Dillinger forebears

Rating: Null/10 (13 August 2009)

Last night we saw the film PUBLIC ENEMIES with Johnny Depp as Dillinger. Depp played him as an affect-less murderer who is without interest except for his spectacular bank robberies. From 1945 I remember DILLINGER starring Lawrence Tierney which moved a reviewer to say "-- a flat cipher, his motivations murky --" Maybe Depp took his cue from the same film. DILLINGER begins in a movie theater where a film about John Dillinger is being shown. At the end of the movie clip, Dillinger's father is brought on stage. He tells the audience he tried to raise John properly and doesn't understand how he went wrong. I am certain that this was the inspiration for Woody Allen's bank-robbing biopic, TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN. In a biographical interview Woody's parents are wearing nose glasses and the father says, "I tried to beat God into him!" The documentary then resumes.