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Dick Tracy (film)

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Dick Tracy
Dick Tracy poster
Directed by	Warren Beatty
Produced by	Warren Beatty
Written by	Jim Cash Jack Epps Jr. Bo Goldman (uncredited) Chester Gould (comic strip)
Starring	Warren Beatty Al Pacino Madonna Glenne Headly Charlie Korsmo Dick Van Dyke Dustin Hoffman
Music by	Score: Danny Elfman Original songs written by: Stephen Sondheim Original songs performed by: Madonna
Cinematography	Vittorio Storaro
Editing by	Richard Marks
Distributed by	Touchstone Pictures
Release date(s)	June 15, 1990 July 6, 1990
Running time	105 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$54,000,000
Gross revenue	$163,000,000
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Dick Tracy is a 1990 action-adventure film based upon the Dick Tracy comic strip created by Chester Gould in 1931. Warren Beatty directed, produced and starred in the leading role. The supporting cast includes Al Pacino, Madonna, Glenne Headly, Charlie Korsmo, Dick Van Dyke and Dustin Hoffman. The story mainly centers on detective Dick Tracy's battle with mobster Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice (Pacino) and his tangled love life with Breathless Mahoney (Madonna) and Tess Trueheart (Headly). In a subplot, Tracy encounters a street orphan going by the simple name of "The Kid," (Korsmo) to whom he personally becomes a father figure. Development phase for the film had centered as far back as the early 1980s. It wasn't until the arrival of Beatty that the project initially started to move forward and was released in 1990. The film received mixed reviews (mostly positive) and was both a success at the box office and the Academy Awards. There, it picked up seven nominations and won three of the categories. A sequel was planned though a controversy over the film rights has ensued between Beatty and the Tribune Media Services.

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Release and controversies
- 4.1 Box office performance
- 4.2 Critical analysis
5 Sequel
6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links

Plot

While an illegal card game is taking place, a young street urchin witnesses the massacre of a group of mobsters by Flattop, one of the hoods on the pay roll of Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice, whose crime syndicate is taking over small businesses in the city with extreme vengeance. Detective Dick Tracy later catches the urchin, who calls himself "Kid" - in an act of petty theft, and after rescuing him from his ruthless guardian, he temporarily adopts him with the help of girlfriend Tess Trueheart. Meanwhile, after coercing Lips Manlis into signing over the deed to Club Ritz, Caprice has him killed and steals his girlfriend, the seductive, sultry singer Breathless Mahoney. Tracy goes to the club and arrests Caprice for Lips's murder. He goes into Breathless' room to ask her for her testimony, as she is the only witness. She comes out and attempts to seduce Tracy, but he doesn't give in, and leaves. Caprice is let out of prison, since there is no evidence. His next move is to try to bring the local crime denizens, including Pruneface, Ribs Mocca, Mumbles, Itchy and Numbers, together under his leadership. Once one of them refuses, he meets an untimely demise. Tracy is on the case, but without Breathless' testimony, he cannot prove that Caprice was behind the crimes. So he tries one last time to get Breathless' testimony, when she comes in his office wearing a sexy outfit, which Tracy shows a little sign of being attracted to. Breathless goes onto his desk, and tells him she'll testify if, and only if, he agrees to give in to her sexual advances. He resists, despite his growing attraction to her. Rescued by the Kid, Tracy leads a seemingly unsuccessful raid on Club Ritz but rather than looking for evidence of gambling, he has one of his men plant a hearing detector in a back room, listening in on Caprice's dubious criminal activities.

"Big Boy" Caprice holding a newspaper displaying Dick Tracy's arrest.

