Day of the Dolphin is brought to you by WTF Productions, a subsidiary of Are You Drunk Studios and a shell company of Surely You Can’t Be Serious Film Corporation.
It stars George C. Scott during his Cantankerous Period, which, to be honest, is probably his whole life. In this case, specifically, it is two years removed from his refusal to accept his Oscar for Patton because he considered the ceremony a “meat parade.”
Of course it was/is, George. Hitchcock didn’t call actors “cattle” for nothing. Regardless, the plot of Day of the Dolphin is thus:
George C. Scott teaches a dolphin to talk like a parrot, so nefarious plotters can kidnap it and use it to assassinate the president.
Not even flamboyant James Bond villains dared to be so audacious.
Number One: I’m glad you could all be here today as I unveil SPECTRE’s master plot…to assassinate the President of the United States!
Number Twelve: I see, what are you planning? Sniper? Bomb? Poison dart?
Number One: We will use a dolphin that talks like a parrot.
Number Seven: My god, it’s foolproof…
As for the movie itself, Day of the Dolphin is the opposite of foolproof. In fact, it drew fools to it like flies to honey. None escaped unscathed. This is its review…
Day of the Dolphin
Day of the Dolphin was based a French novel titled Un animal doué de raison, which means “an animal endowed with reason.” The novel was a serious book about dolphins trained to communicate with humans and their use in warfare.
The story was based on research by John C. Lilly, who did all kinds of interesting things like invent the isolation tank, experiment with LSD and attempt communication with dolphins.
The movie took further inspiration from researcher Margaret Lovatt who also worked with dolphins… sexually. But that’s a whole ‘nother story…
Originally, Roman Polanski was set to develop the film. Jack Nicholson was slated to star. Tragically, the murder of Polanski’s wife, Sharon Tate, derailed that plan.
Mike Nichols and George C. Scott stepped into the void. That proved to be a questionable decision for all involved…
Day of the Triffids Dolphins
George C. Scott is one of the purist actors of all time. Despite looking like a potato and having the demeanor of a honey badger, he commanded whatever camera was put in front of him. This proves the mysterious “it” factor may never be properly quantified.
Purportedly, Scott was especially difficult on Day of the Dolphin. He had left his wife, Colleen Dewhurst, and married a much younger woman, Trish Van Devere, who co-starred with him on numerous films, including this one and The Savage is Loose.
Compounding this, Scott was a high-functioning boozer who probably could have gone shot-for-shot with Oliver Reed and Robert Shaw.
Nevertheless, he seems to have lost a bit of control on Day of the Dolphin. He intimidated the other cast members and tried to convince them to skip showing up for work. They did not listen, but that did not stop Scott from playing hooky solo. He even missed the first three days of filming with a “virus.”
Meanwhile, Scott commanded a $750,000 salary for Day of the Dolphin. By comparison, Paul Newman and Robert Redford only received $500,000 each on The Sting. This put the film’s budget north of $8 million, which was expensive for the time. When all was said and done, it unsurprisingly lost money.
Day of Ecco the Dolphin
The man who bore the brunt of the film’s difficulty was director Mike Nichols, who we just mentioned in our recent article on werewolf designs. Nichols reportedly spent twenty-five years lamenting the failure of Day of the Dolphin.
Nichols survived the ordeal, however, and went on to direct Silkwood, Working Girl, Postcards from the Edge and more. Plus, his film, The Graduate, routinely appears on many Best Films lists. Nichols also married anchorwoman Diane Sawyer, which is neither here nor there, but interesting from a pop culture standpoint.
Perhaps, Day of the Dolphin made Nichols a stronger man. W.C. Fields warned “never work with children and animals.” Meanwhile, Steven Spielberg once cautioned, “Do not shoot on water!” after his experience with Jaws.
Nichols worked with both animals and water on Day of the Dolphin. Even the dolphins seemed to sense the trouble brewing. One the last day of filming, they literally escaped to the open sea and were never seen again.
Perhaps, Nichols wished he could have joined them. Yet, he hung in there and delivered a finished film that certainly plays interestingly to modern eyes. For this, we salute him…
Day of the Dead Dolphin
Day of the Dolphin takes itself as seriously as Mark Ruffalo takes himself. At no point does anyone look in a mirror and realize, “We are making a movie about teaching dolphins to talk like parrots so they can try to kill the president…”
Everyone genuinely believes they are creating an important film about communication that transcends the human barrier. They may even expect tears on the part of the audience.
