Dillinger (1973) on Netflix
R19731h 47mActionBiographyCrime
After the Kansas City Massacre, FBI field office chief Melvin Purvis takes charge of hunting John Dillinger. Dillinger robs banks with Homer Van Meter, and Billie Frechette becomes his lover.
- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb6.9/106,605 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes93%
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Plot summary
Banks and the law are widely distrusted, and outlaws have become folk heroes. After the Kansas City Massacre, Melvin Purvis, who heads an FBI field office, takes personal charge of hunting the men he holds responsible, telling fellow agent Samuel Cowley that he wants vengeance and will use extralegal measures if he must. His list includes Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, Machine Gun Kelly and John Dillinger, who robs banks with Homer Van Meter, Harry Pierpont and Charles Mackley and boasts about his exploits. Billie Frechette, whom Dillinger meets in a bar, becomes his lover and travels with the gang. Purvis cannot move against Dillinger, because Dillinger has not broken federal law.
Cast
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Dillinger (1973)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- FBI director J. Edgar Hoover wrote a denunciation of gangster films for Dillinger and was set to read it himself, but died before production began; voice actor Paul Frees reads Hoover's text at the film's close.
- Singer Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas made her screen acting debut as Billie Frechette in Dillinger; she claimed she landed the part by pretending to be half Cherokee, like her character.
- Filming took place entirely in Oklahoma in late 1972, with local landmarks standing in for other places: the Chickasaw Lake Club served as Dillinger's Wisconsin "Little Bohemia" hideout, and Oklahoma City's Midwest Theater filled in as the Biograph.
- Director John Milius said the film had so little money and equipment that he had only about six yards of camera track and no crane, so he could not do moving shots beyond that.
- Susan Tyrrell was originally considered for the role of Anna Sage in Dillinger, though the part ultimately went to Cloris Leachman.
- The newsreel footage in Dillinger showing John Dillinger being transported from Arizona is actually footage of George "Machine Gun" Kelly being extradited.
- Dillinger shows Wilbur Underhill shot and killed by Melvin Purvis, but the real Underhill died on January 6, 1934, of wounds inflicted more than a week earlier by law officers led by FBI agents T.H. Colvin and Frank Smith.
