Chester Gould's immortal comic strip sleuth, Dick Tracy, starred in a series of short feature films in the 40's, produced by RKO Radio Pictures. "Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome" sees Tracy (Ralph Byrd) match wits with the titular villain (Boris Karloff) and his aides. This was included as part of a 3-film DVD compilation. Before I say anything further, check out the film itself. Bear in mind that the RKO logo is not included here.
One quibble I have is the use of Pat Patton as Dick's sidekick. By the time I started reading the strip in the 60's & 70's, Patton was the chief of police. Dick's regular partner, Sam Catchem, is MIA from this film, and Patton is used as comedy relief, which he certainly wasn't in the strip itself.
The other quibble is that the movie is too short, clocking in at just over an hour, which leaves little room for the plot to fully develop as it should. Karloff is excellent here, a perfect foe for Tracy, but it would've been even better if they were given more time.
Rating: C.
Really, Really Belatedly (21 years!):
ReplyDeleteIn 1947, Pat Patton was Dick Tracy's partner.
Pat took over as police chief in the mid-'50s, when the previous chief retired; that's when Sam Catchem came to town to be Tracy's new partner (a friend of Chester Gould's suggested that he ought to put in a Jewish cop).
Looking back, I'm surprised to find that nobody called your attention to this at the time ...