Taglines: I’m on my way.
Dick Tracy movie storylena. The City is at the mercy of gangland mobsters spreading their massive crime wave. Five gangsters (The Brow, Stooge Viller, Little Face, Shoulders, and Rhodent) holding a poker game at an abandoned garage are interrupted when a car driven by Itchy breaks through a wall and Flattop kills the men. Flattop shoots a message into the wall while Itchy takes their identification.
Dick Tracy and his girlfriend Tess Trueheart are attending an opera when Pat Patton call on the 2-Way Wrist Radio saying to meet at the garage. The murders were a message to Tracy from Big Boy. Reporters hound Tracy when he leaves the Opera House again asking if Tracy was considering becoming Chief of Police or possibly running for Mayor.
Later at Club Ritz, Breathless Mahoney is singing when Lips Manlis gets word that his men at the garage have been killed. Lips and Breathless are seemingly arrested by two uniformed police officers. When they are taken to their unmarked car, Lips sees that Flattop is in the back seat with a gun and realizes that they aren’t actually policemen. Lips and Breathless are taken to the Southside warehouse on the river where Big Boy forces Lips to sign over the club to him. Big Boy then encases Lips in cement and drops him to the bottom of the river. Big Boy announces that he is now in charge of and owns everything that Lips had, including Breathless.
Tracy and Tess enter Mike’s Diner but Tracy soon runs after a street urchin who stole a man’s watch, following him to a shantytown at the railroad yards. There, the Kid’s guardian, Steve the Tramp, beats him. Tracy enters and fights Steve until the shanty collapses. Tracy takes the Kid with him back to the diner when the Kid eats ravenously. Tracy is then summoned to the Southside warehouse by Sam Catchem.
At the warehouse, Tracy examines the body of a policeman who had been killed there by Itchy (the unwitting officer had nearly interrupted Big Boy’s murder of Lips Manlis). Tracy also finds a sapphire earring and some walnuts (Big Boy’s favorite snack), causing Tracy to suspect that there had been a second murder as well. Tracy arrests Flattop, Itchy, and Mumbles, interrogating Mumbles to try to learn Lips’ whereabouts. Going on a hunch, Tracy has Big Boy arrested while Big Boy is preparing for his new club’s reopening. Big Boy is released the next morning after the walnuts were found to be insufficient evidence. Both Tracy and Chief Brandon are called into D.A. Fletcher’s office, where Tracy is warned to stop “harassing” Big Boy, who had already been arrested and released 5 times.
Tracy takes the Kid under his wing and, after getting him some new clothes, goes on an outing with the Kid and Tess. Tracy later calls Breathless to his office, to see if she will testify against Big Boy for Manlis’ murder. Breathless attempts to seduce him, but Tracy resists. After she leaves, he follows her to the Club Ritz where Big Boy is organizing an alliance with every major crime figure in town to form a new crime syndicate in the city, with himself him as the boss. Tracy is observing from a third floor ledge when he witnesses a car explosion causing the death of Spaldoni, who had refused to work under Big Boy.
Tracy is then abducted from his apartment by Flattop and Itchy and taken to the basement of Tess’ apartment building while she is at work. Big Boy attempts to bribe Tracy with $15,000. Tracy refuses and is tied to a chair while Big Boy leaves and Flattop and itchy overload the heating system. The Kid rescues Tracy at the risk of his own life and is made an honorary police detective. The Kid is presented with a temporary certificate until he picks a name for himself.
Dick Tracy is a 1990 American action comedy film based on the 1930s comic strip character of the same name created by Chester Gould. Warren Beatty produced, directed, and starred in the film, which features supporting roles from Al Pacino, Charles Durning, Madonna, Dustin Hoffman, William Forsythe, Glenne Headly, Paul Sorvino, Dick Van Dyke, and Charlie Korsmo. Dick Tracy depicts the detective’s love relationships with Breathless Mahoney and Tess Truehart, as well as his conflicts with crime boss Alphonse “Big Boy” Caprice. Tracy also begins his upbringing of “The Kid”.
Development of the film started in the early 1980s with Tom Mankiewicz assigned to write the script. The screenplay would instead be crafted by Jim Cash and Jack Epps, Jr., both of Top Gun fame. The project also went through directors Steven Spielberg, John Landis, Walter Hill, and Richard Benjamin before the arrival of Beatty. Filming was mostly at Universal Studios. Danny Elfman was hired to compose the film score, and the music was featured on three separate soundtrack albums.
Dick Tracy was released in 1990 to mixed reviews, but was a success at the box office and at awards time. It picked up seven Academy Award nominations and won in three of the categories: Best Original Song, Best Makeup and Best Art Direction. A sequel was planned, but a controversy over the film rights ensued between Beatty and Tribune Media Services. The lawsuit was resolved in Beatty’s favor in October 2013. However, no plans for a sequel or follow-up have been publicly disclosed as of June 2014. Beatty created The Dick Tracy TV Special in 2008, which featured him reprising the character to be interviewed by film critic Leonard Maltin.
Dick Tracy (1990)
Directed by: Warren Beatty
Starring: Warren Beatty, Madonna, Al Pacino, Charlie Korsmo, Glenne Headly, Seymour Cassel, William Forsythe, Neil Summers, Chuck Hicks, Jim Wilkey
Screenplay by: Jim Cash, Jack Epps, Jr.
Production Design by: Richard Sylbert
Cinematography by: Vittorio Storaro
Film Editing by: Richard Marks
Costume Design by: Milena Canonero
Set Decoration by: Rick Simpson
Art Direction by: Harold Michelson
Music by: Danny Elfman
Distributed by: Buena Vista Pictures
Release Date: June 15, 1990
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