Title: Dick Tracy – Chapter 4: Death Rides the Sky Serial Title: Dick Tracy (1937, Republic Pictures, 15-part serial) Chapter: 4 of 15 Release Date: March 6, 1937 Directed by: Alan James & Ray Taylor Written by: George H. Plympton, Morgan Cox, Barry Shipman, Winston Miller Produced by: Henry MacRae Based on: Dick Tracy comic strip by Chester Gould Studio: Republic Pictures Runtime: Approx. 20 minutes (Chapter 4) Format: Black and White, Mono Sound Language: English Country: United States Genres: Crime, Detective, Action, Mystery, Serial --- Synopsis: Picking up from the previous chapter’s cliffhanger, Death Rides the Sky opens with Dick Tracy narrowly escaping the sabotaged boxcar moments before it crashes. The Spider’s criminal organization is revealed to be orchestrating a series of daring aerial attacks to sabotage key infrastructure projects across the city. When a newly developed high-frequency radio transmitter prototype disappears from a secured lab, Tracy suspects a connection between the theft and The Spider’s larger plan. Clues lead him to an abandoned airfield outside town, where a mysterious pilot known as “The Falcon” is conducting night raids in a black biplane. Tracy and Junior board a private plane to intercept one of the aerial smugglers, but during the flight, they're ambushed mid-air. The episode climaxes with a gripping aerial dogfight and Tracy dangling from the landing gear of a hostile aircraft as it spirals out of control. --- Main Cast: Ralph Byrd as Dick Tracy Kay Hughes as Gwen Andrews Smiley Burnette as Mike McGurk Lee Van Atta as Junior Carleton Young as Gordon Tracy John Picorri as The Spider Richard Alexander as The Falcon (new villain introduced) Robert Kent as Government Technician --- Key Elements: Aerial combat sequence featuring biplanes and real stunt flying (performed by Paul Mantz). Introduction of The Falcon, a masked pilot working for The Spider. Tracy uses forensic ballistics to trace bullets from an aerial attack to a custom-made revolver. Junior steals important flight logs from a hanger, proving his growing value to the investigation. Gwen and Tracy share a rare quiet moment revealing her scientific background in radar tech. Cliffhanger: Tracy loses his grip mid-air as the aircraft dives toward a canyon. --- Trivia: The title Death Rides the Sky is a nod to pulp magazine naming conventions popular in the 1930s. The aerial sequences were filmed using a combination of real aircraft and miniature models on wires. This chapter marked one of the first serial uses of day-for-night shooting for sky scenes. Stunt pilot Paul Mantz performed multiple tight maneuvers, including a simulated nose-dive, for close-ups. The Spider’s headquarters briefly shown in this chapter would later be reused in other Republic serials. This is the first chapter to imply that The Spider’s plans extend beyond robbery into large-scale terrorism.