User reviews

Aficionados of forgotten "B" Pictures should enjoy this one, which for some unaccountable reason is listed by Medved as one of the fifty worst films of all time. Photographed stylishly by George Diskant and directed imaginatively by the under-rated Gordon Douglas (who would go on to direct both Elvis and Sinatra) this film is far superior in look to many of the better known low-budget film noirs of the same period. RKO Studios spent a lot more money building sets and dressing them than did their B picture rivals. Douglas took advantage of the superior production values to invent some very unusual shots often using a subjective camera technique usually not associated with these programmers. Despite the wooden acting of Morgan Conway as Tracey, the cast includes some of Hollywood's best character actors, among them the eternally frowzy Esther Howard as the proprietress of the Dripping Dagger café; Ian Keith hamming it up delightfully as Vitamin Flintheart, and Jason Robards Sr., father of the great Eugene O'Neill actor, Jason Jr., briefly seen as the captain of the S.S. Palomar.

For years, one of my favorite books about films has been Harry Medved's "The Fifty Worst Films Ever Made". It is super-intelligently written (he was only 17 at the time it was published) and clever. And as a result, I have tried to see as many of the 50 I could find, though many are so obscure I doubt if I'll ever find them. However, while I love the book, I must admit that a few of the films weren't THAT bad and a couple were even mildly entertaining (such as THAT HAGAN GIRL and DICK TRACY VS. CUEBALL).

Now I DID see DICK TRACY VS. CUEBALL a long time ago and found it was pretty bad. However, decades later, I watched it again with my daughter and we both felt it was a decent film with a few excellent moments. Now this ISN'T a glowing endorsement, but I found I did need to go back to my reviews of other Tracy films I reviewed a few months back and remove any negative references to this film. So, for lovers of B-movies and especially series detective movies, this IS worth a look.

So why did I like it on second viewing? Well, it wasn't because of the villain, played by Dick Wessel. His bald wig was at times obvious but the biggest problem was he had the charisma of a wet sock and said very little other than "I oughta kill you" or other such bland threats. A tuna might have made a better villain. However, Morgan Conway's Dick Tracy was a lot better Ralph Byrd (who starred in the next two films). Sure, Conway's face looked pot-marked and he was, to put it charitably, "not handsome"....but he COULD deliver his lines and he had a nice voice. Though he looked nothing like the cartoon character--which is probably why they replaced him with the super-wooden Byrd. I also liked the small role by Vitamin. He was completely annoying and mindless in DICK TRACY'S DILEMMA, but here the same actor was actually given some good lines and wasn't asked to play the character as a complete moron.

At only about an hour, it's a tidy and interesting little film. Not great, but not bad at all. And if you like this one, be sure to see the first film (DICK TRACY, DECECTIVE)--it's even better.

By the way, look for the slimy little guy with greasy hair and super-thick glasses. Other than Rondo Hatton, he is perhaps the ugliest character actor from 1940s film.

Dick Tracy must solve the murder of the courier of $300,000 worth of diamonds. Only clue of the strangulation are bits of a material embedded in the neck. Soon two more killings and the same material. Tracy discovers that a specially ordered hat with a band around it is the murder weapon. From this Tracy deduces the killer - Cueball, that bald and passionless man. Friend or foe, old or young, no one is immune from the clutches of Cueball.

Most of the scenes are at night which lead to a dark and gloomy feeling of dread in the city. This feeling adds to the sense of evil that Dick Tracy battles. A fine film with a fitting outcome for Cueball.

So where else would viewers see a friendly neighborhood dive called The Dripping Dagger, replete with a gleaming graphic of blood falling from a wicked-looking stabber. Sort of whets the old desire to drop in for a drink and maybe a piece of unelective surgery. Pretty good Tracy tongue-in-cheek. These programmers were always played straight, but the outlandish names tip off the real intent. Tracy's trying to track down a murderous jewel thief whose shaved head resembles that of a new-born. In those days, pure baldies were a rarity unlike today's hairless male fashion. Great cast that includes such visual eccentrics as the sepulchral Milton Parsons and the unfortunate Skelton Knaggs whose cratered face peering through a magnifying lens would frighten Frankenstein. But stealing the show is blowzy old Esther Howard who looks like she's been on a 60 year bender, and acts like a 60-year old Mike Tyson. So when she backs down even the burly strongman Cueball, we believe it. Actually, these entries get their appeal from the parade of human eccentrics that populate them. To me, however, the biggest mystery is why Tracy doesn't spend more time at home with the very uneccentric looking Tess Trueheart (Anne Jeffries) who is enough to turn any man's head, square-jawed cop or not.

