Dick Tracy vs. Cueball

So where else would viewers see a friendly neighborhood dive called The Dripping Dagger, replete with a gleaming graphic of blood falling from a wicked-looking stabber. Sort of whets the old desire to drop in for a drink and maybe a piece of unelective surgery. Pretty good Tracy tongue-in-cheek. These programmers were always played straight, but the outlandish names tip off the real intent. Tracy's trying to track down a murderous jewel thief whose shaved head resembles that of a new-born. In those days, pure baldies were a rarity unlike today's hairless male fashion. Great cast that includes such visual eccentrics as the sepulchral Milton Parsons and the unfortunate Skelton Knaggs whose cratered face peering through a magnifying lens would frighten Frankenstein. But stealing the show is blowzy old Esther Howard who looks like she's been on a 60 year bender, and acts like a 60-year old Mike Tyson. So when she backs down even the burly strongman Cueball, we believe it. Actually, these entries get their appeal from the parade of human eccentrics that populate them. To me, however, the biggest mystery is why Tracy doesn't spend more time at home with the very uneccentric looking Tess Trueheart (Anne Jeffries) who is enough to turn any man's head, square-jawed cop or not.

Aficionados of forgotten "B" Pictures should enjoy this one, which for some unaccountable reason is listed by Medved as one of the fifty worst films of all time. Photographed stylishly by George Diskant and directed imaginatively by the under-rated Gordon Douglas (who would go on to direct both Elvis and Sinatra) this film is far superior in look to many of the better known low-budget film noirs of the same period. RKO Studios spent a lot more money building sets and dressing them than did their B picture rivals. Douglas took advantage of the superior production values to invent some very unusual shots often using a subjective camera technique usually not associated with these programmers. Despite the wooden acting of Morgan Conway as Tracey, the cast includes some of Hollywood's best character actors, among them the eternally frowzy Esther Howard as the proprietress of the Dripping Dagger café; Ian Keith hamming it up delightfully as Vitamin Flintheart, and Jason Robards Sr., father of the great Eugene O'Neill actor, Jason Jr., briefly seen as the captain of the S.S. Palomar.

Dick Tracy must solve the murder of the courier of $300,000 worth of diamonds. Only clue of the strangulation are bits of a material embedded in the neck. Soon two more killings and the same material. Tracy discovers that a specially ordered hat with a band around it is the murder weapon. From this Tracy deduces the killer - Cueball, that bald and passionless man. Friend or foe, old or young, no one is immune from the clutches of Cueball.

Most of the scenes are at night which lead to a dark and gloomy feeling of dread in the city. This feeling adds to the sense of evil that Dick Tracy battles. A fine film with a fitting outcome for Cueball.

The brief but strong Dick Tracy series from Republic studios remains one of the most important moments in the history of the Hollywood B movie. Probably under the insistence of Chester Gould (I can't imagine he was pleased with the earlier serials, that just borrowed the Tracy name for typical serial fare), the later '40s Tracy series is a pristine elaboration of what would become known as the 'police procedural' genre, the most famous of which is the Jack Webb "Dragnet" series. The most striking feature of this series is its villains; despite their comic strip names, they are brutal, cold, and completely believable. They are way ahead of their time in the history of cinema; Cueball is an excellent example. He is simply a common criminal finding himself in unusual circumstances - perfect counterpoint to Tracy's uncommonly common cop presented with a seemingly insoluble puzzle. Like the other films in this series (all on a par), this is a tough, brief, invigorating police procedural, Well recommended.

The second of several old Dick Tracy films, this movie pits Tracy against another motley crew of villains. A bald convict named Cueball is the chief outlandish baddie in a rogues gallery of characters. This time around Tracy tries to bust up a diamond stealing conspiracy involving employees of a jewelry firm, an antique shop owner and of course, the bald Cueball.

Once again Morgan Conway does an admirable job as the sleuth from the Chester Gould comic. Anne Jeffries does a good job reprising her role of Tess from the first film. Lyle Lattell as Pat Patton is much more visable in this film than in the first and provides some decent spots of comic relief. The running gag is that he keeps getting knocked out by Cueball. It's no surprise that he became a staple of this series. Ian Keith as Vitamin Flintheart steals the show though, with his dimwitted antics that are showcased in the scene in the antique shop.

The compliments about the characters end at the main villain, Cueball. While most Dick Tracy characters from the strip have a one or more distinct characteristics (Flat Top's flat top, Prune Face's face and Measle's measles), Cueball has one lame gimmick: he's bald. He's extremely dumb as his weapon of choice: a belt. Cueball seems to bumble around and by luck find out that everyone is double-crossing him. You can't help but laugh as the stone-faced lummox whips out his belt which is an effective but underwhelming selection of weaponry. His death scene is even more humorous, considering that he knows it's coming, but doesn't make a sound.

All in all the second major Dick Tracy motion picture is a nice throwback to the glory days of comic strips. At the very least it's better than the disappointing Warren Beatty update. The weak main villain does hamper it though. Too bad none of these movies featured some of the villains from the comics. They would have been better if they had.