Just as Danny Elfman is the composer-of-choice for superhero / comic-book films in 2003, so he was in 1990.  Having just come off Batman, which is probably responsible for the slew of (weaker) efforts that have followed ever since, he was a natural choice to score Warren Beatty's extravagant Dick Tracy, with a genuine all-star cast including Beatty, Madonna, Al Pacino, James Caan, Michael J. Pollard, Paul Sorvino, Dustin Hoffman, Dick van Dyke (!) and Kathy Bates, among others.

Elfman's score obviously takes its cue from his Batman effort, with a similar(ish) main theme, though it's not as memorable this time around.  He injects a real old-fashioned air into it, with Prohibition jazz prominent in tracks like "Crime Spree" - this is probably where the score works best.  There are various secondary themes as well, such as the Golden Age-type one for Breathless, probably the pick of the bunch.

Unfortunately this is nothing like as strong an effort as Batman.  Various tracks (I'm thinking of things like "Meet the Blank" here) just travel along without having much to say; while Elfman trademarks are certainly present through the album, his music was nothing like as well-developed back then as it is now.  Another very large hindrance is the muddy recording which makes the orchestra sound much smaller than it probably was - you're pining for music like this to sound big and punchy, but instead it's somewhat limp.

At the time of the film's release, an album of Madonna songs far overshadowed the score album (Batman was probably the first film to have separate songs and score albums released; and Dick Tracy was probably the second!) and it is now rather difficult to find.  But it's worth persevering, for Elfman fans.

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Tracks