The Detective vs the Vigilante.
Who would win?
The Shadow, except for the Alec Baldwin version, unless he’s up against the Warren Beatty version of DT in which case Penelope Ann Miller’s Margo Lane would kick his ass.
No contest. The Shadow. He pulls some arcane hocus-pocus and Mr. Tracy can’t even get his mind around it.
Look, I like Dick as much as the next guy (hey, that was a perfectly innocent statement…), but his spesh-ee-al-ee-tay has always been gangstahs.
He’s never gone up against the super-natural, or even a first-class Hyp-MO-tist.
Besides, I grew up listening to The Shadow radio program on rainy nights (I only remember the rainy, cold, spooky ones at least) . . .
A lot more atmosphere than any other hero.
That’s going to end up as someone’s sig, isn’t it?
Sorry–couldn’t resist …
The jar of pickles!
Incorrect. In July of 1940, Tracy went up against the turbanned swami Yogee Yamma, who was successfully working the old phony-psychic scam on a variety of rich widows, employing a secret nerve gas to work his will. Unfortunately it turned out to be a very volatile substance, and the Yogee was last seen going up in flames in a hotel room.
The final months of 1946 gave us Influence, a burly shake-down artist whose special optical lenses gave him the power to stare anyone into immediate total submission. At the final showdown, Tracy came equipped with a set of “mesmero-repellent contact lenses,” possibly developed by boy genius Brilliant, inventor of the Atom Light and the 2-Way Wrist Radio.
So my vote goes to Dick Tracy, if he’s prepared.
Tracy was and is a shabby newspaper comic strip that makes Family Circus look like fine art in contrast.
The Shadow was a kick-@ss Pulp Magazine, a radio serial, an early TV show, (I believe) a Republic serial, and a major motion picture.
Also, all of Tracy’s assistants look like morons.
Not that I’m some big fan of Dick Tracy but I feel constrained to point out that Tracy was the subject of several motion pictures, radio and movie serials and an early television series, so while I support your conclusion that The Shadow has it all over Dick Tracy the premises used to reach that conclusion are fatally flawed.
However, I take it that you have no basic problem with the idea that Tracy’s assistants look like morons?
I also meant to point out that Madonna appeared in a Dick Tracy film. And, as everyone knows, this counts as negative points for Tracy.
Ah, poor Tracy! If only Moon Maid had survived! But, she’s food for worms, and Tracy’s toast, thanks to the Curse of the Shanghai Suprise.
The Shadow. Hands down.
And, if you want to hear (for free) Old-Time radio, go to radiospirits.com and click On The Radio. You can hear episodes in the archives, updated weekly. They have a subscription service too.
It does depend on which version of the Shadow. However, the pulp version would kick Tracy’s butt. He’d show up with guns blazing, and Tracy wouldn’t realize he was even there until the slugs hit him.
But the Shadow would never fight Tracy in the first place. The Shadow meted out justice, and since Tracy was on the same side, the Shadow would never go up against him. He’d just vanish into the night and leave Tracy bewildered.
Nossir. While in most instances I am the last to defend Madonna as an actress, Breathless Mahoney was one of the few roles that she nailed (others include Susan from Desperately Seeking Susan, her bit part as a singer in Vision Quest and, while I’ve not seen the entire film in what I have seen of her work from A League of Their Own she does well). She also wasn’t horrible as Evita, just ten years too old for the part. She is of limited range as a film actress but within her range she is a solid performer and she performed admirably as Breathless.
You only say that because she wore a low-cut dress. :dubious:
The grotesque villains from Dick Tracy were the inspiration for the grotesque villains Batman fights. Ergo, Dick Tracy is sort of an ancestor of Batman. On the other hand, The Shadow’s dark mysterious persona was the inspiration for Batman’s dark, mysterious persona. Thus, The Shadow is also an ancestor of Batman’s. We can, therefore, determine the winner simply by clarifying which of these ancestors is the source of Batman’s fabled ability to kick people in the nuts.
I can assure you with every particle of my queer soul that the cut of Madonna’s bodice does not inform my opinion of her acting ability.