Dick Tracy

Synopsis Dick Tracy was Warren Beatty’s ode to Chester Gould’s comic strip, a sharp, colorful world populated with handsome good guys, strange-looking bad guys, vampish vixens and damsels in distress. The film seemed like it had been actually set in a comic strip, thanks to the bright, bold set design, along with costumes and makeup faithfully translated from the printed page.

Warren Beatty stars as Dick Tracy, the square-jawed, yellow-suited lawman who fights and disposes of his city's villains with ease. The mobsters, tired of always being sent to the big house by Tracy, decide to band together and rid themselves of him once and for all. But Dick Tracy has other problems at the moment. He has recently met an orphan named The Kid that he grudgingly cares for, but is not sure he can be the father The Kid needs. Also, his relationship with his girlfriend, Tess Trueheart, is strained because he devotes more of his time to crimefighting than he does to her.

And then there’s Breathless. Pop superstar Madonna plays the seductive Breathless Mahoney, a beautiful and blond nightclub singer reminsicent of Marilyn Monroe. She has her eye on Tracy, and despite his better judgment, he finds himself increasingly drawn to her. Tracy must find a way to fight the corruption overtaking the city and come to terms with his complicated personal life.

Dick Tracy featured an impressive array of cameos, including Al Pacino as Big Boy Caprice and Dustin Hoffman as the mumbling Mumbles. Beatty infused Tracy with a surprising quality of vulnerability—shown through his relationship with The Kid and Tess—that is not often explored in one-dimensional comic strip heroes. In fact, beyond the car chases, explosions and gunfights that made Dick Tracy a kid’s paradise, the film also had heart.

Dick Tracy received seven Academy Award nominations, including a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Al Pacino. It won three awards, for Best Art Direction, Best Makeup and Best Song for Steven Sondheim’s jazz-tinged “Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man).”

Release History 1990 - Dick Tracy

Sub Categories live-action
action/adventure

Studio Touchstone, Silver Screen Partners IV, Mulholland Prods.

Cast

Dick Tracy		Warren Beatty
Kid		Charlie Korsmo
Mr. Gillicuddy		Michael Donovan O'Donnell
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
Tess Trueheart		Glenne Headly
Soprano		Marvelee Cariaga
Baritone		Michael Gallup
Sam Catchem		Seymour Cassel
Pat Patton		James Keane
Chief Brandon		Charles Durning
Reporter		Allen Garfield
Reporter		John Schuck
Reporter		Charles Fleischer
Breathless Mahoney		Madonna
88 Keys		Mandy Patinkin
Lips Manlis		Paul Sorvino
Lips' Bodyguard		Robert Costanzo
Customer at Raid		Jack Kehoe
Lips' Cop		Marshall Bell
Doorman		Michael G. Hagerty
Lefty Moriarty		Lew Horn
Diner Patron		Arthur Malet
Mike		Tom Signorelli
Steve the Tramp		Tony Epper
Big Boy Caprice		Al Pacino
Numbers		James Tolkan
Pruneface		R.G. Armstrong
Mumbles		Dustin Hoffman
Mrs. Green		Kathy Bates
Lab Technician		Jack Goode Jr.
Lab Technician		Ray Stoddard
D.A. Fletcher		Dick Van Dyke
Store Clerk		Hamilton Camp
Cop at Tess'		Ed McCready
Cop at Tess'		Colm Meaney
Texie Garcia		Catherine O'Hara
Influence		Henry Silva
Ribs Mocca		Robert Beecher
Spaldoni		James Caan
Bartender		Bert Remsen
Judge Harper		Frank Campanella
Club Ritz Patron		Sharmagne Leland-St. John
Club Ritz Patron		Bing Russell
Bug Bailey		Michael J. Pollard
Uniform Cop at Ritz		Tom Finnegan
Newspaper Vendor		Billy Clevenger
Radio Announcer		Ned Claflin
Radio Announcer (voice)		John Moschitta Jr.
Radio Announcer (voice)		Neil Ross
Radio Announcer (voice)		Walker Edmiston
Mrs. Trueheart		Estelle Parsons
Forger		Ian Wolfe
Welfare Person		Mary Woronov
Night Clerk		Henry Jones
Old Man at Hotel		Mike Mazurki
Dancer		Rita Bland
Dancer		Lada Boder
Dancer		Dee Hengstler
Dancer Liz		Imperio
Dancer		Michelle Johnston
Dancer		Karyne Ortega
Dancer		Karen Russell