Dick Tracy vs. Cueball starts at the comic strip level and then zips along with some finely turned performances (mostly by the supporting characters). Dick Tracy comes off a little wooden and bland."Cueball" , looks so perplexed and worried through the whole film that you kinda feel sorry for him , even though he goes around choking people to death .He does give his victims(most of them) the chance to talk it over or play it straight-above board, but they don't .They take him for a big goof.. er cue-ball...and well, they get what's coming to them.The visuals in this film are superior. Kudos go to cinematographer George Diskant and director Gordon Douglas for his interesting camera placements etc...Gotta love "The "Dripping Dagger"sign. If you like that "1940's Hollywood look", this film is worth a look.

***SPOILERS*** after serving ten years at the Rocky Mountain Penitentiary Harry Lake alias Cueball, Dick Wessel,is back out on the street. The first thing he does is get hooked up with this group of of jewel thieves in a $300,000.00 rip-off of Lester Abbott,Trevor Bardette, a representative of Fine Jules inc.

Getting himself on the ship SS Palmora, where Abbott was on board, Cueball strangles the Jewel dealer when he offers resistance and takes off with his gems.Not expecting anything violent to happen the group of crooks now become involved in something they never had in their plans murder. Those involved in this crime include antique dealer Precival Priceless, Douglas Walton, together with Fine Jules.inc owner Jules Sparkle, Harry Clemons, secretary Mona Clyde, Rita Corday,and diamond cutters Simon Little, Bryon Foulger, and his partner Rudolph, Skelton Knaggs, who looks like a cross between Alfalfa of the Little Rascals and Mister Moto.

Things start to go sour for the jewel thieves when top cop Dick Tracy, Morgan Conway, and his bumbling sidekick Pat Patton, Lyle Latell, get on the case. Little chickens out but it's too late for him and all the other crooks when Cueball realizes that he's been short-changed, by Priceless & Co., in the split of the $300,000.00 value of the gems. Cueball ends up getting only $10,000.00 with the rest of the gang, mostly Pricless & Clyde, taking what's left in the laundering of the stolen diamonds.

Feeling that he's been taken for a sucker by his associates Cueball takes it upon himself to go solo, instead of being a team player. Wanting his take it the jewel robbery to be doubled to $20,000.00, which his fellow thieves don't have, Cueball ends up murdering, with his hat-band, both Priceless and the owner of the "Dripping Dagger" bar "Dirty" Flora, Easter Howard, who at first help him hide out in her joint. Flora fond where Cueball hid the stolen jewels and tried to rip him, of all people, off of his loot; not a very bright idea on her part.

In the end it was Cuball's greed and brutality that got the best of him when he fell for a trap that Dick Tracy and his girlfriend Tess Trueheart, Ann Jeffereys, set. After kidnapping Tess who pretended to be the rich socialite blue-blood Blyth Belmonte, interested in buying the stolen jewels, he's caught in a police dragnet and ends up being chased into a railroad yard, by Dick Tracy. Cueball gets his foot caught between the rails and is crushed to death by an oncoming locomotive.

One of Dick Tracy's most formidable foes Cuball just let his violent and paranoid nature cloud and distort his thinking. Suspecting everyone of trying to double-cross him and fleece him out of his share of the money in the jewels that he stole. This made Cueball lose the edge that he had in coolly calculating things and not letting his emotions take over like it did here.

First time of viewing: this is a no-frills man's film, to my senses a better version of a comic strip than Sin City and non-cartoon, albeit in a far more tired looking condition!

