The smash hit "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967) sparked a revival of 1930s gangster yarns and Elmore Leonard got on it with his novel, "The Moonshine War" (1969), which he adapted for the screen the following year. After much success with westerns and crime stories, this movie seemed to combine both genres, but, too often, it strains credulity. Leonard was an excellent novelist, but this script ill serves his reputation: a taut, clever, suspenseful scene in the stage depot, by Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank from "Hombre" (1967) is tortured into a lengthy, silly, annoying scene in an eatery here. Writers are fading or just making a buck when they start imitating themselves. But better writers adapted some later stories on which Leonard got some co-producing credit. Sadly, some antique cars are wrecked.
Review of The Moonshine War
