Public Enemies Movie Trailer. Though many essays, books, songs and films have told fascinating stories from the Great Depression, Michael Mann has long been interested in examining this turbulent era through the experience of a criminal who became a folk hero for a generation. For Americans in the early 1930s, who watched their life savings vanish and became jobless and hungry, they found a hero in a man who robbed and challenged the banks that caused the collapse and the government that could not fix it: John Herbert Dillinger.
Mann, who had previously written a screenplay about the era-about the famed train robber and bank robber Alvin Karpis-explains Dillinger’s appeal: “Dillinger, probably the best bank robber in American history, only lasted 13 months. He was paroled in May of 1933, and by July 22, 1934, he was dead. Dillinger didn’t `get out’ of prison; he exploded onto the landscape. And he was going to have everything and get it right now.”
“In assaulting the banks,” the director continues, “and outwitting the government…to people battered by the Depression, it’s as if he spoke for them. He was a celebrity outlaw, a populist hero.”
While no time frame in either Dillinger’s or nemesis Melvin Purvis’ lives could be considered particularly ordinary, the filmmakers were interested in a very specific window as they imagined Public Enemies. “It was this 14-month run of Dillinger’s life that opened a window for us into a confluence of forces that were at work during this period of American history,” says producer Kevin Misher. “There was a nexus between John Dillinger, perhaps one of the more famous Americans of the 20th century; Melvin Purvis, the underanalyzed G-man; and J. Edgar Hoover, a titan of American history. These three were in a dance of power and death.”
Soon after his release from prison until late June 1934, Dillinger embarked upon a whirlwind bank-robbing spree across the Midwest that attracted fervent nationwide attention, especially from J. Edgar Hoover and his nascent Bureau of Investigation.
To track and capture Dillinger, Hoover assigned a young, square-jawed agent named Melvin Purvis, whose profile actually inspired cartoonist Chester Gould in creating the look for Dick Tracy. But Dillinger and his men proved to be much wilier than the FBI agents, who would eventually bring down such gangsters as Pretty Boy Floyd (Channing Tatum of Fighting, the upcoming G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra), or their boss could ever imagine.
As they honed their techniques, Dillinger and his crew used a number of strengths to their advantage: a hardness hewn by years in prisons that were as lawless as they, the latest in automatic weaponry, a fragmented public safety system that had not yet been nationalized, state-of-the-art Ford V8 getaway cars and the knack for riding the wave of anti-banking sentiment from the very public whose banks they plundered. While they could easily argue with his methods, few who saw the newsreels during Saturday matinees would disagree that someone was finally “sticking it” to the fat cats who they felt had destroyed their lives
Time and again, the outlaw embarrassed government at every level and escaped from seemingly impossible situations, including a breakout of his crew from Indiana State Prison in September 1933, an escape from the Lake County Jail in Crown Point, Indiana, in March 1934 and an evasion of Purvis at the Little Bohemia travel lodge in northern Wisconsin in April 1934. And while his men never hesitated in the use of violence, the often chivalrous Dillinger could be counted upon to give money back to citizens during a bank robbery and not curse in front of female hostages.
When it comes to the law and lawless, Mann understands and appreciates that truth is stranger than fiction. Dillinger and his pursuers’ story was just the inspiration he was looking for in his next project. “Their mobility and use of technology made them almost invincible,” he says. “This was happening at a time when massive forces conspired against Dillinger: what Hoover built with the FBI-the first national police force, the first interstate crime bill, the use of very progressive, modern technology and data management. They were doing what is routine in law enforcement now, but what had never been done before in this country.”
Battling a doubtful Congress about the efficacy of his newly formed FBI, Hoover grew furious that Dillinger was becoming a folk hero to American citizens, while his schooled and polished agents were flubbing cases. Many of his colleagues saw the head of the bureau as an inexperienced, puffed-up suit and didn’t trust his methodology. In a frustrated effort to escalate the pursuit by Purvis and his agents, Hoover enlisted the aid of a Western lawman, Special Agent Charles Winstead, and two of his associates to track Dillinger. That, coupled with such orders to arrest relatives, girlfriends and associates of the criminals (in the FBI’s efforts to get tough on crime), did the trick.