The resultant raids on illegal enterprises all but wipe out his criminal empire, but when Caprice discovers the listening device, he uses it to lure Tracy to him, however, a faceless figure (The "Blank") steps out of the shadows and saves Tracy. Meanwhile, Breathless shows up at Tracy's apartment, once again in an act to seduce him. Tracy shows that he can't resist after all when he allows her to kiss him. Unfortunately, Tess witnesses them kissing and leaves town. She subsequently has a change of heart, but before she can tell Tracy, she is kidnapped by the Blank. Tracy receives a message to come to the greenhouse where she works, but it's another trap. Tracy is drugged by the Blank and framed for the murder of corrupt District Attorney Fletcher. Caprice is back in business, but he too has been framed: for Tess' kidnapping, a federal offense, and one of the few crimes he didn't commit. Sprung from jail by his colleagues, Tracy sets out to rescue Tess. He arrives at a shootout outside Caprice's club, and all of Caprice's men are gunned down by the police and Tracy himself. Abandoning his crew, Caprice ties Tess to a gear of a drawbridge, but he is confronted by both the Blank and Tracy. Desperate to escape, he shoots the Blank. Beneath the faceless figure's mask, Tracy is shocked to find Breathless Mahoney, who kisses him and breathes her last breath. Enraged, he punches Caprice and sends him falling to his death in the bridge gears. He then frees Tess, and his name is cleared from the murder of Fletcher. Later, in the middle of a marriage proposal to Tess, Tracy is interrupted by a robbery in progress, and takes off with the kid, now calling himself Dick Tracy Jr.

Cast

Warren Beatty as Dick Tracy: A square-jawed detective sporting a yellow overcoat and fedora. He finds himself in the wake of various mobsters and bogeymen that entrust in the city. In addition, he is a common candidate to become the chief of police, though he unwilling cuts himself out, considering that it is a "desk job."
Al Pacino as Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice: The main antagonist and the leading crime boss of the city. Although he is involved with various criminal activities, they remain unproven, due to the best efforts of Tracy being overpowered by corrupt District Attorney Fletcher.
Madonna as Breathless Mahoney / The Blank: An entertainer at Club Ritz who is more interested in stealing Tracy from his girlfriend Trueheart.
Glenne Headly as Tess Trueheart: Dick Tracy's girlfriend. She pressures him to enjoy life and become more acquainted with her to marriage. She helps mostly raising an orphan the two met named "The Kid."
Charlie Korsmo as The Kid / Dick Tracy Jr.: A scrawny street orphan who makes his way by eating out of garbages. He falls into the life of both Tracy and Trueheart where he becomes a common ally with Tracy.
Dick Van Dyke as District Attorney Fletcher: A corrupt city official who is in the hope of becoming the Mayor in the recent election. He is dubious over Tracy arresting criminals without a warrant as he himself works with the various crime bosses.
Dustin Hoffman as Mumbles: A fast-talking accomplice of Caprice with a voice that no one can understand.
Paul Sorvino: as Lips Manlis: The original owner of Club Ritz and Caprice's mentor who is killed by his former protege.
William Forsythe as Flattop: An assassin of Caprice with his most distinguishing feature being his square, flat cranium.
Ed O'Ross as Itchy: A counterpart of Flattop and member of Caprice's gang.
James Keane as Pat Patton: A plainclothes officer who is an ally of Tracy and a second father figure for The Kid.
Mandy Patinkin as 88 keys: A piano player at the Club Ritz who finds himself involved with Caprice's problems.
R.G. Armstrong as Pruneface: A deformed mobster of Big Boy Caprice.

