Tracy was the first comic strip I encountered after I outgrew funny animals, and what struck me was that the physical appearance of the characters always mirrored their souls, or occupations. They looked like what they were, and what you saw was what you got, from the square-jawed Tracy barking into his wrist radio, to Pruneface, Flattop and the others.
Warren Beatty’s production of “Dick Tracy” approaches the material with the same fetishistic glee I felt when I was reading the strip. The Tracy stories didn’t depend really on plot – they were too spun-out for that – and of course they didn’t depend on suspense – Tracy always won.What they were about was the interaction of these grotesque people, doomed by nature to wear their souls on their faces. We see this process at work in one of the film’s first scenes, where a poker game is in progress, and everyone around the table looks like a sideshow attraction, from Little Face, whose features are at the middle of a sea of dissipation, to the Brow, always deep in shallow thought.
Original And Visionary
Furthermore, Ebert, who panned 1989’s (now legendary) Batman, wrote, “[T]he PG-rated ‘Dick Tracy’ contains no obscenity, no blood, and no ‘realistic’ violence. It is one of the most original and visionary fantasies I’ve seen on a screen.”
That sentiment explains why the Walt Disney Archives recently commemorated the 30th anniversary of Dick Tracy on D23.com.
Dick Tracy: 30 Years Later
Check out just three sets of the archives artifacts:
The iconic Dick Tracy costume: black suit, white dress shirt, red striped tie, yellow coat, and fedora.
Perhaps one of the most memorable props from the film was Dick Tracy’s wristwatch radio. Seen here is a screen-used edition worn by Warren Beatty, along with a production prototype and stunt version.
Breathless Mahoney’s backless black sequined dress.
By all means, be sure to check out the entire entry on D23.com and, while you are at it, enjoy a trailer from the film.
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A graduate of Boston and Northeastern universities, John Bishop, became the beat reporter for BostonBruins.com before the B’s 2006-07 hockey season. While with the Bruins, “Bish” traveled North America and Europe to cover the Black & Gold’s every move via laptop, blog, and smartphone. The co-author of two books, Bygone Boston and Full 60 to History: The Inside Story of the 2011 Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins, John covered the XXI Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver in 2010 and the B’s 2011 championship run and banner raising before taking a faculty/communications position at a prep school outside Boston in 2013. He lives with his wife Andrea, and sons Jack, Scott, and Luke, in central Massachusetts.
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