A Gruesome Dick for you all? (Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (DVD))

Member Name: Ailran

Product:	Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (DVD)
Date:	22/06/09 (86 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Boris Karloff and the crazy gas is fun

Disadvantages: Simplistic, not much of a mystery to involved

Dick Tracy first appeared in 1931, the creation of cartoonist Chester Gould. The intelligent, hard nosed cop was a mainstay in newspapers from that date onwards written and drawn by Gould himself for close on 46 years, finally giving up having at least some involvement in his strip and hanging up his pen and pencil in 1977.

Tracy became a national icon and forged a career catching criminals in a whole host of media during the 30's and 40's. He had a long running radio career that spanned almost 15 years, starred in 4 movie serials between 1937 and 1941 and then 4 B-movies between 1945-47.
He made a brief return to prominence in 1990 when a spectacularly colourful movie starring Warren Beatty and Madonna was released, though it was pretty faithful to the character it did crash and burn quite spectacularly.

Tracy always had a couple of regular co-stars, his girlfriend Tess Trueheart and his partner Detective Pat Patton, who always helped and hindered him in his crook catching enterprise.

Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome, made in 1947, gives us a new Tracy, Morgan Conway (star of the last two films) is replaced as out titular hero by Ralph Byrd, the actor who also played him in the 12 part movie serials that were made before the films.

It also benefits from having a high quality guest star as the villain of the piece... Boris Karloff.
Karloff plays Gruesome, an escaped convict who has plans to continue his criminal enterprises. This time though he has a distinct advantage, he has met up with an old friend and been introduced to a scientist who has come up with a fantastical invention, a gas that has a very peculiar effect on those who inhale or absorb it... it freezes them completely for a short period of time.
Gruesome and his gang use the gas to rob a bank. All the people in the building freeze in the middle of whatever they were doing, all except Tracy's 'gal' Tess, who was inside a phone booth in the bank at the time. Unaffected by this strange gas Tess sees all the bank robbers and informs Tracy of the descriptions of the criminals.
Dick, with the help of his friend and partner Pat Patton, realise they have an investigation on their hands.

Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome is, like the previous two films starring the famous detective, a simple little crime movie that can in no way be called a mystery movie as there isn't a shred of a mystery involved in it. We know who was behind the robbery and we know the person who is involved with Gruesome so there is nothing to discover as a viewer.
The story is all about Tracy and Patton trying to follow the clues and using their skills (well Tracy has some skills at least) to uncover the inventor of this new fangled gas stuff.

Like the previous movies this isn't really about the crime at all, more than any other B Movie series of the time period it is readily apparent that the focus is on the Dick Tracy character and his supporting cast rather than on having a good thriller.
Back then this may have worked, Tracy being a big star in America at the time. Nowadays though, and even more so over here in the UK where Tracy is pretty much unknown, the characters cannot carry a film with so little of anything actually going on.

As it is there is only one good reason for watching this movie, the tall lumbering menace that is Boris Karloff. The villains in the previous two movies have both been viscous, violent thugs with little planning beyond using their strength to bully their enemies. Gruesome has that side to him but, as good as the other two were, there is something extra special about Karloff. He exudes such a threatening aura that just seeing him coming your way would scare the living daylights out of you.

Karloff is a consummate actor. This may be a flimsy little B Movie but he is so powerful, so head and shoulders above everyone around him that he becomes the focus of the film. When any other of the characters are on screen, even Dick Tracy, all you want is for Gruesome to return centre stage.
Without Karloff this would be at the same level as the previous two Tracy outings, ok but nothing special at all. With him it becomes the best of the four movies with ease.

This feeling is helped out by an extremely effective opening scene in a bar called 'The Hangman's Knot' which sets things up very efficiently and a couple of truly hilarious character names.
First off we have a man with massive thick lenses in his glasses called X-Ray and, even more amusingly, there is a scientist called Dr. A. Tomic, how can you not laugh at that name?

DT Meets G is an ok movie, better than the others in the series but still nowhere near as good as the Boston Blackie or Falcon ones.
When you then think about Rathbone's Holmes or Lorre's Mr. Moto you suddenly see a total jump in quality and class.
Gruesome is available pretty cheaply on Region 1 DVD but if you are interested in the Dick Tracy set that contains the second, third and fourth movies then that is available from Amazon for around £8 at this time.

Summary: The Third Tracy film is improved by a great guest star