Dick Tracy's 2-Way Wrist Radio watch is the inspiration for smartphones and iWatches.
Chester Gould's blockjawed comic strip detective, a symbol of stable law in the anxious years of the gangster 30's, also invented the crazed rogues gallery of colorful figures with bizarre names. It's because of his Big Boy, Rughead, Mumbles, Flattop, Pruneface, and Breathless Mahoney that Batman then fought The Joker, Two-Face, Clayface, Penguin, and Catwoman. Or that Eisner's The Spirit tangled with The Octopus, Mr. Carrion, and Sand Saref. (After Al Capp spoofed Gould's work, Eisner spoofed them both in the 1947 "L'il Adam" murder story.) And perhaps, along with many Pulp influences, why James Bond went up against Dr. No, Goldfinger, and Jaws.
This long-gestated film hoped to crest on the the surprise success of Tim Burton's Batman (1989), and it shows. Director and star Warren Beatty is no slouch, and a deep fan of the 30's source, but the results are disappointing. Al Pacino and Dustin Hoffman spent the mid-70's competing in great films, and here in their only film together they seem amused simply to do parodies of themselves. A rather formidable cast of worthies breezes through for a lark. Lastly, the bold choice to use primary colors and locked cameras is an overly-literal interpretation of comic strips by novices, and the day-glo Pop instead becomes a neon echo of the lamentably camp Batman TV show. (And a foreshadowing of Batman And Robin.)
