cult film freak: MORGAN CONWAY, ANNE JEFFREYS & MIKE MAZURSKI 'DICK TRACY'

Title: DICK TRACY Year: 1945 Rating: ***

The towering, muscular, intimidating and always formidable noir-villain Mike Mazurki, who would soon steal MURDER MY SWEET from Dick Powell, is the perfect choice for the DICK TRACY villain Splitface... more like Scarface since that's all that makes the titular split and, either way, he still looks pretty spooky...

Yet he mostly lurks in the noirish shadows, remaining a mystery to the characters but not the audience, who sees him prowling before each murder: so this picture's whodunnit aspect is as ultimately wasted as Muzurki himself...

Mike Mazurki as Splitface in DICK TRACY

In the next RKO feature with Morgan Conway as Tracy, the villainous Cueball is more interesting because he interacts with both the good guys and bad... making DICK TRACY aka DICK TRACY DETECTIVE more a police procedural with the villain on the side: a shame since Mazurki has so much potential (while emaciated Milton Parsons as an undertaker named Deathridge and flaky astrology professor Trevor Bardette are far more creepy and effective)...

Although what does make the two Conway movies shine (before being replaced by original actor Ralph Byrd) is DILLINGER moll Anne Jeffreys as faithful Tess Trueheart... here jealous of a rich semi-suspect's daughter Jane Greer... the latter more intense than in OUT OF THE PAST, a movie that would forever epitomize noir... although these Dick Tracy entries, despite never making any lists, are visually the noir brass standard.