It's Andy Fish!

I have loved all four of these RKO Dick Tracy films since I was a kid– I would set my alarm for the 2am showings on a Boston Channel back in the days before VHS.  The when VHS came along I stumbled on a DICK TRACY tape and was so excited I pumped the movie up for my girlfriend only to find it was a feature version of the 1935 Serial, which I find mind-numbingly dull.

The RKO films have a certain level of violence and Noir that is duplicated in the best of the Chester Gould comics, from what I would consider the golden age of the strip from 1940-1950– loaded with offbeat characters and all the regulars make appearances through the series, Pat Patton, Tess, Junior, Vitamin Flintheart, Chief Bratton and while they used new villains they all fit in with what would have appeared in the strips– Splitface, Gruesome, The Claw and Cueball.   They also added a lot of interesting supporting characters like Filthy Flora, Jewels Sparkle, etc– it was like the strip come to life.

Each film in the series has it’s charm– I personally go against the crowd and consider Morgan Conway the better of the two Tracy’s– Ralph Byrd lacks the “tough guy” feel Conway has– sorry serial fans.

DICK TRACY, DETECTIVE (1945) – Splitface is out of prison and boy is he mad.  One of the more savage of the killers violently stabbing one victim just barely off screen and then hurling him through a skylight down a flight of stairs.   It gets real when Tess gets kidnapped and only Junior is there to save her– really solid opening entry in the series, fast paced, we’ve got shady mediums reading the stars, gruesome morticians keeping their back door open so anyone can swipe one of them there giant sharp knives they like to have kicking around and enough noir shadows to give DOUBLE INDEMNITY a run for its money.

DICK TRACY VS CUEBALL (1946) – Cueball has no hair and no patience for nonsense.   He’s sort of the Skipper from Giligan’s Island as a serial killer with a purpose– he just wants to cash in some diamonds he got after killing the carrier on a docked ship in the harbor.   Taking refuge in the Dripping Dagger, a flop joint owned by Filthy Flora (straight out of her role in MURDER MY SWEET where she played virtually the same character) this one benefits from the addition of Ian Kieth as Vitamin Flintheart– the ham actor John Barrymore parody from the comics.

DICK TRACY’S DILEMMA (1947) – The dilemma here is fur thief The Claw, who is so named because he lost a hand and rather than get a replacement mechanical one with fingers he just went for the dollar tree option and got a hook.   He loves cats though, so he can’t be all bad.  I’m a dog person so all the more reason he and I can’t get along.  Tracy is now played by amicable friendly Ralph Byrd who serial fans love as Tracy so RKO brought him over.   Ralph is up to the challenge and manages to hunt down The Claw at the end.

DICK TRACY MEETS GRUESOME (1947) – Boris Karloff is Gruesome– I wonder what that did for his ego– and although you might think this is the most juvenile of the Tracy films it’s still got enough death and killing and despite the silly aspect of a freeze gas which causes everyone to stop in their steps for 11 minutes, and the scene where Tracy honestly asks if he can drink some potentially deadly chemical for some reason, but it’s Ralph Byrd and between you and me he doesn’t seem very bright.   It’s a fun film, and Gruesome seems to have a little crush on piano player Melody whose name he utters when he himself is hit with the gas– but the bromance doesn’t work out and when the chips are down Gruesome chooses the creepy character X-Ray whose giant bottle glasses give him an eerie look, which also helps that he’s played by Skelton Knaggs who is in several other Tracy films and is perfect casting anytime you need somebody who looks like you should not take up his offer for a walk through a dark alley at night.

Lyle Lattel is the only player who appears in all the films but he gives it all in his Pat Patton role and links every film together.