Dick Tracy 1945 - 1947

   

Dick Tracy, Detective (1945) - 5.5





By the time RKO produced a four film Dick Tracy series, he was already a well-known commodity. Kind of like our superhero films with a built in loyal audience of comic fans. The comic strip by Chester Gould began in 1931 and was syndicated in hundreds of papers over America. As far as I know, it is still going. There was also a radio show. Over the years Tracy has battled all sorts of villains, blackguards and mobsters and became an icon in our culture - enough for Beatty to bring him back in 1990. From 1937 to 1941 there were four 15 episode serials starring Ralph Byrd as the intrepid policeman put out by Republic. In this film and the next, Tracy is played by Morgan Conway and then in the final two, RKO brought in Ralph Byrd to again play Tracy. These are absolutely low budget B films running around 60 minutes shot in black and white. These days I think they are best known for the outlandish villains with the great names in them.





This first one has a noir feeling about it - especially at its start as a woman walks home alone at night - the shadows playing on a man hiding around the corner - then she hears his footsteps behind her but sees no one until they get closer and closer - she turns, she screams, she is murdered. An apparent serial slasher is in the city. It's Moose Malloy! Wait, that is from Murder, My Sweet - this is Splitface with a large scar running down his face. Mike Mazurki who played Malloy in the classic film with Dick Powell has noir written all over him like a streetcar ran over his face. Another noir element is Jane Greer in a smallish part - she later became a great noir dame in Out of the Past and The Big Steal, co-starring with Robert Mitchem in both. Hard not to see her in her cocktail dress and wonder when she is going to stab someone in the back.

 


The film moves along fine as a B film is supposed to - Tracy on the track of the killer who kills a few more times. Tracy is being helped by his subordinate, Pat Patton (Lyle Lattell) and his girlfriend with the great name of Tess Trueheart (Anne Jeffreys), both characters from the comic. Morgan reminds me a bit with his brisk down to business way of speaking of Jack Webb/Joe Friday. He has to wade through a few suspects, one being a hypnotist (Trevor Bardette) who goes into a trance and talks of fourteen people who are going to die. Good fight between Tracy and Splitface at the end.


Dick Tracy vs Cueball (1946) - 6.0




These Dick Tracy films are not half bad. Way above my expectations. Don't get the wrong impression. They are low budget B films but the script is ok with some great characters thrown in and it is well filmed. Perhaps not too surprising in that the first one, Dick Tracy, Detective was directed by William Berke, a stalwart B director with some solid westerns and crime films to his credit - and this one is directed by Gordon Douglass of Tony Rome, Lady in Cement, In Like Flint and They Call Me Mr. Tibbs fame. Admittedly, this one was made long before those films while he was still in the B film division. It has some nifty elements like murder by hatband or Filthy Flora or the creepy guy with the thick glasses, who should have been played by Peter Lorre. But they could not afford Lorre so settled for Skelton Knaggs,  a strange looking actor who had small parts in a number of horror films.




Morgan Conway as Tracy, Ann Jeffreys as Tess Trueheart and Lyle Latell as Pat are all back in this second film in the four film series. The villain Cueball is portrayed by Dick Wessell with a bald skull cap and a pasty doughy face with two menacing raisins as eyes. He isn't as memorable as Splitface but he does ok as a strangler. Not that he really wants to strangle all these people but they keep causing him problems. At the behest of others, he strangles a man (Trevor Bardette - also in the first film as a different character) and steals his diamonds. But the money isn't ready to pay him and so he has to go into hiding. Where else but the Dripping Dagger, a bar that you need Tetanus shots to get into and is run by Filthy Flora (Esther Howard) who has the habit of drinking leftover booze from not empty glasses. Waste not, want not. Cueball is bald so I had some sympathy for the guy. We can't all be fair haired boys. Also making an appearance is Ian Keith as Vitamin, Douglas Walton as Priceless, Rita Corday as the femme fatale and Milton Parsons as the antique assistant -  the actor who shows up in so many B films in bit parts - a cadaver face often playing a funeral director or the like. 62 minutes.


