Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993) - Comic to Movie #17

"Vengeance blackens the soul, Bruce. I've always feared that you would become that which you fought against. You walk the edge of that abyss every night, but you haven't fallen in and I thank heaven for that."

Directors

Eric Radomski and Bruce Timm

Cast

Kevin Conroy - Batman/ Bruce Wayne 

Dana Delany - Andrea Beaumont

Mark Hamill - The Joker

Abe Vigoda - Sal Valestra

Dick Miller - Chuckie Sol

Efrem Zimbalist - Alfred Pennyworth

Bob Hastings - Commissioner James Gordon

 

The animated film, "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm," released in 1993, feels like an attempt by Warner Bros. to correct some of the shortcomings they made in their earlier Batman films - namely, Tim Burton's 1989 film "Batman" and its 1992 sequel, "Batman Returns." That's just an assumption. If that was the intention of their executives back then, kudos to them. 
By the time this movie came out in theaters, I was at the threshold of my teenage years. Animated movies simply didn't interest me like they used to. So, I passed on seeing "Mask of the Phantasm" until years later. 
This movie comes by way of "Batman: The Animated Series" which aired of the Fox Kids network from 1992 to 1995. I watched the first season fairly regularly. By the time the second season began airing, other things must have grabbed my attention. 
"Batman: The Animated Series" picked up later with a sequel called "The New Adventures of Batman." This ran on the Kids WB Network from 1997 to 1999, and was a sort of third season. 
It's followed by the animated "Batman Beyond" which ran from 1999 to 2001. Other series follow such as "The Batman" (2004-2005), "Batman: The Brave and the Bold" (2008-2011), and "Beware the Batman" (2013-2014).   
Honestly, I haven't seen any of these except for the original animated series.
The film starts as Batman (Kevin Conroy) crashes in on a meeting of Gotham City crime bosses, led by Chuckie Sol (Dick Miller).

Amidst all the chaos of Batman beating everyone up, Sol makes a run for it to the parking garage. As he gets in his car and tries to get away, he sees a mysterious masked figure shrouded in smoke - the Phantasm - a new masked vigilante spreading fear into the criminal gangland of Gotham City.
As Sol tries to ram his car into this mysterious person, the Phantasm dodges his attempt causing him to die in a fatal crash. 
A witness sees Batman at the scene in the garage. Therefor, he's blamed for Sol's death.
City councilman Arthur Reeves, whose on the mob's payroll, wants Batman arrested but Commission James Gordon is quick to defend Batman as he's convinced of Batman's innocence.
The story cuts back to ten years prior, as Bruce Wayne reminisces about Andrea Beaumont (Dana Delany), a young, attractive woman whom he met at the cemetery while visiting his parents' grave. 
The two start a relationship rather quickly. He soon proposes to her, which she initially accepts. But she ends up leaving town with her father, businessman Carl Beaumont (Stacy Keach).  
She ends their engagement with a letter, breaking Wayne's heart.
At this same time, Wayne begins his secret of life of vigilantism. Initially, he doesn't take on the Batman identity. His simple presence at the scene of the crime, even when beating up criminals, isn't instilling fear among the criminals of Gotham City. So, he tries to come up with a way that'll accomplish that.

Soon after, he takes on the identity of "Batman." And fear spreads quickly through the criminal underworld of Gotham City. 

After the incident in the parking garage with Sol, the Phantasm kills gangster, Buzz Bronski (John P. Ryan), at the same cemetery where Wayne met Beaumont years ago. 
Bronski's bodyguards witness the Phantasm and think it's Batman. 
When Batman investigates the crime scene, he wanders over to his parents gravesite. Nearby, he sees Beaumont. When she sees him, he unwittingly reveals his true identity to her because he's standing next to the Wayne's gravesite. 
Hearing the news of all these criminal deaths, another crime boss, Salvatore Valestra (Abe Vigoda) finds an old picture of himself with the now deceased boss. This terrifies him as he now thinks Batman is coming for him next. He turns to the Joker (Mark Hamill) for protection.
When the Phantasm comes to Valestra's house to kill him, he finds that the Joker beat him to it with some of his own deadly venom.
The Joker spots the Phantasm on a security camera. As he realizes that Batman isn't the culprit killing off all these crime lords, he blows up Valestra's mansion with a trap he set to ultimately take out Batman.
The Phantasm escapes the blast, and Batman pursues him. During the chase, Batman finds himself bruised and cornered by police. 
Beaumont happens to drive by the scene, and rescues Batman at the last second.
Bruce Wayne thinks Carl Beaumont is the Phantasm. But when he finds the photograph Valestra had in his possession, he recognizes one of the mobsters in the picture as the Joker. 
He soon determines the Joker is behind the Phantasm. However, the truth will turn out to be something Wayne never anticipated.

