It’s been repeatedly made clear that film connoisseurs aren’t allowed to like or even respect Mike Nichols‘ The Day of the Dolphin (’73). For most critics the mixture of cloying sentimentality and rote thriller plotting (bad guys try to use a pair of talking, trusting dolphins for evil purposes) was intolerable.

But despite the torrent of acidic putdowns (“A thinking man’s Flipper…Flipper meets The Parallax View…calculated sentimentality that evokes Lassie Come Home….the most expensive Rin-Tin-Tin movie ever made” and so on) some of us were taken in. Me for one. I accepted the scientific premise and (go ahead, call me a putz) bought into the sentiment.

Dolpin obviously doesn’t work altogether (it’s intriguing but lacks conventional dramatic tension…there are flat portions) but it moved me at the very end (c’mon, it melted everyone), and there’s a hugely satisfying Act Three moment when the bad guys get their just desserts. Go to the 4:00 mark on the top video.

You can be as cynical as you want, but you can’t totally trash a film that (1) the director of The Graduate and Carnal Knowledge poured his heart and soul into, (2) Roman Polanski wanted to make for a while, (3) Nichols directed from a script by Buck Henry (no sentimental slouch, he), (4) starred an emotionally persuasive George C. Scott, and (5) benefits from a gentle, beautiful score by Georges Delerue.

Dolphin incidentally costarred a 29 year-old Edward Herrmann (slender, suntanned), and a decidedly chubby, 33-year-old Paul Sorvino.

There was another 1973 thriller with a five-word title that (a) dealt with a planned presidential assassination, and (b) used the same four words (The Day of the…). It was directed by Fred Zinneman and was instantly recognized (and is still respected today) as a quietly gripping, highly intelligent, real-world drama.

Jackal opened in mid-May of ’73 — Dolphin came along seven months later (12.19.73).