Colibel Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Ensofter Overrated and overhyped

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Leofwine_draca DICK TRACY VS. CUEBALL is one of four fast-paced Dick Tracy movies made by RKO in the mid 1940s. These clocked in at just an hour in length and have plenty of death, adventure, and incident in them, so they don't tend to outstay their welcome. The memorable villain of this one is a hulking, bald former con who enjoys killing anyone who dares to cross his path.Tracy - played by Morgan Conway instead of the usual Ralph Byrd - does his usual heroic stuff while wearing his trademark hat and teaming up with his usual allies. The women are glamorous and the bad guys are brutes, and everyone gets chased all over the city while peripheral cast members are bumped off. It's a cheap and cheerful affair, one which never becomes tiresome.

winner55 The brief but strong Dick Tracy series from Republic studios remains one of the most important moments in the history of the Hollywood B movie. Probably under the insistence of Chester Gould (I can't imagine he was pleased with the earlier serials, that just borrowed the Tracy name for typical serial fare), the later '40s Tracy series is a pristine elaboration of what would become known as the 'police procedural' genre, the most famous of which is the Jack Webb "Dragnet" series. The most striking feature of this series is its villains; despite their comic strip names, they are brutal, cold, and completely believable. They are way ahead of their time in the history of cinema; Cueball is an excellent example. He is simply a common criminal finding himself in unusual circumstances - perfect counterpoint to Tracy's uncommonly common cop presented with a seemingly insoluble puzzle. Like the other films in this series (all on a par), this is a tough, brief, invigorating police procedural, Well recommended.

sol1218 ***SPOILERS*** after serving ten years at the Rocky Mountain Penitentiary Harry Lake alias Cueball, Dick Wessel,is back out on the street. The first thing he does is get hooked up with this group of of jewel thieves in a $300,000.00 rip-off of Lester Abbott,Trevor Bardette, a representative of Fine Jules inc. Getting himself on the ship SS Palmora, where Abbott was on board, Cueball strangles the Jewel dealer when he offers resistance and takes off with his gems.Not expecting anything violent to happen the group of crooks now become involved in something they never had in their plans murder. Those involved in this crime include antique dealer Precival Priceless, Douglas Walton, together with Fine Jules.inc owner Jules Sparkle, Harry Clemons, secretary Mona Clyde, Rita Corday,and diamond cutters Simon Little, Bryon Foulger, and his partner Rudolph, Skelton Knaggs, who looks like a cross between Alfalfa of the Little Rascals and Mister Moto.Things start to go sour for the jewel thieves when top cop Dick Tracy, Morgan Conway, and his bumbling sidekick Pat Patton, Lyle Latell, get on the case. Little chickens out but it's too late for him and all the other crooks when Cueball realizes that he's been short-changed, by Priceless & Co., in the split of the $300,000.00 value of the gems. Cueball ends up getting only $10,000.00 with the rest of the gang, mostly Pricless & Clyde, taking what's left in the laundering of the stolen diamonds. Feeling that he's been taken for a sucker by his associates Cueball takes it upon himself to go solo, instead of being a team player. Wanting his take it the jewel robbery to be doubled to $20,000.00, which his fellow thieves don't have, Cueball ends up murdering, with his hat-band, both Priceless and the owner of the "Dripping Dagger" bar "Dirty" Flora, Easter Howard, who at first help him hide out in her joint. Flora fond where Cueball hid the stolen jewels and tried to rip him, of all people, off of his loot; not a very bright idea on her part. In the end it was Cuball's greed and brutality that got the best of him when he fell for a trap that Dick Tracy and his girlfriend Tess Trueheart, Ann Jeffereys, set. After kidnapping Tess who pretended to be the rich socialite blue-blood Blyth Belmonte, interested in buying the stolen jewels, he's caught in a police dragnet and ends up being chased into a railroad yard, by Dick Tracy. Cueball gets his foot caught between the rails and is crushed to death by an oncoming locomotive.One of Dick Tracy's most formidable foes Cuball just let his violent and paranoid nature cloud and distort his thinking. Suspecting everyone of trying to double-cross him and fleece him out of his share of the money in the jewels that he stole. This made Cueball lose the edge that he had in coolly calculating things and not letting his emotions take over like it did here.

zeppo-2 Not the best in the series of short Tracy films from the late forties. The villains provide most of the entertainment in these and Cueball isn't that interesting or fearsome as some of the others. Cueball kills anyone who double-crosses him and why do they all try to trick him out of the money? Because he's a overweight, bald idiot, that's why! Even the other crook's moll can play him for a sap.It's fortunate that the other criminals are as dozy as Cueball or even slow-witted Dick Tracy wouldn't have been able to catch them. It's probably fittingly ironic that Cueball meets his fate due to a dumb accident. If he had any more brains he would have been a moron...Still, an entertaining addition to the series as the other minor characters get a chance to shine in their screen time. 'Filthy' Flora, who shelters crooks for a price is particularly good and even Tracy's under used girlfriend gets in on the action in this one.