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| Calling junior crime-stoppers! Dick needs a hand! |
Based on the long-running comic strip created by Chester Gould in 1931, Dick Tracy had a rather drawn-out journey from the funny-papers to the silver screen. The film rights were passed along to various writers (including Superman II scribe Tom Mankiewicz,) potential directors (John Landis and Steven Spielberg among them) and leading men (everyone from Clint Eastwood to Mel Gibson) for over twenty years. Warren Beatty, who’d come up with the idea for an adaptation in 1975, eventually optioned the film directly from rights-holder Tribune Media. He finally got a “green light” to direct and star in a film version for Walt Disney Pictures in 1988 - provided that the known perfectionist keep his schedule and budget within strict limits. Beatty had a very specific look in mind for the film - one that would make considerable use of stylized sets, detailed matte paintings, and - most distinctly of all - a color pallette limited to eight vibrant hues. An attempt to emulate the look of old comic-strip printing, this bold palette ensured that Dick Tracy looked like no other comic adaptation before (or since.)
Everything in this movie points to the fact that Beatty and company were clearly not aiming for realism. Beyond the eye-burning color pallette (and the exaggeratedly “vintage” period dress,) a further attempt to mimic the look of the comic was made in the realization of Dick Tracy’s infamous “rogues gallery.” Consisting of thugs with colorfully descriptive names like Flattop, Lips Manlis and Pruneface, the actors are buried under layers of elaborate prosthetics. While certainly unique (and in the spirit of the comic,) most of the time it becomes another distraction while one is trying to follow along with the story - which is surprisingly difficult, considering how little story there really is. It’s also a bit puzzling as to why only the villains are made up to look like comic-strip drawings, and not any of the “good guys”; no attempt was made, for example, to make Warren Beatty look closer to Gould’s original square-jawed detective.
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| Suspect: Dick Tracy - Motive: Wary of Charles Durning's rape face |
That Beatty opted not to disguise his own leading-man good looks isn’t a shocker, however. While a film based on a not-too-popular 60-year old comic strip in development hell for the better part of two decades may not necessarily qualify as a “vanity project,” Beatty is only ever involved in projects meant to make him look good. Strangely, however, in this particular film Beatty doesn’t come off too well. I don’t mean to say that by 1990 the 53-year old actor may’ve been a decade-or-so older than the role required (far be it from me to judge an older action star … Indiana Jones 5 in 2019 WOOT!!!) - but rather he seems like the most out-of-place actor on screen. While the rest of the cast attempts to ham their way over the loud visuals, Beatty instead opts to keep his Dick stiff as a board - a stoic and steely hero amidst a sea of loony goons. His Dick only seems to come to life when interacting with Madonna’s character, Breathless Mahoney - no doubt aided by the pair’s off-screen romance during filming.
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| Suspect: Breathless Mahoney - Motive: Yearning for Dick |
The scenes between Madonna and Beatty are therefore some of the film’s highlights - which is helped, funnily enough, by their low lights: most interplay between Mahoney and Dick are done in darkened rooms or in close-up. Therefore the blinding visuals are far less distracting than in the rest of the film. Madonna, already in her seventh motion-picture outing (and yes, I’m including A Certain Sacrifice - who wouldn’t?), effortlessly drips sexuality as the platinum-blonde femme fatale. Her character’s arc (which I won’t spoil, since I know you’re all raring to go watch a mediocre comic movie from 27 years ago) ends up being the best part of the script, making the Breathless character the most interesting one in the film by a wide margin.
As a side-note, it still strikes me as funny that one of the three (!) soundtrack releases for this film was a full-fledged Madonna album, I’m Breathless. Besides the four songs from the film, the original compositions are all styled as “old timey,” jazz-influenced numbers, with the exception of the album closer, “Vogue” - which is the best song on the album.
