Dillinger, el enemigo público nº 1

... and by that I mean Lawrence Tierney. He is the reason to watch this film. Without him this would be a 5/10 star crime drama that is short on facts and, quite frankly, also short on chills and thrills. With Tierney in the lead you get to see him change along with his character John Dillinger. What an interesting presence he is.

Tierney was a supporting player at RKO at the time, barely noticed in his first couple of years there. The leading role here was supposed to go to Chester Morris, but somebody insisted that Tierney would be good for the role, plus they could get him on the cheap. At poverty row Monogram it was all about economy.

And so in this film you see Dillinger evolve from somebody who wanted to be a broker - in the roaring 20s who wouldn't - to somebody who screws up his first armed robbery in which the weapon is - well - his arm! He is impressed by the big time bank robber who is his prison cell mate for said robbery., busts his cell mate and his gang out of jail once released, and then his viciousness grows with his ambition.

The woman who turns out to be the "lady in red" is his long time companion, actually one of his first stick up victims once he gets out of jail. In fact, Dillinger was far from a one woman man, but her role is needed here. Because you see her grow from fascinated to cold and distant as Dillinger grows more wanton in his blood lust.

As for Lawrence Tierney, this is the only time in any film he's starred in that I've seen where he starts out smiling - sincerely even! - and then develops that "Born To Kill" intimidating stance and visage of his later roles all in about 90 minutes.

Best small scene: Dillinger has just performed a particularly vicious act, in the middle of the night, no witnesses. His girlfriend comes halfway downstairs, witnesses his handiwork, throws a disapproving glance Dillinger's way, and then swirls around back upstairs to her bed. She is dressed in this sexy negligee that reveals nothing and in fact could double as a wedding dress if adjusted a bit. The fact that they are sleeping miles apart along with that glance says more than any dialogue could. The production code did lead to some filmmaking ingenuity in some cases, and this was one of them.

If you ever get hold of the old Warner Brothers DVD of this film, it is worth a second watch for the commentary by John Milius who wrote and directed the 1973 version of Dillinger. Not only does he tell you where this film actually parallels Dillinger's actual life, but he points out how Monogram managed to shoot this film on a shoe string and not have it appear so. He points out where stock footage is used, where sets are redressed and reused, and points out how the intro with Dillinger's father bizarrely appearing in a movie theatre to tell his son's story is a quick and cheap way to get the character's background out there without actually having to film it!

There are tough guys and there are tough guys, but Brooklyn-born Lawrence Tierney was the real deal off and on screen. His casting in the 1945 Dillinger was fortuitous, as the film was the sleeper of the year, and made Tierney briefly an overnight star. He soon became Hollywood's bad boy, getting into scrapes with the law and in general raising hell, which doubtless explains his relatively brief starring career. In Dillinger he is excellent in the lead role, and while he does not much resemble the real Dillinger he is right for the movie. His face and especially eyes, tough and sad at the same time, make him perfect casting whatever his other deficiencies. There is some pretty outdoor photography in the film, which is at times rather arty, but successfully so. The acting is generally quite good, and the mood offbeat and foreboding, and quite different from the typical gangster picture from the thirties. It started a new trend in more realistic, psychological, less city-bound crime pictures with 'dangerous' leading characters, such as the Walsh-Cagney White Heat.

This lean, mean cheapo has all the virtues of economy. Lawrence Tierney is great in his impressive debut, ideally cast as the cold, humourless psychopath. In a little over an hour we get the complete biography, with the bad guy hero gunned down with seven dollars and twenty cents in his pocket, the exact amount with which he began his criminal spree.

The scene transitions are tight and efficient, and the story-telling terse and elliptical, giving us only the significant moments in this brief, violent life. No words are wasted when Pa Otto meets his end.

Dmitri Tiomkin provides his customarily excellent music. The lone wailing horn in the prison scenes captures superbly the despair of the inmates, as indeed does the unyielding regularity of the jail architecture.

Verdict - Less is more in this commendably spare gangster flick.

"Dillinger" was made by poverty row studio Monogram Pictures as a "B" picture programmer however, it turned out to be much better than everyone had anticipated. Although it takes liberties with actual facts, it is nonetheless a dark and brooding little film noire.

The producers lucked in when Lawrence Tierney was cast in the lead role. He plays John Dillinger as a cold blooded non-repentant killer. The real Dillinger was apparently nothing like Tierney's interpretation but was more of a Robin Hood type character who was only a bank robber and not the cold blooded killer depicted in this film.

The story follows Dillinger from a small time hood to his first prison term where he meets future members of his gang. Specs Green (Edmund Lowe) is the planner and three of the most recognizable faces in gangster pictures round out the gang. First there is Marco (Eduardo Ciannelli), then Doc (Marc Lawrence) and finally Kirk Otto (Elisha Cook Jr.).

Along the way Dillinger meets his "femme fatale", Helen Rogers (Anne Jeffreys). After Dillinger springs the gang from prison they go on a bank robbing spree. Dillinger takes over the gang from Specs and runs things his way. Eventually the gang members are either caught or killed and Dillinger goes to hide out in Chicago. After several months in hiding he and Helen go to a movie at the Biograph theater. Helen is dressed in red and well you know the rest.

Tierney should have risen to major stardom after this film but due to his personal problems, he never really did. He reportedly had a hair trigger temper and often got into bar room brawls, Naturally producers began to shy away from. His career is not unlike another actor who almost made it, Tom Neal.

After starring roles in a few films, notably "Born To Kill" (1947), he drifted into smaller and smaller roles. He did find work well into the 1990s but never did achieve stardom. But his work in this film is what has elevated it to the cult status it enjoys today. The gunning down of the elderly Ottos (Elsa Janssen, Ludwig Stessel) and the maiming of a bar waiter are particularly chilling.

Edmund Lowe had been a star in silent films. By this time his career was winding down. Ciannelli, Lawrence and Cook were staples in gangster roles for decades thereafter.

John Milius who made the 1973 "Dillinger" (closer to the facts) provides some interesting insights and commentary on the DVD release.

I continue to be amazed at the ratings some movies get here. I just saw this snappy little movie and thought sure it would get a higher rating that 6.3. I agree with the another viewer's description of it being a "lean, mean, cheapo." A cheapo yes, but one where not a penny is spent on extraneous scenes. A nice antidote to higher-budgeted (and more highly rated) movies where we're made to spend hours watching actors doing virtually nothing in never-ending, story-killing close-ups. I'd watch this one again in a heartbeat.