Dick Tracy vs Cueball **½ (1946, Morgan Conway, Anne Jeffreys, Dick Wessel, Lyle Latell) – Classic Movie Review 5592

Following his debut in Dick Tracy (1945), Morgan Conway returns as Tracy in director Gordon M Douglas’s enjoyable, more than adequate low-budget crime thriller, the second in the RKO Radio Pictures series of four, with Dick Wessel adding zest as the title villain Cueball.

The detective is on the trail of a gem-robbing gang who snatch $300,000 in diamonds then foolishly try to double-cross the monstrous bald-headed strangler Cueball. So he takes murderous revenge on his ex-partners in crime and is also stalking Tracy’s gal Tess Trueheart (Anne Jeffreys).

Also in the cast are Lyle Latell as Pat Patton, Rita Corday as Mona Clyde, Ian Keith as Vitamin Flintheart, Douglas Walton as Percival Priceless, Esther Howard as Filthy Flora, Joseph Crehan as Chief Brandon, Byron Foulger as Simon Little, Milton Parsons, Ralph Dunn, Trevor Bardette, Jimmy Crane, Skelton Knaggs and Harry Cheshire.

RKO studios screamed: ‘Dick the dauntless dares death to deliver diamonds’ and ‘HE’S TERRIFIC! Your Favorite Crime Crusader!’.

Dane Lussier and Robert E Kent’s screenplay is based on the comic strip by Chester Gould.

It is followed by Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (1947) and Dick Tracy’s Dilemma (1947).

The video market revived interest in these old movies after Dick Tracy was spectacularly revived by Warren Beatty in 1990.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5592

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com

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