Dick Tracy's Dilemma (1947) - 5.0



In the third film in this series there is a new Dick Tracy in town. Well, not exactly new to Dick Tracy but new to the series. In fact, Ralph Byrd was Dick Tracy to everyone back then after having appeared as the relentless lawman in four separate serials of 15 episodes each. Apparently, he had been in a bad car accident when this series began so RKO had to go with Morgan Conway, who I thought was fine - stiff as a board but that is always how I picture Tracy. Byrd is fine too but doesn't bring much more personality that I noticed. Tess Trueheart also gets a change of face as Kay Christopher replaces Ann Jeffreys and gets basically nothing to do but wait at home for Tracy to pop in and then pop out as another crime crosses his desk. As she says at the end, I should become a criminal and then at least he will pay attention to me. Tracy lives in a boarding house which strikes me as odd for the Chief of Homicide but at least he has a dinner waiting for him when he gets home.




The villain this time is Steve Michel better known to his close friends and family as The Claw for the hook at the end of his arm. A better nickname I guess than Club Foot which he also seems to have or maybe The Limp. The Claw strikes more terror into the hearts of the innocent and not so innocent. Still getting away from someone with a limp and a club foot should have been easier. He is played by Jack Lambert whose face pretty much assigned him to being bad guys all his career. Just mean looking. He and two other gentlemen steal a bunch of furs and kill the guard - the call goes into the police station then transferred to the radio room and the call goes out for Tracy. Dick Tracy who along with his assistant Pat (still Lyle Latell) seem to be the only two cops in the homicide division.



The clues lead to another dingy germ infested bar as in the last film, this one called the Blinking Skull, but sadly Filthy Flora doesn't run this one - a much less colorful man. I would love to go to a bar called The Blinking Skull or The Dripping Dagger. But in front of the dive is Sightless a blind man who can see pretty well and will sell you a pencil and then steal it back. Played by the great character actor Jimmy Conlin. He is on the lookout for Tracy. The insurance company is named The Honesty Insurance company owned by a fellow named Peter Premium - obviously very trustworthy. Vitamin Flintheart returns and Longshot Lillie the Fence makes an appearance. Much of the fun in these films are the side characters because Tracy has the charisma of a wooden bench. The Claw is fine villain material though - hard to kill but kills easily. A little more standard and less noirish than the first two I thought and is directed by John Rawlins who also directs the next one - Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome.


Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (1947) - 6.0




This fourth and final film in the Dick Tracy series from RKO was the one I was most looking forward to. Why? Because Boris Karloff is Gruesome. The Great Karloff. I admit though to being a little disappointed by Gruesome. With a name like that I fully expected a large amount of disfigurement - leprosy or acid in the face - maybe a lead plate sticking out from his forehead. Instead, Gruesome looks just like  . . . Boris Karloff. In fact, one of the characters says he does. Gruesome goes up to a door. A peephole is opened and a man with thick binocular glasses looks out and asks his name. Gruesome. Isn't he says the man at the door. If I had been Karloff I would have been just a little insulted. With or without makeup Karloff is great - never overplays his hand - just quietly menacing throughout. And kills with no regrets.



The film begins at another down and dirty bar - probably the same as the last film and the film before that - just with a name and an ownership change. This one is The Hangman's Knot. With a few nooses hanging down as decorations. A woman's touch no doubt. Gruesome is in town. Fresh out of the penitentiary - for good behavior he says with a sly grin. He is looking for Melody who tinkles the ivory in the bar - what's up - anything for me - yes a big job. Off they go to the before mentioned door that is opened by Xray (in a return appearance by Skelton Knaggs ). A bank job. They get hold of a gas that paralyzes everyone in place for a few minutes - just enough time to fly off with $100,000 in dough. But Tess Trueheart (played by a third actress, Anne Gwynne) was in the phone booth and wasn't gassed and calls Tracy. The game is on. Tracy is again Ralph Byrd. The inventor of the gas is A. Tomic played by the morbid looking Milton Parsons for his third appearance as different characters in these films. A well done film for its low budget - uses all the same locations of course but the film makes good use of them. There is some decent comedy thrown in as well at the beginning and end - but the middle is all dark and deadly. Btw - the ambulance attendant who gets conked in the end is Lex Barker. Byrd was to go on to play Tracy for two years on TV from 1950 - 1952. Sadly, he died from a heart attack in 1952 at 43 years old.