The Day of the Dolphin

The Day of the Dolphin (1973)

  • 44% of critics liked it
    (18 reviews)

  • 43% of users liked it
    (1,099 ratings)

Director Mike Nichols and screenwriter Buck Henry team up again (after collaborating on The Graduate and Catch-22) for this adaptation of Robert Merle's best-selling adventure novel concerning dolphins who become pawns in a plot to kill the president. George C. Scott plays Dr. Jake Terrell, a… More

In Theaters
Dec 19, 1973 Wide

Critic Reviews

  • Variety Staff, Variety

    A rare and regrettably uneven combination of ideas and action.

  • Geoff Andrew, Time Out

    A bizarre and often ridiculous attempt to merge documentary, suspense and comedy.

  • Vincent Canby, New York Times

    Some of the cloak-and-dagger stuff that follows is so awkwardly staged that it's difficult to know whether the simplicity was designed for youngsters or as parody.

  • Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

    Tries so hard not to be a conventional science-fiction thriller that it fails, alas, to be anything.

  • Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

    A disappointing adaptation of the best-selling novel, neither satisfying as thriller or as adventure.

Read all 12 critic reviews

See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

  • Caesar M


    The movie taglines says "Unwittingly he trained a Dolphin to kill the president of the United States" and so naturally I sat down to watch it. With a ridiculous tagline like that you would expected something over-the-top and goofy right? Sadly you're wrong as this movie… More

  • Stephen E


    Being as its plot is centered on talking dolphins that are unknowingly trained to assassinate the president, you'd think that "The Day of the Dolphin" would be a total exercise in camp, but it's almost the exact opposite. It takes itself so darn seriously that… More

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