While eluding the law, the bank robber had traveled across the country with girlfriend Billie Frechette, spending money in lavish quantities and rubbing elbows with the elite of Florida. Eventually, Dillinger’s luck ran out at the Biograph Theater in Chicago on July 22, 1934. As the screening of Manhattan Melodrama ended and he left the movie theater, law enforcement officials-under the direction of Agent Purvis and with the help of a Dillinger traitor called the “Lady in Red” (Chicago madam Anna Sage)-put him to rest with a slew of bullets. His legend only grew.
For grisly souvenirs of their hero, devastated fans of the “Jackrabbit” dipped handkerchiefs in the pool left by his blood, and thousands lined up at the morgue to view his body. From curious onlookers to lawmen, everyone wanted a piece of the legacy.
Dillinger’s primary antagonist, Melvin Purvis, received the lion’s share of the credit. And none were more unnerved by Purvis’ accolades in the celebration of Dillinger’s demise than J. Edgar Hoover. Continues Misher: “Dillinger was so famous that when he was killed, Purvis became `The Man Who Shot John Dillinger,’ even though he was not the man who pulled the trigger. As a result, Hoover started to resent the fame and acclaim that Melvin Purvis, G-man, had in the United States and drummed him out of the FBI.”
Three-quarters of a century later, Dillinger’s status as a legendary criminal is cemented. From the classic image of his crooked smirk as he draped his arm around one of his admiring captors, to his status as one of Chicago’s most famous residents, the dapper Dillinger remains iconic. And no one would be more inspired by him than a man who grew up less than 160 miles from Dillinger’s boyhood home of Mooresville, Indiana: an actor named Johnny Depp.
Gangster History: Designing and Lensing Public Enemies
The biggest challenge facing Mann was turning 21st-century America back into the world of the early 1930s. As there were some 114 different sets to dress for the film, the art department was kept occupied well before principal photography began. In addition to his crew’s work on developing sets, Mann felt it was important to lens at as many of the actual locations as possible. As Dillinger and his crew traveled across the Midwest during their bank-robbing spree, so would this production.
A keen historian, the writer/director gives an example of just how easy it was for Dillinger and his crew to get away with it all as they robbed. “Indiana State Police had 27 officers for the whole state of Indiana,” Mann offers. “Law enforcement was local, underpaid, poorly supplied, and they didn’t talk to anybody else. They didn’t know what was going on in the next county, unless it was anecdotally in a bar or in a café. If you’re a crew of bank robbers, you could commit a bank robbery in Indiana, go across the border into Illinois and be home free. There was no law against interstate crime and no federal police force at all.”
Dillinger’s Haunts
Though in various states of repair, several of the actual sites visited by Dillinger are still around today. Fortunately, the production was allowed use of the structures for three of his iconic showdowns with the law: the Lake County Jail in Crown Point, Indiana; the Little Bohemia Lodge in Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin; and the Biograph Theater on Lincoln Avenue in Chicago, Illinois.
Before Dillinger’s daring escape in Sheriff Lillian Holley’s (Six Feet Under’s Lili Taylor) personal automobile (after he carved a wooden gun out of a washing board), the Lake County Jail briefly saw him as a reluctant guest. Of the location, production designer Nathan Crowley elaborates: “The front portion, which was Sheriff Holley’s house, was pretty much deteriorated, while the back part, which was the jail, was rusted and corroded. We didn’t have to make anything up, which was fantastic. It had the real corridors and the real geography.”
One of the most notorious photographs ever taken of Dillinger was shot at this jail. The gangster offered a wry smile while leaning on the shoulder of District Attorney Robert Estill (Prison Break’s Alan Wilder); it was a photo that would sabotage Estill’s burgeoning political career. Because many photographs of the jail (especially the common areas) were taken during the famous press conference, Crowley’s team was able to accurately duplicate the area. As there were no existing images of the interiors of the cells themselves, even more imagination went into their dressing.
