it takes to tell the story.

The movie concerns a number of strange events that occur in a small suburban Buenos Aires neighborhood, where a man is accused of beating his wife to death, and a young boy is accidentally killed in the streets. Police rule both incidents as homicide but the truth is even more terrifying. A group of paranormal experts fly into town to investigate, each taking up residence in each of the houses that the reported occurrences happened. What they discover and unearth is not a matter of verification but rather a chilling scenario that we are not alone... and time is running out before the terror spreads beyond the community.

Director Demian Rugna insisted on carefully shooting every scene in such a way that if you blink, you will miss something. This is truly one of those films that you cannot be distracted, and you must pause the film if you venture off to the bathroom. Many of the creepy moments take place beyond our peripheral vision -- a trick that not works for this the of story, but for the plot as well.

Seriously, this is one of the best horror films I have seen in years and a darn shame I missed it when the movie first came out in 2017. (Be sure not to mistake this with a different film of a similar name that came out a year after.)   

BURIAL SERVICES (1936) The "Lost" Radio Episode

Wyllis Cooper created a weekly horror program, Lights Out!, in 1934. Originating from the radio station of an NBC affiliate in Chicago, Illinois, the stories involved invisible creatures, vampires and all sorts of ghouls. The horror series was heard regionally and not nationally. Cooper, no doubt having proven he could conceive of clever horror plots, quickly made the movie to Hollywood for a career at Universal Studios (The Phantom Creeps, Son of Frankenstein). This left a void when the network decided to expand coverage of the program nationwide in the summer of 1936. Enter stage left, Arch Oboler, a playwright who would later succeed with a career on the Rudy Vallee radio program, and The Chase and Sunburn Hour. Oboler's idea of horror was different from Cooper's, and his first radio script for the series, "Burial Services," has since become both legend and folklore. 

Over the decades, rumors have circulated that the premiere episode of Lights Out! in the summer of 1936 was so gruesome that thousands of letters flooded into the network. Most of the letters were protesting and questioning how such a graphic story could be done on the radio. Forgetting the fact that the new series was heard at a very late time slot when the majority of the American public was asleep in their beds, the script was considered horrific not because of ghosts or ghouls, but because of the story. During the burial service of a young girl, the men and women who knew the deceased paused to recall various memories of her life... before the dirt was tossed onto the top of the coffin. 

Arch Oboler, interviewed over the years, often lent credence to the folklore by often recalling how many letters arrived at the studio and how he discovered early on that some stories of horror -- by nature -- were indeed too graphic to tell.

NBC never recorded the radio broadcasts of Lights Out! in 1936, so a recording of this episode is not known to exist. Thankfully, I found the original radio script in an archive and providing a PDF of the file through the link below. You can read it and make the decision yourself. 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rxod68ih52z8sg1/LIGHTS%20OUT%20%28June%203%2C%201936%29%20Burial%20Services.pdf?dl=0