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Dick Tracy

  • 1990
  • Tous publics
  • 1h 45m
IMDb RATING
6.2/10
68K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
4,292
216
Warren Beatty in Dick Tracy (1990)
The comic strip detective finds his life vastly complicated when Breathless Mahoney makes advances towards him while he is trying to battle Big Boy Caprice's united mob.
Play trailer1:57
3 Videos
99+ Photos
Police ProceduralActionComedyCrimeMusicRomanceThriller

The comic strip detective finds his life vastly complicated when Breathless Mahoney makes advances towards him while he is trying to battle Big Boy Caprice's united mob.The comic strip detective finds his life vastly complicated when Breathless Mahoney makes advances towards him while he is trying to battle Big Boy Caprice's united mob.The comic strip detective finds his life vastly complicated when Breathless Mahoney makes advances towards him while he is trying to battle Big Boy Caprice's united mob.

  • Director
    • Warren Beatty
  • Writers
    • Chester Gould
    • Jim Cash
    • Jack Epps Jr.
  • Stars
    • Warren Beatty
    • Madonna
    • Al Pacino
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.2/10
    68K
    YOUR RATING
    POPULARITY
    4,292
    216
    • Director
      • Warren Beatty
    • Writers
      • Chester Gould
      • Jim Cash
      • Jack Epps Jr.
    • Stars
      • Warren Beatty
      • Madonna
      • Al Pacino
    • 221User reviews
    • 99Critic reviews
    • 68Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Won 3 Oscars
      • 9 wins & 37 nominations total

    Videos3

    Trailer
    Trailer 1:57
    Trailer
    Dick Tracy
    Clip 1:32
    Dick Tracy
    Dick Tracy
    Clip 1:32
    Dick Tracy
    Dick Tracy
    Clip 1:29
    Dick Tracy

    Photos150

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    Top cast75

    Edit
    Warren Beatty
    Warren Beatty
    • Dick Tracy
    Madonna
    Madonna
    • Breathless Mahoney
    Al Pacino
    Al Pacino
    • Big Boy Caprice
    Charlie Korsmo
    Charlie Korsmo
    • Kid
    Michael Donovan O'Donnell
    • McGillicuddy
    Jim Wilkey
    Jim Wilkey
    • Stooge
    Stig Eldred
    • Shoulders
    Neil Summers
    Neil Summers
    • The Rodent
    Chuck Hicks
    Chuck Hicks
    • The Brow
    Lawrence Steven Meyers
    • Little Face
    William Forsythe
    William Forsythe
    • Flattop
    Ed O'Ross
    Ed O'Ross
    • Itchy
    Glenne Headly
    Glenne Headly
    • Tess Trueheart
    Marvellee Cariaga
    • Soprano
    • (as Marvelee Cariaga)
    Michael Gallup
    • Baritone
    Seymour Cassel
    Seymour Cassel
    • Sam Catchem
    James Keane
    James Keane
    • Pat Patton
    Charles Durning
    Charles Durning
    • Chief Brandon
    • Director
      • Warren Beatty
    • Writers
      • Chester Gould
      • Jim Cash
      • Jack Epps Jr.
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews221

    6.268.4K
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    Featured reviews

    9Dockelektro

    All those colors

    If Dick Tracy was in black and white, the pope wouldn't be religious. Giving a new sense to the concept of color in a movie, we are offered an unique experience throughout a comic-strip world, and it's one of the few movies which succeeded in doing so, thanks to a serious script, good direction, great performances (Al Pacino is astonishing) and most importantly a powerful mix of cinematography, art direction and costume design. Using only primary colors, the experience is quite different from anything we have seen before. And there is also a quite successful hommage to all the gangster-movie genre, pratically extinct from modern cinema. Overall, I see this movie as a fresh attempt and a touch of originality to a cinema which relies more and more on the old and already-seen formulas. 7 out of 10.
    6ma-cortes

    Colorful and glimmer adaptation based on famous comic strips created by Chester Gould

    Warren Beatty successfully bringing the comic strip to life , the renowned police detective Dick Tracy who this time tries to solve a case involving Big Boy , the public enemy nº 1 . Beatty wears the caps on all fronts , as he is actor , writer , producer and filmmaker , incarnating the legendary police detective Dick Tracy from Chester Gould's comics and his relentless crusade against crime . However his Tracy is somewhat flat in comparison other comic book heroes . Dick Tracy is the only man tough enough to take on ranting mobster boss Big Boy Caprice (Al Pacino) and his band of menacing mobsters (William Forsythe and Dustin Hoffman who made a small character as Mumbles as a favor for Warren Beatty) . Big Boy and his gang set out a wave of crime that bring them face to face with dapper Tracy . Dedicated to his work but at the same time devoted to his loyal sweetheart (Glenne Headly ), Tracy find himself torn between love and duty . Tracy becomes even more difficult when he gets saddled with an engaging orphan (Charlie Korsmo) . The comic strip detective finds his life vastly complicated when a singing siren named Mahoney (a seductive Madonna) makes advances towards him while he is attempting to fight Big Boy Caprice's united mob . Later on , Tracy tries to find his kidnapped girlfriend while Big Boy is on the loose .

