Dick Tracy (1990)

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Movie
German title Dick Tracy
Original title Dick Tracy
Dicktracy-logo.svg
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1990
length 103 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Warren Beatty
script Jim Cash
Jack Epps Jr.
production Warren Beatty
music Danny Elfman
camera Vittorio Storaro
cut Richard Marks
occupation

Dick Tracy is the title of a comic book adaptation from 1990 . The film is based on the comic strip of the same name , which was first printed in the 1930s. Directed by Warren Beatty , who also acted as producer and took over the title role. Other actors include Madonna , Al Pacino and Dustin Hoffman . Beatty paid tribute to the comic, of which he is a fan, by using only the five colors used in the original comic in addition to black and white. The film opened in Germany on September 27, 1990.

action

Chicago in the 1930s: The focus of the plot is the upright police investigator Dick Tracy, who leads a fight against the then notorious gangster gangs of the city. Tracy is so absorbed in his work that his warm-hearted partner Tess Truehart has to back off.

During a shootout in which Tracy saves a nameless boy from death, it emerges that the syndicate of the nefarious crook "Big Boy" Caprice, who quotes sayings from Thomas Jefferson , Plato and Friedrich Nietzsche , apparently after the sole power in the city aspires. To express this, Caprice murders the high-ranking gang boss “Lips” Manlis, takes over his nightclub “Ritz” and his seductive singer and love affair “Breathless” Mahoney.

Warren Beatty as Dick Tracy

Tracy's investigation comes to a halt as Mahoney, the only witness to the murder, tries to seduce the investigator rather than testify. In this way, Caprice is freed again, clears other criminal rivals out of the way and finally tries to bribe Tracy after he had him kidnapped. When Dick refuses, he is also supposed to be liquidated, namely tied to a chair in a boiler room by a boiler explosion, but Tracy escapes thanks to the help of the boy who reciprocates.

Tracy prepares to raid the Ritz when Breathless visits him again, this time at home. She kisses Dick the moment Tess enters the room ... which Tracy and then leave town. The subsequent police operation seems to be unsuccessful at first - but it only served Tracy as a disguise to smuggle the bugging officer Bailey into the building. As a result of his information, the police succeed in uncovering and foiling large parts of Caprice's syndicate machinations. However, the desperate “Big Boy” soon finds out about the espionage and uses this to trap his henchmen Pruneface and Influence. They set an ambush for Tracy in a warehouse, where an exchange of fire breaks out. Driven into a corner, Tracy is suddenly helped by a masked stranger who kills Pruneface. Influence escapes as Tracy frees Bailey.

Caprice is as confused as Tracy about the stranger called "The Blank" (in German dubbing "the Faceless"). He tries one last time to convince Mahoney to make a statement - but she also remains adamant about only giving evidence if Dick confesses his affection for her ... but this cannot be done due to his still existing love for Tess. Truehart seems to still love Dick at the same time, but shortly before she can tell Tracy this, Tess is kidnapped by "The Blank". At the same time, this lures Tracy into another trap, stuns him and arranges the circumstances in such a way that it appears as if Tracy had murdered Federal Attorney Fletcher. Tracy is arrested and suspended, whereupon Caprice regains his old power.

On New Year's Eve , events roll over: Tracy is released by his superiors, while “The Blank” accuses Caprice of kidnapping Truehart. After he was able to interrogate gang member Murmler, Tracy finds Tess in Caprice's headquarters - at the same time as the surprised "Big Boy", because apparently "The Blank" Truehart was tied up there. This is followed by an escape and an exchange of fire with Tracy and the police, as a result of which all of Caprice's henchmen die. The latter, on the other hand, can flee on foot with Tess into the tower of a bascule bridge , where he ties it to the local gear train. There follows a fight as a showdown with Tracy, who arrives a little later, who is only stopped by "The Blank", the Dick, should this kill Caprice, the prospect of a business partnership with him. At the last moment the boy, who now calls himself "Dick Tracy Jr.", jumps on "The Blank", which enables Caprice to shoot the masked man before Tracy "Big Boy" falls into the abyss of wheels.

Tess is freed while Tracy unmask "The Blank": It's Mahoney. She confesses her love to him again before she kisses him and then dies too. Tracy is rehabilitated and returns to the service. In the final scene, he's about to propose to Truehart when a robbery is reported, whereupon Dick rushes to the crime scene with Dick Jr.

background

Pre-production took an exceptionally long time. Warren Beatty was initially only intended as a producer. For the direction were u. a. Martin Scorsese , Tim Burton , Richard Benjamin , John Landis , Steven Spielberg and Beatty's favorite Bob Fosse (who died in 1987) in conversation. Walter Hill had also been hired for the pre-production, but he left the project prematurely after disputes. Ultimately, Beatty agreed to direct it himself, and he also took on the lead role in his film. In order to make this multiple work possible in time, he gave up the planned direction for Misery , in which he was also to play a leading role.

