Techtite's What Went Wrong --- When Entertainment Goes Awry!

To be fair: many a fanboy of this movie is going to send me flame mail on this one. However, to those who need a reminder: What Went Wrong is all about good ideas: projects that should have gone completely right, yet didn't. That is the 1990 Disney film, Dick Tracy, to capital "D." Many people expected this movie to lead to a whole film series, not unlike Batman, Spider-Man, or for that matter, Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean. Yet two decades later, this is the only Dick Tracy film ever made. In fact; even a "remake" has yet to be considered or attempted. As for a 20th anniversary Blu-Ray: that just isn't going to happen.

What Went Right? Again, I must repeat, to the fanboys of this movie: good ideas, good qualities, good potential. That is what this column is all about. So pretty please with sugar on top, do not rant and rave when I say something went wrong here. "Shooting the messenger" will not take away the fact that this film has not been released on DVD since 2002. This film clearly went wrong somewhere...though where? That's what this column is about.

That singular paragraph alludes to one of many things that went right with this picture: its fan base. Dick Tracy is very popular among classic comic fans. Its film is a "cult hit," of sorts, for many live action comic movie fans. And why not...? Even if the film made some mistakes along the way, it earned three Oscars, including: Art Direction(Set Decoration), Makeup, and Best Original Song (for "Sooner or Later"). That's far loftier praise than any movie mentioned in this column to date.

It helps, of course, that the art design and makeup for this film was made with "Dick Tracy" in mind. Yeah; I know. "Of course," right? Wrong! Many live action comic book movies are slipshod snafus with little or nothing to do with the subject matter, not naming any names (<cough> CATWOMAN <cough>). Yet this film kept true to every little detail, of every single character. Flat Top had, indeed, a flat head; "Little Face" Finney was played by a child actor under heavy makeup. These would be two out of 21 classic Dick Tracy Villains in this one film. As for the vibrant colors that the comic strip is known for: how cool was it, in a film era with so little color, that Tracy's trademark detective coat was bright yellow, same as it always was?

Then there was the cast itself...! Warren Beatty, Madonna, Glenne Headly, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Mandy Patinkin, Paul Sorvino, Kathy Bates, James Caan, and Dick Van Dyke, all had either major roles or at the least, very memorable cameos.

[On a side note: fans of 90's movies might wonder whatever happened to "The Kid," as played by Charlie Korsmo. This "kid" was a frequently hired child actor at the time, in a wide variety of films (including one of my personal favorites, What About Bob?). You might wonder what happened to "The Kid." Korsmo left the Hollywood scene at 13, soon after filming Hook. He graduated from Yale Law School in 2006. Whoa...! You go, kid!]

Last though not least: there was the marketing. How could any summary of this film's back history not mention the incredible marketing? No, we're not talking about the standard Disney tie-in toys, merchandise, and a musical stage show in the theme parks. Here's where Dick Tracy's marketing was truly brilliant: premiere night tickets were not pieces of paper. They were special, one of a kind T-shirts. In order to see the premiere you had to wear your official Dick Tracy premiere T-shirt. On any typical opening weekend, it is hard to guess who is in line for which movie. Imagine how many newspapers worldwide had photos of the long lines to see Dick Tracy on opening night, with everyone wearing an official Dick Tracy T-shirt! How is that for awesome publicity?

All this led to a controversial box office. While it did not do as well as, say, Tim Burton's Batman, it did admirably well just the same. The film reportedly cost an estimated 47 million to make. It made 22 million on its first weekend of release. Its final gross was an estimated 103 million, with early rental sales amounting to an estimated 60 million. So, yeah; this film did not do as well as hoped. It did do pretty well, though.

Yet none of this can take away the following: 1) this was meant as a film series, and 2) 20 years later, no sequel, remake, or even a "director's cut" has ever seen the light of day. In fact; even though this summer marks the film's 20th anniversary, no anniversary edition DVD is planned, with the most recent DVD release dating as far back as 2002!

What Went Wrong? Again, to the fanboys of this movie, I must ask that they keep an open mind. This is not "bashing" the film. Even the best of films has "speed bumps" along the way. Dick Tracy, "cult hit" that it is, had some of the biggest speed bumps in film history.

The truth is: love or hate this movie, it nearly didn't get filmed at all. Even the simple task of hiring a director was, for Tracy, quite difficult. Bob Fosse refused. Martin Scorsese was a big fan of Dick Tracy comics, though he was busy filming Goodfellas. Tim Burton was busy filming Edward Scissorhands. John Landis came aboard long enough to hire Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr. to write a screenplay. Yet after dealing with an untimely accident on the set of The Twilight Zone, Landis was gone, too.

