So much average

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

The movie is surprisingly subdued in its pacing, its characterizations, and its go-for-broke sensibilities.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

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. Never saw a Dick Tracy movie before and wow.This one with Boris Karloff is just amazing.Very tight and well directed.But it's Karloff who makes the film. Playing Gruesome, he's like no other Karloff you've seen in movies.

This is the fourth and final of the RKO Dick Tracy films. It's also the best. Why is it the best? Well, look no further than the cast. Horror great Boris Karloff plays the villain Gruesome. Karloff could do no wrong and he elevates this whole picture. The plot involves a paralyzing nerve gas and a bank robbery. Skelton Knaggs is also in this as Gruesome's cohort in crime, X-Ray. More characters with fun names like a piano player named Melody and several doctors (Dr. L.E. Thal, Dr. A. Tomic, Dr. I.M. Learned). These movies weren't "A" productions. They were turned out quickly and cheaply. But still, they are fun, fast-paced detective stories with mystery, action, and humor. This one, like I said, is the best of the lot. Karloff fans will love it.

First lets get this out of the way, Boris Karloff is amazing. Karloff brings serious gravitas for a character in a film such as this. Beyond Karloff, however, the acting is quite suspect. Byrd and Gwynne aren't nearly as compelling as Conway and Jeffreys of the 1945 film.On the story front, there is much more cartoon atmosphere present compared with the 1945 film. The names of persons and places are all gags, hand-canons are constantly going off at seeming random and Tracy's partner bumbles like no other. Whilst this is fun it isn't done well at all. The film still plays to close to 'real'. Overall this creates a strange unbalanced experience.**Spoiler**The entire device to get Tracy to the lair of Gruesome (his body switch for Melody) is ridiculous. If all Gruesome wished was to kill Melody, he wouldn't have stolen and burned him. It would have been much simpler to shoot or knife him in the hospital thus avoiding stealing an ambulance &c.**Spoiler Over**Overall, the film is enjoyable and worth a watch. It's flawed and questionable, but Karloff and occasional gags pull it together to create something a notch above average.

This was my first look at one of these old Dick Tracy movies. I believe most of them were very short, like those, a little over an hour long, and pretty fast-moving. Apparently, this is the fourth and last one of the films. I read where many people think it's the best, so I started here....and wasn't disappointed. It was entertaining.What I found, at least in this movie, was a mixture of crime and some humor. Here, too, was a little sci-fi thrown in as someone invented a gas that would freeze anyone near it for about 15 minutes. The crooks, of course, freeze everyone at the First National Bank, and then go in and rob it. (These were the days before video cameras.) Early on, one of the characters mentions something about a creepy-looking guy, "someone like Boris Karloff." The guy WAS Boris Karloff. Later, a doctor who could help the police figure out this mystery gas goes by the name of "Dr. A. Tomic," physicist. Still later, there is a dramatic scene in a room with a big sign that reads, "Y. Stuffem, taxidermist." The film is full of these little corny things making it a crime-comedy type of story.Yet, the bad guys are tough guys. Karloff is convincing as a big thug who would kill without remorse. To me, he really makes this movie and elevates the crime angle of it beautifully. He was one-of-a-kind: had the perfect look and voice for scary roles on film. Skelton Knaggs, as "X-ray," as a frightening face.