Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome

This is the fourth and final of the RKO Dick Tracy films. It's also the best. Why is it the best? Well, look no further than the cast. Horror great Boris Karloff plays the villain Gruesome. Karloff could do no wrong and he elevates this whole picture. The plot involves a paralyzing nerve gas and a bank robbery. Skelton Knaggs is also in this as Gruesome's cohort in crime, X-Ray. More characters with fun names like a piano player named Melody and several doctors (Dr. L.E. Thal, Dr. A. Tomic, Dr. I.M. Learned). These movies weren't "A" productions. They were turned out quickly and cheaply. But still, they are fun, fast-paced detective stories with mystery, action, and humor. This one, like I said, is the best of the lot. Karloff fans will love it.

"Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome" was the last of the Dick Tracy films, but the series ends on a high note, with Boris Karloff as Gruesome, and he's true to his name. It's not clear why this series didn't continue.

The premise is a funny one - bank robbers use this freezing spray to stop people mid-sentence and mid-movement. Tess Truheart (Anne Gwynne) is in a phone booth when the robbers spray, so she's able to crawl to a telephone and call Dick. Gruesome is the head honcho, but he's not going to be easy to catch.

The characters in the film all have the grotesque look of the comic strip characters and the same crazy names, I. M. Learned, A. Tomic (physicist) etc.

Gwynne is more like Anne Jeffreys was - beautiful and street smart, more of a leading woman than the ingénue cast in another of the films.

I think that characterization of Tess as good-looking and sharp works better for the character than a sweet girl next door type.

This Dick Tracy was more expensive the others and stars the preferred Tracy, Ralph Byrd, who also did the Dick Tracy TV series.

Enjoyable.

While none of the four Dick Tracy films made by RKO in the 1940's are particularly extraordinary they're fun, the actors are charming, and the atmosphere of the films is nice and seedy. Plus, they often mixed in a little sci-fi and some comic strip style humor (such as characters named Dr. A. Tomic and I. M. Learned) in with the bargain basement film noir that manages to set the films somewhat apart from other crime-themed B-films of the time.

The final film in the series, Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome, is probably the best of the four, mostly due to the absolutely wonderful cast. Boris Karloff is dependably creepy and charismatic as the main villain. Minor 1940's B-movie icon, Ann Gwynne is the sexiest Tess Trueheart of the early films. The incomparably menacing, ghostly Skelton Knaggs plays X-Ray and, like he always did, steals every scene he's in. Everyone is great.

The story, concerning Karloff using a gas that puts people into temporary suspended animation to rob a bank, moves at a gallop and is delivered with humor and style. There's not a dull moment in the film and it's more than worth the vintage B-movie enthusiast's time.

My first introduction to Dick Tracy was the cartoon series of the 1950s (60s?) and then later the Sunday comics. I saw the big screen Warren Beatty/ Madonna effort and was curious about these earlier efforts. I wasn't expecting much but was pleasantly surprised by this adaptation. Gruesome, played by Boris Karloff, looks as if he just stepped out of the Chester Gould strip (without the lavish makeup of the 1990s version) and several supporting characters also have the grotesque look that made the comic popular. The story revolves around a mysterious gas that can temporarily freeze people. While they're in suspended animation, the baddies can rob the bank (the perfect plan huh?) Anyway, it's up to Dick Tracy (Ralph Byrd) to solve the mystery and put an end to Gruesome's crime spree. It's all good fun with more plot than you'd expect and a solid amount of screen time to Karloff. Humour peppers the thrills to make it an enjoyable film.

Dick Tracy and his exploits step into the world of science fiction Ralph Byrd as animation's favorite square jawed police detective gets involved with none other than Boris Karloff as Gruesome in Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome.

Usually Boris Karloff is the mad scientist concocting such things as a paralysis nerve gas which leaves folks paralyzed so that others think they could be dead. But here he's a ruthless career criminal who gets a dose of the stuff outside a waterfront dive and appear so dead that he's brought to the morgue by Lyle Latell as Tracy's sidekick Pat Patton. When he gets up and walks out of the morgue making Latell the victim of a horse laugh that's only the beginning.

Karloff realizes the possibilities as does the inventor of the paralysis gas for criminal enterprise and he uses it in several bank jobs. But it was his hard luck to have Tess Trueheart in the bank on the first job and in a telephone booth so that the paralysis wouldn't effect her. She recognizes the robbers and Karloff as Gruesome is not hard to miss. Hell Boris Karloff isn't hard to miss. Tess played by B movie queen Anne Gwynne.

Byrd is put in some real harm's way in the final confrontation with Karloff. Gruesome is pretty ruthless in eliminating witnesses and Byrd is almost caught in the trap he set for him.

Boris Karloff as Gruesome lifts Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome a notch over a lot of B films.