Production

Development

Sometime in 1980, United Artists was interested in purchasing the rights to the Dick Tracy comic strip. They went as far as hiring Tom Mankiewicz to write a screenplay, though the entire deal fell apart as Chester Gould was asking for too much money and excessive creative control.^[1] Producers Art Linson and Floyd Mutrux bought the rights in the same year, and took the property to Paramount Pictures. Steven Spielberg was offered the chance to direct though he declined. Universal Pictures decided to co-distribute the film with Paramount, hiring John Landis to direct. Landis hired Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr to write the screenplay with his basic orders to the writers as to do the film centering Big Boy Caprice as the main villain and in a 1930s atmosphere. Cash and Epps then read every single comic strip from 1930 to 1957. Epps felt since "there were so many great characters" that he and Cash wished to include as many as they could. Clint Eastwood was offered the leading role of Dick Tracy, though he personally turned it down. In total, the two writers would write two drafts for Landis before the director left after an on-set accident on Twilight Zone: The Movie,^[2] in which actor Vic Morrow was killed. Epps was disappointed when Landis left stating that "he would have made it much wilder and zanier far ahead."^[3] Max Allan Collins, then writer of the Dick Tracy comic strip, remembers reading one of the drafts. He disapproved over it, calling it too campy and the story "paper-thin." However, he was impressed with the rouges gallery and the 1930s setting.^[2] Walter Hill came on board as the new director with Joel Silver as producer. Cash and Epps then wrote another draft for the two, though Hill took the script, and what Epps states, "[Hill] focused it and threw out a lot of extraneous things and really made it a Tracy draft." While Hill was finishing Streets of Fire, pre-production had progressed as far as set building, and Hill had met with Warren Beatty for the lead role. Hill left the project, which Paramount then began developing as a lower budget version with Richard Benjamin as the new director.^[3] Cash and Epps did two more drafts with Benjamin, though very little detail had changed ever since Hills' draft. Benjamin offered Beatty the leading role but changed his mind when Beatty wanted to be heavily involved during production, due to the fact that he was a fan of the Dick Tracy comic strip as a child. Beatty also wanted $5 million and 15% of the box office gross a deal which Universal Pictures refused to accept. Paramount wasn't in all the least impressed with the new script and Benjamin went off to direct City Heat. Paramount and Universal dropped the rights, which were then purchased by Beatty in 1985. Beatty quoted, "There's something quaint about 1939/1940 crime fighting; the wrist radio, bugging a room with a huge microphone. I would just say that something about it moved me. I would say that pre-war, just on the brink of war, there probably was a naivete about America in that period. About good and evil, law and order. It's just before America took over. The last days of innocence. Just before our loss of innocence as a country."^[3] Beatty pitched the project to Disney as the director, feeling no one else in Hollywood could deliver in the same vision he had in mind. Beatty's reputation for directorial profligacy, notably with the critically acclaimed Reds, a $40 million box office failure, did not sit well with Disney of bringing films in on time and on budget.^[3] Beatty made a deal with the studio whereby any budget overruns would be deducted from Beatty's fee as producer, director and star. At this point, Collins began lobbying to write the novelization as he had been writing the comic strip for the past 13 years. Collins' wish was granted and was even invited aboard as a consultant/Dick Tracy expert. Meanwhile, Beatty hired collaborator Bo Goldman to rewrite a final shooting script. Collins, who had disapproved an early draft by Cash and Epps, was excited for the news of Goldman on board as a writer. Collins commented, "The script arrives in the mail, and it's the same lousy Cash and Epps script! Almost nothing had changed!"^[4]

