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Dick Tracy
Dick Tracy poster
Directed by	Warren Beatty
Produced by	Warren Beatty
Written by	Characters in Dick Tracy comic strip: Chester Gould Written by: Jim Cash Jack Epps Jr.
Starring	Warren Beatty Al Pacino Madonna Glenne Headly Charlie Korsmo Dick Van Dyke Seymour Cassel 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	$47,000,000
Gross revenue	$163,000,000
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Dick Tracy is a 1990 film based upon the Dick Tracy comic strip character created by Chester Gould. The film was directed and produced by Warren Beatty, and originally released in cinemas by Touchstone Pictures. Beatty also stars as the iconic square-jawed detective, with Al Pacino, Madonna, Charlie Korsmo, Dustin Hoffman, Glenne Headly, Mandy Patinkin, and Dick Van Dyke co-starring.

The film won an Academy Award for Best Art Direction, Best Makeup and Best Music, Original Song (Stephen Sondheim) for "Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)". It was also nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, and Best Sound. Al Pacino received a Best Supporting Actor nomination as well.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Production 2.1 Development 3 Filming 4 Cast 5 Merchandising 5.1 Action figures 5.2 Theme park ride 6 Recent events 7 Trivia 8 References 9 External links

We are introduced to a graving city ran by criminals and lead by a dedicated police force introducing Dick Tracy. Despite his best efforts, he's unable to prove that Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice is responsible for a series of crimes with his deadly assassins Flattop and Itchy. Tracy is accompanied by his girlfriend Tess Trueheart and the two collide with a street orphan, only going by the alias of "The Kid." Meanwhile businessman Lips Manlis and fellow singer/entertainer Breathless Mahoney are kidnapped by Caprice's gang. In the event Manlis is killed and Caprice takes over his empire, including his night club which he renames Club Ritz as an attempt to make it the hottest spot in town. Tracy automatically arrests Caprice, though is unable to prove Caprice's exploits. Tracy continues to help raise The Kid with Tess, though one night he is nearly killed by Flattop and Itchy due to a drive by shooting (however they escape and Tracy isn't able to identify the assassins).

Tracy investigates the shooting and calls in Mahoney to testify, though she is only interested in seducing him. Caprice then holds a meeting with fellow mobsters and crime bosses where he declares himself the leader. One crime lord refuses to opportunity to join the group to which his car is bombed by a mysterious being known as "The Blank," who sports the usual trench coat and fedora with a completely blank mask. Flattop and Itchy take Tracy gunpoint at his residence where The Kid soon follows. They take him down an abandoned basement where Caprice tries to bribe him into stopping his crime fighting career but Tracy refuses. As such, they then tie him up to a chair where they set the water mane to explode, though this fails as The Kid shows up at the knick of time to save Tracy. District Attorney Fletcher once again refuses to do anything about the situation as he feels there is no proof. Mahoney shows up at Tracy's office once again as Tracy called her to testify. In the act she's only interested in seducing him, whereas she is able to kiss him. The scene is witnessed by Trueheart and The Kid, which puts a devastating effect upon Trueheart, causing her to leave Tracy and live with her mom. Meanwhile Tracy and the police force attend the re-opening of Club Ritz. There they install a hearing detector in Caprice's office, making the police force hear of his dubious activities and stopping them. This drops the crime rate and leaves a serious effect upon the various crime bosses. They intend to kill Tracy, though Caprice stops them as stating he would be shown responsible by the city if Tracy were to die. Caprice eventually finds the hearing detector and sets Tracy up for a trap on going to the south side warehouse.

Tracy arrives as a shootout occurs between the police force and the mobsters. The mysterious "Blank" shows up and thwarts the plan. Caprice then wants both Tracy and Blank killed; while Mahoney takes advantage of Tracy love-life after Trueheart leaves. Tracy refuses to accept a relationship as he is still in love with Trueheart, to which Mahoney then leaves him. The orphanage is finally able to pick up The Kid while Blank kidnaps Trueheart. Blank tricks Tracy into saving her, though he is poisoned by a sleeping gas. Blank kills Fletcher in his office, framing Tracy for the murder and ensuing into his arrest. As Tracy is behind in jail Caprice takes advantage of going on a crime spree. While Tracy sits behind bars, The Kid visits him, saying that he has finally adopted a birth name of Dick Tracy Jr. Meanwhile the police force realizes that Tracy was framed and free him out of jail. Blank puts Trueheart tied to a chair in the attic of Club Ritz, the night of a party. Blank calls Caprice, telling him to check his attic. Caprice shows up in the attic with Trueheart tied at the same time and Tracy arriving on the rooftop of the glassed-roof.

