It was a tough situation for James Bond (Roger Moore) in San Francisco, back in 1985 and “A View to a Kill“, having survived a burning lift shaft and after carrying a weakend geologist down a fire ladder being faced with a murder charge.
Bond has to drop his alias of James Stock of the London Financial Times and come clean as British Secret Service using the famous line “The name is Bond. James Bond.”
Stacey Sutton, geologist (Tanya Roberts) and the San Francisco police captain (Joe Flood) are surprised and find his statement unbelievable. The police captain replies: “And I’m Dick Tracy and you’re still under arrest.”
By saying so, he implies that “James Bond” is a household name like any other famous good hero, like the iconic Dick Tracy.
So who is Dick Tracy? In short:
Dick Tracy was established already in the 1930’s as an American comic strip. The title character being a tough, resourceful, masculine detective with a square-jawed profile. Tracy solved crimes using his intelligence, his guns or fists and his gadgets (especially his famous two way wrist radio, introduced in the 1940’s). The comic was created by cartoonist Chester Gould who wrote and drew Dick Tracy between 1931 and 1977. Apart from the iconic hero Gould also created a gallery of colourful villains.
Dick Tracy is highly popular and is indeed a part of that American heritage which is not only considered popular culture but US cultural history as well. Dick Tracy is simply the most well-known police in USA.
Dick Tracy comics are still in production, being released by Tribune Media Services
Dick Tracy has also been made into radio series, feature films and an animated series. In 1990, Waren Beatty directed and played the title role himself in the latest Dick Tracy feature film. This movie had an enormous marketing campaign and starred well-known actors like Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino and Madonna alongside Beatty.
Dick Tracy
Posted in: A View to a Kill
007 Under the Mango Tree 
Posted on September 29, 2014
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