Casting

In addition to Clint Eastwood and Warren Beatty's involvement, actors who were reported to be leading candidates for the role of Dick Tracy since the film's development phase in the early 1980s included Harrison Ford, Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro, Richard Gere, Tom Selleck and Mel Gibson.^[4] Although he was eager to do so when first offered, Beatty was hesitant to portray the role, stating "At first, I thought I don't know if I want to play Dick Tracy, because I don't look like him, but then I realized nobody looks like him."^[5] Wearing a prosthetic nose and chin as a means to look exactly like the comic strip counterpart was considered, though Beatty dropped the idea as he felt he couldn't communicate with the audience "wearing outrageous makeup."^[4] Recommended by costume designer Milena Canonero, Beatty hired John Caglione Jr. and Doug Drexler as the make-up designers. Since the script didn't include any physical descriptions of the mobsters, Caglione and Drexler studied Chester Gould's sketches of the comic strip.^[6] Beatty was able to assemble a supporting cast filled with famous names and stars, all of which were fellow friends of Beatty and achieved their respective roles as personal favors. James Caan, who played mobster Spud Spaldoni in a cameo, and Dustin Hoffman did the film was their way of doing a favor for him. It was by this expression that Beatty was able to convince them to hide their facial features in extensive makeup.^[4] For his makeup, Al Pacino wore a fake chin, nose, upper lip and sported a mole on his cheek, plus plugs behind his ears to make them stick out. Pacino often fell asleep through his make-up hours and would wake up yelling at the design team, not even knowing where he was at. A team had to follow Pacino on set as to avoid anything that would ruin his make-up.^[6] Beatty was romantically involved with Madonna at the time, as he felt the role of Breathless Mahoney would be perfect for her. Beatty described the actress as "terrific, hard working and gifted." Madonna took the opportunity of working with an ensemble cast filled with veteran actors and was impressed with the humor and style of the script.^[4] Sean Young was originally cast in the role of Tess Trueheart, but was replaced by Glenne Headley after Young claims she refused to sleep with Beatty. In response, Beatty quoted, "I made a mistake casting Sean Young in the part and I felt very badly about it."^[7] For his make-up, Hoffman wore a bald cap and wig, rubber eyelids, lips and chin.^[6] Make-up designers John Caglione Jr. and Doug Drexler originally suggested Ronald Regan for the role of Pruneface, though Beatty opted for Armstrong as he had worked with him on Heaven Can Wait and Reds.^[6]

Filming

Early in the development of Dick Tracy, Warren Beatty decided to make the film using a palette limited to just seven colors. They were primarily red, green, blue and yellow to evoke the film's comic book origins; furthermore each of the colors was to be exactly the same shade. To design the images Beatty hired collaborators that included production designer Richard Sylbert and cinematographer Vittorio Storaro. Although Disney resented hard to the concept, Beatty was able to convince them otherwise. Principal photography began at Universal Studios in California on February 2, 1989; lasting 85 days, spanning 53 interior sets and 25 exterior backlot sets, and often encompassing dozens of takes of every scene.^[8] As filming continued in Los Angeles, Max Allan Collins continued to work on his novelization, loosely based on an "improved and corrected" script. Disney objected to Collins' changes, and rejected the manuscript. Collins claimed it was an act to "fix as many plotholes I could." The author made a deal with Disney that if Beatty liked it, then Disney would have to follow with the manuscript. As a result Beatty was impressed with Collins' story and Disney decided to accept his ideas for the novelization. Executive producer Barry Osborne began making regular calls to Collins, asking why he had "softened" a scene in which Tess Trueheart's mom tries to convince her daughter to leave Dick Tracy. Collins explained that, as any true fan would know, Mrs Trueheart would more likely defend Tracy because, in the very first episode of the newspaper strip, Dick Tracy had avenged the death of her husband, Tess' father. "When I told Osborne this, there was a long silence at the other end of the phone. They ended up re-shooting the scene, my way." Osborne was impressed with many conclusions Collins made with the scripts problems that some of his dialogue had been used in the finished film.^[8] Costume designer Milena Canonero worked with Beatty's rules of six basic colors appearing in the film as well. According to Madonna, getting the right look for Breathless Mahoney didn't come easily. "It was trial and error. I felt like a mannequin on wheels for a while, because, first of all, I had finally grown my hair out, and it was long and dark. They couldn't decide if they should make Breathless blonde or brunette." After Madonna did a screen test, she claims that Storaro fell in love with her blonde wig, and eventually, her hair was died blonde.^[9]

Music

See also: Dick Tracy (soundtrack), I'm Breathless, Dick Tracy (orchestral score), and Dick Tracy (single)

