An "Arsenic and Old Lace" inspired gag gets the ball rolling on this absolutely delightful entry in the film series based on the long running comic strip. Ralph Byrd takes a back seat in this entry to the top billed Boris Karloff who gets top billing. He's a recently released felon who leads a band of bank robbers using suspended animation to get in and out without being seen. Unbeknownst to them, Tess Truehart (Anne Gwynne) is unsuspended inside the protectory confines of a phone booth, and while she doesn't turn into Superman, she is able to notify Dick Tracy and describe the duo, one of whom shot and killed the awakening bank guard. Karloff, realizing that they need to eliminate certain witnesses, goes on a psychotic rampage, the most horrific part involving sending a live man through a crematorium. Fast moving, funny and nail biting, this has moments where it is just plain silly (a "Hold That Tiger!" singing parrot) and often ironic. A badly scarred man reacts to Karloff's name of Gruesome as rather appropriate, and other characters have the typical odd quirks that you could only expect in a Dick Tracy comic strip/feature film. Of the supporting characters, June Clayworth stands out as a professor whose genius does her in. Tony Barrett is also memorable as the handsome piano player with a devilish love of crime, and the oddly named Skelton Knaggs really the gruesome one as the sinister inventir of the grenade like object that freezes people in their tracks. Well thought out and expertly written, this gets a true heart of love from me.

It has the right idea of a comic strip carefully made into a movie, managing to be thorough, smooth and playful. And Karloff does bring something, that dark glamour and the quiet excitement, and that eerie charm, he recapitulates his previous career on the screen, and has the authority given by his experience; this player would of been great in gangster movies. The Tracy movies are neat and very enjoyable. In this one, you'll see an intriguing character actor playing X-ray, a henchman. Also, an actress offering a nice role as the missing scientist's assistant.In this movie franchise, the villains have been given pride of place; Tracy is a pawn in a teamwork, occasionally outsmarted by sly interlopes, and it needed a serviceable player, the choice for this movie was a fairly likable lead who gives a decent performance, just as required by the movie, he doesn't come across as bland (or, worse, … 'less engaging' …), but as stylized according to the franchise. The movies themselves have the look of adult comic strips, the wrongdoers are frightening, the action is thorough.The still frames of freezing transfixed characters have a suggestion: they resemble the comic strip panels. The _transfixion given by the gas bombs serves as a sign of the comic panel's idea.The villain who, forced to change sides within the underworld, becomes Karloff's sidekick, X-ray, was a striking character actor.There are in-jokes, I liked Karloff's rise after he recovered from the _transfixion given by the freezing gas-bomb, the allusion to body-snatching.The _cityscapes look great.It's RKO, who did awesome job, as here in conveying the feel of the comics, the movies really are for the comic strips' buffs. A nice role from the lady playing A. Tomic's assistant, a wonderful scene at the taxidermist, and a refreshing sidelining of the reporter.Tracy was a physical role, as generic as it gets, the generic copper, and the leading actor was serviceable.This series deserves being legendary.

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.

I first saw this movie on late-night TV in the 1970s, and have seen it a few more times since. It has held up very well, except for the bank robbery scene, which really does get annoying on repeated viewings.The very effective opening sequence introduces us to the menacing Gruesome (Karloff), his partner in crime Melody, and creepy new associate X-Ray (Skelton Knaggs). Gruesome collapses after inhaling some experimental gas and ends up in the morgue. He awakens and lights a cigarette; Pat Patton, at this desk nearby, notices something in the air but goes back to his writing, and is soon knocked cold by Gruesome, who makes his escape. There's a deft mixture of suspense and comedy in this scene, capped by Patton's line to Tracy, "If I didn't know better I'd swear we were doing business with Boris Karloff!" By contrast, the bank robbery looks like a 50s sitcom, as the release of paralyzing gas causes everybody on the premises to freeze-frame in a cartoony manner. It's easy to understand why the scene was handled this way; a more realistic treatment that showed the bank customers clutching their throats and writhing as they crumbled to the floor might have been deemed too grim. But I wish this scene hadn't been played entirely as a joke, because it dispels the dark mood established by what went before. Most viewers probably don't consider the talky scene in which Tracy meets Professor I.M. Learned to be a highlight, but it's one of my favorite parts. I can't tell if June Clayworth (who plays Learned) was much of an actress, but she is just right as the mousy scholar who might or might not be trustworthy. Learned's confrontation with Tracy is alive with ambiguity, and fun to watch. There are many nice touches. Gruesome always has a toothpick in his mouth, and it shifts like the darting tongue of a reptile. When Gruesome and X-Ray bluff their way into a hospital by impersonating doctors, a desk guard asks Gruesome if he knows how to work the elevator. "Like the fingers on my hand", Gruesome replies, making a trigger-finger gesture.Strong cast, brisk pace, and nice visual style lift this movie a cut above the average programmer.