Thursday, October 20, 2016

31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN DAY 20: DICK TRACY 1945 (SINISTER CINEMA), DICK TRACY VS. CUEBALL 1946 (SINISTER CINEMA)

Great little films that may not have monster in them, but they are fun for the season anyway, and some of the Tracy villains are very bizarre.

This is a four film set from Sinister Cinema and I will talk about the first two films here and the others at a later date. The first film is DICK TRACY from RKO in 1945.

Morgan Conway took the title role in this tight little crime drama in which Tracy and his partner Pat Patton (Lyle Latell) find themselves at odds with a killer known as "Splitface" (Mike Mazurki).

Tracy must put the clues together in a string of murders before the body count piles up further. Mazurki is excellent as always and Conway does a good job as Tracy, but the real joy is gorgeous Anne Jeffries as Tess Trueheart. I have always thought she was a beautiful woman, and seeing her in this is a bonus as far as I am concerned.

The rest of the cast includes Milton Parsons, Trevor Bardett and in her film debut, Jane Greer.

The second film is DICK TRACY VS. CUEBALL from 1946. Conway again returns as Tracy. This time Tracy and Patton are on the case of a killer who has stolen diamonds from a fence before they can be sold. He continues killing people he thinks are trying to swindel him.

Dick Wessel is Cueball and he does an excellent job of acting like a psycho killer tinged with paranoia. Anne Jeffries returns as Tess as well as Latell reprising the role of Pat Patton.

Byron Folger, Milton Parsons and Skelton Knaggs round out the superb B-movie cast. Both of these films are fun, fast paced and good for this or any other season.

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