    This comic strip spring to life similarly the original drawings and being faithfully recreated , though sometimes looks like an extended stage musical . The bad guys all have overblown features and they and the cops , journalists all wear different coloured coats to correspond to the drawings in the original comic strips created by Chester Gould . The timeless and imaginative settings capture the essence rather than reality of the city . There's so much music in the movie mostly from Mandy Patinkin and especially Madonna as the singer Breathless Mahoney doing her best screen acting to date . Good though excessive performances from Al Pacino who is perfectly cast as the gangster Big Boy looking like a caricaturist impression of a cartoon and splendid Dustin Hoffman as his hoodlum named Mumbles . The make-up used for all of the villains was based directly on how they were drawn by Chester Gould in the original comic strip , the only exception was Big Boy Caprice, whose make-up was designed by Al Pacino himself. People expecting Gothic scenarios and spectacular action of Batman may be disappointed , but moviegoers will be thrilled . Colorful and stylistically superior cinematography by the Italian Vittorio Storaro , shot in a few colors , the main colors in the film are only six that the original comic strip appeared in: red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple, plus black and white . Jolly and amusing musical score by Danny Elffman .

    Other films about this classic comic book character are the followings : ¨Dick Tracy¨ (1947) 15 chapters starred by Ralph Byrd and directed by John English and Ray Taylor ; ¨Dick Tracy Detective¨ (1945) the first feature movie directed by William Berke with Morgan Conway and Jane Greer ; ¨Tracy returns¨ 15 chapter serial directed by William Witney with Ralph Byrd ; ¨Tracy meets gruesome ¨(1947) with Ralph Byrd and Boris Karloff ; ¨Tracy vs Crime Inc¨; ¨Tracy vs Cueball¨(1946) by Gordon Douglas with Morgan Conway and Anne Jeffreys ; ¨Tracy's dilemma¨ by John Rawlins with Ralph Byrd and Jack Lambert , among others .
    8utgard14

    Beautiful

    Labor of love for star and director Warren Beatty, Dick Tracy was a film I hated when it first came out. I was a kid and stupid, only caring about what's cool. What was cool then (and sadly still is) was "dark and gritty" heroes like Batman. Dick Tracy was considered corny and lame. When I first watched it I thought it was a kids' movie and I was at that age where anything like that I hated. Happily, I feel much differently about the film now that I'm older.

    Dick Tracy is a live-action cartoon, with eye-popping visuals decked out in bright primary colors. It's a beautiful film to behold. Everyone involved in the stylized look of this movie should be proud. The sets, the lighting, the matte paintings, the makeup and effects are all superior to any CGI crap we get today. Real work and passion went into this and it shows.

    The cast is great. Beatty is criticized by many for not being the right fit for Tracy or for being too old. While he's not a perfect representation of the character, I feel he does quite well and his age never occurred to me while watching it. Madonna gives easily her best performance in this movie. That's meant slightly as a slam I guess, as most of her other work is very weak. But it's also meant as a compliment. Here she plays to her strengths: sex appeal and "oomph." Her double entendres and skin-tight dresses make Breathless Mahoney a very memorable character. There's also some fine support from Glenne Headley and Charlie Korsmo. And who can forget the villains! Chester Gould's distinctive-looking villains come to life thanks to superb makeup, played in many cases by uncredited stars. The leader of the bunch is Big Boy Caprice, played by the wonderfully over-the-top Al Pacino. Pacino was having a lot of fun with the role and it shows.

