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
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