Displaying items by tag: Boris Karloff

DICK TRACY MEETS GRUESOME

US, 1948, 65 minutes, Black-and-white.

Boris Karloff, Ralph Byrd, Edward Ashley, June Clayworth, Tony Barrett, Skelton Knaggs, Milton Parsons.

Directed by John Rawlins.

Dick Tracy was a popular comic strip, especially in the 1940s, the central character of some supporting features and, in the 1950s, 48 episodes in the television series (with Ralph Byrd as Tracy).

This is very conventional gangsters and police drama/thriller in the American city of the time. However, the main criminal is played by Boris Karloff (with a line in the film stating that the villain looks Boris Karloff!). However, at this time, Karloff was playing comedies, especially with Abbott and Costello meeting Frankenstein…

Out of prison, Gruesome wants some more criminal action, connecting with his musical friend, Melody, working in a bar. The connection is doctor who is experimenting on lethal gases. Which leads, of course, to a group of criminals using the gases, which freezes those who inhale it for some minutes in motion. They rob a bank, getaway, shooting a policeman, giving the money, some complications with the criminal mastermind and his girlfriend, who works in the laboratories.

Dick Tracy, suit and tie, hat, gets into the action, investigates, has theories, has dangerous moments, risks the gas, a final battle between himself and Gruesome – and a gruesome end for Gruesome!

This film may be of interest because of the place of Dick Tracy in the American consciousness through comic strips, film and television. In 1990 Warren Beatty produced a rather lavish colourful extravaganza of Dick Tracy stories, the criminals in various grotesque masks. No masks here – although Skelton Knaggs, quite a name!, myopic and with thick glasses and lenses, is the closest. However, the  continued with the names of the various scientists, Dr  I.M.Learned, Dr L.E.Thal, Dr A.Tomic and the manager of the store, Y. Stuffum.