Dick Tracy's Dilemma aka Mark of the Claw (1947) Classic Detective Comic Crime Noir

Directed by John Rawlins (Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942) Dick Tracy meets Gruesome (1947). 

Written by Robert Stephen Brode based on Chester Gould's comic strip. Music by Paul Sawtell and Cinematography by Frank Redman ( Noirs Shed No Tears 1948, Double Deal   (1950), . 

The film stars Ralph Byrd (Canon City, Union Station, and Dick Tracy TV Series 1950–1952) as Dick Tracy, Kay Christopher (The Locket, Desperate) as Tess Trueheart, Lyle Latell (in all four RKO Tracy films) as Pat Patton, Tracy's clumsy assistant, and seven Classic Noir vet Jack Lambert as Steve "the Claw" Michel. Also Ian Keith (Nightmare Alley1947) as Vitamin Flintheart, Tracy's actor friend, Bernadene Hayes (This Gun For Hire, Caught, and Wicked Woman) as the Fence Longshot Lillie, Jimmy Conlin (Fallen Angel, Knock On Any Door, ) as Sightless, William B. Davidson (Dillinger) as Peter Premium, V.P. Honesty Insurance, Tony Barrett as Sam, and Tom Keene as Fred, two crooks.

Ralph Byrd as Dick Tracy

Jack Lambert as Steve "the Claw" Michel

Jimmy Conlin as Sightless and Lyle Latell as Pat Patton

This is the third of the RKO Dick Tracy films.

There is a lot of Visual Style, predominately the use of chiaroscuro lighting, in this Dick Tracy, newspaper comics, based film. Tracy was created by cartoonist Chester Gould. He was originally a federal agent (called Plainclothes Tracy) modeled after Eliot Ness. The newspaper syndicate suggested he change that original concept to a police officer named "Dick" Tracy with a storyline explaining why. Gould agreed. 

Tracy was a Detective for a police department in an unnamed big Midwest city, an amalgamation of Great Lakes cities Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Gary, Toledo, Milwaukee with skyscrapers, blast furnaces, stockyards, waterfronts, and steel mills. Gould sort of distilled the popular world of G-Men & prohibition gangsters and various colorful citizens they encountered into easy to remember names that where also descriptive. The guy that ran the city garbage dump was B.O. Plenty. His wife who if I remember right worked at a gravel pit was Gravel Gertie, they had a daughter named Sparkle Plenty. Tess Trueheart was Tracy's gal pal. Some of the  crooks were named equally descriptive monikers  like Pruneface, Flyface, the Mole, and Flattop. Tracy’s first partner was the somewhat bumbling Pat Patton who appears in this series of RKO films, and he was later succeeded by Sam Catchem, who was another P.I.  

The first Dick Tracy comic appeared in the Detroit Mirror on October 4, 1931. It was very popular. It spawned a radio show that ran from 1934 weekdays on NBC through  1948 when it was picked up by the ABC network. 

Dick Tracy was first filmed as a serial by Republic Pictures in 1937 titled Dick Tracy. It was a 15-chapter movie serial that stared Ralph Byrd,  RKO produced four Dick Tracy based feature films between 1945-1947 the first two starring Morgan Conway the last two again starring Ralph Byrd.    Byrd also migrated to TV in the Dick Tracy TV Series 1950–1952.

The story

Steve "the Claw" Michel is a maimed local gang leader who works out of waterfront junkyard that they use as their hideout. His other hangout where he arranges his capers is a bar called the Blinking Skull. 

The Claw and two of his henchmen Sam and Fred, are robbing the Flawless Furs warehouse. They've disabled the electric power along with the alarm system and knocked the night watchman over the head with the hook Michel has for a right hand. 

The Claw's got what looks like two woolly bugger caterpillars for eyebrows, squinty eyes and also drags his right foot when he walks. The Claw has the combination of the storage vault. 

They begin to load crates of furs into a canvas covered 1942 Chevrolet flat bed one ton truck. They are almost done, when the watchman, recovering his senses, goes to check the storage vault and is again disabled by a tearing blow to his head from The Claw's hook. They load him in the truck and drive away.

A patrolman on his beat finds the lights off at Flawless Furs and goes in to investigate. He finds the fuses removed and the watchman missing he phones it in to the station house. Dick Tracy, his right hand man Pat Patton, Mr. Humphries the owner of Flawless Furs and Peter Premium, V.P. of Honesty Insurance and his investigator Cudd show up at the scene of the crime. They open the relocked fur vault door and find it empty. Tracy notices fresh blood on the floor.

Soon a patrol car finds the watchman's body. Now its a murder investigation also. At the morgue among the watchman's effects is a handkerchief with a pen scrawl. Tracy and his men try to decipher the watchman's last dying words. It looks like a part of a license number, a 3 Them, and the word Daisy. Tracy has Pat check all the commercial licenses that have that sequence.

Meanwhile The Claw with Sam and Fred in tow heads over to the nearby Blinking Skull to phone the big boss for their instructions. On their way into the bar they pass Sightless a fake blindman con artist selling pencils. Sightless is one of Tracy's police informants. 

Sightless tries to follow The Claw into the Back rooms but is stopped by Jigger owner of the Blinking Skull who throws him out. Sightless not to be deterred drops down the alley where he can hear The Claw talking to his boss and his instructions to meet the fence at the end of Hemp Street. Sightless accidently drops his pencils making enough noise that it alerts the Claw. The Claw goes out the back door but only finds a couple of pencils laying on the pavement. Those pencils are enough of a clue to wise up The Claw who goes scraping away  down the sidewalk looking for Sightless. 

Sightless heads for Tracy's house but is met at the door by Tracy's actor friend Vitamin Flintheart, Sightless tells Flintheart the message he overheard about where the meet is with the fence. Flintheart gives the heads up to Tracy and Patton when they arrive. The stake out Hemp Street and pick up Longshot Lilliet. The Claw sees it all hiding in a street work trench. He watched Lillie getting collared.

The story goes even more Noirsville when The Claw catches Sightless at his flop and kills him. 

Noirsville

This film and the other RKO entries are essentially Film Noir for the Dick Tracy comics enthusiasts back in the day. It's much like the early 2000s  Sin City flicks and the recent Cowboy Bebop efforts, simple almost one dimensional characters with easy to follow plots but at least for Aficio-Noir-dos and Noiristas it's heavy on that visual atmosphere we love. It's all back lot magic, 6-7/10.