Dillinger

"Dillinger" is one of the best films from Warren Oates. He is better known as a character actor, supporting player and a fine one at that. Occasionally, he was given the lead. The film has great action and Warren Oates bears a striking resemblance to the real life bandit, John Dillinger. Ben Johnson is terrific as the F.B.I agent who is on Dillinger's trail. A minor classic.

One of my all time fave actors played the gun toting thug to the hilt. Also, Ben Johnson was excellent as the obsessive detective dedicated to bringing the hellraising criminal to justice. He did cheat a tad but got the job done with no tears being shed for the hoodlum. Very good action film: I'll never forget the huge cringe I gave when the getaway car ran over a woman and dragged her beneath it for a ways. This was Oates doing some of his best work.

My review might be a little biased because I love Warren Oates and will watch anything he appears in (including obscure movies like 92 In the Shade). However, I'd like to say that this is a very well-made gangster flick that rivals Bonnie & Clyde in entertainment value. I actually prefer the action sequences in Dillinger to the famous ones from Bonnie & Clyde because they seem rougher, more natural and less self-conscious. The shooting sequences in Bonnie & Clyde seem too choreographed and slightly pretentious in comparison. Another selling point for Dillinger is that it contains wonderful performances by Oates and Ben Johnson. Actually, Ben Johnson almost steals the show as "G Man" Melvin Purvis. Even though they only have 1.5 scenes together, Oates and Johnson complement each other nicely here.

This is still the definitive biography of John Dillinger on film. I just saw Mann's Public Enemies - this film blows that one away. Forgive me for quoting my own review of Mann's film:

"Milius, taking his cue from "Bonnie And Clyde," from the earlier Lawrence Tierney film "Dillinger," and from the gaudy gangster films of Roger Corman, fashioned a film that was both flashy yet homespun, part unabashed B-movie, part evocation of American Gothic. Even his occasional tinkering with historical accuracy could be forgiven, since it was clear he had a firm grasp on what the Dillinger phenomenon was really all about - 'farm boy makes good by turning bad' is an undeniable folk-theme of American life. And the brilliance of Warren Oates' performance in the Milius film is that Oates plays Dillinger like a runaway farm-boy with a sense of humor and a quick temper, who just happened to rob banks for a living. That's as much as you can give any professional criminal without lying about the nature of crime namely, it's about stealing other peoples' money and hurting many of them in the process."

Other reviewers have remarked this as a B-movie - but it is intentionally so, it never makes any pretense otherwise; and that's important: having decided to make a B-movie leaves Milius with considerable leeway as to how far he wants to push any aspect of the material. So while it's hard to think of any particular dramatic high-point of the film (perhaps the scene where Dillinger and Purvis go to the same restaurant, or the death of Pretty Boy Floyd?), it's much harder to find any moment that really drags the film down - the pacing of the film is that of a B-movie, it moves! There's nothing exceptional about the cinematography or music, or production design; what we're left with are memorable performances by some of the greatest character actors in cinema at the time, and an exciting story with enough savvy to trigger our emotions.

Milius watched the Lawrence Tierney "Dillinger" and learned from it before starting this film; Mann should have watched Milius' film over and over before starting "Public Enemies." In any event, this is still THE Dillinger story, and and an entertaining action film as well.

The scene at the beginning of the film where the old man at the gas station treats Homer Van Meter with such contempt is hilarious.

Billie Frechette is shown firing a gun at the feds in one scene; it didn't happen. The end credits say she died a spinster; she was married twice. Harry Pierpont was wounded in an attempted escape from death row; three weeks later he was still unable to walk (he'd been shot four times), so they carried him to the electric chair, strapped him in, and threw the switch.

Pretty Boy Floyd was wounded running from the farmhouse, but the wound wasn't mortal. When Purvis asked him about Kansas City, Floyd let go such a stream of profanity that Purvis had Agent Herman Hollis shoot him with a Thompson. Hollis had fired one of the rounds that hit Dillinger (although not the fatal one), and he and another agent died while mortally wounding Baby Face Nelson in November of that year.

The scene outside the Biograph is ridiculous. It was scalding hot, which is why Dillinger and the two women went to an air-conditioned theater. The movie shows everyone in overcoats, including Dillinger. He had on an open-collared shirt and a white straw hat. Purvis didn't shoot Dillinger at all; the fatal round was fired by an agent brought up from Texas.

I do, however, love the line about Handsome Jack Klutas (who, by the way, attended college, but had no "college degree"): "I knew I'd never take him alive. I didn't try too hard, neither." That scene, of course, never happened. Purvis wasn't even there when Klutas was killed.