    My only real complaint lies in the music. Not the Stephen Sondheim songs -- they're great. But the Danny Elfman musical score is way too similar to the one he did for Batman the year before. It's very lazy and doesn't seem to fit the action of the film. Forget what you've read from naysayers about this movie and judge it for yourself. It's a fun movie with exceptional visuals and colorful ambiance.
    BaronBl00d

    Sooner or Later It Will Get Its Due

    This is a marvelous film. Warren Beatty managed to film it just like a comic book MIGHT be brought to film with humourously grotesque and bizarre characters, beautiful colours, and a plot that really only could have come from a comic book. The buildings, set design, make-up, and props are like nothing I have ever seen in film before. Now, never having read the original strip leaves me out as far as making probably very insightful comparisons with this film and the original source. That being said, I think that Beatty, although drastically changing some of the villains in the film to fit smaller roles, tried to keep the spirit of the film inside the comic strip. Does that make sense? Probably not. Anyway, Dick Tracy offers a lot. It is a visual feast with a decent story and some prime time stars doing some things you may not expect from them. Beatty is very good as the lawmen, but much of the supporting cast steals many scenes from him. Al Pacino as Big Boy Caprice is sensational as an over-the-top thug out to get every criminal under his control, while he intermittenly quotes folks like Nietchze, Jefferson, and other historical figures. Dustin Hoffman as Mumbles is wonderful - if you can finally figure out that it is him(notice in the scene where a stenographer is taking down what he says((That is Oscar winner Kathy Bates!))). James Caan has a brief yet good scene with Pacino Godfather style and Beatty gives Michael J. Pollard and Estelle Parsons cameos as well(both co-starring with him in Bonnie and Clyde). Then there is Madonna. She tries her best to live up to her name of Breathless and does a VERY credible job at it. And then of course there is the music of Stephen Sondheim, an Oscar winner for this film. It is very good and in some ways more memorable than much of what goes on in the film. Perhaps a song here or there might have been cut, but for the most part the music greatly added to the overall effects created in the film. Is Dick Tracy great? No, but it is a whole lot better than it is generally given credit for. In some ways its innovation must be reviewed again. I think that for its type of film it is one of the best.
    9ccthemovieman-1

    Incredible Colors, Incredible Cast

    This is amazing-looking movie with the whole thing done in just six or seven colors. When it came out over 15 years ago, it stunned audiences with its color scheme, being so different from anything else that had ever been put on film. Those colors, for me at least, make this an absolutely fascinating film to watch. There are literally thousands of scenes I wish could freeze and somehow convert them to a painting to study for their artwork.

    The characters and the story don't match up to the greatness of the photography, but they are all over-the-top, especially the villains. The famous actors who played them here must have a had a lot of fun on the set playing "Flatop," "Pruneface," "Lips," "Mumbles," etc.

    Meanwhile, Warren Beatty and Gleanne Hedley are good as Dick Tracey and girlfriend Tess Truehart, and she's as sweet and soft as her name. Another good addition is Charlie Korsmo as the delinquent young boy Dick and Tess take under their wing. The colorful other characters are played by Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, William Forysthe, Paul Sorvino, Mandy Patinkin, Madona and other names you know but are too numerous to list here. Check the full credits on the main page and you'll amazed.

    The only negatives I found were Pacino's voice which grates on you after awhile, Madonna's off-key singing voice and the fact that the film would have been better trimmed about 10 minutes. Those "faults" are all minor because overall, this is a fun movie....a cartoon strip coming to life in an incredibly-colorful fashion.....like nothing you have ever seen.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Danny Elfman was hired to compose the film score because Warren Beatty was impressed with his work on Batman (1989). On working with Beatty, Elfman has said "Warren was insane".
    • Goofs
      When Dick Tracy jumps out of a window and slides down the lamp post, he bangs his head on the curve of the pole towards the top. (This was Beatty doing his own stunt.)
    • Quotes

      Dick Tracy: No grief for Lips?

      Breathless Mahoney: I'm wearing black underwear.

      Dick Tracy: You know, it's legal for me to take you down to the station and sweat it out of you under the lights.

      Breathless Mahoney: I sweat a lot better in the dark.

    • Crazy credits
      The opening Touchstone Pictures logo appears in black and white.
    • Connections
      Featured in The Arsenio Hall Show: Episode dated 1 May 1990 (1990)
    • Soundtracks
      Sooner Or Later (I Always Get My Man)
      Written by Stephen Sondheim

      Performed by Madonna

      Arranged by Jeremy Lubbock

      Strings Arranged by Shirley Walker

      Courtesy of Sire Records

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    FAQ

    • How long is Dick Tracy?
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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • September 26, 1990 (France)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Thám tử Dick Tracy
    • Filming locations
      • Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA
    • Production companies
      • Touchstone Pictures
      • Silver Screen Partners IV
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $47,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $103,738,726
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $22,543,911
      • Jun 17, 1990
    • Gross worldwide
      • $162,738,726
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 45 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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