Dick Tracy (1990)

In the summer of 1990, Dick Tracy was everywhere – the market was saturated with Dick Tracy merchandise (the soundtrack to the movie, posters, action figures, etc.);  a Making Of special aired a few weeks before the movie was released; Dick Tracy comic strips were reprinted in comic book form and being sold in bookstores across the country (I purchased a few issues – there are two I distinctly remember – Dick Tracy vs. the Influence and Dicky vs. Mrs. Pruneface), and the local station (Super 18) re-aired old episodes of the Dick Tracy cartoon from the 1960s. All of these were an attempt by Disney to manufacture excitement for their upcoming Dick Tracy adaptation.

Dick Tracy was Disney’s answer to Batman, which was a huge hit for Warner Brothers. They took a few of their cues from Batman – an well respected (and Oscar nominated) actor was cast as the lead villain (Jack Nicholson in Batman, Al Pacino in Dick Tracy); Danny Elfman was commissioned to write the score (just like he did for Batman); a popular pop artist was hired to perform original songs on the soundtrack (Prince in Batman and Madonna in Dick Tracy). Both movies are highly stylized productions – Gotham City is a stylized version of New York, while Dick Tracy resides in a stylized version of Chicago.

It seemed like Disney was going to have a huge hit on their hands – it all got off to a great start with a 22 million dollar opening weekend (which was huge in 1990), but Dick Tracy quickly
fizzled out at the box office. It grossed over 160 million dollars worldwide, not a bad sum for 1990, but it also cost Disney over a 100 million dollars to produce and market the movie. It did less than half the business of Batman (which grossed over 400 million worldwide) and, to add insult to injury, it got beat by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which was made for about a quarter of the budget and released by an independent studio, New Line Cinemas. It is also interesting to note that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, despite being geared towards children, is also the darkest of the three movies. It pays to remember the context of 1990 – comic book adaptations were a rarity in cinema, so the fact that three of them were released over the course of one year was truly amazing. In the 1990s, movies were still driven by star power – which is why signing big names like Jack Nicholson and Al Pacino was such a big deal. Now, it is all about the intellectual properties and the actors have become interchangeable (though, ironically, so have all the IPs. There is almost no difference between Marvel, DC, Star Wars, and Star Trek).

Why did Batman and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rake in the money while Dick Tracy floundered? The answer is simple – name recognition. In 1990, younger audiences were more familiar with Batman and Ninja Turtles than they were with Dick Tracy. The Batman comics, and reruns of the Adam West show, were still in heavy rotation throughout the 1980s. Not to mention, there were the various Saturday Morning cartoons that featured Batman. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon came out in 1987 (the comic book began in 1984) and was extremely popular among children (as were the TMNT action figures).  In fact, I remember after seeing Teenage Mutant Ninjas Turtles in theatre, my two younger cousins were disappointed that it was more faithful to comic book than the animated series (most notably, Splinter’s origin).  However, by 1990, audiences had pretty much forgotten about Dick Tracy – the character was popular among the silent generation and the baby boomers, while Gen Xers and millennials might, at best, vaguely recognize the squared jawed detective. As for Gen Z, well, they weren’t born yet.

The other problem is that the character of Dick Tracy isn’t that interesting. He doesn’t have a cool back story like the Ninja Turtles nor is he a troubled soul like Batman – he is a total square. The highlight of the comic strips was the grotesque villains Dick Tracy faced off against. The comic book wasn’t exactly subtle when it came to its villains – their names were a too on the nose (Pruneface, Flattop, Itchy, The Brow, to name a few) and most of the time they were petty c criminals. The Dick Tracy comic strip first appeared in 1931, during Prohibition, so it’s not surprising that Dick Tracy would be squaring off against bootleggers, racketeers, and gangsters. It was very much a product of its time. It would also be difficult to update Dick Tracy without stirring controversy.  Hell, the 1960s cartoon is now a subject of controversy because of its use of ethnic stereotypes (Dick Tracy would often call upon minorities to do the footwork for him – there was the Japanese detective, Joe Jitsu; the Mexican officer, Go Go Gomez (he is basically a human Speedy Gonzalez); and the Irish police officer, Heap O’ Calorie).  Even in his own cartoon show, Dick Tracy was the least interesting character.

