Dick Tracy's Dilemma (1947)

3rd of 4 RKO films. Okay, but not as good as the previous two. Vitamin's back, but dumber than before. Pat's still there, as dumb as ever. NO Junior. And classy Tess has been replaced with cutie Tess. (You wish they'd hold onto the same actors for the duration of a series, don't you?) The big change is... Morgan Conway was replaced by the guy HE replaced, Ralph Byrd, allegedly, because the "exhibitors" made a stink and INSISTED on it.I dunno. "Everybody" says Byrd's the best, Byrd "looks just like Tracy". The jaw, maybe. Conway's got THE EYES. And more... Conway had LOTS MORE personality and charisma. It didn't matter in the serial I saw-- that was 90% ACTION, ACTION, ACTION! But put Tracy in a film-noir murder mystery with the actual cast of characters from the comics, and you need more that that. But I guess I'm in the minority.But hey. I liked TIMOTHY DALTON as Bond, too. (AND George Lazenby!)These run very formula. Mystery, character humor, lots of brutal killings, and a sicko doing most of them who gets his in the end. Last time the guy was HIT by a SPEEDING TRAIN! This time, it's ELECTROCUTION. By accident. Bet that hurt! Wouldn't you know it? I can't find my copy of DICK TRACY MEETS GRUESOME. Seems every time I try to watch a set of tapes, at least ONE of them goes missing. (Grrrrrrrr.)

Ralph Byrd returns as Dick Tracy in "Dick Tracy's Dilemma," a 1947 B movie with some noirish aspects. It's fast and well-directed.Here Tracy is after a killer called The Claw, who has a hook for a hand. The plot involves stolen furs, murder, and insurance fraud.If you thought Tess had nothing to do in the Morgan Conway movies, here Tess is practically an extra. The actress, Kay Christopher, was quite different from Anne Jeffreys. Christopher's Tess is sweet, where Jeffreys had more of a worldliness - it's the ingenue versus the leading lady. I never read the comics, so I don't know which one was more like Tess.Kudos to Ian Keith, an actor I love, for his portrayal of Vitamin. He was a wonderful actor.Directed with a brisk pace by John Rawlins, who adds several nice noir touches to this one, including one brilliant shot almost at the end of the film. I won't tell you what it is. You'll know it when you see it.

Ralph Byrd was the ultimate Dick Tracy - he even looked like the comic strip crime fighter. He had portrayed him initially in several serials in the late 30s and early 40s, then put the role behind him as he pursued character parts - Morgan Conway took over the role but it wasn't the same, he didn't look anything like Dick Tracy!!! "Dick Tracy's Dilemma" was the first Dick Tracy film that Byrd did after his break.A nightwatchman turns up dead, the killer should be easy to catch - he has a club foot and a claw for a hand!!! He is "The Claw" and Dick Tracy is put on the case. All he has to go on is a scrawled message - "Daisy, three of them - truck" written as the nightwatchman lay dying. The warehouse, full of furs has been robbed and Tracy radios all cars to be on the look-out for a truck with the word "Daisy" on the side. Tracy's informant "Sightless" (Jimmy Conlin, a familiar film face) finds the crook's hideout and is hunted down but not before he gives Tracy valuable information about a meeting in Hemp Street. They find Longshot Lily, the fence, waiting there for a consignment of furs - but she claims she knows nothing about anything!!! Vitamin Flintheart wants to help - he had sent "Sightless" away and feels responsible for the peddler's death.I thought the film was okay - even Lyle Latell looked like the "real" Pat Patton and Jack Lambert as "The Claw" was a ghastly looking villain. Ian Keith was the most prestigious actor in the film. He was a popular Broadway actor in the 20s and always preferred the stage. Just after this film he had a good role as Joan Blondell's alcoholic husband in "Nightmare Alley" with Tyrone Power. Kay Christopher was lovely as Tess Trueheart - it seems to be a case of why didn't she become a bigger star as this seems to be one of her few credited roles.

***SPOILER ALERT***Dick Tracy, Ralph Byrd, is hampered in the movie by his butterfingered assistant Pat Patton, Lyle Latell,who's more of a burden to him then anything else. How Patton got a job on the police department and how he got stuck with him should be what Dick Tracy's dilemma in the film really is.After the robbery of the Flawless Furs company's warehouse it's found out that the night watchman Hawks, Jason Robars Sr, was murdered by what seems like a machete and it's decided, being that a murder is involved with the robbery, that it's a job for the great Dick Tracy. Tracy showing up at the scene of the crime finds a number of clues as well as with the help of his eyes and ears on the streets blind bagger, who's can really see, Sighless, Jimmy Conlin, that the furs are to be exchanged at the corner of Hemp Street for $20,000.00 with Longshot Lillie, Bernadene Hayle, being the fence. It's when Longshot Lillie is taken into custody that she, realizing that she may face a murder charge, tells Tracy that she's involved with this one handed wacko, he has a hook for his right hand, "The Claw" ( Jack Lambert) in the fur robbery. "The Claw" who together with his two partners Sam & Fred, Tony Barrett & Al Bridge, are really second stringers in the murder/robbery with he Big Cheese,????, planning to exploit the crime on both sides of the law. After getting the expansive furs the Big Cheese plans on selling them back, through Longshot Lillie, to the owner of Flawless Furs Mr. Humphries, Charles Mrash. It's then that the Big Cheese is to collect, through "The Claw", the $50,000.00 in insurance from the furs underwriter Peter Permium, William B. Davidson,of the Honesty Insurance Company.The movie really never takes off with Dick Tracy just gong through the motions and not as much as getting his hands dirty in the movies final confrontation between him and "The Claw" that takes place in a deserted power plant. "The Claw" himself is anything but formidable, in giving Tracy a run for the money, but just a first-class dud and screw-up in his messing up his job by first getting spotted by Sightleess, whom he ended up slicing to death, and then getting shot and wounded, as he made his escape, by the couldn't hit the broad side of a barn Pat Patton. This all happened when Tracy's partner and sidekick Patton blew any chance of getting "The Claw" by going after the dangerous hood on his own and leaving Tracy, who was totally in the dark to what Patton was up to, standing alone with a befuddled look on his face and with his famous yellow fedora in his hand.Even though the movie ended with "The Claw" getting juiced, by 33,000 bolts of electricity, the mastermind of the fur robbery and eventually insurance fraud seemed to have gotten away Scot-free since, after he gets put to sleep, were never really shown what exactly happened to him. This even though the Big Cheese identity was discovered by non other that bumbling jerk Patton, who phoned him, who didn't even have the presence of mind to remember his phone number or even have his phone traced!