There is a lot of effort behind "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm" to make a compelling film and it shows.

This film presents Batman/ Bruce Wayne in a more tragic way not necessarily scene before in movies. That might not be the case when it comes to the pages of comic books. 

When I first saw this movie, it was the first time I saw Batman as a truly torn figure. It was the first time I saw more into his origin than what Tim Burton presented in his movie. Burton's "Batman" touches upon Bruce Wayne's chilling and sad past, but the focus is unevenly split between him and the criminal shenanigans of Jack Napier/ Joker. There's more focus on the Joker than on Batman/ Bruce Wayne. 

Batman films after 1993 also touch upon the superhero's origin, especially Christopher Nolan's film, "Batman Begins." 

"Batman: Mask of the Phantasm" makes this aspect of Batman a major focus.  

And, what's great about it is that this animated movie works. It provides a backstory to Batman/ Bruce Wayne, depicting him in a manner different from those scene in movies before.
Batman is truly human in this story. For a crimefighter, he's much more vulnerable, emotionally speaking. 

The animation is well done. The sound track fits in well. And the storyline is nicely balanced between drama and action. Thankfully, this movie doesn't overdo it with a lengthy run time. It's only 78 minutes long. That's perfect!

In the story, Bruce doesn't become Batman until after he receives Andrea's note. And the two are very similar people, at least as far as where their personal tragedies pushes them. 

In one scene, when Bruce puts on his mask for the first time, his butler, Alfred Pennyworth (Efrem Zimbalist) stops dead in his tracks and gasps. 

"My God!" Alfred says, reacting at the sight of Bruce, whom he's known all his life, as he embraces a life of retribution to the fullest extent. 

This reflects another scene where Bruce tells Alfred, "You think you know everything about me, don't you?"

"I diapered your bottom. I bloody well ought to, sir," Alfred says.

I seem to recall this movie wasn't marketed well when it was released. The story line is deeper than an average animated movie directed at children. Even Siskel and Ebert gave it positive reviews. Still, it bombed at the box office, which is a shame. 

This Batman story deserves recognition along side other well-loved and admired Batman films that have come before and after. It presents the caped crusader with depth, anguish and pain that carries on even past the story. As far as the Batman films of the 1990s, "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm" is the best we got. I'll add that I still have a special place in my heart for Burton's '89 film.

Dick Tracy (1990) - Comic to Movie #16

"You know, Tracy, for a tough guy you do a lot of pansy things."

Director 
Warren Beatty

Cast

Warren Beatty - Dick Tracy

Al Pacino - 'Big Boy' Caprice

Charlie Korsmo - The Kid

Madonna - Breathless Mahoney

Glenne Headly - Tess Trueheart

Dustin Hoffman - Mumbles

William Forsythe - Flattop

Charles Durning - Chief Brandon

Seymour Cassel - Sam Catchem

James Keane - Pat Patton

When Disney, via Touchstone Pictures, released the movie "Dick Tracy" in 1990, it was promoted everywhere. The movie, directed by Warren Beatty, was treated like the next big blockbuster following Tim Burton's "Batman" which came out the year before. The movie has an all-star cast with Beatty taking the lead role. And it has a soundtrack starring Madonna. Surely that's enough to make a huge hit. 

The yellow trench coat wearing, no nonsense, crime fighting, chili eating detective was created by cartoonist Chester Gould. The comic strip "Dick Tracy" premiered in the Detroit Mirror newspaper on October, 4 1931. 

