Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome
| Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome | |
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Theatrical Poster
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| Directed by | John Rawlins |
| Produced by | Herman Schlom |
| Written by | Characters: Chester Gould Story: William Graffis Robert E. Kent |
| Screenplay by | Robertson White Eric Taylor |
| Starring |
Boris Karloff Ralph Byrd Anne Gwynne |
| Music by | Paul Sawtell |
| Cinematography | Frank Redman |
| Edited by | Elmo Williams |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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65 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (also known as Dick Tracy Meets Karloff and Dick Tracy's Amazing Adventure (UK) ) is a 1947 thriller film starring Ralph Byrd, Anne Gwynne, and Boris Karloff. The film is the fourth and final installment of the Dick Tracy film series released by RKO Radio Pictures.
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 a mysterious test tube that paralyzes him. He appears to be dead and is taken to the city morgue.
Dick Tracy (Ralph Byrd) is at headquarters speaking with college professor Dr. A. Tomic (Milton Parsons), 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 use nerve gas to incapacitate the customers and the security guard. 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. It all ends in a shootout, with Gruesome shot by Tracy and then back at headquarters, where Tracy ends up frozen by nerve gas just as he's about to kiss Tess.
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Wikipedia