Danny Elfman was in vacation at the Bahamas for three days when Warren Beatty flew him to Los Angeles about him writing the film score for Dick Tracy. Beatty was impressed with his work on Batman, and felt it was natural to work on yet another summer blockbuster. Elfman quoted, "In a completely different way, Dick Tracy has this unique quality that Batman had for me. It gives an incredible sense of non-reality." The composer enlisted the help of Oingo Boingo lead guitarist Steve Bartek to help arrange the compositions for the orchestra. Elfman worked seven days a week and 12 hours a day to complete the score.^[10] Beatty enlisted acclaimed songwriter Stephen Sondheim to write several news songs for Madonna to sing. As a result, no fewer than three soundtrack albums were released to tie in with the film. The first featured Sondheim's songs, while the second showcased Elfman's film score, and finally the most successful was a stand alone album titled I'm Breathless that was filled with Madonna's songs.^[9]

Release and controversies

To help market and promote the film, Disney had at one point planned a Broadway stage show. It was to premiere in the Videopolis theater at Disney Land, whereas a casting call was written. For the role of Dick Tracy, the description called for an actor to be "handsome, smart male who always does the right thing." The search for Breathless Mahoney required a "very strong singer-dancer-actress."^[11] Around the opening release of the film in theaters, Harold Steinberg - a New York real estate developer, filed a lawsuit claiming that Warren Beatty, Walt Disney Studios, and Disney Studios Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg stole his idea to develop a film from the Dick Tracy comic strip. According to Steinberg he presented it as a musical to both Beatty and Katzenberg in 1980, but they showed no interest.^[12] This could later be questioned as Beatty didn't express interest in the role until 1983, three years prior to Steinberg's claim.^[4] As a means to promote the film, reruns of The Dick Tracy Show were aired. The cartoon appeared on various independent stations across America in June 1990. Asian and Hispanic groups started charging that characters Joe Jitsu (a Japanese buck-toothed character) and Go Go Gomez (a sombrero-wearing Mexican) were offensive stereotypes. Two stations in Los Angeles removed the airings and edited episodes were then sent out. Henry G. Saperstein, then the chairman of UPA stated "It's just a cartoon, for goodness sake."^[13] Max Allan Collins' novelization caused even more controversy between Disney executives. Since the novelization was scheduled to be published before the film opened, Disney insisted that Collins leave out the identity of the faceless figure to be "The Blank." Collins stated "most people had already figured it out by seeing the credits." It didn't help when the official Dick Tracy coloring book, also released before the film, featured a panel in which the identity of the Blank was revealed. Due to various disputes over Disney, up to seven printings were published, though in total, almost one million copies were sold.^[14]

Box office performance

Dick Tracy was released on June 15, 1990^[15], which mean it had to deal with a hard act to follow with the previous summer's success on Batman. Disney spent a total of $9,000,000 on the film's marketing strategy alone, dealing with it's $45,000,000 production budget, coming at a total cost of $54,000,000.^[14] In addition it was the first film released using digital sound.^[16] Dick Tracy went on to gross $22,543,911 on it's opening weekend, garnering 20% of its total box office run. In the final results for it's North American run, the film made $103,738,726. Overseas it grossed $59,000,000. The end result came to a total cost of $162,738,726, equivalent to over $261 million in 2007,^[15] declaring itself to be a box office success. Disney, however, was disappointed hoping the film would have the same commercial success as Batman.^[14] Dick Tracy was the number nine top grossing film of 1990.^[17]

