Day Of The Dolphin
(1973)
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George C. Scott stars as a scientist who, along with his wife, trains dolphins to speak. During his experiments, the dolphins are kidnapped by the military, an organisation that has other plans for them. Buck Henry wrote the script and even performed some of the dolphin voices. |
George C Scott takes on one of the biggest challenges of his career by conducting meaningful conversations with dolphins. He even teaches his pet dolphin endearments like “Fa” and “Pa”. Aaah, you might add, isn't that cute? But this isn't a Flipperish, Disney-pic. Indeed, things get decidedly bleak when it's revealed that Scott's dolphins are destined to be used as sentient torpedoes in a plot to assassinate the President aboard his yacht. This movie might be accused of lacking any real sense of porpoise but Georges Delerue's score is a high point.
Halliwell's Film Guide
A strangely unexpected and unsuccessful offering from the talent involved: thin and repetitive as scientific instruction (the dolphins' language in any case topples it into fantasy), and oddly childlike as spy adventure.