Well, maybe not Scott, who openly questioned if acting was a respectable job for a real man while filming. Nevertheless, Scott approaches his role like a competitive eater sitting down to devour a wheel of cheese in one sitting or die trying.
Dog Day Afternoon of the Dolphin
The film begins with Scott looking directly into the camera and describing what it is like to live as a dolphin with a gravitas that would make Daniel Day Lewis realize his idea of acting is but that of a child pretending to be an elephant at recess.
Scott somehow maintains this level of commitment throughout the entire film. When he sets out to break a dolphin’s stubborn refusal to speak, he does so with the weight of the world, and possibly Uranus, on his shoulders.
Scott turns the part of a scientist bilking taxpayers for a Bahamas research facility into a tortured genius who genuinely suffers for ten years to make a dolphin squeak “pa.” Meanwhile, the underlings in orbit around him come off as the children of a cult leader as they try to be worthy of his brilliance.
Forget Einstein cracking the general theory of relativity. Who cares about Oppenheimer spearheading the Manhattan Project? Laugh at Elon Musk’s contributions to technology. Scott is so dedicated he will sleep beside a pool to hear a dolphin say…
Actually, I’m not sure what the dolphin says 90 percent of the time. If you found Amy in Congo annoying, the dolphin in Day of the Dolphin is tenfold worse. It’s like listening to Fran Drescher imitate Yeardly Smith imitating Rosanne Barr on helium.
The Longest Day of the Dolphin
The first hour of Day of the Dolphin is spent with Scott in a test of wills with a dolphin who just wants to eat fish and have sex with a lady dolphin. Eventually, a government conspiracy plot comes into things from out of nowhere because it is a 1970s movie.
A gaggle of evil old men conclude that a talking dolphin is the perfect assassination weapon. You might think the talking somehow plays into the assassination plot. That is your fault for using logic.
No, the talking dolphin is the perfect assassination weapon because it swims…pretty much like every other dolphin on the planet. See, the evil old men plan to have the dolphin attach a bomb to the President’s boat. The talking is just a bonus skill, yet it makes the dolphins a liability at the end of the day.
This leads to Scott somehow maintaining a straight face when he intones the dolphins will be killed after the mission because their ability to speak makes them “witnesses.”
Makes total sense. I’m sure the conspirators are super worried about a dolphin who can barely say “hand” revealing their plan to the authorities. Meanwhile, the humans who can talk in complete sentences are not considered loose ends.
Hard Day’s Night of the Dolphin
At a certain point, despite Herculean efforts, Day of the Dolphin can no longer bear the weight of its earnestness in the face of such ridiculous events. It finally tilts over into a scene best described as pure comedy.
The bad guys sit on their boat and hear a “clunk” that is the bomb being attached to their own boat by the dolphins. They look at each other like they are in an episode of The Office. One goes to the porthole, spots the dolphins swimming away and says,
“S#@t.”
Cut to boat exploding. It’s a guffaw moment that serves as a way for the audience to vent their pent-up desire to bully everyone involved with the movie.
The Day of the Dolphin Earth Stood Still
A lot of the film’s runtime is devoted to dolphin photography. It seems as if Nichols knew that he had a turkey on his hands and perhaps thought he could disguise that fact by enthralling the audience with a plethora of shots of dolphins swimming.
It’s similar to what Saul Bass did in Phase IV, where a good chunk of the movie is spent on macro photography of ants. The difference is Phase IV’s ant photography is fascinating and Day of the Dolphin’s dolphin photography is tedious.
The most egregious example of this is a scene where Scott dons SCUBA gear and enters the pool with a dolphin. The two of them engage in a touching session that eventually grows uncomfortable and weird.
It makes me willing to bet $5 some Simpsons writer saw Day of the Dolphin and used it as inspiration for Troy McClure’s “romantic abnormality” involving aquarium animals.
Day of the Dolphin
All days come to an end. Thankfully, the same is true for Day of the Dolphin. The film has a degree of entertainment value for being unintentionally amusing. Watching Scott work is a treat. Question his sobriety. Criticize his unprofessional behavior. Yet, when the camera rolls, Scott is locked in no matter how much stupidity surrounds him.
It is also fun to see young versions of Paul Sorvino (father of Mira Sorvino) and Edward Herrmann (The Lost Boys). The most British American actor Fritz Weaver (Creepshow) also makes an appearance.
Otherwise, let Day of the Dolphin swim with the fishes…
