DICK TRACY - "And The Dirty-Thug Known As Splitface" (1945)

Welcome to World Class Wrasslin' Wednesday with the spotlight this week on one of the masters of the art, and one Helluva nice guy,  the wrestler known as Iron Mike Mazurki!

Also known as "Dick Tracy, Detective," you used to be able to find movies like this for 99 cents down at the Dollar Store, but now with today's modern technology, all you have to do is go to the amazing Internet Archive and download yourself a copy for nothing! Life is good!

The coolest thing is that "Dick Tracy" is actually a pretty good movie, and clocking in at just one minute past an hour doesn't give the people who made it any time to mess around, so it's just pretty much 61 minutes of thrilling action and adventure!

People are always longing for the good olde days, but it wasn't even safe to walk the streets alone back in 1945!

And whatever you do, don't look back! Just to show you what a tough guy Splitface is, his first victim is an innocent school teacher!

This is possibly the first known reference to rap in Pop Culture!

Once the word gets out, the newspaper headlines go completely insane!!

This movie might be called "Dick Tracy," but Splitface really shines as the star, and maybe that's because to me Morgan Conway doesn't really look that much like Dick Tracy! He does a good job in the role, but his look just wasn't quite right! The following year Morgan also played Dick Tracy in "Dick Tracy Vs. Cueball!"

Now Anne (ZOMBIES ON BROADWAY) Jeffreys on the other hand, is perfect in the role of Tess Trueheart! In fact, she's downright smokin' hot! Anne is even going to be in a film coming out next year called "Le Grand Jete!"

So here he is, big Mike Mazurki as the evil Splitface! Just in case you didn't know, Mike was a very intelligent and witty man, but being 6' 5" and looking mean as Hell and intimidating, he got typecast as bad guy bruisers for years, and was very successful at it!! Mike continued to wrestle even through the years that he was acting!

Is this a great shot of Splitface sneaking up on Tess Trueheart or not?

Does this look like the face of a man who graduated with a Bachelor's Degree at the top of his class? In 1965 Mike established a non-profit fraternal organization called the "Cauliflower Alley Club" that has honored wrestlers everywhere, gives out scholarships and has a benevolent fund that helps out retired wrestlers!  In the last 14 years, they have given out over $40,000.00 to anybody associated with wrestling who is in need! Anybody can become a member for a small donation, and if you're interested,  you can look them up at The Cauliflower Alley Club!!

Dick Tracy and Tess Trueheart make for quite a handsome couple! Other characters appearing with Dick Tracy over the years haven't been as lucky! Check out some of these names: B.O. Plenty, Frizzletop, Lottie Latte, Acres O'Reilly, Blowtop Jones, Breathless Mahoney, Chuck Hole, Gravel Girtie, Habe Corpussle, Hammerhead, Measles Enog, Miss Rinkles, Piggy Butcher, Piston Puss, and Wormy Marron! And that's just barely scratching the surface!

Great name for a mortuary! The author and illustrator of the Dick Tracy comic strip was Chester Gould, a man with a wild imagination! Dick Tracy premiered October 4th, 1931 in the Chicago Tribune, and even though Chester Gould is long gone, Dick Tracy still continues to run in newspapers all over the world!

Mr. Deathridge is going to need a mortician himself after Splitface got done with him!!

Look at those amazing angles! The awesome cinematography was done by Frank Redman!

Splitface tangos with Tess Trueheart!

And then he tangles with Dick Tracy!

Mike Mazurki's own cauliflower ear is the centerpiece of the iconic logo for the Cauliflower Alley Club!! May his memory live on forever!