Marketplace Today Blog

By Meg Jones
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Within the first minute of the new Johnny Depp movie “Public Enemies,” Chris Gundrum let out a whoop.

Invited to the Chicago premiere of the gangster movie filmed partly in Wisconsin, the West Bend man was so thrilled he couldn’t contain himself. The object of his affection? A fabulous, beautiful, svelte … car.

A black and blue 1930 four-door Ford Model A to be exact, and it’s Gundrum’s. The car is parked behind the vehicle Depp rides up in to an Indiana prison during the opening scene of “Public Enemies.”

“Right in the theater, I yelled. My wife said, ‘If you see the car, don’t be obnoxious.’ But I couldn't help it,” said Gundrum as he stood next to his sleek Ford at a display of antique cars used in “Public Enemies.” The vehicles can be seen this weekend at the Iola Old Car Show & Swap Meet.

Because bank robbers like John Dillinger, whom Depp portrays in the movie, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd depended as much on their cars as their tommy guns, “Public Enemies” features plenty of 1930s-era vehicles. To get all those cool period cars, producers depended on casting calls just as they did for human extras.

Answering the call were quite a few Wisconsin antique car owners like Gundrum, who bought his Model A two years ago and spent many hours restoring it.

A total of 41 cars used in the movie’s filming are expected to turn out for the popular car show in Iola.

They’re cars built to take a punch, with running boards big enough to support several fedora-wearing G-men roaring after bad guys on dusty back roads and slick Chicago streets. Among the cars to be at the Iola show: a 1929 Ford, a 1931 Nash, 1934 Brewster, two 1935 Plymouths, 1931 Chevrolet Coach, 1931 Ford Model A, and a 1934 Ford with a “Roosevelt for President” sticker on the front window.

Gundrum spent 16 days filming in Oshkosh, Columbus, Chicago and Indiana, and he saw his wheels in six scenes. Gundrum, who owns a painting company, spent one week in Chicago, including 10 hours driving up and down the street in front of the Biograph Theater where Dillinger was gunned down.

“I didn’t care. I was getting paid to drive,” said Gundrum, who was dressed from the waist up in period clothing.

Marv Tomlinson of Poynette supplied two vehicles — a 1931 Ford delivery truck and a green 1934 five-window coupe. The coupe was used for 28 days of filming, including a week at Little Bohemia in Manitowish Waters, the site of an actual shootout involving Dillinger and the FBI.

“Seven days of filming [at Little Bohemia] to see that much of my car,” Tomlinson said snapping his fingers.

Tomlinson bought the ’34 coupe with sleek greyhound hood ornament in 1973 at a small car show in Cambria and finished restoring it six years ago. The semi-retired auto parts seller got really lucky one day on the set in Beaver Dam, which was standing in for Tucson.

“I had no idea Depp was going to drive my car until five minutes before. I guess they had another car lined up but they had mechanical difficulties,” said Tomlinson. “They asked if it had a trunk instead of a rumble seat and it did, which is what they wanted.”

Depp drives up to a Tucson hotel in Tomlinson’s coupe and drops off Marion Cotillard, who plays Dillinger’s Wisconsin girlfriend.

Tomlinson and the other car owners were paid handsomely for their efforts.

For scenes filmed in Wisconsin, car owners were paid $200 a day for their vehicles, plus $90 per driver. Because many of the Wisconsin car owners balked at driving their flivvers in Chicago traffic, movie producers sweetened the deal by promising them $500 a day in Chicago. Plus the production company paid for gas, tolls, hotel rooms and steak and shrimp meals.

Joe Ries of Fond du Lac, whose 1934 Chevrolet four-door sedan appears in six scenes, noted that the drivers were served meals on the set before the movie’s extras.

Ries not only saw his vehicle in the movie, he got a glimpse of himself. The driving school owner can be seen — OK, you have to look quickly — motoring next to Depp as Dillinger drives away from a hotel where his girlfriend has just been arrested.

The drivers vividly remember the day actor Christian Bale, portraying FBI agent Melvin Purvis, blew the engine on a Pierce Arrow. Ries, Tomlinson and Gundrum plan to get together for another gathering of “Public Enemies” cars this fall in West Bend.

Ries said a car owner gladly agreed to have her antique car shot up during the opening prison breakout scene and was paid an additional $10,000.

One thing the car owners learned: The “Public Enemies” crew didn’t want clean, spiffed-up vehicles.

“It was funny — people spent hours getting their cars ready and then the first thing [the production crew] did was water the car and spray dust on it,” said Ries.