Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome

Dick Tracy (Ralph Byrd) tries to foil a criminal (Boris Karloff) who robs banks with a paralyzing gas.

Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome is watchable thanks to a deliciously cold performance from star Boris Karloff.

Karloff is a tour de force, stopping at nothing to get what he wants, and killing anyone who gets in his way. Never mind the cheesy freeze-frame effect director John Rawlins uses for the nerve gas, Karloff makes up for it by doing a drive-by on a woman! Don’t let the supporting cast’s shabby acting get you down, Karloff overcomes it by cremating a flunky!

Karloff is so good, you end up rooting for him over Tracy, which isn’t that hard considering Ralph Byrd seems more like a poor man’s Pat O’Brien than a star in his own right. Byrd simply can’t carry the picture the way Karloff can, and it’s a shame, as watching Karloff’s Gruesome go toe to toe with an equally charismatic Tracy would have been something special. Still, at just over an hour, there’s not much time for regret.