Producers Art Linson and Floyd Mutrux bought the rights to the Dick Tracy comic strip in 1980. They took the property to Paramount Pictures where Jeffrey Katzenberg was head of production. Paramount started developing screenplays and offered Steven Spielberg the chance to direct, though he declined. Universal Pictures took the opportunity to assist with financing the film. John Landis was eventually hired as the director with Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr. writing the screenplay. The leading role was offered to Clint Eastwood but was turned down. Epps quoted, "Before we were brought on , there were several failed scripts at Universal. Then it went dormant, but John Landis was interested in Dick Tracy, and he brought us in to write it. Our orders from John were to do the movie about Big Boy Caprice and do it in a thirties atmosphere." Epps claimed he read every comic strip from 1930 to 1957. Epps was impressed by "the many great characters" and decided to put in as many as he could in the script. Epps and Cash wrote two drafts for Landis. Max Allan Collins, then writers of the Dick Tracy comic strip was able to read one of the drafts of the script. He cited it as terrible calling it overly campy and including a paper-thin storyline, though liked the thirties setting and the villains. Landis left the project following an on-set accident on Twilight Zone: The Movie,^[1] in which actor Vic Morrow was killed. Epps felt Landis would have been a great choice, citing that "he would make it very pop, much wilder and zany and far afield." At that point, Walter Hill and Joel Silver came on board as producers. Cash and Epps did yet another draft that followed the basic premise.

The film has a distinctive look due to its use of only six colors; red, blue, yellow, green, orange and purple, plus black and white. These were the original six colors used in the comic strip and were used to create a "cartoon" look. The cinematography by Vittorio Storaro gives the film a captivating atmosphere, aided by the score of Danny Elfman, who described his experience of working with Beatty as "insane."^[2]. The film also contains a number of original songs by Stephen Sondheim.

Most notable was the Oscar winning makeup designed by the Team of Caglione & Drexler. Al Pacino got to work with the makeup crew to redesign the look of Big Boy, who originally was big, fat, with a small nose in the comics. He completely recreated the character with enlarged cheekbones, nose, chin and hands, hence his street name. Of note, Warren Beatty is one of the few who does not drastically alter his appearance to give him cartoonish-caricature facial-features. Prior to filming, he was going to have prosthetic makeup to achieve the slightly-hooked hawk nose and square-jaw that Tracy was known for, but since Beatty was such a star, the studio did not want his face to be obscured after feeling dissatisfied with some initial tests.

The look of the city required sets, animation, rotoscoping and super-imposing.

Costing $35 million to make, with an additional $12 million in advertising, it grossed $103,738,726 at the U.S. box office and another $59,000,000 overseas, bringing the total gross to over $163 million, plus an additional $60 million in VHS rentals. It spawned a large marketing and merchandising campaign. The film continues to generate revenue with DVD sales, making it by far the most financially successful of Warren Beatty's career.^{[citation needed]}

• Warren Beatty - Dick Tracy
• Al Pacino - Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice
• Glenne Headly - Tess Trueheart
• Madonna - Breathless Mahoney/The Blank
• Charlie Korsmo - The Kid
• William Forsythe - Flattop
• James Caan - Spud Spaldoni
• Dustin Hoffman - Mumbles
• Paul Sorvino - Lips Manlis
• Dick Van Dyke - District Attorney Fletcher
• Mandy Patinkin - 88 Keys
• Estelle Parsons - Mrs. Trueheart
• Henry Silva - Influence
• Ed O'Ross - Itchy
• Lawrence Steven Meyers - Little Face
• Walker Edmiston - Radio Announcer (voice)
• John Moschitta Jr. - Radio Announcer (voice)
• Neil Ross - Radio Announcer (voice)
• Colm Meaney - Street Cop

The film stirred an expansive production of Dick Tracy merchandising. Several items were released in 1990, including apparel, lunchboxes, glassware, Colorforms, Topps trading cards, Ertl die-cast and micro sized vehicles, PVC figures, and dolls.

