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This movie has several big things going for it: its short, fast-moving and just plain entertaining. How much more do you want? Also, Lawrence Tierney was made for gangster/film noir movies. He looks the part, acts the part, and was a thug in real life, too. Who better than to portray famous criminal John Dillinger as a cold-blooded killer?

This was Tierney's starring debut and it was a good vehicle for him. I also enjoyed Edmund Lowe as the gang boss prior to Tierney taking over. I enjoyed the supporting cast, too: Anne Jeffreys, Elisha Cook Jr., Eduardo Cianelli and Marc Lawrence. All of them add to this film.

I was glad they concentrated on the crime part of the film and didn't go crazy with a sappy romance. However, I am sorry Jeffreys wasn't on screen more often. She had the '40s look, if I ever saw it.

... 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!

"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.

When Dillinger is sent to prison as a young man for a small scale robbery he winds up sharing a cell with Specs. Specs introduces Dillinger to his gang and he joins them. On his release Dillinger breaks the gang out of jail and they set out on a spree of well planned robberies. With tensions rising between the clinical Specs and the violent risk-taking Dillinger the mood in the gang become tense. Dillinger eventually takes over the gang leading them into increasingly dangerous jobs risking capture and death.

One of the many filmed versions of this gangster's life and death. It may also be one of the shortest, but by having a tight basic plot and good script it doesn't feel too short. The story is stripped down to key moments and events in Dillinger's life as told by his father, however this makes the film more urgent and tense compared to more rambling versions. However I suppose as a life story that's not really what you want, but here it works because it's a crime thriller rather than a biopic.

Lawrence Tierney was a bit of a hellraiser in his day and he brings a menacing streak to the role. Of those who don't watch films made before 1990 it may be a surprise to realise that this young man is the same as played Joe in Reservoir Dogs. The whole gang gives strong support especially Edmund Lowe as the harassed Specs, it's also always good to see Elisha Cook Jr, here playing Kirk.

Overall a taught little crime thriller that benefits from a tough cast and a short tense running time.

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.

Low budget, high quality B-film depicting the life of gangster John Dillinger. Seventy minutes of beautiful black & white action. For entertainment's sake I'm certain there is latitude given in the telling. Lawrence Tierney early in his career gives the performance for which he is most remembered...Public Enemy Number One. Rounding out the cast of this little gem are:Anne Jeffreys, Edmund Lowe and Elisha Cook Jr. Kudos to Dimitri Tiomkin for original music.

Note:In real life Tierney would be arrested more times than Dillinger.

Although it would have been much more appropriate as part of a subsequent Gangster DVD Collection from Warners (rather than the Film Noir in which it was included), DILLINGER is a solid B flick buoyed by a fast pace, a bevy of familiar character actors (Edmund Lowe, Eduardo Cianelli, Marc Lawrence, Elisha Cook Jr.) and a terrific turn by Lawrence Tierney in the title role. Although John Milius' 1973 remake is much more factual and despite an over-reliance on stock footage from bigger-budgeted films - like Fritz Lang's YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE (1937) - the film is also notable for an unusual narrative structure for this type of film in that the events are "told" to a theater audience by John Dillinger's father as a warning against the perils of living life on the wrong side of the tracks! This film also proved to be Monogram's most prestigious production as Philip Yordan received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay!

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.

John Dillinger (Lawrence Tierney) was an Indiana farm boy who had a thirst for cash, once realising where the cash was, Dillinger rose to become the 1930s public enemy number 1. This portrayal of a man who not only terrified the public, but also captivated them wholesale, benefits from an excellent screenplay courtesy of Philip Yordan. The picture's strength is not in purely aiming for entertainment values in guns and robbery rampage, it begs the questions of what made Dillinger the man he was? Was it an early stint in the big house that marked his life out for him? was his unison with Specs Green merely igniting a murderous rage within? or was Dillinger just a greedy bastard who was rotten to the core?

Running at only 70 minutes, and filmed on a "B" movie budget, Dillinger comes out as something of a triumph within the gangster genre. Posing questions and providing moments of genuine unease, it may just be one of the best gangster films that does not starg Cagney, Bogart or Eddy G. Stirring stuff, from a vengeful return to a bar, to the ripper of a finale, Dillinger is to me holding up considerably well in this day and age of pictures over killing violence for violence sake. 7/10

This film bears about as close a relation to the facts of Dillinger's life as Arthur Penn's "Bonnie and Clyde" did to that other set of outlaws. It's amazing that a film made about a decade after the historical events could play so loosely with the truth, when the audience would no doubt remember the real story.

It's also a cheap production, with re-usable sets, bad rear projections, and the substitution of California scenery for the Midwest of the story. The acting isn't bad, but the script feels more like a set of snapshots being flipped as fast as a deck of cards.

