Movie : Dick Tracy meets Gruesome (1947)

A rather bizarre and confusing detective cum science fiction cum comedy cum horror film. An escaped convict called Gruesome (marvellously and hamily played by Boris Karloff) meets up with a scientist who has apparently developed a gas which can freeze people for a short period. Naturally such a miraculous new invention can change the world and ..er.. has its use in assisting bank robberies...

Its up to Dick Tracy to catch the crooks and discover what happened to a missing scientist, however his plan is rather odd as it involves putting himself in extreme danger and only by sheer chance does he survive. The film is quite a fun romp though often suffers from being unsure what kind of film it is trying to be, corny humour (a taxidermist called Y. Stuffem for example) is mixed with sudden violence and a steadily rising body count. It has some good twists though and is engaging enough to be worth a view.