"Godzilla" director Terry Q. Morse's "Young Dillinger" concerns the notorious Depression Era bank robber who held up over twenty banks and eventually resorted to a plastic surgeon to alter his looks. Nick Adams, who claimed more fame as a former Confederate soldier in the television series "The Rebel," stars as Dillinger, while Robert Conrad co-stars as 'Pretty Boy' Floyd. Scenarists Arthur Hoerl and Donald Zimbalist use the facts about Dillinger's life to shape this biography. Incidentally, Hoerl penned the screenplay for the pot-smoking sagas "Reefer Madness" and "Wild Weed," and Zimbalist wrote the 'stories' for "Taffy and the Jungle Hunter" and "Valley of the Dragons." Apparently, the only reason that Dillinger became a desperado is because his girlfriend prompted him to rip off her father so they could get enough money and get married.
Their minimal adherence to the facts must have provided them with some guidance in their depiction of Dillinger. Early on, after Dillinger robs his girlfriend's father of an undisclosed sum of money from a vault, the girlfriend's father (Ted Knight) pleads with the young man to take the rap on his own and leave his daughter, Elaine (Mary Ann Mobley of "Girl Happy") out of the equation. The father promises that the judge will show lenience on Dillinger at sentencing. Of course, Dillinger receives no lenience and he gets sent up for 5 to 20 years. At another point, for example, Floyd contacts a dubious scholar named Professor Hoffman (Victor Buono), presumably loosely based on the real-life character Herman Lamm—an ex-Prussian soldier who pioneered a technique for robbing banks—and the gang uses Hoffman's plan to waylay an armored car, but not without consequences. Dillinger is wounded during the subsequent shootout. Dillinger is the brains behind the operation and 'Pretty Boy,' 'Baby Face' Nelson, and Homer Van Meter make up his gang of desperadoes. These miscreants did run with Dillinger. Later, Dillinger has a surgeon, Dr. Wilson (John Hoyt of "Spartacus") alter his facial appearance, but Wilson doesn't do a very good job. Dillinger screams at him that his face is the same, and he kills the surgeon. Dillinger disposes of Wilson by strapping him into a wheel chair and plunging the wheel chair into a lake. Anybody who has seen Richard Widmark's landmark scene in "Kiss of Death" may feel that "Young Dillinger" drew inspiration from the Henry Hathaway crime film. As if to make this surgeon appear even unscrupulous, the filmmakers show Wilson assaulting Elaine watching her as she undresses before he barges in on her. The big scene that Morse concludes this gangster epic on is the infamous gun battle at a hunting lodge Little Bohemia. 'Baby Face' and 'Pretty Boy' are mowed down by the authorities but Dillinger manages to elude them. The studio inserts a Bible verse as Dillinger blasts away with his Thompson sub-machine gun: "They have sown the wind—and they will reap the whirlwind." (Hosea viii, 7.)
The film wraps up with a standard-issue 'crime doesn't pay' epilogue: "This picture is respectfully dedicated to the men and women who devote their lives to the endless tasks of law enforcement, guarding our persons, our rights and our safety . . . They alone are the curb against crime and lawlessness recurring in each generation, as in its day it spawned the Nelsons, the Floyds, the Dillingers who dreamed of crime as an easy path to wealth and pleasure . . . Through the diligence and duty of those who enforce the law these law-breakers awoke to the truth that crime never pays." Make no mistake, Morse and his writers depict Dillinger as an unsavory customer that nobody would emulate. Nothing about him is remotely charismatic. Johnny Depp would play a more sympathetic Dillinger in "Public Enemies." Furthermore, aside from the real-life criminals that it portrays, the Hoerl and Zimbalist script doesn't identify Melvin Purvis or J. Edgar Hoover or any of Dillinger's other accomplices. Clocking in at 102 minutes, Morse doesn't let "Young Dillinger" wear out its cinematic welcome. Despite its low budget B-picture trappings (most of it looks like it was shot at the pseudo North Carolina set where "The Andy Griffith" show was set), ace lenser Stanley Cortez of "The Night of the Hunter" makes the action look more than routine. Some of Cortez's pictorial compositions are stunning, such as the encounter between Dillinger and a couple of mobsters in a freight elevator. Unfortunately, most of the sequences are photographed as if time were a factor than artistry. The conversations among the principles are filmed in medium shots from a flat angle, with few glamorous close-ups. Nevertheless, Morse stages the action scenes with some gusto, and his years as an editor enliven those scenes with exciting cross-cutting. The cast contains many familiar faces in bit parts. "Young Dillinger" qualifies as a strictly routine crime yarn with little insight into the major felons.
