Dick Tracy's Dilemma (1947)

Don't Believe the Hype

Better Late Then Never

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

There's something about seemingly delicate old people in films that steals scenes from the stars, and in this film, it's the always lovable Jimmy Conlin who plays "Sightless", the supposedly blind pencil seller outside a saloon who steals the film. Like Thelma Ritter in the film noir classic "Pick-Up on South Street", he's also an informant, passing along information of what he "see's" to Dick Tracy (Ralph Byrd). A sinister limping hook handed human monster (Jack Lambert) stalks Conlin in the spookiest scene in the film, and the fear on Conlin's face is real, making the audience feel it too. Lambert is part of a fur robbery racket, obsessed with cats, and one of the great Dick Tracy villains. This was Byrd's first time out as Tracy after doing the serials, and it seems as if he's never been away, even though Morgan Conway played the part in the first two RKO features right before this.Chilling and noirish in its structure, this has moments of comedy involving Tracy's associates, bumbling police officers who can barely make a phone call let alone solve a crime. Kay Christopher takes on the role of Tess Truehart but has little to do. Bernadyne Hayes is memorable in a small part as a glamorous fence, decked out in furs and jewels most likely hawked to her illegally. Veteran character Ian Keith hams it up in a tiny role as a melodramatic thesbian in a pointless scene with Christopher that is amusing but has no connection to the plot, although he does get to play Conlin's "ghost". By far, it is Jimmy Conlin who you will remember, pretty much thinking the same speech that Thelma Ritter made when confronted by a killer.

Probably the coolest thing about this picture is the classy intro with the newspaper comic images of Dick Tracy's expansive cast of villains. The one that shows up in this picture is 'The Claw', a rough looking chap with a hook for a hand menacingly portrayed by Jack Lambert. A lot of the picture belongs to the villain as he skulks around back alleys taking out anyone who might get in his way. A couple of times an off screen villain by the name of Hatchet Harry is mentioned. Wouldn't it have been cool to see a Hatchet go up against The Claw? Wishful thinking I guess.As far as mysteries go, this one is pretty transparent as a robbery of the Flawless Fur Company turns out to be an inside job with the thieves actually using the combination of the fur vault to make their entry! I was pretty amazed to see the Honesty Insurance guys show up in the middle of the night and at the drop of a hat to investigate the claim. That's what you call service! Ralph Byrd fills the bill nicely as detective Dick Tracy, though I had to wonder why Tess Trueheart (Kay Christopher) had to show up for this one. Tracy barely acknowledged her in the few scenes they were in together, but I guess it made sense to have familiar names from the comic strip show up. What I missed in this film were the pun inspired names for characters like you had in "Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome" - Dr. A. Tomic and his assistant I.M. Learned. Longshot Lillie was a neat character, but she really didn't stick around too long.Anyway, Ralph Byrd is back after Morgan Conway played Tracy in the first two films of this franchise. Most folks prefer Byrd over Conway, and I'd have to second that. Overall, this one's just rather OK, but the telegraphed ending was a blast, once you realize The Claw's metal hand is somehow going to engage an electrical transformer for a literal lights out. Earlier, I couldn't help thinking that perhaps the villain's loping foot drag might have been the inspiration for Keyser Soze a half century later.

