Review: Dillinger (1945)

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30, November 2011Film Noir, Genre Spotlight

This review is a part of Laura’s Film Noir Genre Spotlight.

Before establishing himself as a weathered thug in films like Born to Kill (1947) and Reservoir Dogs (1992), Lawrence Tierney made his major film debut playing one of America’s most notorious bank robbers.

Clocking in at a brisk 70 minutes, this mostly forgotten crime noir chronicles the illicit career of John Dillinger at breakneck speed. Having robbed more than a dozen banks with his rag-tag group of associates, Dillinger joined the ranks of Bonnie and Clyde and Pretty Boy Floyd as the top newsmakers of the Depression era.

However, Dillinger is not a traditional biopic. The Oscar nominated screenplay by Philip Yordan played it fast and loose with the facts. Yordan chose not to dwell on the motivations that saw Dillinger resort to a life of crime. The film is, essentially, a largely fictitious glossing over of the infamous career criminal who, at the time of the films release, had only been dead for 11 years.

A B-movie from Monogram Pictures, the tiny “poverty row” studio that made a quick buck with low budget films between 1931-1953, Dillinger went on to gross more than 4 million dollars at the box office – this despite its obvious flaws. At the time, Dillinger defied the Production Code’s unofficial rule to relegate real life criminal activity to the background in Hollywood films, likely the reason behind its popularity. No one else in Hollywood would touch the story of Public Enemy #1, leaving the door open for Monogram to adapt Dillinger’s exploits to its own liking.

Riddled with inconsistencies, Dillinger begins with a framing narrative that is quickly abandoned. A theatre audience listens as Dillinger’s elderly father recounts his sons’ misadventures. The film than moves into a flashback of Dillinger’s early introduction to a life of crime and the story proceeds from there. There is no concluding scene that features Dillinger’s father finishing his account.

Another curiosity comes out in the DVD commentary (featuring John Lilius, the director of 1973’s Dillinger) where it’s revealed that the 1945 film actually used stock footage in some of its prominent scenes. Most notably, the tear gas robbery sequence was lifted straight from Fritz Lang’s 1937 film You Only Live Once – complete with a close-up shot of the films star, Henry Fonda, peering out of the back of his car.

Although some have argued against the films classification as film noir, director Max Nosseck utilized traditional narrative devices and visuals often associated with the genre. With its use of flashbacks, albeit briefly, and reductionist lighting, Dillinger features sequences with heavy rain, thick clouds of cigarette smoke and spinning newspapers with bold titles revealing Dillinger’s criminal activity to propel the plot forward. In terms of its aesthetic qualities, the film as aged remarkably well.

However, its strongest facet is Tierney; he makes for a shifty, anxious and explosive Dillinger. Although the character development is kept to the bare minimum you understand he’s a man to be feared – the type of guy who would take serious offense to being called a “two-bit chiseler”. His barely concealed rage simmers just beneath the surface. Tierney doesn’t strive to make Dillinger likeable, opting instead to portray him as an outright villain with questionable motivations.

Its simplistic approach to storytelling propels the action forward, however Dillinger ultimately leaves little impact outside of Tierney’s performance.

58/100 - Dillinger is strange hybrid of gangster flick, film noir and docudrama, without ever quite achieving success as any of the three in terms of storytelling. However, it’s still an entertaining picture with a top-notch lead performance.

Laura Grande
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I'm a Toronto-based movie blogger working in media communications. I credit Steven Spielberg with igniting my passion for film at a young age after I first saw Raiders of the Lost Ark. I now love all genres of film, both current and classic. I just love being swept away by people's stories on the silver screen.
  • http://twitter.com/NextProjection Christopher Misch

    Did they really take footage from You Only Live Once? At least Michael Bay took footage from his own films!

  • Anonymous

    If you’re going to steal, steal from good films.

    Checking out Tierney in his prime is always a good idea, no matter how underwhelming this sounds. As someone whose first list here was on film noir, I look forward to more explorations from Laura.

  • http://twitter.com/laura_grande13 Laura Grande

    They sure did, Chris! You even get a glimpse of Henry Fonda’s eyeballs looking out the back window of his car! I’m glad I listened to that commentary. I wouldn’t have known that otherwise! 

  • http://twitter.com/laura_grande13 Laura Grande

    I’d definitely recommend this for Tierney. I’ve never seen him in his early roles before, so that was really interesting. One of the other films I plan on looking at (Born to Kill) is supposedly a lot better.

    Thanks! 

  • Anonymous

    Born to Kill is excellent and nasty.

  • http://twitter.com/laura_grande13 Laura Grande

    Haha! That’s what I like to hear!