There had been previous attempts at adapting Dick Tracy to the big screen – there were four serials made between 1937 to 1941 that starred Ralph Byrd as the detective (Dick Tracy, Dick Tracy Returns, Dick Tracy’s G-Men, and Dick Tracy vs. Crime, Inc). In 1946 and 1947, RKO studios produced four Dick Tracy movies (Dick Tracy, Dick Tracy vs. Cueball, Dick Tracy’s Dilemma, and Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome), the first two starred Morgan Conway as the title character, and then Ralph Byrd reprised the role in the latter two. These were low budget movies that were produced to make a quick buck and, interestingly, none of them feature a villain from the comic strip.  Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome gets a huge boost by having Boris Karloff as the title villain, but it is still forgettable fare.  Ralph Byrd was perfectly cast as the strait-laced detective, while Morgan Conway is an extremely bland leading man (he is a poor man’s Humphrey Bogart). It is not surprising RKO brought back Byrd for the latter movies.  There is the occasional stylish moment in the series – in Dick Tracy vs. Cueball, there is a scene where the title villain strangles a double-crossing woman, and it is shot from his point of view – anticipating the slasher genre by a good thirty years.  Dick Tracy vs. Cueball was also included in the Harry/Michael Medved book, Fifty Worst Films of All Time (And How They Got That Way). The book is an interesting read, but it also has a few questionable entries. Dick Tracy vs. Cueball is no classic, but it is not that bad! The four Dick Tracy movies RKO produced are mildly entertaining – there are certainly worse ways to waste sixty minutes.   Fun fact: Mike Mazurki, who played the villain, Splitface, in the 1946 Dick Tracy has a cameo in the 1990 version as “Old Man at Hotel.” It was his final screen appearance.  It is a nice tip of the hat by Beatty to Old Hollywood.

I first saw Dick Tracy at second run theatre (the Rivoli in Cedarburg) and enjoyed it immensely. My eleven-year-old self didn’t like the scenes with Breathless Mahoney and Dick Tracy, but I liked the colorful villains and, hell, I even liked the Kid.  Thirty-five years later, I still have a soft spot for Dick Tracy, though my opinion of the Breathless Mahoney scenes hasn’t changed (I do, however, like the musical numbers that Madonna performs throughout the movie). It’s no surprise that Madonna excels in the musical number scenes but struggles in the more dramatic moments. Movie stardom is something that has eluded Madonna – the more successful movies she appeared in she was a supporting actress (Dick Tracy, A League of Their Own). The only exception to the rule was Evita, which has based off a popular stage musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Prior to Dick Tracy, her two starring features, Who's That Girl and A Shanghai Surprise were box office duds. Her later starring vehicles like Swept Away and The Next Best Thing didn't fare so well, either.  However, in the context of 1990 it made perfect sense to cast Madonna in a femme fatale role – she was the current IT girl and a controversial figure. She was also coming off one of her most successful years as an artist – in 1989, she released the album, Like a Prayer, which featured the hit singles Like a Prayer, Express Yourself, and Cherish.  The album sold over 15 million copies and was a turning point in Madonna’s career. In 1990, months before the release of Dick Tracy, she kicked off the Blonde Ambition tour. She was all over the place. She was also dating Warren Beatty, her Dick Tracy co-star and director. This is an example of corporate synergy at work – Disney, and Beatty, were hoping to cash in on Madonna’s notoriety and cast her in the role of the nightclub singer/femme fatale, Breathless Mahoney. There was also a Dick Tracy soundtrack that featured Madonna performing original songs by Stephen Sondheim. 

The interesting thing is that even though Madonna and Warren Beatty were having a torrid love affair in real life, it doesn’t translate to the silver screen. The movie’s idea of seduction is to have Breathless Mahoney wear revealing outfits and utter a few double entendres at Dick Tracy. I always found the scene in Breathless Mahoney’s dressing room to be more cartoonish than sexy (“Don’t you want to frisk me?”). It is also reminiscent of a similar scene in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, where the animated femme fatale, Jessica Rabbit, visits the cynical detective, Eddie Valiant, at his office. Yet even though this scene is played for laughs, it some how is filled with more sexual tension that any of the scenes with Dick Tracy and Breathless Mahoney.

There is also no way that a square like Dick Tracy would fall for a woman like Breathless Mahoney – he is too in love with Tess Trueheart to even consider another woman. Warren Beatty, definitely! Dick Tracy, hell no! There also significantly better chemistry between Dick Tracy and Tess Trueheart, largely because Glenne Headly is a superior actress. Tess Trueheart is the type of role actresses dread to play – she is the long suffering but loyal girlfriend. There really isn’t much depth to the character, but Headly gives an endearing performance and even manages to inject humor into her characterization – when the Kid tells Tess, “I don’t like dames.” She responds, “Good! Neither do I!” and then gives him the stink eye.

There are even aspects of Beatty’s performance that I like. He doesn’t look anything like the character from the comic strip, but his performance is spot on. Beatty’s Dick Tracy is a man who likes the status quo – Tess and him eat at the same diner and engage in comedic banter with the owner, Mike. Even though he loves Tess, he still can’t bring himself to pop the big question, because it would change their current relationship. He is at home in Mike's diner, but he sticks out like a sore thumb, with his yellow fedora and overcoat, at the nightclub that Breathless works at (and that “Big Boy” Caprice stole from “Lips” Manlis). He is awkward and stiff whenever he is in the same room as Breathless Mahoney – she puts the moves on him, but he shoots her down and tells her that he wants her to testify against “Big Boy” Caprice.

Beatty and his screenwriters deserve credit for trying to give Dick Tracy some depth – this a truly Herculean feat given how one dimensional the source material was. He is a devoted, and honest, detective but it comes at the expense of his relationship with Tess. The two of them rarely enjoy a quiet moment together – Dick and Tess are watching an opera when he gets a call over his wrist radio and is forced to leave to check out a murder scene. Later, when Tess tells Dick Tracy that she is leaving town (and moving in with her mother), their conversation is interrupted by a call over Tracy’s wrist radio – he wants to talk her out of moving away, but duty calls and Tess urges him to go. Dick Tracy's work interrupting his private life was often a running gag in early film adaptations and each time this happened it would end with an exasperated Tess shouting, "OH DICK!"  In the 1990 movie, it eventually takes its toll on their relationship. 

While Dick Tracy is hesitant to take risks in his private life, he is willing to take a role of the dice when it comes to his job. While investigating the scene of “Lips” Manlis, Tracy comes across a bunch of smashed walnut shells and suspects “Big Boy” Caprice because of his fondness for walnuts. He takes a roll of the dice and has “Big Boy” Caprice arrested, despite the flimsy evidence. When the forensic department fails to find fingerprints on the walnuts, he has no choice but to release the gangster. “Big Boy” uses this as an opportunity to complain to the press about police corruption. He later brings in “Mumbles” for questioning and tries to sweat a confession out of Big Boy’s incoherent lackey – he sits Mumbles under a heat lamp and asks the same question over again, “Who killed Lips Manlis?” He taunts Mumbles by drinking a cold glass of water, which causes the perspiring henchmen to break down and incoherently babble. Later on, when Tracy plays back the recording to Mumbles and slows it down, he clearly says “Big Boy did it!”

The heart of the movie is Dick Tracy’s relationship with the Kid (who later chooses the name Dick Tracy, Jr.) The movie is at best when it focuses on Dick Tracy slowly embracing the role of fatherhood. The Kid is first introducing running out Mike’s diner – he has stolen the wallet of a patron. Dick Tracy chases after him and finds him living under the tyrannical rule of a hobo, who forces the Kid to commit petty crimes in exchange for food and shelter. Tracy saves the Kid from the abusive hobo, but then he is left with the question on what do the Kid.  He initially wants to hand the Kid over to orphanage, but he grows fond of the boy and keeps putting it off. More importantly, he proves to be a positive role model for the Kid – it is implied that had the Kid not met Dick Tracy, he might have easily fallen into the clutches of Al “Big Boy” Caprice, or some other gangster. A common tactic used by crime bosses was to groom wayward boys into a life of crime – they would often pay children good money to run errands for them (get the paper, shine their shoes, etc.) and when they grew up, they would be chosen to do more illegal activities. This is an interesting plot point in the James Cagney classic, The Public Enemy.

Beatty also avoids making the Kid overly cute and precocious (especially when you compare The Kid to “Junior” in the 1940s Dick Tracy movies– like most preteen boys, he is kind of a shithead. He scarfs down his food and always asks, “When do we eat?” When Tess wants to buy him a new set of clothes, he makes a huge fuss out of it. He also rides on the backboards of cars, despite the objects of Tracy. However, once Tracy has gained the Kid’s trust, he proves to be a loyal and valuable ally. He even manages to save the detective's life on two occasions. When Dick Tracy is framed for the murder of the corrupt D.A, the Kid stands by him and goes to the police chief to express his belief in his mentor's innocence.

The most memorable aspect of Dick Tracy is its galley of grotesque villains – the make-up artists certainly earned their paychecks on this movie. Al Pacino chews the scenery with his portrayal of the flamboyant gangster, Al “Big Boy” Caprice. I always enjoyed Pacino’s over the top performance, because it perfectly suits this film genre. The comic strip had a larger-than-life quality, and a more naturalistic performance would be out of place. “Big Boy” wants to run the city – he eliminates the first obstacle in his path, “Lips” Manlis and then arranges a meeting where he tries to persuade the other crime bosses to unite with him. The only hold out – “Spud” Spaldoni (James Caan under heavy makeup) – gets blown up for his refusal. This also leads to one of my gripes about the movie – most of the memorable villains from the comic strip are relegated to being Caprice’s henchmen. For instance, the character of The Influence is practically a background extra – in the comic strip he wore a special set of contacts that gave him the ability to hypnotize his victims. In the movie, he has a few lines of a dialogue, fades into the background, and then gets killed in the final shootout.  