Their minimal adherence to the facts must have provided them with some guidance in their depiction of Dillinger. Early on, after Dillinger robs his girlfriend's father of an undisclosed sum of money from a vault, the girlfriend's father (Ted Knight) pleads with the young man to take the rap on his own and leave his daughter, Elaine (Mary Ann Mobley of "Girl Happy") out of the equation. The father promises that the judge will show lenience on Dillinger at sentencing. Of course, Dillinger receives no lenience and he gets sent up for 5 to 20 years. At another point, for example, Floyd contacts a dubious scholar named Professor Hoffman (Victor Buono), presumably loosely based on the real-life character Herman Lamm—an ex-Prussian soldier who pioneered a technique for robbing banks—and the gang uses Hoffman's plan to waylay an armored car, but not without consequences. Dillinger is wounded during the subsequent shootout. Dillinger is the brains behind the operation and 'Pretty Boy,' 'Baby Face' Nelson, and Homer Van Meter make up his gang of desperadoes. These miscreants did run with Dillinger. Later, Dillinger has a surgeon, Dr. Wilson (John Hoyt of "Spartacus") alter his facial appearance, but Wilson doesn't do a very good job. Dillinger screams at him that his face is the same, and he kills the surgeon. Dillinger disposes of Wilson by strapping him into a wheel chair and plunging the wheel chair into a lake. Anybody who has seen Richard Widmark's landmark scene in "Kiss of Death" may feel that "Young Dillinger" drew inspiration from the Henry Hathaway crime film. As if to make this surgeon appear even unscrupulous, the filmmakers show Wilson assaulting Elaine watching her as she undresses before he barges in on her. The big scene that Morse concludes this gangster epic on is the infamous gun battle at a hunting lodge Little Bohemia. 'Baby Face' and 'Pretty Boy' are mowed down by the authorities but Dillinger manages to elude them. The studio inserts a Bible verse as Dillinger blasts away with his Thompson sub-machine gun: "They have sown the wind—and they will reap the whirlwind." (Hosea viii, 7.)
The film wraps up with a standard-issue 'crime doesn't pay' epilogue: "This picture is respectfully dedicated to the men and women who devote their lives to the endless tasks of law enforcement, guarding our persons, our rights and our safety . . . They alone are the curb against crime and lawlessness recurring in each generation, as in its day it spawned the Nelsons, the Floyds, the Dillingers who dreamed of crime as an easy path to wealth and pleasure . . . Through the diligence and duty of those who enforce the law these law-breakers awoke to the truth that crime never pays." Make no mistake, Morse and his writers depict Dillinger as an unsavory customer that nobody would emulate. Nothing about him is remotely charismatic. Johnny Depp would play a more sympathetic Dillinger in "Public Enemies." Furthermore, aside from the real-life criminals that it portrays, the Hoerl and Zimbalist script doesn't identify Melvin Purvis or J. Edgar Hoover or any of Dillinger's other accomplices. Clocking in at 102 minutes, Morse doesn't let "Young Dillinger" wear out its cinematic welcome. Despite its low budget B-picture trappings (most of it looks like it was shot at the pseudo North Carolina set where "The Andy Griffith" show was set), ace lenser Stanley Cortez of "The Night of the Hunter" makes the action look more than routine. Some of Cortez's pictorial compositions are stunning, such as the encounter between Dillinger and a couple of mobsters in a freight elevator. Unfortunately, most of the sequences are photographed as if time were a factor than artistry. The conversations among the principles are filmed in medium shots from a flat angle, with few glamorous close-ups. Nevertheless, Morse stages the action scenes with some gusto, and his years as an editor enliven those scenes with exciting cross-cutting. The cast contains many familiar faces in bit parts. "Young Dillinger" qualifies as a strictly routine crime yarn with little insight into the major felons.