A BULLET FOR PRETTY BOY

US, 1970, 89 minutes, Colour.
Fabian Forte, Jocelyn Lane, Astrid Warner, Adam Roarke.
Directed by Larry Buchanan.

A Bullet for Pretty Boy was made by American International Pictures. This company exploited trends, making small-budget short features on whatever was the going interest. With the success of Bonnie and Clyde in 1967, there was a rash of gangster films, including this one. It follows the style of Bonnie and Clyde and traces the career of Pretty Boy Floyd from his witnessing to his father’s murder, going for revenge, and a criminal career.

Popular singer Fabian, Fabian Forte, took the lead role to entice younger audiences into the cinemas.

Of interest, the film was written and directed by Larry Buchanan. Buchanan never claimed to have good taste – he was an arch exploiter. Some of his films in the 60s had titles like Common- Law Wife, Free, White and Twenty- One and The Naked Witch. Always with an eye on current events he made The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald in 1964. He made The Other Side of Bonnie and Clyde in 1968 and then made films about Marilyn Monroe including Goodbye Norma Jean in 1976 and Goodnight Sweet Marilyn in 1989. His last film was biblical – The Copper Scroll of Mary Magdalene(2004).

1. Was this just another gangster film? Or did it have something more?

2. How well was the thirties period recreated eg cars roads, farms? Oklahoma and other states?

3. Did the atmosphere of the Depression come through the film well?

4. Did the Depression atmosphere explain then activities of these country gangsters?

5. What atmosphere was created by the wedding sequences during the credits? How did this change with the fight involving Pretty Boy? How was this ironic in that it led to the disputes and feuds and the consequences for Pretty Boy's life?

6. Oklahoma and the outback states? Were they ‘hicks’? How did this influence the type of life that they led? How did it influence the style of their gangsterism?

7. How much did luck have to play in Pretty Boy’s life? Was he bad in himself? Was it bad, and his temper that caused Pretty Boy's downfall?

8. Pretty Boy's experience in gaol. How did it harden him? Was this conveyed well in the film? How did it make him went to get out?

9. The escape. Was it interestingly and excitingly filmed?

10. Why was Pretty Boy influenced by the people who took him in after he escaped? Did he feel indebted to them? Could he have returned easily? As an escapee?

11. What was the effect of these people on Pretty Boy? The Madame, the prostitutes, the gangsters? What was it in Pretty Boy that allowed him to start his life of crime?

12. Why did,: the gang begin to rob banks? Was it the style of the times? eg Bonnie and Clyde? Were there economic reasons for robbing the bank ? the need for money? Or was it a style of adventure?

13. Why did the thirties gangsters become something of heroes in their time?

14. How simple was Pretty Boy and the members of his gang? Did they have, in some ways, delusions of grandeur?

15. Comment on the sequences where they robbed the banks ? their brutality, their comic aspects especially the girls entering like chorus girls?

16. The effect of the life of crime on Pretty Boy - his identity as Charles and his dislike of the name Pretty Boy? His relationship with the prostitute? Yet his love for his wife?

17. The filming of the chases and the Federal Bureau chasing the gangsters? On whose side was the film? Did it sympathise with the gangsters? The impact of the songs - did they stand to glorify the gangsters? The final choices for Pretty Boy? his girlfriends, his wife, his family?

18. The impact of the final chase - its desperate nature, the fact that they need not have done this robbery, the fear, the collaboration of the local people? The final shooting?

20. What had Pretty Boy achieved? was it worth it? Why is his memory still. alive in the seventies? The character of the person ? his wanting to serve God at the beginning of the film, his disillusionment with the ministry, the joining of the gang? Was his joining of the gang credible? His final involvement and his death?