Deadly Is the Female (1950)

Director:

Joseph H. Lewis

Writers (WGA):

MacKinlay Kantor (screenplay) and
Dalton Trumbo (screenplay) (front Millard Kaufman) ...

Release Date:

20 January 1950 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Romance

Tagline:

SHE BELIEVES IN TWO THINGS...-love and violence! (original poster)

Plot:

Since he was a child, Bart Tare has always loved guns. After leaving the army, his friends take him to a carnival...

Plot Keywords:

Gun | Carnival | Robbery | Female Criminal | Crime Spree

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Peggy Cummins	...	Annie Laurie Starr
John Dall	...	Bart Tare
Berry Kroeger	...	Packett
Morris Carnovsky	...	Judge Willoughby
Anabel Shaw	...	Ruby Tare
Harry Lewis	...	Deputy Clyde Boston
Nedrick Young	...	Dave Allister
Trevor Bardette	...	Sheriff Boston
Mickey Little	...	Bart Tare (age 7)
Russ Tamblyn	...	Bart Tare (age 14) (as Rusty Tamblyn)
Paul Frison	...	Clyde Boston (age 14)
David Bair	...	Dave Allister (age 7) (as Dave Bair)
Stanley Prager	...	Bluey-Bluey
Virginia Farmer	...	Miss Wynn
Anne O'Neal	...	Miss Augustine Sifert

Also Known As:

Gun Crazy (USA) (new title)

Runtime:

86 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Iceland:L | Canada:14A (Ontario) | USA:Approved (certificate #14023) | West Germany:16 (nf) | UK:PG (2008) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:(Banned)

Filming Locations:

Montrose, California, USA

Company:

King Brothers Productions

Trivia:

The movie's poster was as #25 of "The 25 Best Movie Posters Ever" by Premiere.

Goofs:

Continuity: Cadillac stolen from Illinois man that was used in bank holdup (featuring the single take) had a silver ashtray at the top backside of the front seat for rear seat passengers to use (and visible when car first seen at hitch-hiker pickup) but in the holdup scene it is gone.

Quotes:

Annie Laurie Starr: Come on, Bart, let's finish it the way we started it: on the level.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in La sirène du Mississipi (1969)

Soundtrack:

Mad About You

A Bad Woman Can Ruin You!

I had heard a lot about this when I first discovered "film noir," and I was not disappointed. It was very entertaining. I still enjoy watching this periodically, even after a half-dozen viewings.

John Dall and Peggy Cummins make one of the more interesting male-female pairings I've ever seen on film. Cummins is one of the prettiest women I've seen from the noir era and fascinating to view throughout this movie. I'm sorry her other films aren't on video. She didn't do many movies in the U.S.

The character Dall plays is good, too, although in the end his constant whining over the predicament he got into gets a little annoying. He plays the nice guy who is led astray by the bad woman. Yes, another classic example of the old Rabbinic saying that "a bad woman will always drag down a good man."

Innovative camera-work also make this fun to watch. At just under an hour-and- a-half, this is a fast-moving, always-entertaining film noir that lives up to its hype.