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Dick Tracy - The Plot to Kill Nato
pilot episode
USA 1967
produced by James Fonda, William Dozier (executive)
directed by Larry Peerce
starring Ray MacDonnell, Victor Buono, Jan Shutan, Ken Mayer, Monroe Arnold, Jay Blood, Vinton Hayworth, Allen Jaffe, Gregory Gaye, Tom Reese, Richard St.John
screenplay by Hal Fimberg, based on the comic strip by Chester Gould, music by Billy May, theme song by the Ventures
TV-pilot Dick Tracy
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Doctor Memory (Victor Buono) is a man with exceptional memory, which is
good, but his exceptional memory has turned him megalomaniac, which is bad
- bad especially because he presently considers himself to be more
powerful than Nato, and to prove himself right, he has kidnapped three
Nato officials and wants to destroy the organisation as such. Of course,
Doc Memory knows the police force will send a top man after him, and he
telepathically links himself to his computer to find out who that top man
is: Dick Tracy (Ray MacDonnell). Trcy soon recieves an invitation to
walk into a trap and walks into it eyes wide open. But somehow Memory's
plan to gas Dick tracy wasn't exactly waterproof, so instead of finding
his death, Tracy finds a few clues leading to Memory's hideout, and he
soon finds a way to enter, too, and ultimately renders Memory out of
commission by feeding his computer a tape with ultrasonic sound - because
you know, Memory never was really telepathically linked to his computer,
he was just a madman who thought he was ... A TV-pilot that
just cannot decide whether to take itself seriously or to emphasize its
camp value à la Batman
(the Adam West version) - and the result couldn't be less exciting, a
boring crime story that's far fetched in all the wrong places and that
features a way too one-dimensional hero to work as serious drama. At least
Victor Buono as lead villain adds a bit of colour to the proceedings, but
other than that there is not much to make this one click. Unsurprisingly
the pilot was not picked up for a series.
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