New film recounts gangster's bank robbery

FOSTORIA — Few in the city are those who haven't heard some version of how legendary Depression-era bandit John Dillinger robbed the First National Bank of Fostoria in May 1934. The story, as recounted by the Fostoria Area Historical Society, will shortly be available as a feature film titled "Dillinger." With Capture 1 Studios owner and historical society board member Matt Erman donating his time, talents and equipment and financial backing from the historical society, the movie has recently approached completion and will debut, appropriately, at the very scene of the crime, 125 S. Main St., in what is now known as the BANKquet Hall, and on the 90th anniversary of the robbery, May 3. Tickets are now available at Calico Charlie's Candy & More, 206 S. Main St., for showings scheduled for May 3 and 4. Tickets are $50 each for opening night, with a catered meal and a cash bar available. Tickets are $20 each for the next evening, with snacks from Calico Charlie's being available for purchase. According to historical society President Steve Cramer, the film's executive producer, the public may order the movie on DVD for between $15 and $20. The fundraiser for the non-profit historical society stems from reenactments of the robbery members performed for the public late in the first decade of the 21st century at the BANKquet Hall. "They were a terrific event for the historical society," said Leonard Skonecki, a member of the society and one of the actors in the new film. "We raised money, and all of the reenactments were very well received. We got nice comments on all of them. But then we stopped doing them. At a board meeting, Matt Erman from Capture 1 Studios suggested doing a DVD about the Dillinger robbery." Said Cramer: "Everybody thought it was a good idea, so we went forward with it." Erman had produced other films in the past and had a definite plan for this one, in which he serves as director, cinematographer and editor. "I've always been a fan of history," he said. "... I've always wanted to do sort of like an old, noir detective kind of movie. And that was the idea I had, to make it sort of an old-school movie." Noir films are a genre largely produced in the middle of the 20th century that presents a dark, cynical atmosphere. To fit that, Erman filmed "Dillinger" in black and white. "We wanted to do live action at first – have cars out in the streets and the gunfire and the whole nine yards, but the budget for that was too much," Erman said. "We narrowed it down to more of an artsy, noir film – that's what I call it. "We've been working on this since last year. I think the production, the filming – we're almost finished – took us about three months." Thirteen characters were cast both locally and from outside the area to portray the robbery, which both Skonecki and Erman have researched extensively. While the Dillinger Gang reportedly robbed 24 banks and four police stations in the Midwest, Dillinger and Homer Van Meter, a buddy of Dillinger's from their days in the Indiana State Prison, handled the Fostoria job themselves, Skonecki said. No one died, but nine people were injured by gunfire, including Fostoria Police Chief Franklin Pierce Culp. Dillinger and Van Meter made off with $17,299, which, Skonecki said, translates to more than $340,000, present-day. Dillinger was never prosecuted locally. Two months after the Fostoria robbery, he pulled a gun on FBI personnel in Chicago and was shot to death at age 31. Erman wrote most of the film's script, with Skonecki adding to particular scenes along with portraying Virgil "Poody" Switzer, then the editor of the Fostoria Daily Review. And along with some of the actors, other glimpses of Fostoria appear in the movie. "We tried to use props and things that were genuinely Fostoria," Erman said. "We used (bank President Andy) Emerine's desk that he used at the bank; the historical society has that desk. We used the Allen car, which was made in Fostoria. We have a lot of Fostoria glass that appears in the background of places. We strategically placed things in the scenes to include Fostoria history and make it more genuine for the town." Erman said that in addition to being available in the area, a shorter version of "Dillinger" will be sent to various film festivals across the country. "It could win awards," he said. "It could win money. Anything like that will go back to the historical society." Erman said he's already felt rewarded for the film, though it's yet to be seen. "It's kind of an honor, really, to be the one to grab this and drive it in the direction I wanted it to go. I did a lot of thinking about, like, there are some people who say Dillinger wasn't there and other people who say he was. To me, I'm looking at the map and all the history of the things that he went through during that year-and-a-half robbery spree that he was doing, and it does lead him to Fostoria. It makes perfect sense that they did that. "It's really fun, because you always end up learning something and there are always the people who talk to you and say, 'Oh, my grandma was standing on the corner when that happened.' You get to hear these neat stories and I love that. I tried to incorporate that into the script as much as I could." Along with Skonecki, Kevin Smith, Doug Pahl, Sue Echelberry, Alyssa Miller, Brian Barnett, Airon Ramsey, Mark Klein, Shelly Pahl, Shallon Gabel, Loni Smith, and Cindy Swartz acted in the film. Joining Cramer and Erman behind the scenes were audio engineer Rhonda Morrow and wardrobe master Lorrie Wolfelt.