Dick Tracy was originally conceived as a Disney production , but was then given to the subsidiary Touchstone Pictures because of the comparatively brutal and lewd dramaturgy . According to Beatty, 135 minutes of footage was originally produced, which had to be shortened to 105 minutes on the instructions of Disney manager Jeffrey Katzenberg .

Director Warren Beatty's design team included production designers Richard Sylbert and Rick Simpson , cinematographer Vittorio Storaro , with whom Beatty had worked as producer and lead actor in his previous film Ishtar from 1987, special effects specialist Michael Lloyd , set painter Harrison Ellenshaw , the make-up artists John Caglione junior and Doug Drexler and the costume designer Milena Canonero

music

Danny Elfman was responsible for the film music . The musical composer Stephen Sondheim wrote five songs for the soundtrack, including the one with the Oscar winning song Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man) .

Soundtrack albums

Three different albums were released for this film, which more or less contained all of the titles from the film. The original score comes from the composer Danny Elfman, who also composed the theme song for the animated series The Simpsons , for example , and is titled Dick Tracy - Original Score . The orchestra was conducted by Shirley Walker .

Madonna released her own album under the title I'm Breathless - Songs from and inspired by the film Dick Tracy . There are only four titles on it that were also used in the film, including the Oscar-winning song Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man) .

A compilation was also released in which artists such as Erasure , KD Lang , Darlene Love and Ice-T contributed songs inspired by the film. These were supplemented by older recordings, for example by Jerry Lee Lewis or Brenda Lee .

reception

Reviews

  • film-dienst : "The film, based on the 50-year-old comic cartoon by Chester Gould, creates a cinema world for its hero that draws its inspiration from the comic strips as well as from the films of the 30s and 40s. Imaginatively and entertainingly staged, sophisticated by means of tricks and principles, according to which the subject complexes of the film - fight against the mob, temptation by the vamp, romantic ties - are organized. Visual formulas are developed for the different levels of emotion, for example using primary colors, with this cinematic structure becoming increasingly narrow Connects with the creation of the comic world; in doing so, the violence of the genre is dissolved into playfulness. "
  • The German Film Institute writes about the film: “There was as much agreement on Dick Tracy in 1990 as it is today on Sin City : that was the most convincing comic book adaptation to date. Warren Beatty, as director and leading actor, told the story of the incorruptible detective who is the only gang boss who fights Big Boy Caprice in his endeavors to take power once and for all. Equipment, architecture, costumes, masks: the film became an extraordinary total work of art, kept in the seven colors of the comic from the 1940s. In addition, a whole series of top-class actors (including Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Madonna, James Caan) shines in a highly enjoyable homage to the classic gangster film. "

Awards
  • At the 1991 Grammy Awards , both the original score and the song "More" were nominated, but neither were awarded a Grammy.

Trivia

  • There were several simulation games with regard to the casting of roles:
  • The villains "Numbers" Norton, DeSanto and Louie the Louse were created for the film and do not appear in the actual comic.
  • Warren Beatty and Madonna had a brief relationship while filming.
  • The shooting in a garage from the beginning of the film is a reference to the Valentine's Day massacre .
  • Al Pacino originally didn't want to be mentioned in the credits and preferred to be named under a pseudonym. He was therefore called Guido Frascatti in a magazine .
  • "Dick Tracy" was the last film by the then 94-year-old Ian Wolfe. The same goes for Mike Mazurki , who had already starred in the Tracy film adaptation of the 1940s and had a cameo appearance as a guest at the hotel where the Fletcher murder took place.
  • Warren Beatty was slightly injured while filming when he jumped from a building onto a lamp post and hit his head against it. Dick van Dyke even broke his shoulder at the Fletcher murder scene.

literature

  • Max Allan Collins: Dick Tracy. The novel about the film. German by Marcel Bieger. Bastei-Verlag Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1990, ISBN 3-404-13311-0 .
  • Chester Gould , Kyle Baker : Dick Tracy. Volume 3: The comic for the film. German by Michael Richter. Ehapa Comic Collection, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-7704-0432-7 .

swell

  1. ↑ film service
  2. ↑ Deutsches Filminstitut ( Memento of the original from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.deutsches-filminstitut.de

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