Leofwine_draca Previously, the DICK TRACY features I've been watching were the Republic serials starring Ralph Byrd; this 1945 film saw RKO take over production and reduce the running times to one-hour pictures. They also have a new hero here in the form of Morgan Conway, who isn't quite as much fun as Byrd was. The good news is that this fast-paced crime outing has a top villain the form of the hugely imposing 'Splitface', a nightmarish-looking creation who'd give Rondo Hatton a run for his money. The thrills and spills that follow are slick and surprisingly adult-themed in places, particularly that vicious opening murder sequence.

utgard14 The first installment in RKO's short Dick Tracy series of films in the 1940s. This one sees Tracy (Morgan Conway) working on a case involving a string of murders committed by Splitface (Mike Mazurki). This series was churned out quickly and cheaply. So don't expect an "A" production from them. That being said, it's a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend an hour. Fast-paced, fun detective stories with action and some comedy. Mike Mazurki is a great villain. Conway does fine as Tracy. Lyle Latell plays Tracy's bumbling sidekick Pat Patton. He's the movie's comic relief. Anne Jeffreys plays his Tracy's girlfriend Tess Trueheart. Also an early role for Jane Greer. Give it a shot and I'm sure you'll find it an enjoyable time-killer.

Uriah43 A psychotic killer by the name of "Splitface" (Mike Masurki) is on the loose and is killing people of different backgrounds. What's even stranger is that extortion notes are found on the victims but the people who pay are still killed anyway. Even the mayor is being threatened and "Dick Tracy" (Morgan Conway) is being pressured to find the killer as soon as possible. Now, even though this is a rather short film (barely over an hour long) there is enough mystery and action to keep a person's attention throughout. Even so, the script was a little corny at times and the performances of all concerned were average at best. Other than that there really isn't too much to be said about this movie except that it was filmed in black and white and some viewers may not like it because they don't realize how popular Dick Tracy was back in the day. Still, it was an okay film and worth what little time was spent watching it.

classicsoncall It used to always make me wonder, even as a kid, why a movie's murderous villain would sneak up close to one of the story's lead characters and fail to close the deal. It made me consider them entirely inept, even while they were leaving a trail of bodies behind elsewhere throughout the picture. The scene with Mike Mazurki's Splitface creaking open the door right next to Tess Trueheart (Anne Jeffreys) is a prime example. Of course had he followed through, millions of Dick Tracy fans across America would have been severely outraged, and with good cause. But it gives you an idea why this kind of suspense doesn't work very well today, if it ever did.Then there's Splitface - what's the deal with him? Here's a villain that's probably got the most distinctive scar that can be used to identify him, and he signs his threatening notes with - 'Splitface'! Now I don't know about you, but if I were going to try and extort a pile of money from someone, I wouldn't sign it using my own nickname, especially if it could identify me with a characteristic that no one else could possibly have. Of course that's addressed later in the picture, as we learn how Professor Starling (Trevor Bardette) was trying to capitalize on the villain's handiwork. While watching the picture, the thing that really made me sit up and take notice was the way Splitface dispatched his victims. Done mostly in darkened silhouette, you still get a pretty good sense that the murders were extremely violent utilizing a stab and slash technique that appeared pretty gruesome. Done today, you would have the requisite amount of spurting and gushing blood, but even without it, the couple times you see Splitface in action solidifies his character as one mean hombre. You have to hand it to Mike Mazurki, he made for a pretty scary character.This was my first look at Morgan Conway in any kind of role, and I'm on the side of many reviewers on this board who feel he doesn't quite fit the bill. When they both first appeared on screen together, I would have guessed that it was Lyle Latell who played Tracy, except that he was the shorter of the two, and that wouldn't have worked. As for Anne Jeffreys, it's always cool to see her in a picture; my own best recollection of her as a kid growing up was the role of Marion Kirby in the 'Topper" TV series. It would have been cool if the movie offered some of those well punned nicknames like you had in "Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome" - I'm thinking about villains like I.M. Learned and Dr. A. Tomic. They were a mainstay of the Chester Gould comic strip, and I always got a kick out of those. Here, the best they could come up with was the name for the undertaker - a bit of a stretch that he would go by Deathridge.