John Milius (who did his own Dillinger pic in the 70s) does a commentary on the DVD, which is interesting, but he's also unsure of many facts in the story. May I recommend the book "Dillinger's Wild Ride" if you'd like a historical, documented account.

A brief and pointed bio pic on a tight budget, which dictated a fast and efficient manner, but from a director who knew how to organize the story in an intriguing way where we see Dillinger (Lawrence Tierney) and his gang (Elisha Cook Jr. and Edmund Lowe, among others) both on the job robbing banks (above average scenes) and hiding out (way above average) thanks to the screenplay that captures the internal tension of a group constantly on the run. It's a stellar 40's version of a 30's gangster film, with double crossing and cheating lurking behind a lot of the action, and a couple of very well cast against type characters in Edmund Lowe as Specs and Anne Jeffries as Dillinger's wayward girlfriend.

I was aware of Tierney from Reservoir Dogs and "Seinfeld", but not his early career until I saw Dillinger and Born to Kill. He is one of the great, largely unrediscovered actors of postwar, tough guy films -- with a fascinating way of switching from menacing psycho to hurt little boy and back again, all within seconds. Hopefully, more of his movies will be released on DVD.

In Dillinger, when Tierney first meets Anne Jeffreys, the clock in back of her box office booth clearly says Gruen (the manufacturer) on its face. But when Tierney goes in to see the movie, there's a dissolve to what is obviously supposed to be the same clock, indicating passage of time. In the second clock shot,however, there is no Gruen label.

The movie makes a point of telling us most of the action takes place in the Midwest, specifically Indiana -- with the help of at least four newspaper mockups: the Indiana Journal, the Evansville Courier, the Indianapolis World and the South Bend Daily Press. But when a "be-on-the-lookout", all-points bulletin is issued for Dillinger, a montage of the dragnet features a city map clearly labeled as Los Angeles and showing the Southern Calfornia cities of Inglewood and El Segundo.

Check out Anne Jeffreys going into the Biograph with Tierney near the end. Shot from the rear, the only word to describe her is 'steatopygous'.

It's too bad that the first film tribute to the baddest bandit of the last century was done by Poverty Row Monogram Pictures. And while Lawrence Tierney is certainly brutal enough to portray that aspect of John Dillinger's personality, the charm that was also part of Dillinger was left out. It's possible a good deal was left on the cutting room floor of Monogram.

Both Johnny Depp's Public Enemies and even more so the film Dillinger that starred Warren Oates in the title role were far closer to the truth than this was. To be sure Dillinger's legendary escape from an Indiana jail with a fake wooden gun and the matter of his demise were included if not completely accurately. You couldn't have a film about Dillinger without them.

No deep psychological insights into John Dillinger here. He was just a mean anti-social individual who took to a life of crime. In most other times he would have not been glamorized. But this was The Great Depression and bankers were not popular back in those days. They were foreclosing left and right and when they weren't doing that they were failing, robbing people of life savings. So if Dillinger and his kind were taking out withdrawals their way, who really cared?

Dillinger while in prison for a two bit convenience store stickup meets up with old time bank robber Edmund Lowe and the rest of the gang which consists of Eduardo Ciannelli, Elisha Cook, and Marc Lawrence. Tierney as Dillinger bust them out of the joint after he's finished his sentence and takes over the mob from Lowe. He also meets up with Anne Jeffreys who becomes the infamous lady in red.

Certainly Depp and Oates got more out of the Dillinger role than Tierney did. But what Tierney got was a career and in a limited way he did capture part of the Dillinger mystique. Sad this film was not done at a major studio though.

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.

This film biography is an entertaining movie of a total thug who took what he wanted at the point of a gun. Dillinger was indeed a public enemy no. 1 who turned on friend and foe alike to suit his own twisted purposes. The mastermind of assorted criminal activities, Dillinger insisted on being the boss and demanded allegiance from each gang member, using an itchy trigger finger to make his point. The feature has a film noir look, and Anne Jeffreys is just right as a typical femme-fatale of this era. Jeffreys, a perfect clone of Virginia Mayo, is pleasing to the eye but doesn't really have much to do except suffer abuse from Dillinger, but evens the score in her own good time. Tierney is dashing and tragic as Dillinger but is overshadowed by Edmund Lowe's clever underplaying of Specs. Eduardo Ciannelli and Elisha Cook Jr. are also good. Marc Lawrence's natural menacing visage is a big plus but it's Ciannelli who makes the best impression as a grumpy, suspicious gunman.

Lawrence Tierney plays Dillinger, who was America's Public Enemy Number One for a short while in the 1930s. His crime spree is documented in the film along with his demise.