In the strip, Tracy faces a wide-ranging rogues gallery of distinctly strange gangsters like Flattop, Itchy, the Stooge, Shoulders, Pruneface, Johnny Ramm, Nails, Little Face, Influence, Mumbles, 88 Keys... the list is long. These villains each have strange and unique appearances, and distinct peculiarities. Characters like these show that crime is just as ugly on the outside as it is on the inside. 

Not only does he sport his famous yellow coat and Fedora, he also wears a two-way wrist watch which he uses to communicate with the police department.
Incidentally, I started this broken chain of "comic to movie" movie reviews with the early Dick Tracy film, "Dick Tracy, Detective" (1945). That movie is the first of a four-part installment of film-noir pulp style films. It's followed by "Dick Tracy vs. Cueball" (1946), "Dick Tracy's Dilemma" (1947) and "Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome" (1947) which stars Boris Karloff. 
I've played with the idea of reviewing these other films.  And now that I'm throwing in this "Dick Tracy" movie, I'm leaning towards foregoing commentary on those early Tracy movies. 
As I've previously mention on this blog, the comic-based movies I initially wanted to review for this thread are still hard to come by. Some, I have to pay for through streaming services. I don't want to get in that habit. Other I just can't find. Earlier adaptations such as Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel, and Flash Gordon are multi-episode serials. I found a bunch of those, but I just need time watch them all. So, once again, I'm straying off my list (and I do have a handwritten list) of "not-so-popular" or "off-the-radar" comic book movies to blog about.
"Dick Tracy" is a movie I've liked since I first saw it back in 1990. I even dressed as Dick Tracy for Halloween that year. I was in second grade at that time. Mom packed my lunches back then in my Dick Tracy lunchbox. And I still have the Dick Tracy action figures which came out in time for the movie. They're all proudly displayed on a bookshelf at home as they somehow survived being thrown away. 
I've talked about this movie before on this blog where I tossed a few talking points around rather than give it a proper critique.
The film starts as a young street kid (Charlie Korsmo) rummages through a garbage can outside a warehouse looking for food. 
He hears a commotion inside, and sneaks into the warehouse. He stumbles upon a group of mobsters playing a game of cards.
As he spies on them, possibly hoping to get his hands on some of the cash they have on the table, a car crashes through the doors and showers bullets onto the unexpecting card party. 

Warren Beatty in "Dick Tracy."

Once they're all dead, two gangsters, Flattop (William Forsythe) and Itchy (Ed O'Ross), get out of the car, tommy guns still in hand. They both work for crime boss, Al "Big Boy" Caprice (Al Pacino). 

The Kid, as he's later called, escapes without harm into the night. 
The massacre is part of Big Boy's ultimate goal is to take over small businesses in the city, and grow in power. Taking out rival gangs and making sure police and officials are kept in his back pocket is crucial. 
Next, he kidnaps rival crime boss, "Lips" Manlis (Paul Sorvino), and his girlfriend Breathless Mahoney (Madonna). Lips owns the popular night spot, the Club Ritz, where Breathless works as a singer. 

Big Boy has them taken down to the docs where he forces Lips at gunpoint to sign over the Club Ritz to him, and then bumps him off by giving him "the bath." In other words, he puts Lips in a wood crate, fills it in with cement, and drops him into a river. 
With one rival gone, Big Boy declares all of Lips's territory now belongs to him, and everyone who worked for Lips is now working for him. 
Dick Tracy begins investigating the whereabouts of Lips. He starts with interrogating Flattop and Itchy. He also finds evidence that places Breathless Mahoney at the docs where Lips was killed.
Tracy tries to persuade her to testify against Big Boy. She's torn, however. Breathless falls in love with him, but is worried what Big Boy will do to her if she testifies. 
Also, Tracy stumbles upon the Kid as he steels a man's watch inside a diner and tries to run off. 

