Dillinger **** (1973, Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, Michelle Phillips, Cloris Leachman, Harry Dean Stanton, Richard Dreyfuss, Steve Kanaly, Geoffrey Lewis, John P Ryan, John Martino, Roy Jenson) – Classic Movie Review 3241

Writer-director John Milius’s 1973 thriller for American International Pictures casts Warren Oates in his first starring role as America’s public enemy number one John Dillinger.

Début director Milius’s gangster movie is tough, pulsating and uncompromising in the old Cagney tradition, made at a time when the genre was re-establishing itself with Bonnie and Clyde and The Godfather films. A sharply made cult film, it is just the kind of thing B-movies should be – heavier on performances, grit and action than dialogue and character development.

There is sterling work from Ben Johnson as FBI man Melvin Purviss and Michelle Phillips as Dillinger’s moll, and there’s quite a support cast in Cloris Leachman, Harry Dean Stanton, Richard Dreyfuss, Steve Kanaly, Geoffrey Lewis, John P Ryan, John Martino and Roy Jenson, all turning in fine-tuned, pointed performances. Also in the cast are Reed Morgan, Frank McRae, Bob Harris, Terry Leonard and Jerry Summers.

It had an X certificate back in the day and naturally there are violent scenes.

The story was previously told in Dillinger (1945), and is retold in Dillinger (1991) and Dillinger and Capone (1995).

Acclaimed character actor Geoffrey Lewis, father of actress Juliette Lewis, died on April 7 2015 at 79 of natural causes. Clint Eastwood frequently cast him in his films, and his other major credits include The Wind and the Lion, Heaven’s Gate, The Lawnmower Man, Dillinger, Night of the Comet, Maverick and Salem’s Lot.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 3241

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