Rainey Dawn This time Dick Tracy find a new nemesis called Gruesome! A very tough Gruesome has escaped from prison and surprises and old gang. A scientist/chemist called A. Tomic has created a gas formula that will sorta freeze people in there current position for awhile then they go back to being normal - as if nothing happened. Gruesome gets a hold of this chemical gas and uses it in a major bank robbery! Tracy's girlfriend was in that bank using the phone booth - door closed - so she pretended to be frozen as the others but managed to secretly call Tracy to the scene. Gruesome gets away just in time and Tracy along with his sidekick Pat are out to solve the strange case.Another good Dick Tracy movie - fun to watch! And Boris Karloff as Gruesome added even more fun to the film!! 9/10

Cristi_Ciopron It has the right idea of a comic strip carefully made into a movie, managing to be thorough, smooth and playful. And Karloff does bring something, that dark glamour and the quiet excitement, and that eerie charm, he recapitulates his previous career on the screen, and has the authority given by his experience; this player would of been great in gangster movies. The Tracy movies are neat and very enjoyable. In this one, you'll see an intriguing character actor playing X-ray, a henchman. Also, an actress offering a nice role as the missing scientist's assistant.In this movie franchise, the villains have been given pride of place; Tracy is a pawn in a teamwork, occasionally outsmarted by sly interlopes, and it needed a serviceable player, the choice for this movie was a fairly likable lead who gives a decent performance, just as required by the movie, he doesn't come across as bland (or, worse, … 'less engaging' …), but as stylized according to the franchise. The movies themselves have the look of adult comic strips, the wrongdoers are frightening, the action is thorough.The still frames of freezing transfixed characters have a suggestion: they resemble the comic strip panels. The _transfixion given by the gas bombs serves as a sign of the comic panel's idea.The villain who, forced to change sides within the underworld, becomes Karloff's sidekick, X-ray, was a striking character actor.There are in-jokes, I liked Karloff's rise after he recovered from the _transfixion given by the freezing gas-bomb, the allusion to body-snatching.The _cityscapes look great.It's RKO, who did awesome job, as here in conveying the feel of the comics, the movies really are for the comic strips' buffs. A nice role from the lady playing A. Tomic's assistant, a wonderful scene at the taxidermist, and a refreshing sidelining of the reporter.Tracy was a physical role, as generic as it gets, the generic copper, and the leading actor was serviceable.This series deserves being legendary.

utgard14 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.

wwwj34 I first saw this movie on late-night TV in the 1970s, and have seen it a few more times since. It has held up very well, except for the bank robbery scene, which really does get annoying on repeated viewings.The very effective opening sequence introduces us to the menacing Gruesome (Karloff), his partner in crime Melody, and creepy new associate X-Ray (Skelton Knaggs). Gruesome collapses after inhaling some experimental gas and ends up in the morgue. He awakens and lights a cigarette; Pat Patton, at this desk nearby, notices something in the air but goes back to his writing, and is soon knocked cold by Gruesome, who makes his escape. There's a deft mixture of suspense and comedy in this scene, capped by Patton's line to Tracy, "If I didn't know better I'd swear we were doing business with Boris Karloff!" By contrast, the bank robbery looks like a 50s sitcom, as the release of paralyzing gas causes everybody on the premises to freeze-frame in a cartoony manner. It's easy to understand why the scene was handled this way; a more realistic treatment that showed the bank customers clutching their throats and writhing as they crumbled to the floor might have been deemed too grim. But I wish this scene hadn't been played entirely as a joke, because it dispels the dark mood established by what went before. Most viewers probably don't consider the talky scene in which Tracy meets Professor I.M. Learned to be a highlight, but it's one of my favorite parts. I can't tell if June Clayworth (who plays Learned) was much of an actress, but she is just right as the mousy scholar who might or might not be trustworthy. Learned's confrontation with Tracy is alive with ambiguity, and fun to watch. There are many nice touches. Gruesome always has a toothpick in his mouth, and it shifts like the darting tongue of a reptile. When Gruesome and X-Ray bluff their way into a hospital by impersonating doctors, a desk guard asks Gruesome if he knows how to work the elevator. "Like the fingers on my hand", Gruesome replies, making a trigger-finger gesture.Strong cast, brisk pace, and nice visual style lift this movie a cut above the average programmer.