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| Suspect: "Big Boy" Caprice - Motive: Doesn't like Dick |
It’s one of many, many strange decisions in the making of this movie that a number of “big name” actors and talented performers were cast and then buried under tons of silly make-up - including Paul Sorvino and James Caan in small roles, and a “wait that was who!?” appearance by Kathy Bates as a befuddled stenographer. Naturally, the most voracious scenery-chomper in the cast is Al Pacino as Dick’s slimy antagonist, "Big Boy" Caprice. Seemingly in a constant war to be louder than anything else on-screen (a tough job in this ultra-colorful production,) Pacino bellows and bug-eyes a devastating swath of over-acting that steamrolls over every other actor in sight; in other words, your typical Pacino performance (post-Godfather Part II.)
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| Suspect: Mumbles - Motive: Won't open his mouth for Dick |
I have to pause and talk about Dustin Hoffman (yes, he’s here too,) since he’s freaking hilarious. Looking like a sweaty albino with a constant “McKayla Maroney Is Not Impressed” expression, Hoffman floats in and out of the movie as the nonsense-talking Mumbles. There’s a scene early in the film, in which Dick and his cohorts interrogate the goon, that absolutely has me in stitches every time I see it. Stripped of his pants and sat for several hours in front of a bright, hot lamp, Mumbles refuses to give in to the demanding Dick. However, once Dick refuses him a glass of water (instead taking a long drink himself) Mumbles’ eyes widen, and he loudly croaks “Bebee … BEBEE! Bebe-gulp! BEBE-GULLP!!!!” over and over again. This later turns out to be an important plot-point (as a recording of this exclamation reveals that Mumbles was actually saying “Big Boy did it,”) but it’s Hoffman’s bizarre performance that gets me every time. And I now call Disneyland’s souvenir BB-8-shaped drink cups “BB-Gulps” - for whatever that’s worth.
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| Suspect: Kid - Motive: Admirer of Dick |
When all’s said and done, unfortunately, Dick Tracy isn’t a very good movie. It certainly has it’s moments: the aforementioned Madonna and Hoffman are a joy to watch, the music (both Stephen Sondheim-penned songs and Danny Elfman’s sprightly score) is uniformly excellent, and the great Vittorio Storaro’s cinematography is fantastic. Unfortunately the individual parts don’t add up to a great whole. While the visuals are memorable (though needlessly distracting, in my opinion,) the story is mostly a run-of-the-mill detective-versus-gangsters yarn. I can see that Beatty was going for a throwback movie of sorts, but beyond the weird-looking hoodlums and bright colors, everything else is played rather too safely. I didn’t even get into the sub-plots involving Dick’s main squeeze, Tess Trueheart (played by pale ginger Glenne Headly) and his plucky would-be sidekick, Kid (Charlie Korsmo, later to appear with Hoffman again in Spielberg’s Hook,) simply because it’s pretty bland. Likewise, until the big (and somewhat violent) shoot-out at the film’s end, there aren’t really any action sequences to speak of; the closest we get is a montage of police raids set to Madonna’s sedate “Sooner or Later.”
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| Suspect: Tess Trueheart - Motive: Lover of Dick |
As noted earlier, anyone who remembers the Summer of 1990 will recall Dick Tracy suddenly appearing everywhere, whether or not any of us ended up actually seeing the movie. Disney tried their hand at a full-fledged modern marketing and merchandise blitz for their hopeful summer blockbuster, and everywhere you looked, there were Dick Tracy t-shirts, Dick Tracy action figures, shitty Dick Tracy Nintendo games, Dick Tracy replica watches … everywhere you turned, it’s Tracy! Tracy! Tracy! The strategy had garnered Warner Bros. much success with Tim Burton’s brooding Batman the previous year, but Disney’s attempt to shove Dick down America's throat didn’t turn out as well. While the film made $162 million on a $46 million budget, many at Disney (including Jeffrey Katzenberg, who was against the film from the get-go) felt that the time, money and effort spent hadn’t been worth it. Even a hopeful Michael Eisner, who was pushing for a "Dick Tracy’s Crime Stoppers" attraction for The Disney-MGM Studios, eventually had to admit that the studio did not have a viable franchise on their hands.
