Main Cast: Morgan Conway, Anne Jeffreys, Lyle Latell, Rita Corday, Ian Keith
Release Year: 1946
Country: US
Run Time: 62 minutes
Plot
Morgan Conway made his final screen appearance as Chester Gould's granite-jawed detective Dick Tracy in this RKO Radio programmer. This time around, Tracy's nemesis is baldheaded jewel thief Cueball, played with blunt menace by Dick Wessel. Double-crossed by his gang, Cueball methodically bumps them off. This would normally delight the cops, who'd been wanting to get rid of the gang anyway, but unfortunately Cueball has vowed to eliminate Tracy as well. The villain's ultimate demise is as good as anything cooked up by Chester Gould for the comic strips. Directed and written in the same larger-than-life style of the Gould original, Dick Tracy vs. Cueball features such colorful characters as Tracy's main squeeze Tess Trueheart (Anne Jeffreys), pill-popping ham actor Vitamin Flintheart (Ian Keith), waterfront hag Filthy Flora (Esther Howard) and jewelry shop proprietor Jules Priceless (Douglas Walton). For reasons that defy explanation, this delightfully daffy concoction was spotlighted in the notorious volume The Fifty Worst Films of All Time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
A so-called film historian once listed Dick Tracy Vs. Cueball among the "Fifty Worst Films of All Time." Pay absolutely no notice! A delightful whodunit very much in the spirit of Chester Gould's original comic strip, this sometimes rather violent humdinger of a Grade-B film shouldn't be found on any "Worst Films" list at all and is actually more entertaining than Warren Beatty's critically acclaimed but over-produced blockbuster of 1990. Here are deliciously juicy performances by Ian Keith as Vitamin Flintheart, a character very much based on the latter-day John Barrymore; Esther Howard as the old waterfront hag Filthy Flora; and, of course, Dick Wessel as the rampaging title character, whose eventual demise remains a shocker. Although not popular with contemporary audiences, Morgan Conway's Tracy is actually considered the definitive version by some notable modern aficionados and if he doesn't quite resemble his comic strip alter ego, Conway's jaw-punching portrayal is perhaps closer to Gould's no-nonsense crime fighter than competitors Ralph Byrd and Warren Beatty. Anne Jeffreys, meanwhile, repeats her spirited Tess Truehart from Dick Tracy and Lyle Latell adds his usual bumbling comic by-play as sidekick Pat Patton. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
Albert S. D'Agostino - Art Director, Lucius O. Croxton - Art Director, Gordon M. Douglas - Director, Philip Martin - Editor, Sid Rogell - Executive Producer, Constantin Bakaleinikoff - Composer (Music Score), Phil Ohman - Composer (Music Score), George E. Diskant - Cinematographer, Herman Schlom - Producer, Darrell Silvera - Set Designer, Shelby Willis - Set Designer, Russell A. Cully - Special Effects, Dane Lussier - Screenwriter, Robert Kent - Screenwriter, Luci Ward - Short Story Author
Dick Tracy vs. Cueball is a 1946 film starring Morgan Conway as Dick Tracy. It is considered by many Dick Tracy fans to be the best of RKO's Dick Tracy films.
Luxurious diamonds are stolen but before the thief can safely hide them he is strangled by ex-conman Cueball (Dick Wessel). Cueball takes the diamonds and continues on murdering people that he believes are trying to double-cross him. Dick Tracy (Morgan Conway) allows his girlfriend Tess to act as a buyer for the diamonds but what happens when Cueball vows to eliminate Dick Tracy?
Cast
Morgan Conway as Dick Tracy - The unstoppable detective on the search for Cueball.
Dick Wessel as Harry "Cueball" Lake - A murderous diamond thief. His strangles his victims with a leather hatband.
Anne Jeffreys as Tess Trueheart - Dick Tracy's girlfriend.
Lyle Latell as Pat Patton - Tracy's bumbling partner.
Ian Keith as Vitamin Flintheart - An aged thespian and friend of Tracy.
Trivia
Trevor Bardette, who played the doomed Professor Starling in the first Dick Tracy film makes a quick cameo as Cueball's first victim Lester Abbott.
Milton Parsons appears in three of the four Dick Tracy films. In the first, he played the mysterious Mr. Deathridge, in this one, he played Higby, Mr. Priceless's assistant, and in the last film, Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome, he played Dr. A. Tomic. His characters died in two of the pictures.
