Dick Tracy vs. Cueball (1946) Classic Detective Comic Crime Noir

Directed by Gordon M. Douglas (I Was a Communist for the F.B.I., Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, The Detective), and with James Anderson as an assistant. 

Written by Dane Lussier and Robert E. Kent from a story by Luci Ward, and based on the characters in Dick Tracy by by Chester Gould. Cinematography was by George E. Diskant (They Live by Night, Desperate, Port of New York, The Narrow Margin, On Dangerous Ground, Kansas City Confidential), and Music by Phil Ohman.

The film stars Morgan Conway as Dick Tracy, Anne Jeffreys (Dillinger) as Tess Trueheart, Lyle Latell (T-Men, Hollow Triumph, He Walked by Night, The Damned Don't Cry, Trapped, A Streetcar Named Desire) as Pat Patton, Rita Corday as Mona Clyde, Ian Keith (Nightmare Alley) as Vitamin Flintheart, Dick Wessel (Scarlet Street, Black Angel, High Wall, ) as Harry "Cueball" Lake, Douglas Walton (The Letter, Murder My Sweet, High Tide) as Percival Priceless, Esther Howard (Detour, Born To Kill, Murder My Sweet, The Crooked Way, Cadged, No Man Of Her Own) as Filthy Flora, Joseph Crehan as Chief Brandon, Byron Foulger as Simon Little, Jimmy Crane as Junior, Tracy's adopted son, Milton Parsons as Higby, assistant to Priceless, Skelton Knaggs as Rudolph, accomplice diamond cutter. and Ralph Dunn as Policeman (uncredited). 

Now supposedly from what I've read the creator of the Dick Tracy comics strip Chester Gould preferred Morgan Conway's interpretation of the character above Ralph Byrds'. For me it doesn't matter one way or the other. This was the second Tracy film with Conway. It also displays the Visual Noir style.

The Story

A steamship docks. A crew of longshoremen await the lowering of the gangplank. Harry "Cueball" Lake, a just released con, is hunkered down among the stacks of crates on the wharf. When the crew of longshoremen board the ship, Cueball pops up and mingles aboard with them. He ditches the longshoremen, skirts the ships mates, and disappears into the cabin way. 

Dick Wessel as Cueball

Cueball ditches the longshoremen, skirts the ships mates, and disappears into the cabin way. Cueball knows exactly where he is going. Cabin A-12. He knocks on the door and watches through the louvers as the man  the man inside is fumbling with a small package.

The guy inside answers something along the lines of "just a minute." He has a small box inside the wrap paper. The man slips it into the side pocket of his jacket. He then unlocks the door and Cueball pushes his way in. 

Cueball demands the diamonds. The man says "what diamonds" and deigns he has any. Cueball reaches to grab him the man who tries to pull a gun. Cueball grabs his arm takes the gun, and finds the box of diamonds. Cueball slips the box into his jacket and is about to leave when the man he just robbed tries to call on the ships phone. Cueball takes the leather band off his hat and strangles him.

Dick Tracy is notified and called in to investigate. Tracy his partner Pat Patton and the forensic team arrive on the shipboard scene of the crime. Tracy asks questions, in the dead mans pocket he finds an address book and his business card for Jules Sparkle a diamond importer. 

Morgan Conway as Dick Tracy

Tracy with Lyle Latell as Pat Patton on rt.

Tracy and Patton head to the Sparkle offices. Tracy questions Jules, and his two employees Mona Clyde, the firms secretary and Simon Little the lapidary, and gets a strong hunch that it was probably and inside job. 

Tracy says something that sounds quite routine to Pat but it really is some sort of prearrange order to Pat to tail Little. Pat stakes out the office and follows Little when he leaves to a tenement. 

Tracy stays behind a few n-more minutes, finishes off his investigation and offers to give Mona a ride home.  

Pat Patton waits outside the tenement while Little goes up and meets with Rudolph and Cueball. Little is pissed off because Cueball killed the courier making their caper to steal the diamonds a murder. Little tells him that he wants nothing to do with the diamonds. Cueball still wants his money and Little tells him that Percival Priceless, an antiques dealer, has his money.

Skelton Knaggs as Rudolph lt., and Byron Foulger as Simon Little rt.

"I want nothing to do with the diamonds."

Meanwhile Tracy drops Mona at her stoop. She goes into the building. Tracy drives off. Mona looks out from her apartment through parted blinds. She comes back outside. 

Tracy who has parked out of site around the corner, is staking out her building and watches as she departs. Tracy tails her. 

Mona leads him to the, closed for the night, Priceless Antiques. She knocks on the door a few times and gets no response. 

She opens up her purse, writes a note, and slips it under the door. Mona leaves. Tracy is now interested in that note. He walks over to the door and tries to snatch the note out but it is pulled under the door by Percival Priceless. Tracy knocks on the door and Priceless lets him in. Tracy demands the note. It's just message that she will return the next day. Questioned about it Priceless tells Tracy is about some candlesticks she wanted to purchase.

Tracy can't prove anything so he thanks Percival and leaves the shop, Percival watches Tracy as he heads off down the sidewalk through the blinds.

Back at Little's tenement, Rudolph looking out the window gets lucky and spots Patton outside and tells Cueball that the place is under surveillance. Cueball goes out a different entrance comming out below the stoop, knocks out Patton, and slips away. 

Cueball goes to the Dripping Dagger bar to find owner and con woman Filthy Flora. Cueball wants a place to hide out. 

Flora reading the headlines of a newspaper know that Cueball is probably hot, and can charge him extra.  

Flora shows Cueball her secret basement hideout. It all starts going Noirsville when Cueball continues to pile up strangled bodies, all connected with the diamonds. 

Noirsville

This is another Noir for the comic strip reading crowd. It covers the gist of the cartoon characters created by Gould. I get a kick out of Ester Howard getting the most out of her part. Douglas Walton you will recognize also, he played Lindsay Marriott in Murder My Sweet. The sequence with the Santa Fe diesel locomotive was used again in The Bodyguard (1948) with Lawrence Tierney and again in Brainstorm (1965).  It's worth a watch if you want to see a decent 1946 time waster shot in a Noir Style. 6/10

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