Dumb Cueball only just out of prison robs and kills his way into Tracy's orbit, stealing a necklace worth USD 30,000 - a mere bagatelle in 1946 surely! The problem is: how to get rid of it? Old Mrs Bucket-Of-Mud from Farewell My Lovely also breezes in but blows out again rather hurriedly thanks to the charming mental processes of Cueball. Tracy does manage to stop the film descending into a bloodbath, his sidekick Pat has some amusing scenes at the end of blackjacks, Tess (good) and Mona (bad) both looked suitably glamorous. Some very good scenes, such as at the hastily arranged midnight autotopsy or the rather strange hidden basement at Simon's place. But sorry! I preferred the more familiar Ralph Byrd and his hat in the role of Tracy, Morgan Conway kept reminding me of a serious Milton Berle. And was there only one place in America selling hatbands in 1946?

But I thoroughly enjoyed it for all that, wished it had been 2 hours long and will it put on my list of films to watch again. I just hope there's a good print around instead of the TV dupe I saw

Notorious (and dumb) criminal Cueball is on the loose and pulls a murderous diamond heist. Tracy, here played by dull but square-jawed Morgan Conway, tracks him down excruciatingly slowly even tho he makes every mistake possible, mostly in the form of killing those he overhears double-crossing him because he's so dumb. They should have called his guy "Eavesdropper." The support is largely the same faces as in other Dick Tracy flicks, altho some play different characters; mostly dull but some flamboyantly overacting.

As usual, Tracy is not even a very good detective, and only solves the crime by chance and using innocent people as bait. Tracy again displays his almost pathological avoidance of a personal life, but at least in this one he pays Tess *some* attention—mostly because she volunteers to be the bait.

The brief but strong Dick Tracy series from Republic studios remains one of the most important moments in the history of the Hollywood B movie. Probably under the insistence of Chester Gould (I can't imagine he was pleased with the earlier serials, that just borrowed the Tracy name for typical serial fare), the later '40s Tracy series is a pristine elaboration of what would become known as the 'police procedural' genre, the most famous of which is the Jack Webb "Dragnet" series. The most striking feature of this series is its villains; despite their comic strip names, they are brutal, cold, and completely believable. They are way ahead of their time in the history of cinema; Cueball is an excellent example. He is simply a common criminal finding himself in unusual circumstances - perfect counterpoint to Tracy's uncommonly common cop presented with a seemingly insoluble puzzle. Like the other films in this series (all on a par), this is a tough, brief, invigorating police procedural, Well recommended.

The second of RKO's Dick Tracy movie series from the '40s. This is the last one featuring Morgan Conway as Tracy. The plot this time involves some stolen diamonds and a bald killer named Cueball (Dick Wessel). Cueball strangles his victims with a braided leather hatband. Why the writers gave him such a specific weapon instead of just a rope or piano wire or something I don't know but it's interesting. Cueball is not big on people double-crossing him, which several characters in the movie find out firsthand. Like the others in the series, this is an enjoyable "B" picture. I was very happy to see Vitamin Flintheart, one of my favorite characters from the Dick Tracy comic strip, show up here. He's wonderfully played by Ian Keith as a sort of send-up of John Barrymore. Another fun character was Filthy Flora (Esther Howard), who runs the Dripping Dagger bar. Interesting characters are what set the Dick Tracy film series (as well as the comic strip) apart from other detective stories.

Decent B picture.

Was never a huge fan of Dick, but I have to say these RKO pictures are rather alluring.

Surprised there weren't more.

The Plot.

Expensive diamonds are stolen.

Before the thief can fence them he is strangled by ex-con Cueball.

He then takes the gems and continues murdering people he believes are trying to swindle him.

Dick Tracy allows his girlfriend Tess to act as a buyer for the gems but his plan backfires when she is captured by the homicidal Cueball.

The second of several old Dick Tracy films, this movie pits Tracy against another motley crew of villains. A bald convict named Cueball is the chief outlandish baddie in a rogues gallery of characters. This time around Tracy tries to bust up a diamond stealing conspiracy involving employees of a jewelry firm, an antique shop owner and of course, the bald Cueball.

