Dillinger (1945)
7/10
Inaccurate and clumsy, yes, but entertaining
22 July 2005
I was aware of Tierney from Reservoir Dogs and "Seinfeld", but not his early career until I saw Dillinger and Born to Kill. He is one of the great, largely unrediscovered actors of postwar, tough guy films -- with a fascinating way of switching from menacing psycho to hurt little boy and back again, all within seconds. Hopefully, more of his movies will be released on DVD.

In Dillinger, when Tierney first meets Anne Jeffreys, the clock in back of her box office booth clearly says Gruen (the manufacturer) on its face. But when Tierney goes in to see the movie, there's a dissolve to what is obviously supposed to be the same clock, indicating passage of time. In the second clock shot,however, there is no Gruen label.

The movie makes a point of telling us most of the action takes place in the Midwest, specifically Indiana -- with the help of at least four newspaper mockups: the Indiana Journal, the Evansville Courier, the Indianapolis World and the South Bend Daily Press. But when a "be-on-the-lookout", all-points bulletin is issued for Dillinger, a montage of the dragnet features a city map clearly labeled as Los Angeles and showing the Southern Calfornia cities of Inglewood and El Segundo.

Check out Anne Jeffreys going into the Biograph with Tierney near the end. Shot from the rear, the only word to describe her is 'steatopygous'.
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