The Day of the Dolphin
Promotional film poster
Directed by	Mike Nichols
Produced by	Robert E. Relyea Joseph E. Levine
Written by	Buck Henry Robert Merle (novel)
Starring	George C. Scott Trish Van Devere Paul Sorvino
Music by	Georges Delerue
Cinematography	William A. Fraker
Editing by	Sam O'Steen
Distributed by	Avco Embassy Pictures
Release date(s)	December 19, 1973
Running time	104 min.
Country	US
Language	English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Day of the Dolphin is a 1973 science fiction-thriller film directed by Mike Nichols and starring George C. Scott. Loosely based on the 1967 novel, Un animal doué de la raison (A Sentient Animal), by French writer Robert Merle, the screenplay was written by Buck Henry.

Plot

A brilliant and driven scientist, Jake Terrell, and his wife, Maggie, train dolphins to communicate with humans. This is done by teaching the dolphins to literally speak English in dolphin-like voices. Two of his dolphins, Alpha ("Fa") and Beta ("Be") are stolen by officials of the shadowy Franklin Institute headed by Harold DeMilo, the backer of the Terrells' research. An investigation by an undercover government agent, Curtis Mahoney, reveals that Institute is further training the dolphins to carry out a political assassination using a limpet mine against the yacht of the President of the United States.

Cast

• George C. Scott as Dr. Jake Terrell
• Trish Van Devere as Maggie Terrell
• Paul Sorvino as Curtis Mahoney
• Fritz Weaver as Harold DeMilo
• Jon Korkes as David
• Edward Herrmann as Mike

Production and reception

The film received relatively mixed reviews when released and was not successful commercially, though it was nominated for two Academy Awards, for Best Original Score (Georges Delerue) and Best Sound (Richard Portman and Larry Jost).

The film was originally going to be directed by Roman Polanski; however, while Polanski was in London, England, looking for filming locations in August 1969, his pregnant wife, the actress Sharon Tate, was murdered in their Beverly Hills home. Polanski returned to the United States, and abandoned the project.

Differences from the novel and other sources of inspiration

DVD cover for the film

Merle's novel, a satire of the Cold War, is supposedly the basis for this film, but apparently the film's plot was substantially different from that of the novel. The movie is rather inspired in part from the scientist John Lilly's life. John C. Lilly was a physician, biophysicist, neuroscientist, and inventor who specialized in the study of consciousness. In 1959, Lilly founded the Communications Research Institute at St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands and served as its director until 1968. There he worked with dolphins exploring dolphin intelligence and human-dolphin communication.

Cultural References

• On June 25, 2007, Stephen Colbert recommended his viewers rent this film after making an allusion to it that received little reaction from the studio audience.
• The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror XI" features a segment entitled "Night of the Dolphin," in which dolphins, angered at having been forced to perform for human audiences, lead a war against the humans, ultimately banishing them to the sea.[1]

External links

• The Day of the Dolphin at the Internet Movie Database
• The Day of the Dolphin at All Movie Guide
• The Day of the Dolphin at Rotten Tomatoes

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