DICK TRACY MEETS GRUESOME - "Chester Gould Meets Boris Karloff" (1947)

 On the 13th day of X-Mas, my true love gave to me, Boris Karloff and Dick Tracy!

 Welcome to Saturday night down in The Dungeon, and tonight's special feature, "Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome!" Anything and everything with Boris Karloff in it, is always going to be special to us!

The opening is rather ominous!

But as it turns out, it's just the local dive, "The Hangman's Knot!"

Everyone's shakin' down at the Knot to the swinging sounds of a wild cat named Melody tinkling on the keys! Hit it Melody!!

The mood changes when a fresh out of prison Gruesome comes on the scene!

Melody is happy Gruesome is out so they can pull off some big jobs together! Melody was played by Tony Barrett, who went on to be a very successful TV detective series writer in the 60's with shows like "77 Sunset Strip," "Peter Gunn," and "Mod Squad!"

 Time to see what's happening on the other side of this door at Wood Plastics Inc!

Gruesome gets a little too nosy and sticks his snoot into something he should have stayed out of!

 He staggers back to the Knot, keels over dead, and is stiff as a board in no time at all! The rigor mortis sets in almost instantly!

This case is just weird enough that it's time to call in Dick Tracy! Dick was played by Ralph Byrd who also had the role of Dick Tracy in 5 other serials and movies, and then also for a two year run of 48 episodes as Dick Tracy on TV from 1950 to 1952!

Gruesome wakes up in the morgue, and lights up a cigarette before he realizes where he is! He knocks out the guard and escapes right when Dick Tracy arrives!

 Gruesome develops a plan with Melody to use this new found gas to rob a bank while all the customers are left stiff and incapacitated! One guy stops cold right in the middle of a sneeze! Time basically freezes which allows the boys to clean out the place!

Unfortunately Dick Tracy's main Squeeze Tess Trueheart was also in the bank, and she blows the whistle on the robbers! She is only pretending to be stiff, but she was unaffected because she was in this phone booth when the gas was released! Tess is played by the lovely Anne (House Of Frankenstein, Teenage Monster) Gwynne!

Chester Gould's character Dick Tracy was so popular that the comic strip ran in the newspapers in 27 different countries! You would think a lot of the word gags would have got lost in translation!

The marvelously creepy Skelton (House Of Dracula) Knaggs had the role of X-Ray! I love this shot of Skelton and Boris together!

Whose jokes and play on words came first, Chester Gould or The Three Stooges?

"Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome" is not exactly a comedy, but it's pretty funny at times! Lyle Latell is detective Pat Patton. The colourful Mr. Latell also had the role of Pat in "Dick Tracy," "Dick Tracy vs Cueball," and "Dick Tracy's Dilemma!

Just in case you didn't notice, the date today is 12-13-14!!!

 

 You can't beat a gift like this, "Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome" is another awesome movie you can download or stream for free over at the truly amazing Internet Archive!  It's all free, but they sure wouldn't mind if you'd donate a couple of bucks to the cause!

 

Sometime in the near future, we'll get around to that other great Dick Tracy film, "Dick Tracy vs Cueball!"

Here's a look at just a very, very, small sampling of the colourful characters Chester Gould came up with for Dick Tracy to tangle with in the 30's and 40's! What a guy!