DILLINGER (1973) **

The best scene in John Milius’ Dillinger is the first one.  Warren Oates, mean, scowling, and dangerous as John Dillinger walks into a bank and approaches the teller window.  The camera is positioned so that we are seeing the teller’s point of view.  He addresses the audience in such a way that it feels like we are being held up ourselves.  It’s a startingly effective sequence.  Too bad the rest of the movie never comes close to matching it.

From there, Dillinger and his gang go around finding more banks to knock off.  Along the way, he fancies a young woman (Michelle Phillips from The Mamas and the Pappas) and romances her.  Well, in the only way a guy like Dillinger knows.  Meanwhile, dogged G-Man Melvin Purvis (a fine Ben Johnson) is on Dillinger’s trail, staying one step behind him and his crew.  

After the gripping opening, the film soon falls into a repetitive pattern.  After about the third shootout it gets to be a bit numbing.  Not only was Dillinger meant to capitalize on the success of Bonnie and Clyde, it had to compete with The Godfather too.  That means the various tommy gun deaths are long, drawn-out, and bloody.  That doesn’t really make up for the lack of story and engaging characters though.  

Oates softens up as he goes along, but it’s hard to sympathize with his character or his romantic subplot.  While Bonnie and Clyde may have robbed banks, they were likeable folk hero outlaws.  Oates, who is nevertheless very good in the role, keeps the audience at arm’s length, which makes it difficult to get a handle on him.  The scenes with Johnson work the best.  He has a good gimmick of lighting up a cigar before rubbing out a robber.  It’s a small, but crucial touch that Dillinger’s character doesn’t really have.  

In the end, none of it really gels.  You can, however, bide your time watching the colorful supporting cast do their thing.  Geoffrey Lewis and Harry Dean Stanton make memorable impressions as members of Dillinger’s gang, and Richard Dreyfuss pops up for a bit as Baby Face Nelson (who probably deserved his own spin-off).