Mind if I call you Dick?

Contrary to popular belief Madonna‘s two characters in the 1990 movie ‘Dick Tracy‘ were not specially created for the director/star’s girlfriend at the time. Madonna played two characters in the movie – Breathless Mahoney and…. c’mon, it’s not a spoiler, if you’re reading this you’ve seen the film… The Blank.

Her main character was the sexy chanteuse ‘Breathless’ Mahoney.
A role which allowed Madonna to vamp it up in front of the cameras, wear a dazzling array of glued-in dresses and sport some of the most finely crafted hairstyles she has displayed on screen. However, the original character of Breathless, first introduced into Dick Tracy lore in 1945 was a bit more toned down than Madonna’s version.

Rumoured to have been modelled on star Veronica Lake, the comic-book Breathless had long sleek straight hair, a sultry look and a winning sense in smart yet feminine dress. It’s not hard to see where the Lake story came from…

Madonna‘s second character in the movie was that of the mysterious ‘The Blank‘. Again, the character is an original from the comic book series, appearing as far back as 1937. However, it was here that Warren Beatty and his scriptwriters took a little artistic license as in the original comic series. The Blank was an alias of male baddie Warren Redrum (Murder, spelt backwards) whose face was shot away with a gunshot!

Pretty far removed from Madonna and her ever present cleavage!