***SPOILER ALERT***Dick Tracy, Ralph Byrd, is hampered in the movie by his butterfingered assistant Pat Patton, Lyle Latell,who's more of a burden to him then anything else. How Patton got a job on the police department and how he got stuck with him should be what Dick Tracy's dilemma in the film really is.After the robbery of the Flawless Furs company's warehouse it's found out that the night watchman Hawks, Jason Robars Sr, was murdered by what seems like a machete and it's decided, being that a murder is involved with the robbery, that it's a job for the great Dick Tracy. Tracy showing up at the scene of the crime finds a number of clues as well as with the help of his eyes and ears on the streets blind bagger, who's can really see, Sighless, Jimmy Conlin, that the furs are to be exchanged at the corner of Hemp Street for $20,000.00 with Longshot Lillie, Bernadene Hayle, being the fence. It's when Longshot Lillie is taken into custody that she, realizing that she may face a murder charge, tells Tracy that she's involved with this one handed wacko, he has a hook for his right hand, "The Claw" ( Jack Lambert) in the fur robbery. "The Claw" who together with his two partners Sam & Fred, Tony Barrett & Al Bridge, are really second stringers in the murder/robbery with he Big Cheese,????, planning to exploit the crime on both sides of the law. After getting the expansive furs the Big Cheese plans on selling them back, through Longshot Lillie, to the owner of Flawless Furs Mr. Humphries, Charles Mrash. It's then that the Big Cheese is to collect, through "The Claw", the $50,000.00 in insurance from the furs underwriter Peter Permium, William B. Davidson,of the Honesty Insurance Company.The movie really never takes off with Dick Tracy just gong through the motions and not as much as getting his hands dirty in the movies final confrontation between him and "The Claw" that takes place in a deserted power plant. "The Claw" himself is anything but formidable, in giving Tracy a run for the money, but just a first-class dud and screw-up in his messing up his job by first getting spotted by Sightleess, whom he ended up slicing to death, and then getting shot and wounded, as he made his escape, by the couldn't hit the broad side of a barn Pat Patton. This all happened when Tracy's partner and sidekick Patton blew any chance of getting "The Claw" by going after the dangerous hood on his own and leaving Tracy, who was totally in the dark to what Patton was up to, standing alone with a befuddled look on his face and with his famous yellow fedora in his hand.Even though the movie ended with "The Claw" getting juiced, by 33,000 bolts of electricity, the mastermind of the fur robbery and eventually insurance fraud seemed to have gotten away Scot-free since, after he gets put to sleep, were never really shown what exactly happened to him. This even though the Big Cheese identity was discovered by non other that bumbling jerk Patton, who phoned him, who didn't even have the presence of mind to remember his phone number or even have his phone traced!

While I understand that this B-movie was NOT intended to be Shakespeare or the next contender for an Oscar, it is amazing that such a horribly written and pointless film came out by RKO Studios. I would expect this sort of bad film to be instead produced by Monogram or some other poverty row studio--it was THAT bad.Why was the film so bad? Well, although the acting was just awful (with Dick Tracy being MUCH more animated in the Chester Gould comic strips), the writing is straight from the "too stupid to live school of film making". In other words, again and again and again, the characters do things that no rational person would do--showing that the script must have never been edited or even read before it was given to the actors!! Logical errors abound--so much that even Ed Wood, Jr. would say the film is bad!! Let's start by talking about Tracy's moronic sidekick, Pat. When the evil villain (The Claw) is seen running up a flight of stairs, Pat chases them and doesn't bother to tell his boss (who is standing next to him on the phone)! Now The Claw had already killed several people and was responsible for a major robbery and Pat decides to take him alone! Also, throughout the film, Pat said the most non-sensical and pointless comments that made him seem as if he was suffering from a traumatic brain injury--and so you'd think he'd be the last person you'd make a cop and give a gun!!! Well, fortunately for Pat's ego, he was not the only imbecile in the film. "Sightless" (a really awful name for a guy who pretends to be a blind beggar) finds out who is responsible for the crimes and goes to tell Tracy. But on the way, The Claw chases him and Sightless barely escapes. Sightless then goes to Tracy's home to tell him. When Tracy isn't home, Sightless just goes home--even though the killer knows who he is and already tried to kill him! Why didn't he just go to the police station and wait there? Any THINKING person would have done this! Let's continue on my rant about the brainless characters, shall we?! Next is "Vitamin". He's a hammy actor who is about a subtle in his style as a brick in the face--and he's even dumber than Sightless! When Sightless shows up at Tracy's house, Vitamin answers the door and Sightless tells him about the criminals. Vitamin totally ignores him and pushes him out the door--despite the fact that Sightless is screaming at him about murders! Then later, when Sightless goes under cover to help atone for this HUGE blunder, he seems to do a pretty good job--until he does movie cliché #47--when he's safely hiding in another room to avoid detection by The Claw, he stumbles over a trashcan and alerts the murderer of his presence!!! Not convinced that everyone in the film is stupid?! Okay,...later two of the Claw's assistants find The Claw and he looks almost dead. Instead of trying to determine if he really is dead or dying, they stand right next to him and talk about how they will betray the Claw--and then leave. Of course no one is surprised when The Claw then gets up, follows them and kills them.About the only people you don't assume are totally stupid are Tess and Tracy. Tess only has about 3 or 4 lines--so she doesn't have the opportunity to reveal her inner stupidity. As for Tracy, he's a pretty passive guy throughout most of the film and has the personality of a ball of lint. Stupid,...maybe not,...but he also doesn't seem like he's all that smart--just some dullard who is along for the ride.About the only reason I didn't give this turkey a score of 1 is that has SOME entertainment value--but not much. It's really a shame, as the first films of the series (DICK TRACY DETECTIVE and DICK TRACY VS. CUEBALL) were pretty good films. The basic problem with these two Ralph Byrd films is the writing--it's horrendously bad.