The Day of the Dolphin
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The Day of the Dolphin is a science fiction/thriller film released in 1973 and very loosely based upon Un animal doué de la raison (A Sentient Animal, 1967), a novel by French writer Robert Merle. It was written by Buck Henry, directed by Mike Nichols, and starred George C. Scott, his wife Trish Van Devere, and Paul Sorvino.
[edit] Plot
A brilliant and driven scientist, Jake Terrell (Scott), trains 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, which funded Terrell's research. Institute officials further train the dolphins to carry out a political assassination using a limpet mine against the yacht of the President of the United States.
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 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). It 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.
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