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, quarks, 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 Tracy 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. Time will tell.
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 into that habit. Others 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 in to see what's going on. 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 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."
It's not as pleasant as it sounds.

With one rival gone, Big Boy declares all of Lips's territory now belongs to him, and everyone who works 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 bum who goes by "the Tramp." 
Tracy beats up this 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!"

Madonna is the biggest mistake in the movie. Not only is her performance lazy and boring, but she brings nothing but trash to her performance. I understand her character is supposed to be a gorgeous club singer. But even a gorgeous club singer can have class. Madonna has none. She simply works to flaunt herself and be as sexually deviant as Touchstone will allow her. She's the major stain on this otherwise good movie. 
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.  

As much as Tim Burton's"Batman" holds a special place in my heart, I honestly think "Dick Tracy" is a comic book movie that's more impressive.

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.

Don't Fast Forward This One: Is Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy a Forgettable Comic Book Movie?

I came up with "Don't Fast Forward This One" posts as quick discussions about movies, or specific aspects to specific movies. They're not reviews...just thinking points.

I've read that Warren Beatty tried to get a movie adaptation of the comic strip Dick Tracy created by Chester Gould since 1975.
He finally succeeded in 1990. I was about second grade when Dick Tracy was released, and I was a fan. I even dressed as Dick Tracy for Halloween that year, with a cheap yellow trench coat and plastic fedora hat that had to be Scotch taped before Halloween arrived because I wore it too much before then. I even had a toy two-way wrist radio watch that digitally told time (I think?) and would light up red when pressing the small button on the side.
The movie is a fireworks show of color and sights. It looks like a modern film noir. I struggled unsuccessfully to come up with another movie Dick Tracy resembles. I couldn't find a single one, and I'm open to suggestions.
Dick Tracy came out a year after Tim Burton's Batman gave audiences a new perspective on the caped crusader, completely opposite of Adam West's campy Batman from the TV series of the 1960s. No doubt many audience members were unfamiliar with Frank Miller's dark Batman graphic novels at that time. These took comic book readers away from the corny 60s Batman before the movie took general audiences in that same direction. Burton, I believe, took inspiration from Frank Miller.
Aside from the cinematography, what makes Dick Tracy unique and important is (like Tim Burton's Batman) its demonstration of how a comic book movie can be a serious movie.
The movie is set around the 1940s. A small gang of mafia members (Little Face, the Brow, the Rodent, and Shoulders) are mowed down by a couple of tommy guns in the hands of rival gang members, Flattop and Itchy. Little do Flattop and Itchy know, this massacre was witnessed by a young street kid named..."Kid."
As Dick Tracy investigates, gangster "Lips" Manlis (Paul Sorvino) is forced to hand over his Club Ritz to notorious rival gang leader, Al "Big Boy" Caprice (Al Pacino). Big Boy then gives Lips a "cement bath" and then forces him to spend the rest of his days with the fishes.
Big Boy is determine to take over Lips's little empire, which includes his girlfriend, Breathless Mahoney (Madonna).
Tracy knows Big Boy is behind Lips's disappearance, but needs evidence and Breathless's testimony. What he uncovers in his investigation is bigger than he imagined.
The Dick Tracy comic strips first debut in 1931 by Chester Gould, before Superman and Batman.
They were colorful, silly, and offered a huge rogues gallery for Tracy to fight, each with a visually distinct characteristic stereotypical of mobsters - Pruneface, the Rodent, 88 Keys, the Brow, Lips Manlis, Ribs Macca, B.O. Plenty. The list is long. The idea behind these appearances is that crime is just as ugly on the outside as it is on the inside.
So, with the 1990 film, this silly and cartoonish comic strip became a movie experience that's gritty, even gory at times with scenes of criminals getting sprayed with bullets. It followed the example of Burton's Batman that a comic-based movie doesn't have to be corny or slapsticky.
Let's face it, the Superman movies had some of that. It didn't make those movies bad (well...the first and second Superman, anyways. Let's not talk about parts three and four.)
Dick Tracy demonstrated just how serious a comic movie can be. It's a triumph in its visuals, in its cast of big names (Al Pacino, Madonna, Dustin Hoffman, Warren Beatty...even Dick Van Dyke, James Caan, Catherine O' Hara, and Kathy Bates make cameos), and in its action special effects.
When the movie was released, Dick Tracy's profile was everywhere. Playmates produced a short lived toy line. McDonald's put out one of their sweepstakes games. Nintendo had a video game - a terrible video game! And then, it all just faded away into a footnote.
The story line has been often ridiculed as being uninteresting and lacking.
But Roger Ebert, who said Burton's Batman was "disappointing" called Dick Tracy a "masterpiece of studio artificiality, of matte drawings and miniatures and optical effects." He even claimed Dick Tracy outdid Batman, writing that it was a "sweeter, more optimistic movie."
He does criticize the movie not going into the villains a little more, claiming the movie glimpses over them too quickly. Well, ok...I agree to some degree but with all the villains in the movie, doing so could have been a little too much, and could have hindered the flow of the story.
What Batman started for comic book movies, Dick Tracy took to a new, and yet-to-be-matched, level. It may not be the best comic to movie adaptation. It is definitely far from the worst. Like Batman, it hoisted the genre to more respectable heights. Where Batman turned campy and silly into dark and gritty, Dick Tracy added color while keeping things dark. What Batman started, Dick Tracy helped solidify. I believe modern comic book movies (SpiderMan, The Avengers) can find roots in Warren Beatty's movie. It shouldn't be trodden on, and thrown into the heap of comic book film flops.


Also, as I mentioned the TV series Batman, the show's producer, William Dozier, made a pilot episode for a live-action Dick Tracy series that was similar in style to Batman.
However, as ratings for Batman were dropping at the time, ABC and NBC declined to purchase the series.
The show starred Ray MacDonnell as well as a very young Eve Plumb as a character called "Bonnie Braids." Plumb later stared as Jan Brady on The Brady Bunch.
According to tvobscurities.com, the series was going to be played straight when compared to Batman. Judging on the opening title sequence, found here, the series definitely looked like it would be similar to Batman. (Sigh...what could have been.)