Gun Crazy (1950)

A well meaning crack shot husband is pressured by his beautiful marksman wife to go on an interstate robbery spree, where he finds out just how depraved and deadly she really is.

Director:

Joseph H. Lewis

Writers:

MacKinlay Kantor (screenplay), Dalton Trumbo (screenplay)

Stars:

John Dall, Peggy Cummins, Berry Kroeger

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Peggy Cummins	...	Annie Laurie Starr
John Dall	...	Bart Tare
Berry Kroeger	...	Packett
Morris Carnovsky	...	Judge Willoughby
Anabel Shaw	...	Ruby Tare Flagler
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

Storyline

Since he was a child, Bart Tare has always loved guns. After leaving the army, his friends take him to a carnival, where he meets the perfect girl; Annie, a sharp-shooting sideshow performer who loves guns as much as he. The 2 run off and marry, but Annie isn't happy with their financial situation, so at her behest the couple begins a cross-country string of daring robberies. Never one to use guns for killing, Bart's dragged down into oblivion by the greedy and violent nature of the woman he loves.

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Plot Keywords:

national film registry | police officer | reformatory school | armour meat | breaking a window | 

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Taglines:

Thrill Crazy... Kill Crazy... Gun Crazy

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Romance | Thriller

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Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 January 1950 (USA)

Also Known As:

Gun Crazy

Filming Locations:

Reseda State Bank Building, Sherman Way and Reseda Blvd., Reseda, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$400,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

King Brothers Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Although Bart and Laurie are loosely based on Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, the scene in which they hold up the factory appears to have been inspired by a holdup at the Nashville, Arkansas, Coca-Cola factory in 1938 by two men, Floyd Hamilton and Huron "Terrible Ted" Walters. Hamilton was a former associate of Bonnie and Clyde's.

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Goofs

[Incorrectly labeled a goof.] Anyone who has done even a little mountain hiking knows that alpine marshes and swamps are quite common, especially in California.. All it takes is a shallow depression that fills seasonally with snow melt. Many (not all) alpine lakes have adjacent marshy areas. There is no suggestion in the film that the "protagonists" are at an altitude sufficient for permanent snow cover. Consequently, movement into a marshy area for the final scene is not a goof in any sense.

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Quotes

Bart: We go together, Annie. I don't know why. Maybe like guns and ammunition go together.

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Connections

Featured in A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (1995)

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Soundtracks

Laughing on the Outside (Crying on the Inside)
(uncredited)
Music by Bernie Wayne
Lyrics by Ben Raleigh
Sung by Frances Irvin at the dance club

User Reviews

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.