''Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome'' (also known as ''Dick Tracy Meets Karloff'' and ''Dick Tracy's Amazing Adventure'' (UK) ) is a 1947 American

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

directed by John Rawlins and starring

Boris Karloff William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), known professionally as Boris Karloff () and occasionally billed as Karloff the Uncanny, was a British actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film ''Frankenstei ...

, Ralph Byrd and Anne Gwynne. The film is the fourth and final installment of the ''Dick Tracy'' film series released by

RKO Radio Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, is an American film production and distribution company, historically one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Kei ...

.Stephen Jacobs, ''Boris Karloff: More Than a Monster'', Tomahawk Press 2011 p 322-323

Plot

Just out of jail, Gruesome (Boris Karloff) goes to the Hangman's Knot saloon, where his old crime crony, Melody ( Tony Barrett), is now playing piano. Gruesome takes him to a plastics manufacturer, where X-Ray ( Skelton Knaggs) and a mysterious mastermind are in possession of a secret formula and hatching a sinister plot. Ignoring a warning not to touch anything, Gruesome sniffs the gas from a mysterious

test tube A test tube, also known as a culture tube or sample tube, is a common piece of laboratory glassware consisting of a finger-like length of glass or clear plastic tubing, open at the top and closed at the bottom. Test tubes are usually placed in s ...

; he escapes the toxic fumes but collapses upon returning to the Hangman's Knot and is taken to the city

morgue A morgue or mortuary (in a hospital or elsewhere) is a place used for the storage of human corpses awaiting identification (ID), removal for autopsy, respectful burial, cremation or other methods of disposal. In modern times, corpses have cu ...

, where his body stiffens dramatically. Dick Tracy ( Ralph Byrd) is at headquarters speaking with college professor Dr. A. Tomic (

Milton Parsons Ernest Milton Parsons (May 19, 1904 – May 15, 1980) was an American character actor. Career In 1927, Parsons performed with The Strolling Players of Boston acting company. On Broadway, he portrayed James Case in ''Unto the Third'' (1933) ...

), a scientist who suspects someone has been following him. At the morgue, Tracy's sidekick Pat ( Lyle Latell) has his back turned when Gruesome wakes up and knocks him out. Pat describes him to Tracy as looking a lot like the actor Boris Karloff (a gag cribbed from ''Arsenic and Old Lace''). At a bank where Tess Trueheart (Anne Gwynne) happens to be, Gruesome and Melody drop a grenade with the gas into a wastebasket; when it goes off, everyone but Tess freezes in place. They rob the place of more than $100,000 and shoot a cop on the sidewalk before Tracy and his men arrive. Gruesome demands half of the loot from X-Ray .... or else. Tracy tries to learn the secret of the formula from Dr. Tomic's top assistant, Professor Learned ( June Clayworth), before going after Gruesome and his gang. Over the course of the film, Learned is shot dead, and Melody dies in a car accident. As an offhand comment, Tess quips "dead men tell no tales", which gives Tracy an idea: since Gruesome will resort even to murder to keep his secret weapon a secret, if he thinks Melody is alive, he will hunt Melody down to prevent any leaks. Tracy decides to run a

false flag A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party. The term "false flag" originated in the 16th century as an expression meaning an intentional misrep ...

operation: put out word that Melody has been captured alive, and pose as Melody hoping Gruesome will show up. Gruesome takes the bait and abducts what he thinks is Melody from the hospital. In a climactic shootout at the plastic factory, Tracy shoots Gruesome in the back. Tracy retrieves one last gas grenade with the intent of analyzing the contents. Back at the office, in the closing scene, the grenade inadvertently goes off, freezing everyone in place just as Dick and Tess are about to kiss.

Cast

as Gruesome * Ralph Byrd as Dick Tracy * Anne Gwynne as Tess Truehart * Skelton Knaggs as Rudolph X-Ray * Edward Ashley as Dr. Lee Thal * June Clayworth as Dr. I.M. Learned * Lyle Latell as Pat Patton * Tony Barrett as 'Melody' Fiske * James Nolan as Dan Sterne * Joseph Crehan as Chief Brandon *

as Dr. A. Tomic

Legacy

* In 2007, ''Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome'' was shown on the horror hosted television series '' Cinema Insomnia''. Apprehensive Films later released the ''Cinema Insomnia'' episode onto DVD. * On October 16, 2014, writer Mike Curtis and artist Joe Staton introduced a version of the Gruesome character into the ''Dick Tracy'' comic strip. They introduced a character inspired by Melody (Mel O. Dee) on October 27 of that year. The cartoonists carry the joke further. Gruesome had had plastic surgery done to change his appearance, by a Dr. Einstein and Gruesome gets drafted to portray Jonathon Brewster in a production of ''Arsenic and Old Lace''. * US band Poet Named Revolver, from

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

, released an album called ''Meets Gruesome''. Recorded in 2007, first released in 2008, and reissued in 2014 by No Kings Record Cadre, with visual references to the film.

References

External links

* * * * {{John Rawlins 1947 films American black-and-white films Films directed by John Rawlins Dick Tracy films Films about organized crime in the United States RKO Pictures films 1940s police procedural films American thriller films 1940s thriller films Films scored by Paul Sawtell 1940s American films