Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Isbel A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Tweekums Lester Abbott is meant to be delivering diamonds to his boss Jules Sparkle but he and Mr Sparkle's other employees have other ideas. Before Abbott can get away he is confronted by bald-headed ex-con Cueball; he refuses to hand over the diamonds and is strangled with Cueball's braided hatband. It isn't long before Dick Tracy is on the case. He and his partner visit Mr Sparkle and are suspicious of two of his employees; Mona Clyde and Simon Little. It soon becomes obvious that they are both involved with the plan to steal the diamonds and they are soon plotting to buy them off Cueball for substantially less than they are worth… something rather dangerous given that he has killed already. As Tracy gets closer to Cueball things get more dangerous; both for Dick and his girlfriend Tess Trueheart who helps him as part of an undercover sting.Having neither read the original comics nor seen other films in the series I can't say how this compares but as a stand-alone piece of entertainment it passes the time nicely. There are some laughs to be had; mostly at the expense of Tracy's partner Pat Patton. The character names are pretty funny too and betray the films comic book origins; where else would you get such great names as Jules Sparkle, Percival Priceless and Vitamin Flintheart, not to mention Tracy's alliterative girlfriend Tess Trueheart! While one is unlikely to doubt that Tracy will get the villains there are some tense moments. While there are amusing moments the tone of the film is dark at times and doesn't shy away from showing the murders in a way that is fairly dramatic. Overall an enjoyable way to pass an hour.

Hitchcoc 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.

Spondonman 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

djensen1 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.