Archive Watch
Poster for Dick Tracy's Dilemma (1947)

Dick Tracy's Dilemma (1947)

1947 · Feature film · 60 min · dir. John Rawlins

DEATH BATTLE... with Hook of Doom!

  • film noir
Watch now On the Internet Archive

Synopsis

Dick Tracy's Dilemma, released in the United Kingdom as Mark of the Claw, is a 1947 American action film based on the 1930s comic-strip character of the same name created by Chester Gould. Ralph Byrd stars as Dick Tracy, reprising the role after Republic Pictures's 1937 Dick Tracy serial and its three sequels. Preceded by Dick Tracy vs. Cueball, the film is the third installment of the Dick Tracy film series released by RKO Radio Pictures.

Synopsis from Wikipedia

Details

Director
John Rawlins
Writer
Robert Stephen Brode
Composer
Paul Sawtell
Cinematography
Frank Redman
Studio
RKO Radio Pictures
Released
1947-05-20
Series
Dick Tracy Collection
Running time
60 minutes
Language
English
Collection
Feature Films

Subjects on the Internet Archive

Cast & crew

Reviews on the Internet Archive

★★★★★ · Great! · jmcorry1 · 2009-04-05

I think this is a great little flick... It even had me on the edge of my seat at times! The acting is pretty good for a film of this caliber.

★★★★ · Entertainment · terracesider · 2006-01-06

I found it an entertaining way to pass an hour or so. I think it is the best of the Dick Tracy films on here.

★★★★ · Basil would enjoy this film · sciwriter · 2007-12-11

IMO film is a USA version of Sherlock Holmes movies starring Basil Rathbone.

★★★ · Stereotypes · accalaurie49 · 2010-06-06

Colorful types, one attribute characterizes the whole person, villains are brutal and ruthless, they usually have scars, a bald head or, as in this case, a crippled leg and a hook instead of a hand (nice predecessor of George Kennedy in "Charade"). Only Boris Karloff in " Dick Tracy meets Gruesome" didn´t need such gimmicks, but, well, he is Boris Karloff! The Dick Tracy Character was less impressive than Morgan Conway in my opinion. If you don´t expect more than a comic strip on screen, you get everything you want and are satisfied as I am.

★★ · Better than the Dick Tracy serial, but not by much · gentle ben · 2006-02-11

An average B-movie with a better story line than the Dick Tracy serial, but not by much. The actor playing Tracy, Ralph Byrd, who also plays him in the serial, isn't as good an actor as Morgan Conway, who plays Tracy in "Dick Tracy Detective." That movie is also better scripted and executed. However, there are some of the expected Tracy characters in the movie, such as Vitamin Flintheart, Longshot Lillie, Sightless (a sighted 'Blind Beggar'), and the Claw. The movie has an interesting opening as a line drawing of the Claw morphs into the live character.

★★ · Not the Best Tracey Film · Poohbah70 · 2019-08-30

This is the poorest of the Dick Tracey films I've seen: Dick Tracey detective, D.T. meets Cueball, D.T. Meets Gruesome. The story is uninteresting and the subsidiary characters poorly developed and underused. Kay Christopher (Tess Trueheart) is given little to do, save look sweet. Ian Keith (Vitamin Flintheart) continues his over=the-top characterization of the John Barrymore type thespian, but here is scripted as an egotistical, careless buffoon who, while at Tracey's house, dismisses a man who comes begging to be saved from being murdered - and Flintheart sends him away to his fate. Lyle…

More like this