Main Cast: Ralph Byrd, Lyle Latell, Kay Christopher, Jack Lambert, Ian Keith
Release Year: 1947
Country: US
Run Time: 60 minutes
Plot
Ralph Byrd returns to the character he had originated ten years earlier in the serial Dick Tracy. This time, Chester Gould's immortal comic strip hero is called in to handle a fur theft. The owner of Flawless Furs, Humphreys (Charles Marsh), has just signed on with the Honesty Insurance Company whose investigator, Cudd (Al Bridge), made him change the combination to the vault. The insurance policy --as the head of Honesty, Peter Premium (William B. Davidson), explains -- holds the company liable if the stolen furs haven't been recovered within 24 hours of the theft. The trail leads to Longshot Lily (Bernadene Hayes), a would-be fence who is promptly arrested. But when Tracy's snitch, Sightless (Jimmy Conlin), is found brutally murdered, the detective realizes that he has more than a simple fur theft on his hands. With the help of master thespian Vitamin Flintheart (Ian Keith) and ever-present sidekick Pat Patton (Lyle Latell), Tracy follows a series of clues that leads him to a deserted junkyard and a fateful confrontation with fiendish killer "the Claw" (Jack Lambert). Dick Tracy's Dilemma was followed by Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (1947), after which RKO retired the series. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
Review
Despite good work by Morgan Conway in the initial two Dick Tracy features, Ralph Byrd's return to the role is cause for celebration. Happily, Byrd follows Conway's lead and plays the character with steely determination and director John Rawlins adds enough noir touches to satisfy even a more discriminating modern audience. Chester Gould-like supporting characters also include Longshot Lillie (Bernadene Hayes), tough and unflinching even under intense pressure; Vitamin Flintheart (Ian Keith), as grandiose as ever and obviously patterned after John Barrymore; and, of course, the Claw himself, played by Jack Lambert with a monosyllabic malice not often found in this kind of cinematic pulp fiction. Add little Jimmy Conlin as the none too handicapped Sightless and you have a rogue's gallery worthy of Damon Runyon. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
Albert S. D'Agostino - Art Director, Lucius O. Croxton - Art Director, John Rawlins - Director, Marvin J. Coil - Editor, Paul Sawtell - Composer (Music Score), Frank Redman - Cinematographer, Herman Schlom - Producer, Russell A. Cully - Special Effects, Robert Stephen Brode - Screenwriter
Also called Mark of the Claw in the United Kingdom, Dick Tracy's Dilemma is about police detective Dick Tracy investigating fur thefts. He soon finds out that the thief has a hook for a hand and calls himself The Claw!
