Dillinger

Director John Milius also takes writing credit for this very colorful look at the most famous bank robber John Dillinger(Warren Oates). This story begins in the middle of his criminal career ending in his death at the Biograph Theater. This is a very romanticized tale complete with Baby Face Nelson(Richard Dreyfuss) and Pretty Boy Floyd(Steve Kanaly). Ben Johnson plays FBI agent Melvin Purvis who has an ego to match Dillinger's. Cloris Leachman plays Anna Sage, the infamous Woman in Red. Throw in Michelle Phillips as a girlfriend and Harry Dean Stanton as minion Homer Van Meter and you have the key players in this very colorful and violent movie. Liberty is taken with history for entertainment sake and besides the profanity filled script is not the selling point...the manic gun battles get most of the attention. The gun play is bloody and frequent; some of the roughest ever filmed. For a less colorful, but very interesting version check out DILLINGER(1945)starring Lawrence Tierney.

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 is magnetically played by Warren Oates stars who became public enemy number one and Melvin Purvis,Ben Johnson, as tough G-Man under direct orders of Edward Hoover. Oates and the support cast turn a fine performance in this enjoyable account of the criminal life. It 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 starts on half his criminal career, Dillinger didn't stop criminal rampage until a single FBI agent worked to chase the crime boss. After the spectacular escape from Lima (Ohio) prison , Dillinger and his band along with his girlfriend Evelyn Billie Trechette(Michelle Phillips)hold up bank in Racine(Wisconsin), and rob the First National Bank of Chicago East, Indiana. But Dillinger is trapped in Tucson and moved to Crown Point(Indiana). 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 . Then, he created a new band formed by Hamilton , Pierpont( Geoffrey Lewis) , Homer Van Meeter(Harry Dean Stanton), Eddie Green , McKeley (John Ryan) , Tommy Carroll , Pretty Boy Floyd(Steve Kanaly) and Lester Gilles , alias Baby Face Nelson (Richard Dreyfuss) . 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 starring in the final chase of Dillinger , is Anna Sage 'The lady in red' (Cloris Leachman) 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 . Harry Pierpont was jailed and condemned electric chair , Van Meeter , Mckley , 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 know story, are the following :

'Dillinger(1945)' directed by Noel Nosseck with Laurence Tierney and Anne Jeffreys ; 'Young Dillinger' (1965) by Terry Morse with Nick Adams; 'Lady in Red' (1979) by Lewis Teague with Robert Conrad and Pamela Sue Martin ; Dillinger(TV, 1991) with Mark Harmon and Sherilyn Fenn and 'Dillinger and Capone' by John Purdy with Martin Sheen and F. Murray Abraham.

Underrated gangster film. No Bonnie & Clyde here but solid cast in good looking fast paced action packed machine gun blazing shoot-em up. Oates is perfect as John Dillinger and Johnson plays a ruthless tough as nails Pervus on his trail. Richard Dreyfuss highlights the supporting cast as the punk Baby Face Nelson. Milius direction style is a combination of Penn and Peckinpah with his fast moving exciting bloody gun battles.

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.

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.