The film is short and rolls along as a series of events and that is possibly its downfall. If it was a longer film, we may have got more depth in terms of character study and possibly had more time with some of the other characters. As it goes, the film is OK, there are good scenes and Tierney pulls off a menacing portrayal of a threatening gangster, whether it is a true depiction or not.

Films like this make me go onto Wikipedia and read up about the characters – always a great past-time for afterwards.

This Dillinger (1945) well directed by Noel Nosseck with good cast as Lawrence Tierney and Anne Jeffreys . Based on the violent career of John Dillinger and his gang , this is a Dillinger biography who roamed US , terrifying the Midwest, robbing banks and killing . It is brought to life in this story about the most colorful period of criminality in America . It's set during the Depression era, when any job , even illegal one, was cherished, greed , money and power originated an interminable cycle of fury and violence. John Dillinger -magnetically played by Lawrence Tierney- became public enemy number one and relentessly pursued by Melvin Purvis , as tough G-Man under direct orders of FBI chief , Edward Hoover . After a spectacular escape from Lima (Ohio) prison , Dillinger : Tierney and hoodlums : a great support cast turning fine performances in this enjoyable account of the criminal life . The gang hold-up bank in Racine (Wisconsin) , and rob the First National Bank of Chicago East, Indiana. But the armed and extremely dangerous Dillinger is trapped in Tucson and moved to Crown Point (Indiana) . Then, he created a new band formed by Hamilton , Pierpont , Homer Van Meeter , Eddie Green , McKeley , Tommy Carroll , Pretty Boy Floyd and Lester Gilles , alias Baby Face Nelson . A Cold Blooded Bandit ! And A Hot Blooded Blond! ...who stopped at Nothing! He looted ¡ He killed He Loved ¡. His Story Is Written in Bullets, Blood and Blondes! A Cold Blooded Bandit and a Hot Blooded Blonde ... who stopped at Nothing!

This Dillinger 1945 receives an extremely strong and thrilling fast-paced treatment , almost too violent and intense at the time, but remains impressive and brilliant and not easily forgotten. The film partially based on facts , starts on his criminal career , Dillinger didn't stop criminal rampage until FBI agents worked to chase the crime boss . Dillinger and his band formed by notorious secondaries as Edmund Lowe, Eduardo Ciannelli, Marc Lawrence , Elisha Cook Jr and his his girlfriend Evelyn Billie Trechette , though in the movie is called Helen Rogers played by gorgeous Anne Jeffreys . He's sent prison and in spite of security taken by 50 policemen and the National Guardsmen , he breaks out with a gun of wood .They going on robbing banks , such as the Security National Bank and Trust of Sioux falls in Dakota South and the Merchant's National Bank of South Bend , Indiana . Other real starring in Dillinger's final life was 'The lady in red' , a Romanian immigrant submitted possible deportation and she double-crossed him and informed to Melvin Purvis about the outlet from Biograph theatre where found Dillinger . Finally 'The lady in red' was deported to Romania in 1935 and never returned America . Evelyn Trechette and John Dillinger Sr toured the country in 1935 with a show called 'Crime does not pay', she died , a spinster on an Indian reservation in 1969 . While other accomplices as Harry Pierpont was jailed and condemned electric chair , Van Meeter , Mckinley , Pretty Boy Floyd and Baby Face Nelson surrounded by policemen were shot to death . Marvin Purvis quited the FBI after Dillinger case and went into private business . He shot himself in 1961 with the same gun he used to kill Dillinger . Dillinger new address the combat silhouette targets used by the FBI .

Other adaptations about this known character , are the following ones : 'Young Dillinger' (1965) by Terry Morse with Nick Adam , Robert Conrad , John Ashley , Terranova , Mary Ann Mobley . 'Lady in Red' (1979) by Lewis Teague with Robert Conrad and Pamela Sue Martin . Dillinger(TV, 1991) with Mark Harmon , Sherilyn Fenn , Will Patton , Bruce Abbott . 'Dillinger and Capone' by John Purdy with Martin Sheen and F. Murray Abraham. And specially known the classic version ¨Dillinger¨(1973) directed by John Milius with Warren Oates , Michelle Philips, Steve Kanaly and Richard Dreyfuss. And recent version ¨Public Enemies¨2009 by Michael Mann with Johnny Depp , Jason Clarke, Stephen Graham, David Wenham , Carey Mulligan , James Russo , Giovanni Rivisi, Stephen Dorff , among others.