There are a few standout performances: Dustin Hoffman is a riot as “Mumbles.” A running gag throughout the movie is how Dick Tracy will bring in “Mumbles” for questioning and be bombarded with incoherent babble.  William Forsythe and Ed O’ Ross are appropriately creepy as Big Boy’s henchmen, Flattop and Itchy. Both characterizations are accurate to comic strip – they were usually depicted as killers for hire (in the cartoon, Itchy was Pruneface’s lackey). 

The plot has always been criticized for being “threadbare” but that was also the case with the comic strip. Dick Tracy is a rather simple premise – the comic strip (and cartoon) all followed “the villain of the week” format – a villain would go on a crime spree and Dick Tracy would have to stop them. The villain was usually disposed of in a rather gruesome manner. The movie tries to liven up the proceedings by introducing a mystery to the plot – a gangster known as “The Blank” (because their face is devoid of features) uses 88 Keys (the piano player at Big Boy’s club) to frame Dick Tracy for the murder of D.A. John Fletcher.  The Blank later frames Big Boy Caprice for the kidnapping of Tess Trueheart. With the Blank’s two rivals out of the way, they will control the city.  The audience is supposed to keep guessing who this criminal mastermind is, but it’s pretty obvious from the get-go. There is only one character who has a clear motive for wanting to get rid of them both, and who inhabits both of their worlds. However, in this one instance, I will not spoil for the people who like to figure it out for themselves.

While one might find the storyline lacking, there is no doubt movie the movie is triumph of production design. The movie looks like the Dick Tracy comic strip come to life – rather than shoot on location, Beatty shot entirely in and relied heavily on matte paintings to expand the city and bring it to life. As a result, each shot in the movie looks like the panel of a comic strip – Beatty will often keep the camera stationary as characters walk in out of frame. When we are first introduced to Dick Tracy, he is framed though the window of his apartment building, grabbing his yellow hat and jacket. The also has a limited color palette – primarily red, green, blue, and yellow, each of the exact same shade. This further adds to the comic book look of the movie.  It also fitting that the Beatty uses film techniques that were popular in the 1930s – the use of matte painting is most obvious, but his use of montage editing (when Dick Tracy is arresting Big Boy’s lackeys) looks like something out of a Warner Brothers gangster movie from that period.  

Dick Tracy is definitely curio – it was an attempt at old fashioned filmmaking before CGI took over the industry. Out of the main comic book adaptations that was released in 1989/1990, it is the odd man out. It is also interesting to watch a comic book that wasn’t made with the intent of starting a movie franchise – both Batman and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were given the sequel treatment, but Dick Tracy is a self-contained movie. There is nowhere Beatty could go with a sequel, considering that he killed off all of the main villains from the comic book. It is almost Beatty knew this would be his only shot at making a Dick Tracy movie and decided to include as many villains as possible. Warren Beatty has sat on the rights to Dick Tracy for the last thirty plus years and, with the exception of two specials, has done nothing with the character – probably because he knows it would be tough for this character to compete with all the CGI spectacles that dominate theatres.

 

Cast: Warren Beatty (Dick Tracy), Al Pacino (Al “Big Boy” Caprice), Madonna (Breathless Mahoney), Glenne Headly (Tess Trueheart), Charlie Korsmo (Kid), William Forsythe (Flattop), Ed O’ Ross (Itchy), Mandy Patinkin (88 Keys), Dustin Hoffman (Mumbles), Dick Van Dyke (D.A. Fletcher), Seymour Cassel (Sam Catchem), James Keane (Pat Patton), Charles Durning (Chief Brandon), Michael J. Pollard (Bug Bailey), James Tolkan (Numbers), R.G. Armstrong (Pruneface), Henry Silva (Influence), Paul Sorvino (“Lips” Manlis), Tom Signorelli (Mike), James Caan (“Spud” Spaldoni), Frank Campanella (Judge Harper), Kathy Bates (Mrs. Green), Catherine O’ Hara (“Texie” Garcia), Estelle Parsons (Mrs. Trueheart), Allen Garfield (Reporter), Charles Fleischer (Reporter), Mike Mazurki (Old Man at Hotel), Ian Wolfe (Munger).

Director: Warren Beatty
Writers: Jim Cash, Jack Epps, Jr. Based off the comic strip by Chester Gould.
Running Time: 105 minutes.