Want To See Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy Appear On A Zoom Call On Your TV? Tonight's Your Night, Baby

In the post-New Hollywood era, there are movie stars and there is Warren Beatty. The sturdily built, 6'2" dreamboat could've been a fine football player, but his movie-mad sister, Shirley MacLaine, got him fired up about acting. Beatty studied under Stella Adler, and arrived fully formed as a matinee idol opposite Natalie Wood in Elia Kazan's 1961 hit, "Splendor in the Grass." Beatty took not just to the craft, but the game. He produced and starred in Arthur Penn's "Bonnie and Clyde," which, by dint of his star power, drop-kicked studios into an era of blind risk-taking.

But there was nothing blind about investing in Beatty. "Easy Rider," "Five Easy Pieces," and even "The French Connection" were long shots. Place Beatty at the top of the marquee, and you had an event. The problem for studios was that Beatty had peculiar appetites. Ideally, you'd plug him into "Love Story" or "The Way We Were." Beatty, however, wanted to make "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" and "Shampoo."

But the name Warren Beatty moved the needle. Boomers adored him, and their Gen X kids respected the brand. So when Beatty acquired the rights to Chester Gould's yellow-coated-and-capped detective Dick Tracy, we all lined up for the 1990 spectacle. It wasn't a box-office smash, but it was a hit. And Beatty, who worshipped the character as fervently as way too many geeks fixate on Batman, decided he would control the rights to the square-jawed lawman until he hit the turf. Which brings us to Turner Classic Movie's Friday night programming.

Warren Beatty will turn 86 next month. I do not believe I am engaging in ageism when I say that he is unlikely to play Dick Tracy again in a feature-length sequel. But Beatty wants to control the Dick Tracy rights as long as he can, and this apparently means he has to turn up once a decade in a yellow trenchcoat and Zoom with Leonard Maltin (and the newly roped-in Ben Mankiewicz).

How do we feel about this? Polygon's Matt Patches has watched the special, and is flummoxed. As a kid who grew up thinking there were movie stars and there was Warren Beatty, I can't wait to see the legend quarrel with his humorless counterparts while Maltin and Mankiewicz exchange puzzled glances. I just want more Beatty. He's a holdover from a horribly problematic era, but I remember the way my mom would swoon at the mere mention of his name, and I don't know that I'd be hooked on movies without his beguiling presence. I also imagine Annette Bening was thrilled to get him out of the house for a bit.