Dick Tracy contre Cueball

MORGAN CONWAY again assumes the Dick Tracy role with ANNE JEFFREYS as his impatient sweetheart who resents his time being taken up by unexpected homicide cases. This time the murder involves the shipment of diamonds when a murder aboard a boat gets Tracy in a search for the killer over the theft involving $300,000.

Cueball (DICK WESSEL) is the man who resorts to killing aboard the boat to get the diamonds, but is unhappy when he realizes that he was only going to get a small share of their value. The swift moving story involves a bar floozie who gives Cueball shelter, an antique shop run by shady dealer (DOUGLAS WALTON), and Tracy's helper, Vitamin Flintheart, played in amusing style by IAN KEITH.

You can begin the body count once Tracy goes about stalking the killer. Unfortunately, ANNE JEFFREYS has little to do as Tess Trueheart until the film's last fifteen minutes when the killer in the diamond case narrows down to Cueball. Sorry to say that dour looking MORGAN CONWAY cuts an unappealing figure as Tracy.

Trivia note: Jeffreys was reportedly unhappy with her assignments in the Tracy flicks and was delighted when RKO made the next Tracy film with Ralph Byrd and Kay Christopher as the leads and eventually gave Anne some better assignments before she found her niche in Broadway musicals.

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.

Dick Tracy vs. Cueball starts at the comic strip level and then zips along with some finely turned performances (mostly by the supporting characters). Dick Tracy comes off a little wooden and bland."Cueball" , looks so perplexed and worried through the whole film that you kinda feel sorry for him , even though he goes around choking people to death .He does give his victims(most of them) the chance to talk it over or play it straight-above board, but they don't .They take him for a big goof.. er cue-ball...and well, they get what's coming to them.The visuals in this film are superior. Kudos go to cinematographer George Diskant and director Gordon Douglas for his interesting camera placements etc...Gotta love "The "Dripping Dagger"sign. If you like that "1940's Hollywood look", this film is worth a look.