Baby Face Nelson
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Public Enemies
lambrettaguy200 — 12 years ago(January 20, 2014 10:01 PM)
I realise my knowledge of accents is probably pretty poor, but when I heard the actor for Baby Face Nelson talking on various occasions, including the bank heists and when the agents came into his apartment while eating etc, his accent sounded to me like a generic working-class New York accent.
But the real Baby Face Nelson aka Lester Gillis aka George Nelson, came from the tough stockyards part of Southside Chicago. I do not know Chicago accents but do they sound like New York ?
As far as I'm aware, Nelson didn't live in the New York area, but stayed in and around Illinois and surrounding areas. -
FEF312 — 11 years ago(December 04, 2014 10:01 AM)
Here is the movie on Baby Face Nelson. 1957 release, starring Mickey Rooney.
http://www.imdb.com/board/10050155/ -
Petronius Arbiter II — 11 years ago(January 03, 2015 01:55 PM)
I think the portrayal by Richard Dreyfuss in the 1973 film Dillinger is fairly accurate.
Not really. In fact, I'd almost say "not at all."
Milius made a half-hearted attempt to portray Nelson as the vicious psychopathic killer he was in real life, but he left out:- the undeniable fact that Nelson was every bit as clever-minded as Dillinger, and then some; and
- Nelson's raw nerve, unsurpassed by any other character in his saga, including Dillinger, who had plenty of raw nerve of his own.
Specifically, Milius has a scene as part of his Little Bohemia sequence in which Dillinger gets in a bare-handed fistfight with Nelson, and Nelson crumples to the ground, screaming like a little girl.
100% preposterous.
Ridiculous, unthinkable. Never happened. Never
could
have happened. It's like having a scene in which Abraham Lincoln praises slavery to the top of the skies.
"I don't deduce, I observe."
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gary_overman — 11 years ago(January 04, 2015 04:43 AM)
Take your point about the fist-fight scene, but Nelson
was
a lunatic. Dreyfuss did that rather well.
And the Mann film got a few things wrong as well. While the final gunfight at the Biograph was fairly accurate, the sequence of the deaths of Dillinger, Floyd and Nelson is completely screwed up. Dillinger was killed in July 1934 and Floyd in October, with Nelson's final gun battle in November. Also, Pierpont was electrocuted in Ohio in October and this film, IIRC, has him killed in a shoot-out.
This does not take away the inaccuracy of the 1973 film, but NO feature film on the outlaws of the 1930's has been completely error-free. -
FEF312 — 10 years ago(August 28, 2015 12:00 PM)
Gary, Petronius,
I agree that both the Milius and Mann films got the timeline wrong. In both cases, this was probably done to make the sequence of events more sensible, for a film where Dillinger is the main character. In real life, Dillinger gets shot during the summer of 1934; in reel life, the Dillinger character must be the 'last man standing'. So, in the Milius film, Pretty Boy Floyd and Baby Face Nelson are both killed shortly after the Little Bohemia shootout; in the Mann film, Floyd is the first Public Enemy to fall, and Floyd again dies after Little Bohemia. Both Floyd and Nelson survived till the Fall of 1934, but that would mean a long epilogue, or the characters just disappearing. -
pfarnell — 9 years ago(July 17, 2016 12:34 PM)
it's obvious why not.
Dillinger's public profile was huge, the papers barely mentioned Nelson (and national papers outside of Texas and Louisiana barely talked about Bonnie and Clyde) ..
Dillinger was (mostly) a reasonable guy for a bank robber and outlaw, who kept killing to a minimum, and was reported very troubled when he had actually killed someone finally (because he thought it would make him less of a rock-star Robin Hood, the public would turn on him when blood began flowing) the disparity in profile and infamy burned Nelson's butt, btw.
Dillinger is an easy figure to make the romantic swashbuckling anti-hero, with a hot romance going (which he did, his love with Frechette was also about as intense as movie portrayed).
and then, OTOH, you have Nelson..probably about the most genuine homicidal psycho of the whole "Public Enemy" "Yeggs" collection ..who thought nothing of turning his gun on bystanders including women, and laughing about the effects.
Dillinger is what they want to make movis with major stars about.
Which A-lister want to be remembered as the face of a fkd-up freak like Nelson. -
DollKen — 9 years ago(July 17, 2016 02:40 PM)
Wtf OTOH he skinny and aint got no arse like pfarmell with the protruding buttocks . Then Dillinger in his youth was taller than these days. BTW the nice Indian ladies at ur gym are taller then Dillinger then AND now - wtf is that shyt about ?
Nelson is T-lister LOL my fkn dog like that too pfarnell ! u make me laugh & u got trolls in ur burned butt Lol