A pretty good B-film about the rise of John Dillinger. Very short(about one hour)so it only show the most important things but I think it could have been about 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Rating:3/5

It's a biopic of legendary criminal John Dillinger (Lawrence Tierney). He is with his girl at a restaurant but the waiter refuses to accept a check from him. He goes to rob a nearby store and gets caught. He is imprisoned and finds a mentor in cellmate Specs Green (Edmund Lowe) who introduces him to his gang; Doc Madison (Marc Lawrence), Kirk Otto (Elisha Cook Jr.), and Marco Minelli (Eduardo Ciannelli). Once he's released, he falls for movie ticket taker Helen Rogers (Anne Jeffreys). He helps the gang escape from prison and joins them in a bank robbing spree.

There was controversy with doing a biopic of a real gangster during this time. It's very quaint. Quite frankly, it's not any more violent than those earlier gangster movies. If it broke any new grounds, the earth was plenty loose. It's not that shocking now but for its times, it may have ginned up some backlash. It's a fine straight-forward gangster movie. It's also quick and snappy at little more than an hour.

When I chose this movie to watch, I wasn't expecting anything noteworthy. But this was beyond the pale horrific in its inaccuracies and flat out goofiness. As an Indiana native who is very familiar with all of the locations Dillinger trolled, I found it off-putting to see the prison in Michigan City surrounded by mountains and scrub pines! Tierney's depiction of Dillinger as a totally psychopathic murderer was also not close to accurate - those who remember the real Dillinger say that he was pretty affable, and he actually had a good sense of humor (remember, this was the guy who wrote a fan letter to Henry Ford saying that of all the getaway cars he stole, he preferred Fords.) There was no attempt to create any 1920s atmosphere - even the train robbery scene showed a diesel engine pulling streamliner cars, something that wasn't part of the landscape until well after WWII. The plot was thin, characters even thinner and entertainment value the thinnest of all. This would have been the third show at a drive-in.

By no means true t the actual story of famed bank-robber John Dillinger, but may be true to the personality of the man. Tierney plays Dillinger unromantically as an unredeemable sociopath completely obsessed with getting money on his own terms. His depiction of Dillinger's transformation from punk wannabe to actual cold-hearted thug is completely believable. The supporting cast is all tops, especially Lowe and Elisha Cook Jr. in his best bad-guy performance. The cheap sets, integration of stock-footage, location shooting are all surprisingly effective - only some of the back-screen effects are weak. The script is demandingly tight but both the cast and the director are up for it - despite the fact that the story spreads across some 15 years, it moves right along, intent only on depiction of the high-points of its theme. It's an intentional throw-back to the Warner Bros. gangster films of the early thirties, which makes it top-of-the-line of a wave of crime B-mellers in the late '40s (also dominated by Warner Bros., which studio apparently insisted on this film losing the Academy Award for Best Screenplay, and which, with further irony, now owns its rights). And its hard to imagine a film that makes so much use of violence without any graphic depiction of it.

A true gem of American B-movie history.

Max Nosseck directed this biographical tale of the rise and fall of real-life criminal John Dillinger, here played by Lawrence Tierney as a ruthless and menacing man who isn't afraid of anyone or anything. He is sent to jail for armed robbery where he befriends gangster Specs Green(played by Edmund Lowe) and his associates(played by Marc Lawrence, Elisha Cook, and Eduardo Ciannelli) He later leads a prison breakout with a wooden gun, then becomes part of the gang, eventually taking it over, though this later leads to lethal consequences for Dillinger when he takes his girlfriend Helen(played by Anne Jeffreys) to a movie theater where the police are waiting... Good film may take some liberties with the facts but has solid acting and crisp direction.

Things like this are usually better if they stick more or less to known facts. In this case it's so garbled that it's difficult to tell exactly what these peoples' intentions were.

Dillinger is a cartoon character with limited social graces and seldom without some inept business or something awkward to say. It would have been nice - and seems to me particularly film-worthy - to include the part about the amazing plastic surgery that enabled him to avoid capture for a while. But then Wikipedia doesn't include that either, sticking strictly to a well known "after" (as opposed to "before") picture, to ensure implementation of their propaganda goals. Ditto this movie as to intentions.

The result is that the requisite gratuitous violence is so implausible it turns into a cartoon, about a mild-mannered guy who goes around shooting a lot of people without explanation. The criminal characters are so gaseous and dull! Except the one mentor guy, but he's not believable either, due to the stilted Affekt of almost every line and directorial detail. Of course all their names have been changed... to protect the guilty, I suppose.

In real life it was not his long-time squeeze but a hooker working for the FBI that finally lured him into the staked out movie theater. It took her about a year as I recall from reading about 10 years ago. The intentions of the present cinematic squeeze are garbled as well in this regard. (To protect the innocent?) And he didn't die in a pile of back ally garbage, but right in the middle of the sidewalk: Great, if your intentions are in the lines of gruesome noirishness.

There's certainly little that's sinister or noirish about it.