Dick Tracy

Dick Tracy (also known as Dick Tracy, Detective) is a 1945 American action film based on the Dick Tracy comic strip created by Chester Gould. The film is the first of four installment of the Dick Tracy film series, released by RKO Radio Pictures. Plot Dick Tracy, a supremely intelligent police detective, must solve a series of brutal murders in which the victims, all from different social and economic backgrounds, are viciously slashed to pieces by the one known as Splitface. Suspects abound but Tracy must find the common link of extortion and revenge before more are killed. Tracy narrowly misses Splitface at the scene of his second murder, but does encounter a rooftop astronomer, Linwood J.Starling, and it seems unlikely that Splitface went unseen by him. Arrested on suspicion, his "mystic" attitude confounds police interrogators. A knife left behind at a murder scene is traced to the home/business of mortician Deathridge. The layout of his business suggests it would be easy to steal from his supply room. Tracy leaves to pursue leads at The Paradise Club nightclub, taking Tess along as "cover". But when Deathridge doesn't answer his phone all evening, Tracy returns there and finds him murdered.