“Dick Tracy vs. Cueball” (1946)

Dick Tracy vs. Cueball

Brief Description:

When bad guy Cueball realizes he's been betrayed by his crew of criminals, he starts hunting them down, along with his arch nemesis Dick Tracy. 

Date: 1946

Genre: American action film

Running time: 1 hour 3 minutes 

Cast: 

 Morgan Conway (Dick Tracy)

Anne Jeffreys (Tess Trueheart)

Lyle Latell (Pat Patton)

Rita Corday (Mona Clyde)

Ian Keith (Vitamin Flintheart)

Dick Wessel (Harry "Cueball" Lake)

Douglas Walton (Percival Priceless)

Esther Howard (Filthy Flora)

Joseph Crehan (Chief Brandon)

Byron Foulger (Simon Little)

Jimmy Crane (Junior)

Milton Parsons (Higby)

Skelton Knaggs (Rudolph)

Ralph Dunn (Policeman)

Director: Gordon M. Douglas & James Anderson

Production company: RKO Radio Pictures

Based on: the comic strip about Dick Tracy by Chester Gould

Wikipedia page

Watch on Archive

(watched on Tubi)

Setting/Aesthetic/Feel: 4/5

I watched this years ago but didn't remember any of it, so I just rewatched it. Once I got past the atrocious comics in the opening (I don’t know why they bother me so much, but they just feel violent??? idk) and realized that the ridiculous names (Filthy Flora? Percival Priceless? Mr. Sparkles, the jeweller?) are probably from the comic strip, I still didn't enjoy it much 😆 The setting is okay, though. Feels like NYC or something. The train part vaguely reminds me of another period film I watched (must hunt it down) and I enjoyed seeing the neon lights of the Dripping Dagger, and all the hidden rooms—and the scenes in Tracy's house. 

Characters: 3/5

I hated Cueball. He's terrifying, not because he's smart, but because he's so terribly ruthless and powerful. However, there wasn't much of anyone else to like except Tess, Junior, and the other kid—oh, and Vitamin, who's hilarious. Tracy's okay, but I didn't particularly care for him; and Patton is the stereotypical dumb sidekick but not funny enough to actually be interesting 😆 

Plot: 3.5/5

Archive's very succinct description for this film is "A police detective uses his girlfriend to track down a homicidal maniac," and while there's a lot more that happens, I do think that's kind of the sticking point, because what idiot lets his girlfriend fill in the place of a policewoman when the guy you're hunting has already killed at least three people, if not four?? Apart from Cueball's murder spree, the whole diamond saga was interesting, but there wasn't enough humour to balance out the violence in my opinion. 

Romance: 4/5

Vitamin jokingly tries to make Tess jealous when they find a queue of policewomen going into Dick's office. When only one girl is left with him Tess does get jealous and barges in. 

Content: 3.5/5 (medium)

Lots of drinking in the Dripping Dagger. 

Violence: 3/5 (medium)

Cueball strangles four people onscreen; someone gets run over by a train. 

Overall: 3.5/5

Not the worst film ever, but Cueball ruined it for me. I just couldn't stomach him.