At the Little Bohemia Lodge in spring 1934, agents from the Chicago and St. Paul offices of the FBI surrounded Dillinger and his gang, only to be outfoxed once again. Along with the notorious Baby Face Nelson, Homer Van Meter and Red Hamilton, Dillinger had just held up a bank and fled to northern Wisconsin to hide out. A violent gunfight ensued in which one innocent local man was killed; additionally, FBI Agent Carter Baum was killed by Nelson. During production of the film, the team lensed at the Little Bohemia 74 years to the week that Dillinger evaded the feds.
The Alpine guesthouse is a tourist spot that now operates as a restaurant, and it took some work to recreate the era. From replicating the gangsters’ rooms and planting shrubbery about the grounds, the design team was fastidious in making the Little Bohemia look as it did during Dillinger’s heyday.
“We were able to shoot not just in the actual place where this happened, but in his actual room,” reveals Mann. “As you can imagine, there’s a certain kind of magic, a kind of resonance, for Johnny Depp to be lying in the bed that John Dillinger was actually in. When he puts his hand on the doorknob and opens the door, it’s the same doorknob that Dillinger put his hand on and opened.”
All of the Dillinger gang successfully escaped from the Little Bohemia, and the event became an unfortunate black mark in the FBI’s history. The current Little Bohemia still hosts a variety of signs and relics from the Dillinger shoot-out, including bullet holes, broken windows and even some of the gang’s luggage which it didn’t have time to retrieve upon its hasty exit. It was, as Mann puts, “a dark day for J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI.”
Melvin Purvis’ assistant during this period, Doris Rogers Lockerman, was helpful in putting both the people and times in perspective for the cast and crew. According to the 92-year-old Lockerman, the Dillinger gang was toting around heavy weapons while holding onto the sideboards of cars during their escapes from the banks. They were simply tough young men, she explains.
On the other hand, she shares that the FBI agents were law school graduates with both proper training and athletic abilities, but they were simply not raised as ruggedly as the criminals in Dillinger’s gang. Those men had a definite advantage in pure physicality and endurance.
It was quite meaningful for the actor who played Purvis to work in the same places that his character did. Christian Bale particularly felt that in the woods near the Bohemia. “When you use the real location, you have a reverence for it,” offers Bale. “It’s incredibly helpful to stand in the same spot and know you’re in the same woods-just sitting silently for awhile-as the man you are portraying. This was where he was actually fired upon and fired back.”
History buffs offer some context to the defeat that almost got Purvis fired. In defense of the FBI’s unsuccessful efforts at the lodge, producer Misher says: “There was danger. They were walking into a blind alley with people who are very capable with their hands and weapons. That’s the divide between whether Melvin Purvis was capable or not. The film answers it. He ultimately led the charge that got John Dillinger and resulted in the task at hand being accomplished: mission accomplished.”
The most famous of the actual sites recreated for the film is the Biograph Theater on Lincoln Avenue in Chicago. According to Crowley, this street “had the biggest facelift. The street is now gentrified, and there have been masses of changes since the 1930s. The finished street was an amalgamation of research and design.”
A combination of period streetcars, cobblestone-lined roads, numerous 1930s storefronts and automobiles gave an eerie and realistic look back in time to the sweltering evening of July 22, 1934: the night John Dillinger was betrayed by the “Lady in Red” and gunned down by Purvis’ men.
No one was more shocked by this turn of events than Dillinger himself. While he knew his run was not indefinite, he had no idea his life would end so soon. Mann explains why the gangster felt comfortable mingling in the open: “Dillinger’s natural charisma, his savvy about public relations, made him popular and charismatic, and he hid out in public. There were people who spotted him, saw him, and they didn’t turn him in.” Until the “Lady in Red.”
But first, a bit of backstory. Anna Sage was an eastern European immigrant who ran a brothel and was in trouble with the immigration department of the federal government. In an effort to avoid deportation, Sage tipped off Purvis and the FBI that Dillinger would be attending the gangster movie Manhattan Melodrama (starring Clark Gable and Myrna Loy) at the Biograph on this particular evening. As the point person in the treachery, Sage became known as the “Lady in Red” when she stood outside the theater. Curiously enough, she was wearing an orange outfit, but the artificial lighting made her dress look red. That moniker would forever be associated with a duplicitous woman.
