Dillinger

This is a great gangster film. I liked it very much although the 1973 movie Dillinger starring Warren Oates was good, let's face it , although Oates may have looked more like the real Dillinger there is no mistaking Johnny Depp's adding something to the role. Besides, Depp's brooding look adds so much to the character. I liked the music to this one, it wasn't some banjo picking of some '30's vintage jazz.

I like the gangster films. I guess it's the rat-tat-tat of tommy guns and the "high-speed" car chases. I thought there was a serious flaw in this one . I remembered that Dillinger was betrayed by "the woman in red", but noticed the "the woman" in this movie wore an orange dress. Further research shows that the movie was historically correct and "the woman" wore an orange dress. However, the lights of the the theater made the dress appear red to the FBI agents in the ambush. Another interesting fact was that Purvis had a problem lighting his cigar as a signal to the other agents to ambush Dillinger but they recognised his attempts as the signal which allowed them to surprise Dillinger and successfully shoot him in the back.

As an aside, I'm amazed at how easily the gangsters and G-men handle the tommy guns. I picked up one of these, Thompson sub-machine guns, the other day and found that it weighed about ten pounds without the drum magazine.

Notes on the FBI's list of public enemies of this era:

* John Dillinger was killed and not captured.

* Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were killed and not captured.

* Baby-faced Nelson was killed and not captured.

* Machine gun Kelly was the only notable public enemy that was captured rather than killed. he died in prison of natural causes.