Critical analysis

Based on 38 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, Dick Tracy received an average 66% overall approval rating;^[18] the film received a 33% with the six critics in Rotten Tomatoes' "Cream of the Crop."^[19] Common reviews highly depicted "the style of over substance" meaning, feeling that Dick Tracy didn't pull off a dramatic presence.^[18] Ian Freer of Empire was highly impressed with the visuals and the rogues gallery, though ultimately felt the story didn't add up. All in all, he gave the film a positive review.^[20] Roger Ebert disliked Madonna's performance but praised the film, citing "This is a movie in which every frame contains some kind of artificial effect. An entire world has been built here, away from the daylight and the realism of ordinary city streets."^[21] Chris Hicks of The Deseret Morning News felt "[Dick Tracy] is a lot of fun, and fans of the offbeat may embrace it as a unique film amid a sea of movies that seem cloned from each other."^[22] However, the film was met with its fair share of negative reviews. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone commented "For all its superficial pleasures, Dick Tracy ultimately flounders because it provides an audience with nothing to take home and dream about."^[23] Desson Thomson of The Washington Post called it "Tinseltown's annual celebration of everything that's wrong with itself: the hype, the agent-negotiated star system; the Hollywood 'fun' assembly-line method of copy-cat mediocrity."^[24] Jonathan Rosenbaum of The Chicago Reader liked the visuals "but lacked the [vision] to go with it." He also felt the action sequences could have gone in a better direction.^[25] Despite his negative feedback with the film's script during development and his controversial efforts on the novelization with Disney, Max Allan Collins gave the film a positive review. He still had mixed emotion towards the script but was overly impressed with Beatty's performance. Stephen Sondheim's music and the ensemble cast of the rogues gallery also helped convinced Collins to garner the film a positive review. In the end, the author quoted, "Still, as one critic said, it's like a lovely restored period automobile, but when you raise the hood, there's no engine."^[26] Despite its mixed reviews, Dick Tracy was able to win three Academy Awards:

Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Richard Sylbert and Rick Simpson)
Best Makeup (John Cagilone Jr. and Doug Drexler)
Best Original Song (I Always Get My Man was written by Stephen Sondheim and performed by Madonna

In addition the film was nominated for another four categories:

Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Al Pacino)
Best Cinematography (Vittorio Storaro)
Best Costume Design (Milena Canonero)

Despite the fact that it was the first film released on digital sound,^[16] it lost the nomination for Best Sound Mixing.^[27] Dick Tracy was nominated for Best Motion Picture Comedy/Musical at the Golden Globe Awards. Pacino and Sonheim were nominated for categories as well (with Sondheim being nominated twice).^[28] In England, Warren Beatty, Pacino, Madonna and Charlie Korsmo were all given nominations at the Saturn Awards. There the film was also nominated for Best Fantasy Film while winning Best Make-Up.^[29] Pacino was nominated for Funniest Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture at the American Comedy Awards,^[30] and Storaro was nominated for his work by the American Society of Cinematographers.^[31] Danny Elfman and Sondheim were both given Grammy Award nominations for their work.^[32] The A.V. Club named Dick Tracy as number five in it's top "13 Failed Attempts To Start Film Franchises" list.^[33]

Sequel

After the release of the film, producers Art Linson and Floyd Mutrux launched a lawsuit against Warren Beatty, alleging that they were owned profit participation from the film. This lawsuit prevented Beatty from producing another film for two years, but the case was eventually settled.^[26] Beatty came up with what he called "a very good idea" for a sequel, but was thwarted by Tribune Media Services, who claimed control over Tracy's character. Beatty then sued the company for $30 million, saying they violated a complex agreement regarding the Tracy rights as far back as 1985. In 2002, according to Beatty's lawsuit, Tribune took back control of Tracy and notified Disney, but not through the process outlined in the agreement. Beatty's attorney quoted, "The Tribune is a big, powerful company and they think they can just run roughshod over people. They picked the wrong guy."^[34] In August 2005, Beatty was allowed to proceed with the lawsuit as he won the first stage in the battle. The Tribune was then denied the motion to dismiss the lawsuit, explaining the case involved issues of contract interpretation and "mixed questions of fact and law" which needed to be sorted through in court. However, Beatty did state the situation still was "commercially impossible" for him to produce a sequel.^[35] By April 2006 the ruling was reported with no forward progress, as Beatty refused to commission a deal with the Tribune feeling he "didn't need consent to reserve the rights."^[36] In July 2006, a judge ruled that the case could go to trial; Tribune's request to end the suit in their favor was rejected.^[37]