In a warehouse several criminals are having a card game when they are gunned down by two mobsters, Flattop (William Forsythe) and Itchy (Ed O’Ross) who work for Alphonse “Big Boy” Caprice (Al Pacino). Watching this all unfold is a homeless orphan who only goes by the name of “Kid” (Charlie Korsmo).
Then the owner of the “Club Ritz” nightclub, Lips Manlis (Paul Sorvino) and his girlfriend, Breathless Mahoney (Madonna) are kidnapped. Lips is killed after he is forced to sign over to Big Boy ownership of the nightclub. Now Big Boy owns everything that Lips used to own, including Breathless.
Kid is caught by Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty) trying to steal a guy's watch. Tracy chases Kid and then saves him from “Steve the Tramp” (Tony Epper). Feeling sorry for Kid, Tracy takes him under his wing and with the help of his girlfriend Tess Truehart (Glenne Headly), takes care of the orphan.
In the meantime, Big Boy has been taking over the other gangs and disposing of those that don’t want to join him. As Tracy battles Big Boy, Breathless tries to seduce the detective. Big Boy’s plans to take over the city are stalled when a new faceless villain, referred to only as The Blank, begins muscling in on Big Boy’s territory. Also in the mix is a corrupt District Attorney, D.A. Fletcher (Dick Van Dyke). Everyone seems to be out to destroy Tracy, and everyone has their own plans to rule the city.
“Dick Tracy” was released in 1990 and was produced and directed by Warren Beatty. It is an American crime action film with comedy elements. The film was based on the 1930s comic strip of the same name by Chester Gould.
The movie was a big hit when it first came out but eventually it sort of fell almost into obscurity, except for some diehard fans. The movie isn’t the best action film out there, but it doesn’t deserve obscurity. It’s fun and campy.
It is also a very visual film. The colors are over saturated making it look more like a comic strip than a movie. The main colors used are those that appeared in the original comic strip. In addition to black and white the main color scheme is red, blue, yellow, green, orange and purple. The editing adds to the comic strip feel by cutting sharply from one scene to another. There are also some really nice Gothem City style matte paintings.
Most of the characters in the movie were created based on how they looked in the original strip. The only exception was Big Boy Caprice. His make-up was designed by Al Pacino. There are a lot of stars in the film but with all the makeup it’s sometimes hard to recognize some of them.
There were at least 370 villains in the Dick Tracy world. Director Beatty incorporated as many characters from the original comics as he could. At least twenty of Chester Gould’s villains made it into the movie. They are: Stooge (Jim Wilkey), Shoulders (Stig Eldred), The Rodent (Neil Summers), The Brow (Chuck Hicks), Little Face (Lawrence Steven Meyers), Flattop (William Forsythe), Itchy (Ed O’Ross), Breathless Mahoney (Madonna), 88 Keys (Mandy Patinkin), Lips Manlis (Paul Sorvino), Steve the Tramp (Tony Epper), Big Boy Caprice (Al Pacino), Prune Face (R.G. Armstrong), Mumbles (Dustin Hoffman), Numbers (James Tolkan), Texie Garcia (Catherine O’Hara), Influence (Henry Silva), Ribs Mocca (Robert Beecher), Spaldoni (James Caan), and The Blank (Randy Hall, stunt work).