As Dillinger walked out of the theater with then-girlfriend Polly Hamilton on one arm and Sage on the other, Purvis lit a cigar to alert the many law enforcement personnel that the criminal was in sight. Within seconds, Dillinger knew something was amiss and pulled his gun, but it was too late. He was shot three times and fell dead in an alley a few feet from the movie house.
As the team reconstructed events, Mann was most exacting. He explains the process: “We rebuilt the street front of the Biograph. We engineered it so that we were able to stage exactly where Dillinger was when he died-the same square foot of pavement that he died on-so that when Johnny looked up he saw the last thing Dillinger saw. That means a lot to an actor and to a director…to find yourself in those environments where you can suspend your disbelief and give yourself the magic of the moment.”
The film’s lead agrees. He couldn’t help but be wowed by his surroundings at the Biograph. “Everywhere you looked, it was 1934,” notes Depp. “It was pretty incredible to be standing in front of the Biograph Theater. As far as you could see, it was 1934… from the roads to the building storefronts to the marquee lights. Every detail was accounted for. I salute Michael for that. His attention to detail is unparalleled.”
Robberies in Wisconsin
Other Public Enemies locations included a number of towns and cities in Wisconsin, including Columbus, Milwaukee, Madison, Darlington, Oshkosh and others. For the shoot, both Mann and Crowley kept a close eye out for period structures and streets that could be transformed into 1933 – ’34.
In the cases of Oshkosh and Columbus, filming took on a more expansive approach; complete blocks of downtown areas were redressed for the shoot. All of the work was accomplished with the cooperation of the respective cities’ managers and property owners. While the filming schedule was much longer in these locales, potential logistical problems were kept to a minimum.
The production designer elaborates: “Dillinger raided banks in small towns, so we needed some small places that hadn’t been modernized or had big chain stores that would be hard to take out. Columbus is very proud of its historic downtown area, and we turned the clock back on it. That meant everything: cobblestones, traffic lights, signage and facades.
“We had 30-odd stores to deal with in Columbus, so we were really looking for a place that was willing to help and wanted us there,” Crowley adds. Similarly, an elaborate bank heist was staged both inside and outside of a building in Oshkosh. Because the scene involved a getaway, several storefronts were dressed accordingly.
Shooting in Chicago
During his spree, Dillinger was a frequent visitor to Chicago; therefore, a number of scenes were filmed there. Most of the office scenes, as well as various apartments, were accurately depicted in Chicago. The production went to several of the same neighborhoods to capture the look and feel. For example, the arrival of the Dallas field agents was staged at Chicago’s train terminal, with an actual period steam engine train used for the shoot. Crowley shares: “We shot some big streets in Chicago to get some scale to the big city.”
It was crucial to Mann and his five-time collaborator, cinematographer Dante Spinotti, to lens a drama set in the ’30s while not making it seem as if it’s a period piece. The director explains: “What I try to do in Public Enemies is avoid anything that feels like the convention of a nostalgic filter, of making things looking old. If you’re alive on Tuesday morning of March 17, 1934, things are very immediate; they’re right in your face. It’s a cold, rainy day, and it’s in Chicago and it’s in color. It seems to be very vibrant, and not a lot has changed. That took me to imagining being right there and then.”
While in Chicago (and throughout the course of production) Spinotti and Mann used multiple HD cameras for almost every scene they shot. This equipment included four of Sony’s new HDC-F23s and the XDCAM-EX1s. DP Spinotti offers: “There’s a combination of a handheld, very close approach to the faces of the actors, all shot with long lenses. But in the same setup, we really captured at least one side of the scene. That offers a real-time immediacy and a sense of witnessing whatever is happening, which was a very important part of the way we shot this film.”
This sense of immediacy extended to their thoughts on lighting scenes; it was just as important to light the environment as it was the specific actors. Spinotti elaborates: “We always kept in mind an extreme realism of the situation. We wanted to represent, in an aggressive, real way, what the time was and what the scene is. So, we lit the whole scene, but we rarely lit the shot. The actors have to look properly correct when they end up in their close-up, which is recorded by a camera on the close-up while another camera is getting the reverse close-up on the other actor or actress.”
