Dillinger Story Movie Shot in Ardmore. OK

An exerpt of possible interest from This & That, weekly free newsletter OklahomahHistory.net --

"Movie fever struck Ardmore in September of 1972 when the casting call went out for the movie Dillinger. Droves of star struck Ardmoreites turned out, and 97 were eventually employed for the movie depicting the crime career of the notorious gangster of the 30s.

It was quite an experience for local people to witness the movie crews at work. Scenes were shot at the courthouse, the old Federal Building, on a downtown street and in the towns of Gene Autry and Dougherty. Chickasaw Lake Club simulated the Little Bohemia Lodge, famous hang out for the Chicago gangster.

Although 95 of the locals were used for walk-ons and crowd scenes, James Clark and Ronnie Roberts had small parts in the film. Roberts drew the magnificent salary of $5 a day plus one meal for his non-speaking part as right-hand man to Hollywood star Ben Johnson.

Clark, a make-believe G-Man, was bumped to $10 a day because he had a one liner and the close up scene with two of the stars. Both men suffered attacks of nerves that almost cost them their "careers". Robert's hand shook so badly that his scene had to be shot over, and Clark missed his cue, resulting in another take for his scene.

Other locals who took part in the crowd scenes were Bill Woffard, Lester Priest, Merle Salthouse, Wayne Warthen, John Cox, Charles Snodgrass, and Jody Williams. Young John Bacon done a pair of knickers and climbed to the third floor of the courthouse to point a finger at a friend in a make-believe shootout before encountering the outlaws getting a shoe shine on the first floor.

In the beginning, a production company official how to explain to the local group they would probably in up on the cutting room floor, but hope springs eternal. However, after editing and cutting, only Bacon and Roberts were the only ones who were recognizable and that they said later, "only if you look quick." Then, their days of glory over Roberts went back to his job with the welfare department, and Clark back to the district attorney's office. John bacon went back to school.

Link to the movie Dillinger (1 hour and 23 minutes)"

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrkK8DSl-Ak[/ame]

Aaaand my contribution photo of his full-auto 1911 --



Last, I know some of this is not of the quality we would like -- which recalls the quotation "sometimes things are what they are rather than what we would like them to be".

I always enjoyed that movie,,thanks for the post.

Lebman was an interesting character. Just an olde Texan makin' holsters and workin' on guns..

Made some very 'unique' firearms in the day,,not PC these days for sure.
Don't think his 351 Winchester M07 conversion meets SAFE Act standards!

1973's Dillinger has to be one of the most overlooked of the post-sixties "gangster films".

The resemblance Warren Oates (a fine actor) had to the real Dillinger is startling...uncanny. The makeup people didn't have to do a lot of work on him. Stick on a mustache and wave his hair a little and he's there.

The film is sort of crudely made (in my opinion) and doesn't have the slick production values of 2009's Public Enemies, but it was filmed in 1972, after all. In spite of that, it does have sort of a raw power, thanks again to the performance of Oates. Ben Johnson kinda hams it up as Melvin Purvis. Harry Dean Stanton is excellent (as usual) as Homer Van Meter.

The film was shot entirely in Oklahoma.

Folks will complain about how it "glamorizes" the crooks (just as they do with Bonnie and Clyde)...but it's still a fun movie.

Warren Oates did a fantastic job as Dillinger. When I was in L.E. back a zillion years ago-I worked with a direct descendant of Dillinger. He is now-a Major or equal, in the Louisiana Penal system.

I visited Ardmore back in the early 1980s on business. Called on an oil company(possibly Noble?). We went to lunch at a local BBQ shack. Best I recall the Dillinger film wasn't mentioned and wasn't germane to our meeting.

Memories.

I own a DVD of the Dillinger film and though it wasn't accurate in a lot of ways, you got the flavor of the times. Dillinger spent nearly 10 yrs. in the Indiana penal system and when he got out, immediately began robbing banks to get money to aid a breakout by his pals. Dillinger's total time from parole to shot in the head was about one year. He'd probably say it was worth it.

Like the Frank Hamer pictures in the Bonnie and Clyde thread, this is another situation where the real person (Dillinger), looked more like a movie star than the movie star (Warren Oates).

S&WIowegan said:

I own a DVD of the Dillinger film and though it wasn't accurate in a lot of ways, you got the flavor of the times.

Click to expand...

That's a very good point. If you look at documentaries, newsreels, and still photos from that period, the main difference in them and films like Dillinger is colour. The type of film used for newsreels and things was contrasty...usually very sharp tonal differences between blacks and whites. Not much subtlety in the grays or mid tones.

The often harsh black and white tones of those old photos reflected the times. Even though Dillinger was shot in colour, there's still a grittiness to it. I credit that to director John Milius and his choice of Jules Brenner as cinematographer.

Speaking of director John Milius, Dillinger was his film debut as a director, and even though the film wasn't all that great of a commercial success, a bunch of critics believe he hit it out of the park.

Milius is also a staunch Second Amendment advocate, and served on the NRA's Board of Directors.

In addition to his directorial credits, he also wrote (but was uncredited for it) the now famous, "Did I fire six shots or only five?" line in Dirty Harry, and other parts of the script. He also wrote most of the script for Magnum Force.

As a final note, his finest script work is acknowledged to be the script for Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam masterpiece (like it or not) Apocalypse Now.

Oh, and the Coen brothers asked him to play the part of Walter in The Big Lebowski, but he declined.