In August 1990, Bandai America, Inc. made Dick Tracy into an NES game loosely based on Beatty's film. It was also released in 1991 on the Game Boy. Sega also made a Dick Tracy video game for the Sega Genesis and Master System in 1991 as a side-scrolling arcade action adventure game.

Playmates released a line of action figures in 1990. Each featured five points of articulation, accessories, and cartoon-like body designs similar to other Playmates lines like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The line also included Dick Tracy's Police Squad Car and Big Boy's Getaway Car.

While fourteen figures were produced, The Blank was never released in America, despite appearing in a commercial and advertised with the others. It was released on an extremely limited basis in Canada, making it one of the rarest mass-produced figures in the world. This could be because it was possible to "unmask" the Blank, thereby letting out a major spoiler for the movie (in which the Blank's identity differed from in the strip). Steve the Tramp's figure also met with some controversy due to packaging that stated his crime was "stinking up the city sewers". Reverend Donald Wildmon protested on grounds of insensitivity towards the homeless and the figure was eventually recalled.^{[citation needed]}

Disney had designed a ride for their Disney MGM Studios theme park in Orlando, Fl. called Dick Tracy's Crimestoppers, which would have introduced the interactive dark ride technology used in Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin and Men in Black: Alien Attack!. The ride was killed by the fact that Eisner was not too keen to the idea of tourists "shooting up" bad guys.

Media outlets reported that there is a legal battle being waged over just who owns the rights to the Dick Tracy character. Warren Beatty announced plans to make a sequel to his 1990 movie. At the same time, television producers have announced plans for a new Dick Tracy TV series. Both sides claim that they are the legal owners of the rights to Dick Tracy. In May 2005, Beatty sued the Tribune Company, claming he has owned the rights to the Dick Tracy character since 1985. The lawsuit is ongoing.^[3]

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• Dick Tracy's trademark yellow fedora worn by Warren Beatty was created for the movie by Stetson, while the yellow trenchcoat was made by Burberry.^[4]

• Dick Van Dyke, who worked on the film for only three days, broke his shoulder when he was shooting the scene where his character is murdered by The Blank. That take was the one that was eventually used in the film.

• Of all the villains, "Numbers" Norton (played by James Tolkan) was the only one created for the film. The following are villains that appear in the film. Warren Beatty wanted as many as possible included as a measure in case the movie did not get a sequel:
  • William "The Rodent" Wilson ^[5] (originally Rhodent)
  • Shoulders
  • "Stooge" Villers (originally Viller)
  • The Brow
  • "Littleface" Finny
  • "Lips" Manlis (originally Manlus)
  • Jake "Itchy" Rossi ^[6] (originally Itchell Oliver)
  • "Flattop" Jones
  • Mumbles
  • Al "Big Boy" Caprice
  • Steve the Tramp
  • The Blank (has a different identity in the comic)
  • Patricia "Breathless" Mahoney ^[7]
  • Lorenzo "Pruneface" Prunesti ^[8]
  • Influence (originally The Influence)
  • Johnny Ramm (The movie and its credits never specify which of a group of anonymous mob bosses is him, but it is clearly stated that he is one of them and thus he appears on screen, even if not clearly identified.)
  • Texie Garcia
  • Ribs Mocca (originally Mocco)
  • Ben "Spud" Spaldoni
  • 88 Keys (originally Keyes)

It is also worth noting that the villains have an hierarchy in this film (i.e. Big Boy is the boss of Flattop and Itchy, Lips Manlis is the boss of the five card-playing villains in the beginning), unlike in the comic where villains each arose and fought Tracy one-by-one in a fashion largely independent of each other with no hierarchy.

• Dick Tracy at the Internet Movie Database
• Movie stills