The Arm of the Law: Training for the Film
One of the key elements to maintaining accuracy for Public Enemies was the ongoing cooperation of the FBI during production. From Betsy Glick, based in the national headquarters, to agents Dale Shelton and Royden R. Rice from the Chicago bureau, the FBI was instrumental in the making of the film. The bureau helped in documenting many of the facts of the Dillinger case, as well as other activities, such as supplying period furniture and file cabinets for an FBI set.
Weapons expert Shelton met Mann and members of the crew when they came to the FBI’s Chicago bureau for a tour of the weapons vault. The agent was on the set almost daily to ensure the integrity of the FBI-related scenes, as well as to work with the production’s armorers on the period firearms. Mann also cast him as an FBI agent in a number of scenes.
According to the agent: “From the accounts I’ve read, Hoover’s ideal definition of an agent would be someone who was clean-cut, physically fit and able to shoot straight when they needed to. They were also able to work long hours and have interpersonal skills so they could interview people to get information that was needed.”
With tactics and weapons advisor Mick Gould, Mann had the actors portraying FBI agents and gang members training in firearm handling, period-car driving and other relevant activities. The performers’ roles were very physical and included much running, scaling of bank desks and carrying of heavy, unwieldy firearms.
While Depp and Bale had previously trained in the use of weaponry for other films, they soon realized that the shooting techniques needed for Public Enemies differed drastically. Explains agent Shelton: “During that time period, when you were shooting with a handgun, you would use one hand only. It wasn’t even thought of to use two hands. That didn’t occur until the 1940s, when it was decided that it was a much more stable shooting platform to use two hands instead of one. In addition, your stance was completely different. It was more of a traditional bull’s-eye-type stance, more of a target-shooter-type stance. That, as all tactics have, has evolved over the years.”
Misher was duly impressed that Dillinger’s crew was able to maneuver so easily with such heavy weaponry. For this production, he knew the actors playing these roles had a tough road ahead of them to make the gunfights look realistic. He explains: “If you look at the guns that Dillinger and his gang were carrying around, these Tommy guns with big drums, they were very heavy. Some were about 80, 90 pounds. And they’re holding onto the sideboards of cars while they’re hightailing it out of town after robbing a bank.”
Depp proved to be a quick study during preproduction. “For the most part, I was carrying a 1921 Thompson submachine gun and a couple of .45s in the film,” the actor provides. “I had a lot of preparation. I’ve been shooting guns since I was about 5 or 6, so I had a pretty strong advantage in that area. Primarily, I was firing the Thompson and a couple of .45s.” He coyly adds, “When you’ve got a beast like that strapped to you and you’re emptying magazines, a 50-round drum, it’s a good feeling.”
Bale also received solid information from the authorities about what his character would and wouldn’t do. He says, “My experience with the FBI guys included a fascinating day going around Quantico with Michael and seeing many of the actual weapons used in incidents with Dillinger. We picked their brains and discussed modern practices versus the olden days and what they knew of Purvis. They gave us incredible help during filming in Chicago, and some actually dressed up to play characters in the movie.”
He was not, however, the only one who received an education about Dillinger and his archrival. “I found that we were actually telling them a lot of information about Purvis,” Bale adds. “In their FBI records, so much of his history had just been erased.”
Hair & Makeup, Costumes and Car Design
Other production departments that helped to re-create the environment of the 1930s were hair and makeup, costumes and picture cars. These aesthetics were particularly important to Mann, as he wanted to underscore how Dillinger left prison after almost a decade in a gray existence behind bars and entered another world. When he arrived in Chicago, the gangster found a life that was impossibly colorful and inviting. He wanted everything. Now.
“The circumstances were so elevated, compared to what Dillinger had just come from,” offers Mann. “His existence, the conditions, were so rough and the authoritative administration officials were so brutal. To be on the street in ’33 and suddenly have clothes and cars, and living life at all, it would seem crazy. He was having such a good time today, why even worry about tomorrow?”
Due to the devastating economy of the Great Depression, the period hairstyles were more about necessity than fashion. Emanuel Millar, the hair department head, relates of the era: “People were giving haircuts in Central Park, five cents for a shave and a haircut. A man just wanted to clean up the back of his head around his ears, put on his hat and go. They weren’t really thinking about moustaches and beards. In the ’30s, you didn’t see a lot of facial hair. People just wanted to cut and go.”
