Movie Review: Dick Tracy (1945)
Synopsis: A serial killer calling himself Splitface is demanding money from seemingly random people then murdering them anyway. Police Detective Dick Tracy is assigned to the case, much to the chagrin of his jilted girlfriend, Tess Trueheart, who soon finds her own life in danger.
Who's in it? The movie stars Morgan Conway, Anne Jeffreys, Mike Mazurki, Jane Greer and Lyle Latell.
Review: The movie Dick Tracy has been in my film library for several weeks, but I wasn't completely sure if I wanted to watch it. I've never read the comic, and my only knowledge of the character came from the somewhat terrible 1990 Warren Beatty movie, so I just didn't know if I would enjoy it.
I finally decided to give it a try this morning and it was admittedly pretty good.
One of my biggest concerns about this movie was I was afraid the film would assume I read the comic and therefore would need no introduction to the characters, villain background, etc. That, however, turned out not to be the case. The movie wasn't a Dick Tracy (Conway) origin story but the case he was investigating made sure to introduce Splitface (Mazurki) as a brand-new criminal he had never faced before, giving the viewer a proper introduction.
The movie also had quite a bit of mystery to it as well, which was a pleasant surprise. While there was no doubt who the killer was, the motive behind the seemingly random slayings wasn't as clear, especially since he was demanding money from his victims and still killed them anyway. It was also unclear if the victims on his list, which included the mayor (William Halligan), were connected in some way or were just randomly killed.
Adding to all of this were some highly suspicious characters, like Professor Starling (Trevor Bardette), who was clearly was guilty of something and Steve Owens (Morgan Wallace), who was acting suspicious and then disappeared. His daughter, Judith (Greer), also was a person of interest in my mind because she seemed like a woman who was either completely innocent or just pretending to be to get close to Tracy.
Tracy's relationship with Tess (Jeffreys) added a fun distraction to the more serious parts of the film, especially the way he kept standing her up on dinner dates, leaving her starving for most of the movie. The way she continued to stand by him despite that made it clear she loved him and that later made her a perfect target for Splitface.
I was a bit undecided about Junior (Mickey Kuhn) at first because child characters in movies like this one tend to be more annoying than entertaining. However, while that was the case at first, he did end up being essential toward the end, including putting his own life in danger to save Tess, so I'll give him a pass.
Final Opinion: If you've never read the comic, this movie is a good introduction to the character. It is also an entertaining film I'd recommend.
My Grade: A
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Here are some reviews of other movies based on characters from comics:
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