There's more wordplay than usual in the final entry in the Series. For better or worse we are given Names that evoke chuckles and sighs. But the Characters personified are more of that specialized Tracy Comic-Strip charm.Boris Karloff is decidedly "Gruesome", carries the show and steals every Scene He appears. Although Skelton Knaggs as "X-Ray" can't be ignored with a sinister voice and coke-bottle glasses. Ralph Byrd as Tracy pretty much just reacts to things happening around. He is straight laced and squared jawed dutiful.The other returning characters show up and go through Their standard routines. Not as good as the first one in the Series but it is an above average B-Movie thanks to Karloff and a clever gimmick. Fast paced and fun.

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.

This is a fast-moving B-movie with no pretensions and a running time of 1 hour and a little change. Ralph Byrd does his good old dependable Dick Tracy, which is a darn sight better than the Warren Beatty version, and Anne Gywnne is a sexy and spunky Tess Trueheart, but the villains are the real show. The guy playing X-ray is really creepy and looks like a true degenerate, and Boris Karloff does an expert turn playing a sociopath. This villain is a little more subtle than your typical Karloff character, and if you watch him, you really can see what a pro the guy was, how deftly he could go from mood to mood, making it look easy.The strange names of the characters and the freezing gas are the tribute this film pays to its comic strip origins, but there is also a strong noir influence, which makes perfect sense, being as this flick was made at the height of the film noir period. The Karloff character, Gruesome, is a classic film noir sociopath. Too bad Karloff didn't more gangster roles; it might have been a second career for him.An interesting note: the villains' plot involves paralyzing bank employees and customers while they loot the joint. One of our heroes proclaims that this scheme has the potential of completely devastating confidence in the banking system and could cause a run on the banks, a 1930's type bank panic. Thus the villains' plot is called a "war on small investors." Writing this review in November, 2008, about 1 month after Congress gave over $700 billion to a banking industry that squandered the nation's money, I am tempted to draw some kind of analogy or make an ironical statement. But for some reason, it seems unnecessary.The only real flaw in this movie is the seemingly obligatory corny joke at the end, which clashes badly with the overall tone of the movie, and is pretty lame in its own right. That said, the otherwise excellent execution of this vehicle and my fondness for a Hollywood that made comic strip adaptations that were neither campy nor bloated, overdone pieces of self-indulgent narcissism, leaves me inclined to forgive the director.

I have long been familiar with Dick Tracy through first his comic strip when I was a kid in the '70s, then an Archie series that showcased animated comic strips, then an early '60s cartoon series from UPA, then Warren Beaty's 1990 movie and now from the last of four RKO Tracy movies from the '40s. As he had in some late '30s Republic serials and the previous RKO entry, Ralph Byrd plays the title character whose nemesis here is the other title character played by the legendary Boris Karloff. It involves a gas that paralyzes people for several minutes that makes it easy for Karloff and his cohorts to come in an rob a bank. Also in the bank is Tess Truehart (Anne Gwynne) who happens to be in a phone booth when the gas goes off so she isn't affected and calls boyfriend Tracy as the robbery takes place. Nicely dramatic and comedic use of freeze-frame throughout with subsequent action sequences an added bonus. Very good performances from Karloff and his cohorts Skelton Knaggs as X-Ray and Tony Barrett as Melody. The good guys aren't so bad either! I liked Pat's line about doing business with Boris Karloff the best. Well worth seeing for fans of '40s series programmers. P.S. Jason Robards, Sr. plays the bank vice president here.