296 - FULL ISSUE - Plymouth Club

of 4:00 PM. My driving chores varied from driving back andforth doing U-turns at the end of the block; sometimes I wasparked. Then at the finish I would start from in front of thetheater when the guns go off and Dillinger is killed, then drivenorth to the end of the block. When they said “cut,” I had tostop and back up the car to the theater… again and again andagain. We saw Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, and other actorsevery night, but we were not allowed to talk to them.One night MichaelMann and JohnnyDepp had a conferenceright in front of thecar, but no cameraswere allowed on set!The Biograph scenewas wrapped up June4th.We were called again for a June 9th day scene on Clarkand Hubbard. It was a “cold winter day” so Costume put usin heavy woolen overcoats and we had to rollup the windows. It was about 90 degreesthat day, so every time they said “cut” Iwould bail out of the car to get some air. Inthis scene the FBI catches Dillinger’s girlfriend,Billie Frechette, and hauls her awayto jail as Dillinger watches. Billie is playedby Marion Cotillard, best actress in 2007.We saw a lot of her and Depp that day.On June 23rd we were called to Californiaand Augusta in Humboldt Park. On this setwe were told to “stick together, don’t wanderoff” and we had a police officer with us allday. He put on his vest whenit got dark. The Screen Actors Guild wenton strike July 1, so they crammed to finishby the end of June.And so our adventure came to an end. Julieand I had put in about 160 hours and haddriven our Plymouth over 300 miles on theset. I remember the calls: “PICTURE’S UP” (start theengine, be ready for anything!); “ROLLING” (cameras arerunning); “BACKGROUND” (background people start walking);“CARS” (begin driving); “ACTION” (the actors begintheir scenes); “CUT” ( stop, go back and do it again).What a ride!Watch forPublic Enemiesdue in theatersJuly 2009.Not the car but the soundIwas contacted in August, 2007, by Warner Brothers Studios. They were in a jam. AngLee's movie, Lust Caution, had completed filming and was scheduled for release thatOctober. They had discovered that the sound recordings of the 1942 Plymouth, used inmany of the scenes, were very poor. They were trying to find a Plymouth with the sameengine, but restored to a like-new condition so that the sounds would be more realistic.They came across my website and saw my comments about the "zero mile" P15 engine Ihad installed in my restored P15. Thesent a sound crew up to Santa Maria andwe recorded for a full day. I did all thedriving for the recording sessions. Mywife and I saw the movie and found thatthey had used my car’s recording for notonly the ‘42 Plymouth, but for several-31-other cars in the movie. It was a very funexperience. -- David Maxwell