Still, Depp used a variety of physical enhancements to help his performance, including a razor cut in the back of his head and an occasional moustache to mirror the one Dillinger sported.
Fortunately, the production had images of Billie Frechette from which to imagine Cotillard’s signature look. Jane Galli, the makeup department head who also worked on the actress’ transformation, notes, “Because Billie was a hatcheck girl, we’ve given her period makeup without making her look glamorous. But back then, the women always did their nails, eyebrows and lips, no matter what.” Galli adds that red was a big color for both nails and lips at the time, but interestingly, kissing went out of style. Lipstick was quite expensive, and women didn’t want it to come off.
Dillinger was anything but plain, and his taste for the finer things in life extended to his wardrobe. Mann offers: “Dillinger had an intoxication with life that he had been denied in prison, and he had to have everything…right now. He was sophisticated. He had a sense of what was current, in terms of wardrobe and dress, in manners of speaking. We know this because of photos from the period and letters he wrote to his nieces and sister.”
Two-time Oscar-winning costume designer Colleen Atwood was charged with creating looks for the large cast-from Dillinger’s dapper suits and Frechette’s intricate costumes to Purvis’ perfectly tailored wear.
Depp offers of his experience working with the industry legend: “Colleen Atwood is someone whom I’ve had the pleasure to work with on and off for the last 20 years, and she’s just a complete wizard. She’s just amazing. With any character you have a very strong idea of who it is, especially with someone like John Dillinger. With Colleen, you don’t have to say a word; you walk into a room, and she’s already got you decked out.”
Marion Cotillard shares of Billie’s look imagined by Atwood: “When you see pictures of her, the way her hair is done, you realize Billie was simple. She had a taste for being pretty, of course, but we found her clothes with simplicity, something beautiful…not too poor, not too rich.”
Picture Cars
Some of the most stunning visuals in the film include the period automobiles. Picture car coordinator Blaine Currier and his captain, Howard Bachrach, conducted an elaborate search for cars in the Midwest (and around the nation) that could be used for the production.
Currier explains that Public Enemies ended up with more than 20 hero cars that were featured prominently, while between 1,000 and 1,500 other vehicles were used in the background. Though a lot of period cars were square in shape, another style would have to do. “Michael Mann loves the rounded, curve style that was used from 1933 to ’35,” says Currier.
The engines in the automobiles were in transition, and that allowed Dillinger to make more than one famous getaway. Currier explains: “The V8 Flathead engine, which came out in 1932, was made famous in 1933 by two gangsters: Clyde Barrow and John Dillinger. Both of them wrote letters to Ford expressing their love of the car. Whenever they could use them for getaways, they could outrun the cops and everyone else.”
Not everyone was fortunate enough to get to drive them. Offers Bale: “The FBI didn’t have many cars because they didn’t have the manpower to get them for all the men. Often, they had to ask people to borrow their cars. It’s just ridiculous the situations that these men were in and the problems they had to overcome. When they were driving to Little Bohemia, two of the cars broke down. They had to get the other agents to jump on the running boards in the middle of the freezing night. They were barely clinging on, and their fingers were frozen by the time they arrived.”
The public’s fascination with this general era, and John Dillinger in particular, has not waned over the past several decades, as documentaries, news programs and myths continued to emerge. Throughout the nation, people can still satisfy their appetite for the public enemies of the 1930s by seeing actual Dillinger automobiles on display, as well as other more macabre items of the times.
Public Enemies (2009)
Directed by: Michael Mann
Starring: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, Jason Clarke, Rory Cochran, Billy Crudup, Stephen Dorff, Stephen Lang, John Ortiz, Giovanni Ribisi, David Wenham
Screenplay by: Ronan Bennett, Michael Mann, Ann Biderman
Production Design by: Nathan Crowley
Cinematoügraphy by: Dante Spinotti
Film Editing by: Avy Kaufman, Paul Rubell
Costume Design by: Colleen Atwood
Set Decoration by: Rosemary Brandenburg
Art Direction by: Patrick Lumb, William Ladd Skinner
Music by: Elliot Goldenthal
MPAA Rating: R for gangster violence and some language.
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
Release Date: July 1, 2009
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