He follows the boy down to a ramshackle little shed where he presumably lives with an abusive tramp who goes by "the Tramp." 
Tracy beats up the bum after he pushes the Kid around. The Kid soon warms up to Tracy and sees him as a hero 
Outside of work, Tracy wants to start a family with his girlfriend, Tess Trueheart (Glenne Headly) but can't get himself to propose. She, however, thinks Tracy cares more about his job than about her. Being a cop is extremely demanding.

Since Big Boy can't buy off Tracy, he ruthlessly does what he can to get Tracy out of his way - permanently. 

A mysterious mobster with no face (literally) appears on the crime scene and hatches a plan to get Tracy out of the way. 

"The Blank," as he's called, gets to Big Boy's piano player, 88 Keys (Mandy Patinkin) in order to talk to Big Boy on his behalf. After some persuading, Big Boy goes along with the Blank's scheme. The plan is to kill the corrupt District Attorney, John Fletcher (Dick Van Dyke), and pin it on Tracy who'll then end up in jail.

Tracy continues to pursue Big Boy. And when he puts Big Boy's right-hand henchman, Mumbles (Dustin Hoffman), under the interrogation light, he finds that Mumbles has a lot to say. It's just a matter of understanding what it is he's saying.
The big selling point for this movie was its huge all-star cast such Al Pacino, Warren Beatty, Madonna, Dustin Hoffman, William Forsythe, Dick Van Dyke, and Paul Sorvino. There's also an array of notable cameos -Catherine O'Hara (Texie Garcia), James Caan (Spaldoni), and Kathy Bates (Mrs. Green). 

There's no other comic-based movie I've seen that matches the atmosphere and style of "Dick Tracy." 
You can pause any moment in this movie, and it looks like a comic panel with all its vibrant colors, creative framing, mood, and stylized dialogue of the 1930s and 1940s. The use of light and dark also gives the film its true comic book feel. This movie has no dull scenes. Not one! 
The matte drawings, and the universe this story exists in, is amazing and impressive. There's a lot for the eyes to take in, scene by scene. It's like a film noir that takes advantage of the best modern production quality that Disney could offer at the time. 

It's soundtrack adds to that element. The opening musical score, composed by Danny Elfman, is a regimental commanding piece complimented with radio chatter about brazen gang activity taking place throughout the city. No one is safe out there. 
Where the movie lacks with most audiences, I think, is with the story. It's a bit lackluster but it does fit in with the types of stories found in the Dick Tracy comic strip. I don't think it transitions well enough onto a film platform. 

It's not a bad nor even an uninteresting story. It simply doesn't jump out and grab audiences like other crime movies. There's some action, and a huge gun fight in the last act with tommy guns going non-stop. But it's not enough. 

Many of the characters aren't fleshed out well enough, either. While there's no back stories (not that there needs to be any), and Dick Tracy is already well established within his world, a lot of the characters aren't as interesting as they could be. For instance, 88 Keys, the piano player at the Club Ritz, plays a pivotal role in trying to get Big Boy Caprice to go along with the plans of the Blank. But he's a completely forgettable character. He's simply there because someone has to be. 

Mandy Patinkin and Al Pacino in "Dick Tracy."

The most lively among them is Pacino. He plays his character as unpredictable, and as one hell of a loudmouth. He misquotes historical figures and spews out verbose lectures. Yet Pacino pulls off an intimidating villain rather well. 
In one scene were Big Boy calls all the crime bosses of the city together to partner up and take out Tracy, he grows frustrated the more they question him. He starts slamming the table as his voice grows louder to the point where he's shouting. 

"You get behind me, we all profit. You challenge me, we all go down! There was one Napoleon, one Washington, one me!"
I think the storyline and character development are the reason why the Dick Tracy hype quickly faded into footnote shortly after the movie's release. Many of the characters are only memorable because of their humorous appearances and weird quirks. 

As much as I love this movie, I would love to see a new film based on the famous detective.  

"Dick Tracy" is a comic book movie that's more impressive than Tim Burton's "Batman."

Despite what may be lacking, "Dick Tracy" remains one of the truest comic book movies out there. 

Dick Tracy comic stripped published on
July 23, 1979 by Chester Gould.