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| "Big Boy" stole Disney's profits! Case closed. |
For most of us, Dick Tracy inhabits a small corner of our collective nostalgia. A mere mention of the film will generate warm nods of recognition, even if we only saw the movie upon it’s eventual home video release - if at all. While Disney’s onslaught of Dick-adorned merchandise may not have led to much financial success, it did leave a lasting impression on a generation of #ChildrenOfThe90z - who believed that a movie must be a pretty big deal if they owned a yellow Dick Tracy fedora despite not having seen the movie.
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| Old Dick doesn't care |
Before we go, here's a truly bizarre postscript: in a move to retain the filming rights for the Dick Tracy character, in 2008 the ever-dogged Warren Beatty created a very belated Dick Tracy TV Special (that’s a YouTube link to it, by the way,) examining the cinematic history of the character. Eventually airing on Turner Classic Movies, that this was made some 18 years after the fact is odd enough, but the strangest part is the special itself. The program is framed around an interview with the then 70-year old Beatty - in character as a 107-year-old Dick Tracy (he attributes his longevity to pomegranates and portion control) - with critic Leonard Maltin. While “Dick” states that casting Beatty made sense, since they look so much alike, he’s put off by the actor’s “knee-jerk liberalism,” and is not a great fan of his "colorful" adaptation. I have to say, Beatty's more curmudgeon take on the character here is far more entertaining than his portrayal in the original film.
Since this head-scratcher of a show appeared, Beatty - now 80 years of age - continues to insist that a sequel is forthcoming. You’ve got to hand it to him - his Dick may’ve been flat, but Beatty’s got balls.
Addendum:
After the preceding review had been written and prepped, actress Glenne Headly, who played Tess Trueheart, suffered a pulmonary embolism on June 8, 2017 and passed away at the age of 62. While Ms. Headly’s contribution to the film wasn’t really touched upon here (the review simply ended up going in a different direction,) I wanted to acknowledge the amazing work done by this dedicated actress in this and other works.
Headley’s Trueheart character managed to dance a fine line between comic-strip melodrama and real-world believability – a feat that few others in the cast managed to pull off. Headley carries much of the emotional weight of the film, her strained dedication to Beatty’s character showing the toll that the “cops-and-robbers” antics can take on relationships. Audiences may feel somewhat cool about Beatty’s character, but they root for the good guys anyway, for the sake of their beloved Tess. It should also be pointed out that Headley’s chemistry with young Charlie Korsmo is amazing, boosting the first-time child actor’s performance beyond the “plucky smart-aleck orphan” routine the script requires.
Beyond Dick Tracy, Ms. Headly was the consummate professional actress on stage and screen. An ensemble member of Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company from 1979 to 2005 (where she met and married her first husband, actor John Malkovich, in 1982,) she performed in a number of acclaimed stage productions around the world. Her film work included Arthur Penn’s 1981 comedy-drama Four Friends, 1988’s popular Dirty Rotten Scoundrels opposite Steve Martin and Michael Caine (many consider this her breakout film,) 1994’s Macaulay Culkin vehicle Getting Even With Dad, John Herzfeld’s 1996 thriller 2 Days in the Valley, and Disney’s 2004 film Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. Her work in television was also extensive, including recurring roles on ER, Monk, Hulu’s upcoming Future Man (which will be released posthumously,) and the 1989 miniseries Lonesome Dove, which earned her an Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
While many in my generation will always remember Glenne Headly as Tess Trueheart (with her brilliant red hair framed by that black heart-shaped hat – in its way, as iconic an image as Beatty in his yellow fedora,) her work over the past four decades stands as the real testament to her dedication to the craft. The world of performing arts has lost one of its most accomplished artists, and the world at large is now that much hollower without her; she will truly be missed.
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