Which brings us to Warren Beatty. An actor whose most recent role was in the 1987 disaster, Ishtar. A director whose most recent director's work was Reds, back in 1981. Yet Beatty accepted the director's chair for Tracy, on the sole condition that he could play the title role. The good news for Beatty was: Disney was having as much trouble casting the title role as they were finding a decent director!

It is not like Beatty was a choice out from left field. He was already on board, as producer. Beatty purchased all broadcast rights to the "Dick Tracy" brand way back in 1985. So some readers of this column could easily say that there was no reason for Disney Studios to be worried with Beatty as Producer, Director, and star. Right...?

It didn't help that Beatty was a major "player" back in the day, who in a semi-authorized biography was alleged to have slept with (no joke) over 13,000 women. Yikes! Though hey; no worries, right? I mean; it's not like any actress is bold enough, brazen enough, or seductive enough to date Beatty and "suddenly" be the lead star of the film, right? Right...?

Yes, Madonna is a well known singer. Yes, the success of the film's best song, "Sooner of Later," won her a singing gig on Oscar night (though not the Oscar itself, which went to Dick Tracy's songwriter, Stephen Sondheim). Yet this is the same Madonna who has been nominated for 12 "Razzie" Awards, with 7 wins, including: "Worst Actress" (for multiple films), "Worst Actress of the Decade" (on multiple decades!) and, I kid you not: Worst Actress of the Century!

To be fair: Beatty did not give Madonna a major role per se. The most well known female character in Dick Tracy comics is the ever faithful Tess Trueheart, who was played by Glenne Headly. Madonna would instead play an obscure villainess from Dick Tracy's past, Breathless Mahoney. Okay; fine. She would be one of 21 villain cameos in the film, sing a song, and part over, right?

Wrong. Madonna and Beatty's affair during filming became a part of tabloid legend. The resulting question is obvious: was an original, grittier, edgier script altered to make room for Madonna, Madonna, and more Madonna? You be the judge. Breathless Mahoney was, quite frankly, a worthless Dick Tracy character. Yet she was made the focal point of the whole movie. To Madonna's fans, making Dick Tracy into "The Madonna Movie" was great news. To Dick Tracy purists, it was as if Christopher Nolan made "The Ventriloquist" into the focal point of the next Batman movie. Who is The Ventriloquist, you ask? Exactly!

You might be asking: how could Beatty make The Worst Actress Of The Century into the lead actress of the whole movie? Sure, yeah: lot of great music videos from the girl. Everyone knows that. It is of little surprise then, that a potentially gritty action movie about a gritty police detective, was retooled into one, big, long, Madonna music video. It's around the time one finds themselves thinking, "A Madonna song? AGAIN?" that they realize all hope at a coherent plot has been lost. Sure, there are those 21 neat villain cameos to enjoy. Too bad Madonna is too busy singing to allow anything as "inconsequential" as...a story.

Yet here's what made it even more foolish to make this film "The Madonna Movie." Forgive me for the dated spoiler (this is a 20 year old film, after all!): Breathless Mahoney, much like her comic book counterpart, is dead by the end of the movie. Think about this for a sec. They make the entire movie all about Breathless Mahoney. Then they kill Breathless Mahoney. That's like putting all your eggs in one basket...then smashing all the eggs!

Suffice to say: a whole lot of people dodged a major bullet here. On the one hand it was hardly "The next Batman" in films, though it hardly did poorly at the box office, either. Some people are okay with the end result; others, not so much. In fact: some are downright furious, leading to a major court battle to this very day. You can read all about the Dick Tracy films' many legal battles through the years, via Wikipedia. Frankly; they are far too lengthy to relist here.

Long story short: Tribune Media Services, the original owners of all Dick Tracy rights, want those rights back. To hear their side of the story: they want to return Dick Tracy to his former glory, via a modern TV series, not unlike Superman's return to TV, in Smallville. Love or hate the idea: it sounds a lot better than The Madonna Movie Guest Starring Dick Tracy! Meanwhile, Beatty wants a second chance. Does he deserve one? The answer to that question is part of a legal battle lasting for years.

In the end, Dick Tracy is another in a long line of movies that fail for one simple reason: the producer/director/star let his current love interest rule the roost. It has happened many times before, so there is little need to berate Beatty about it. However: the fact remains that Dick Tracy is a brilliant movie idea. He has the fan base. He has over 21 villains to fight. All he needs is a good movie. To this day, all he's been given is an over-glorified music video. Frankly, Dick Tracy deserves more. We all do.

Title graphics, and pix not of reviewed product, are created by Techtite, copyright 1999-2010; all rights reserved. Screen captures (if any) and publicity photos are only for the purpose of this commentary, and by no means represent any affiliation with Techtite.com and the distributors of that product. For further "legalese" & disclaimers, click here...

What Went Wrong?

Dick Tracy (1990)

Commentary by Techtite