Why Dick Tracy still feels like a fever dream

Is this worth the time?

If you have a soft spot for grainy, black-and-white chaos, sure. If you need your plots to actually make sense, stay away. This is for the folks who like their detective stories with a side of hypnotism and zero downtime.

I sat down with Dick Tracy expecting a slow burn, but this thing moves at the speed of a runaway trolley. It does not wait for you to catch up. It just throws another kidnapping at you and expects you to keep track of the names.

The whole bit about The Spider hypnotizing the brother feels so random. It is the kind of plot point that exists just to keep the cameras rolling. You can tell the writers were probably grabbing coffee while scribbling these scenes on napkins.

There is this one moment where a character walks into a room, looks directly into the lens, and delivers a line that sounds like he is reading it for the first time. I had to rewind it twice because I thought I was hallucinating. The production quality is somewhere between a local play and a budget nightmare.

The pacing is all over the place. One minute they are having a quiet conversation, and the next, there is a fistfight that seems to involve absolutely no actual contact. It reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in Around the World in Eighteen Days, where the logic is thin but the movement is constant.

Honestly, watching Ralph Byrd play Tracy is the only thing holding it together. He has that permanent 'I am very annoyed' face that fits perfectly. Everyone else just seems to be bumping into the furniture.

Odd observations from my notebook:

• The lighting in the hideout looks like they left a single lamp on in a dark basement.
• Nobody ever just walks; they always seem to be scurrying.
• The hats are magnificent. Seriously, everyone in the 1930s must have had incredible neck strength.
• The dialogue is about 40% shouting and 60% exposition.

It’s not a masterpiece, and it doesn't try to be. It’s just a relic. Sometimes I think we overanalyze films from this era. Sometimes a guy in a trench coat is just a guy in a trench coat, and he is just there to punch a hypnotized brother in the jaw.

If you want something that feels a little more grounded—or at least a little more intentional—you might find Dante's Inferno much more captivating. This one is strictly for the completionists who like their movies a bit dusty and frayed at the edges. 🕵️‍♂️