Warren Beatty's "Dick Tracy," a star-studded adaptation of the classic comic strip, is a truly unique movie. Its Oscar-winning production design and makeup creates a vivid Art Deco fantasyland where good cop Dick Tracy (Beatty) battles diminutive gangster Big Boy Caprice (Al Pacino) and his grotesque henchmen. Their names tell you everything you need to know: Pruneface (R.G. Armstrong) has a prune-like face, Mumbles (Dustin Hoffman) likes to mumble, and so on. Everything marches to the beat of Danny Elfman's Gershwin-esque score, while Madonna sings torch songs penned by Stephen Sondheim. Three decades on, as comic book movies roll straight off an assembly line, "Dick Tracy" remains one of the most unique examples of the genre.
James Caan plays Spud Spaldoni, the city's sleazy criminal attorney, in a Clark Gable moustache and a jaunty purple suit. As Big Boy gathers his criminal associates together to consolidate power, Spaldoni opts out, preferring to go it alone. Big Boy responds to this declaration of independence by blowing up Spaldoni's car. As cameos go, Caan gets it pretty easy; he's recognizable under his moustache and fake nose, unlike, say, William Forsythe, who boasts a triangular skull as Flattop. Explosion aside, though, the real thrill of Caan's appearance is seeing him reunite with Pacino.
