I've watched only 4-5 serials, so I don't have a lot to compare this<br /><br />to, but so far it's easily the worst of the lot. The overlap from<br /><br />chapter to chapter is too great (too much material repeated in the<br /><br />new episode that was seen in the previous episode). The acting is<br /><br />poor, especially Ralph Byrd (if he stood still for a moment, he'd be<br /><br />attacked by a woodpecker). The "comedy" of Smiley Burnett is<br /><br />nothing to smile about (he's even worse here than in the Gene<br /><br />Autry movies). The character with the most brains in this serial is<br /><br />actually the 12 year old kid, played by Lee Van Atta. And perhaps<br /><br />most of all, has anybody seen Dick Tracy in this film? I must have<br /><br />missed him, because no one in this movie even remotely<br /><br />resembled the comic strip character. Low budget is not enough of<br /><br />an excuse for low tech here. At least the director could have put a<br /><br />watch on Ralph Byrd's wrist, & pretended it was radio controlled.<br /><br />The two low budget jungle serials I watched with Phyllis Coates<br /><br />("Panther Girl of the Congo" & "Jungle Drums of Africa") were way<br /><br />better than this, & so was a low budget jungle serial with Clyde<br /><br />Beatty ("Lost Jungle"). Not that those were great serials, but they<br /><br />were better than this one, so tells you something about Dick Tracy.<br /><br />If you'd like to watch a better crime serial, I recommend "The Green<br /><br />Archer." That & the serial I'm in the middle of now, "Captain<br /><br />Marvel," are far superior to Dick Tracy. I rate it 3/10.