Once again Morgan Conway does an admirable job as the sleuth from the Chester Gould comic. Anne Jeffries does a good job reprising her role of Tess from the first film. Lyle Lattell as Pat Patton is much more visable in this film than in the first and provides some decent spots of comic relief. The running gag is that he keeps getting knocked out by Cueball. It's no surprise that he became a staple of this series. Ian Keith as Vitamin Flintheart steals the show though, with his dimwitted antics that are showcased in the scene in the antique shop.

The compliments about the characters end at the main villain, Cueball. While most Dick Tracy characters from the strip have a one or more distinct characteristics (Flat Top's flat top, Prune Face's face and Measle's measles), Cueball has one lame gimmick: he's bald. He's extremely dumb as his weapon of choice: a belt. Cueball seems to bumble around and by luck find out that everyone is double-crossing him. You can't help but laugh as the stone-faced lummox whips out his belt which is an effective but underwhelming selection of weaponry. His death scene is even more humorous, considering that he knows it's coming, but doesn't make a sound.

All in all the second major Dick Tracy motion picture is a nice throwback to the glory days of comic strips. At the very least it's better than the disappointing Warren Beatty update. The weak main villain does hamper it though. Too bad none of these movies featured some of the villains from the comics. They would have been better if they had.

MORGAN CONWAY again assumes the Dick Tracy role with ANNE JEFFREYS as his impatient sweetheart who resents his time being taken up by unexpected homicide cases. This time the murder involves the shipment of diamonds when a murder aboard a boat gets Tracy in a search for the killer over the theft involving $300,000.

Cueball (DICK WESSEL) is the man who resorts to killing aboard the boat to get the diamonds, but is unhappy when he realizes that he was only going to get a small share of their value. The swift moving story involves a bar floozie who gives Cueball shelter, an antique shop run by shady dealer (DOUGLAS WALTON), and Tracy's helper, Vitamin Flintheart, played in amusing style by IAN KEITH.

You can begin the body count once Tracy goes about stalking the killer. Unfortunately, ANNE JEFFREYS has little to do as Tess Trueheart until the film's last fifteen minutes when the killer in the diamond case narrows down to Cueball. Sorry to say that dour looking MORGAN CONWAY cuts an unappealing figure as Tracy.

Trivia note: Jeffreys was reportedly unhappy with her assignments in the Tracy flicks and was delighted when RKO made the next Tracy film with Ralph Byrd and Kay Christopher as the leads and eventually gave Anne some better assignments before she found her niche in Broadway musicals.

I have to agree with one of the previous reviewers. The title character seems rather depressed and confused. He doesn't have that monomania that these super criminals should have. He doesn't understand the diamond business and is constantly being swayed by the ebb and flow of the other bad guys. The fact that he strangles on once in a while isn't immaterial, but he seems rather pathetic. I suppose a man with a shaved head at one time would have seemed rather threatening. By modern standards, he would go about unnoticed. I wonder if they stopped making these films because they didn't have the budget to do justice to the villains and make them more that what they are. It is a reasonably well paced little movie and manages pretty well. I can't remember if Tracy had any personality in the comic strip. He certainly has almost none here. There is a little comic relief with his idiot sidekick getting struck on the head. He has more concussions than Troy Aikman. How a guy like this would keep a job on the police department is beyond me. It's still fun and worth an hour.

Morgan Conway is again Dick Tracy in "Dick Tracy vs. Cueball," a 1946 B that also stars two of my favorites, Anne Jeffreys (Tess) and Ian Keith (Vitamin).

In this one, $300,000 worth of diamonds are stolen on board ship, and Tracy goes on a search for the killer. The diamonds were stolen by Cueball (Dick Wessel), but when he finds out what they're worth, he wants a lot more than the $10,000 he was promised. He hides out in a bar, but while he's at it, starts killing people.

Morgan Conway isn't the Dick Tracy of the comics. He reminds me of George Raft, but he's pleasant enough. As I mentioned in another review, I always picture John Larkin from "The Edge of Night" as an ideal Dick Tracy. I seem to remember him as being sharp-featured and square-jawed. But I haven't seen him in years, and I couldn't find a photo of him.

Jeffreys doesn't have enough to do. Ian Keith is terrific.

Decent pace.

