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Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome

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Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (1947)

September. 26,1947
|
6.1
| Action Thriller Crime Mystery
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A gang of criminals, which includes a piano player and an imposing former convict known as 'Gruesome', has found out about a scientist's secret formula for a gas that temporarily paralyzes anyone who breathes it. When Gruesome accidentally inhales some of the gas and passes out, the police think he is dead and take him to the morgue, where he later revives and escapes. This puzzling incident attracts the interest of Dick Tracy, and when the criminals later use the gas to rob a bank, Tracy realizes that he must devote his entire attention to stopping them.

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Evengyny
1947/09/26

Thanks for the memories!

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Actuakers
1947/09/27

One of my all time favorites.

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GurlyIamBeach
1947/09/28

Instant Favorite.

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ThrillMessage
1947/09/29

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

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Rainey Dawn
1947/09/30

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

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Cristi_Ciopron
1947/10/01

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.

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poe-48833
1947/10/02

Sporting one of the greatest faces in the history of cinema (not to mention one of the most distinctive and recognizable voices), William Pratt ("Boris Karloff") might very well have stepped full-blown from one of the Chester Gould DICK TRACY strips. Unlike the lousy (not to mention oh-so-expensive) Big Screen fiasco with Warren Beatty in the title role, DICK TRACY MEET GRUESOME is at least watchable- and Boris himself is the reason; had they thrown in the likes of, say, Rondo Hatten and/or Peter Lorre to further the Gould visual style, and had they gotten an actor of at least marginal charisma to play the lead, this one could've been one for the ages: it's not badly directed and the cinematography is appropriately low key. Its greatest fault lies in the WRITING; a familiar refrain, to be sure, but it's the reason this one isn't worth more than a single look.

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GManfred
1947/10/03

This is a surprisingly good effort in an otherwise routine series of second-billed features. The other entries in the Dick Tracy series are cartoonish and juvenile, but this one has a plot, good production values and better than competent acting. Hiring Boris Karloff was inspired casting as he adds immeasurable status to the film with his vivid portrayal of Gruesome.The most striking aspect of the production was the unusually absorbing screenplay of the type not often seen in a programmer - just swallow a bit and go with it, and it works. Last but not least, you can get a look at one of Hollywood's best looking females in Anne Gwynne. Not for nothing was she a WWII pin-up girl.If you come across this picture in your DVD set, don't skip it. It's worth watching.

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