Dillinger (1945)

Dillinger is a film noir style thriller that gives a fast paced sketch of the life and times of Public Enemy No. 1.

John Dillinger was a country boy from the Midwest who made a name for himself robbing banks during the Great Depression. The public at the time viewed Dillinger with mixed emotions; to the depression weary farmers he was often classified with Robin Hood or America’s own Jesse James, villains, yes, but villains who fought against the system that took from the little guy. There is a story that Dillinger actually paid off a mortgage for a farmer then robbed the banker once the paper was safely in the farmer’s hands. It may be apocryphal, but of such things legends are made. Other members of the public hated lawlessness and helped brand Dillinger as a despised criminal, among them J. Edgar Hoover’s nascent Federal Bureau of Investigation.

1945‘s Dillinger really only follows the outlines of the bank robber’s career. It tosses out most of the known associates and events, replacing them with stock characters and events that don’t match up with what is known about the real man. That may well be because of the pressure on Hollywood not to glorify gangsters, so no major studio could touch such a juicy story - it had to be made on a mosquito-sized budget ($35,000) by poverty row studio Monogram, according to screenwriter Philip Yordan, whose comments are provided on the commentary track. Yordan focused on penning a pulp fiction-type story starring the famous personality with an ending that does come out the same as the man’s real demise on July 22, 1934 outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago.

Dillinger was directed by Max Nosseck with film noir cinematography by Jackson Rose that emphasizes the brutality of the world that Dillinger inhabited. There are several creative robbery sequences including one where $70,000 was stolen as it was being transferred from the armored car to the impregnable bank, the only weak spot in the process, as Dillinger rightly predicted. Several familiar faces from the film noir universe play members of Dillinger’s gang, like Eduardo Cianelli (The Brotherhood); Elisha Cook, Jr. (The Maltese Falcon); Marc Lawrence (Cloak and Dagger); and Edmund Lowe. As femme fatale they cast Anne Jeffreys, who would go on to a long Hollywood career.

The film really has one redeeming characteristic and that is the bravura performance of Lawrence Tierney in the title role. Tierney is a sneering badass, and according to reports, that is not too far from his actual personality. That’s why even with this brilliant performance he was never used much afterwards. You may remember him as Joe Cabot, the mastermind in Reservoir Dogs. Tierney does some pretty shocking screen violence here, in the old manner where the camera cuts away, but it is very effective, nonetheless.

The Warner Bros DVD can be purchased separately, or as part of the Film Noir Collection 2, where it is more affordable. It contains a decent print of the 70 minute movie, in black and white and in 1.33:1 theatrical format. There is a commentary track containing comments from John Milius and Philip Yordan as an extra feature. Milius’s comments are sometimes interesting but not all that pertinent, but Yordan, who wrote the screenplay, gives some insight into what it was like to make the film and work with Lawrence Tierney.

I would recommend Dillinger more to film noir enthusiasts than to history minded viewers as the film dispenses with gang members Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, Harry Pierpont, and Charley Mackley, replacing them with fictional characters. As film noir, it’s not bad, but it’s not history.

For gangster or film noir fans I also recommend Dillinger (1973)

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV