Stiff bodies everywhere

DICK TRACY MEETS GRUESOME (1947)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

What could've been easily a disposable Dick Tracy detective film is actually improved upon by the appearance of the titan actor who could make you shiver in your nightmares forever, Boris Karloff. Karloff is the amoral convict Gruesome who paired with dastardly villains and a potentially deadly chemical gas is ready to wreck havoc.

The plot concerns mostly Gruesome as he obtains a secret gaseous formula that can stiffen people when in contact. This is perfect for Gruesome and his equally amoral pal, Melody (Tony Barrett), as they use it in a bank robbery in a hilarious sequence where everybody freezes including a cat! It is of course up to Dick Tracy and company to save the city from further robberies and murders.

Karloff is the star of this RKO serial and he embodies the character with enough sinister qualities (and monstrous makeup under the right noirish lighting) to give you the heebie jeebies. A formidable villain for Dick yet Ralph Byrd (who played the square jawed detective, this film being his last appearance) doesn't come off as a rousing hero - just some meek-looking, fast-talking detective who remains loyal to Tess Trueheart (Anne Gwynne). I have not seen the other Byrd-cast Dick Tracy films but I am not sure he approaches the bulkier look of the Chester Gould comic strip hero.

There is a lot to enjoy in "Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome" with much humor and action and it is worth catching it especially if you love Boris Karloff (not to mention a nasty, skeletal-looking fiend named X-Ray played by Skelton Knaggs who could give Peter Lorre a run for his money). They just needed a hero to match wits with Karloff. 

Music boxes & bank plates figure in Holmes' Mystery

DRESSED TO KILL (1946)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

An intriguing opening sequence from "Dressed to Kill" has two Dartmoor prisoners manufacturing musical boxes that will be sold to a London auction. These musical boxes are not exactly priceless yet their musical content contains secret codes elusive to those who purchase the boxes. Thus begins an exciting and thrilling final chapter in the Universal-helmed Sherlock Holmes series with Basil Rathbone as the iconic sleuth who deduces clues faster than Scotland Yard and Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) who never catches on fast enough.

There is much to enjoy in "Dressed to Kill." The convict in the opening scene has hidden Bank of England's £5 printing plates somewhere and all three cheap musical boxes have the clues (Hint: the nuanced musical themes in each box). When Dr. Watson's charming friend Stinky (Edmond Breon), a music box collector, is killed after having one of those boxes stolen (worth only two pounds), Sherlock finds himself embroiled in a nifty plot involving a femme fatale (Patricia Morison) who devises a clever disguise as an old Cockney-accented woman to elude Holmes - she is involved in Stinky's murder. Though Sherlock can't quite figure out the details immediately, eventually he does and faces obstacles such as a deadly poison gas that the Germans love to use on undesirables (a little WW2 hint of Holocaust atrocity). More deductive reasoning emits from a visit to a pub for actors,  and a museum of a certain famous doctor that at first seems like a contrivance yet, on second viewing with attention paid to details, is decidedly not. That's the cleverness of Sherlock Holmes and his trusted partner, Dr. Watson, who helps Holmes when least expected with famous quotes and reminiscences of piano-playing that involved his frustrated teacher numbering the piano keys. Watson may not catch on in the detective department but he is useful.

A solid mystery that is oodles of fun especially for those who love Sherlock Holmes. I can only sum up "Dressed to Kill" with Holmes' own words: "Brilliant antagonist. A pity her talents were so misdirected." I think that says it all.