Dick Tracy Vs. Cueball has Chester Gould's square jawed comic detective on the trail of some stolen diamonds which are leaving a lot of bodies in their wake, courtesy of Dick Wessel as the murderous Cueball.

Wessel's been hired by a couple of employees of Douglas Walton who are planning to double cross their boss and steal some consigned diamonds. The problem is that when Cueball meets resistance he always kills so he becomes wanted from the outset of the film.

He also is a strangler by inclination avoiding weapons charges to be sure but leaving a signature to his crime. Once Morgan Conway as Tracy identifies the signature, he identifies Cueball and it's only a matter of time before he's apprehended.

Now I don't care that Anne Jeffreys as Tess Trueheart will do anything for her guy in a pinch, but even Dick Tracy knows there are department policies about using civilians for undercover work. But he does and it almost gets Tess killed.

Byron Foulger and Rita Corday are the employees who go into business with Cueball to their regret. But a really standout performance is given by Esther Howard as Filthy Flora owner of a waterfront dive who gets greedy with her old friend Cueball and becomes one of the victims. And stealing all scenes he's in is Ian Keith as Vitamin Flintheart, ham actor and pal of Tracy's and Tess's.

Crime once again does not pay in Dick Tracy's town.

This is one of the best Dick Tracy films I've seen. This one has a great villain, Cueball. Cueball has got to be one of the most menacing villains that Tracy has encountered.

Cueball is out of prison and back in town with his old gang. The gang has talked Cueball into stealing some rare diamonds but when Cueball finds out he has a very small cut of what the diamonds are worth he kills the gang members - and the more he is betrayed the angrier he gets. It's up Dick and Pat to solve this case and put and end to Cueball and the gang.

Never mind someone's opinion that this is one of the worst films of all times - like any film, you have to watch it for yourself to know if YOU like the film or not - don't let someone else ruin a film for you.

9/10

The maligned DICK TRACY replacement-actor from the first two RKO pictures was Morgan Conway, who got a bad rap since he didn't have the square-jaw look of Ralph Byrd... to perfectly fit the comic book crime-fighter brought to serialized life in the 1930's, and then finished the final two of four 1940's pictures that Conway supposedly failed at...

But he actually has a bit more energy and emotion than Byrd... yet altogether seems more like a friendly and affable, trustworthy cop friend that would give Dick Tracy sporadic advice...

However, with the Conway double-feature beginning with DICK TRACY, you did have the best Tess Trueheart in DILLINGER moll Anne Jeffreys, the epitome of a knockout blonde, who rarely played a gorgeous dame who realized how perfect she was: especially here as Tracy's best girl, taken for granite since there's usually a flirtatious b-girl waiting... plus his attention's rapt on the criminal situation at hand...

And for DICK TRACY VS CUEBALL it's an intense and formidable one, since Dick Wessel's titular villain is as bad as any noir antagonist: the celebrated B&W crime genre that the Tracy pictures were never linked with...

But with the creative use of sparse lighting, shocking violence and suspenseful chases throughout shadowy shipyards and alleyways (plus director Gordon Douglas), this is as noir as you can get, at least visually...

Meanwhile, Cueball... both the character and movie... actually befits the classic gangster mold: only he's the lead mob boss and his very own deadly henchman both, taking care of anyone who crosses his path, from the initial murder to crooked lush Esther Howard... while providing Conway a deadly antagonist as dangerous as anyone Ralph Byrd's ever been up against... So there!

Not the best in the series of short Tracy films from the late forties. The villains provide most of the entertainment in these and Cueball isn't that interesting or fearsome as some of the others. Cueball kills anyone who double-crosses him and why do they all try to trick him out of the money? Because he's a overweight, bald idiot, that's why! Even the other crook's moll can play him for a sap.

It's fortunate that the other criminals are as dozy as Cueball or even slow-witted Dick Tracy wouldn't have been able to catch them. It's probably fittingly ironic that Cueball meets his fate due to a dumb accident. If he had any more brains he would have been a moron...

Still, an entertaining addition to the series as the other minor characters get a chance to shine in their screen time. 'Filthy' Flora, who shelters crooks for a price is particularly good and even Tracy's under used girlfriend gets in on the action in this one.