Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome / The Shadow

February 1, 2016 - 7:30 pm

Billy Wilder Theater

Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (1947)

When escaped convict Gruesome (Boris Karloff) perpetrates a brazen bank heist using incapacitating nerve gas, ridding the city of his menace is a job for square-jawed detective Dick Tracy (Ralph Byrd). Colorful villains and familiar sidekicks bring author Chester Gould's sensibilities to this crime caper, the penultimate film adaptation for the detective of long-running comic and radio fame.

16mm, b/w, 65 min. Production: RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. Distribution: RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. Producer: Herman Schlom. Director: John Rawlins. Based on the comic strip by Chester Gould. Screenwriter: Robertson White, Eric Taylor. Cinematographer: Frank Redman. Editor: Elmo Williams. With: Boris Karloff, Ralph Byrd, Anne Gwynne, Howard Ashley, June Clayworth.

Preceded by

The Shadow (1940)

Chapter 13: “Wheels of Death”

Chapter 14: “The Sealed Room”

Chapter 15: “The Shadow’s Net Closes”

Considered by Shadow magazine writer Walter B. Gibson to be the best screen interpretation of the franchise, the action-packed final episodes of the 1940 serial find the crimefighter, aided by Margo Lane and Harry Vincent, in pursuit of notorious mastermind the Black Tiger, even as local citizens believe the Shadow himself to be behind the trail of mayhem.

35mm, b/w, approx. total running time 51 min. Production: Columbia Pictures Corp. Distribution: Columbia Pictures Corp. Director: James W. Horne. Based on the short stories in The Shadow magazine. Screenwriter: Joseph Poland, Ned Dandy, Joseph O’Donnell. Cinematographer: James S. Brown. Editor: Dwight Caldwell. Composer: Lee Zahler. With: Victor Jory, Veda Ann Borg, Roger Moore, Robert Fiske, J. Paul Jones.

Part of:

Out of the Ether: Radio Mysteries and Thrillers on Screen

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Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome / The Shadow

Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (1947)

The Shadow (1940)

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