GUN CRAZY

US, 1950, 87 minutes, Black and white.
Peggy Cummins, John Dall, Barry Kroeger, Morris Carnovsky, Russ Tamblyn (as Rusty Tamblyn).
Directed by Joseph H. Lewis.

Gun Crazy (originally released as Deadly is the Female) has become a film noir classic of the American screen. For many decades it has been held up as one of the main examples of the film noir, so beloved of the French. Joseph H. Lewis directed a number of these films including My Name is Julia Ross and The Big Combo.

The film is a story of an ordinary young couple, he an ingenuous young man who loved guns as a boy, who falls in love with an English sharpshooter in a carnival. She, however, is a liar and has a violent and greedy streak. They fall in love – shown during a sharpshooting scene in the carnival. They marry, are fired by the manager (Barry Kroeger) and when the money runs out she suggests a bank-robbing spree. The elements of a contemporary Bonnie and Clyde story are there (Bonnie and Clyde being outlaws only ten or more years earlier in the Midwest).

Peggy Cummins was brought from England to star in Forever Amber but was fired from the film. She made a few more films before returning to England. However, her reputation was ensured by Gun Crazy. John Dall had received an Academy Award nomination for his role in The Corn is Green, had appeared in Hitchcock’s Rope as one of the two killers and was to appear on television and in Spartacus. The two make a credible couple. He, as one of the characters says, was born dumb and is in the thrall of Peggy Cummins.

The film is outstanding in its direction, in its black and white photography, in the use of light and darkness, in the camerawork (with a famous scene of the robbing of a bank all filmed for four and a half minutes from the back of the car). The film also relies on intense close-ups and angles. Director of photography was Russell Harlan.

The film is brief, takes two ordinary people and shows how they can become criminals, he eliciting some sympathy, she not. However, it is clear that they have passion for each other and this leads to their downfall.

1.The classic status of the film? The film noir of the late 1940s? Its reputation over the decades?

2.The 1940s, the US, the role of guns, the gun culture? Bart as a boy, hunting, wanting a gun, as an adult? Guns leading to violence or not? An implicit critique of the gun culture? The title, the alternate title, Deadly is the Female?

3.The black and white photography, light and dark, camera placement, editing, the filming from the car and the observing of the bank robbery? The use of close-ups? Action, the atmosphere of the swamp? The realism combined with film noir? Intensity? The musical score, the Victor Young-Ned? Washington song and the interlude in the nightclub?

4.The prologue about Bart? Bart, the opening in the rain, the young boy, looking in the window, the focus on the gun, smashing the window, stealing the gun, tripping, the gun falling at the policeman’s feet? In court, Ruby and her testimony, her memories of Bart having the rifle, his skills, shooting the chicken, his weeping and regret? Not wanting to kill anything? David and Clyde, their testimony, the story of the mountain lion and Bart refusing to shoot it? The teacher, her story, Bart refusing to let the gun go? The background to his stealing? To his future?

5.Bart, the judge’s speech, going to an institution? His years there, going into the military? Dave and Clyde and their growing up, David and the newspaper, Clyde as sheriff? Meeting Bart, the hopes? Going to the carnival, happy, Bart not having a job, going into the shooting act, seeing Annie Laurie and her shooting, Bart and his being absorbed, intrigued? Their comments about Bart and leaving him there? Laurie’s response? Bart and the competitive shootout, the symbol for sexual connection, his winning?

6.Laurie and her skills, her performance, her background from England, on the pier at Brighton, her relationship with Packett? Her losing to Bart, the audience reaction, the money? Her ring and his giving it back? Persuading Packett to give Bart a job? Travelling, the attraction? Packett’s suspicions of Laurie? Bart and no suspicions? Packett and his knowing that Laurie had killed a man in St Louis?

7.Bart as nice, born dumb – according to the clown? His observation about his relationship with Laurie?

8.Laurie, her needs, possessions, comfort, not wanting to work? In love with Bart, their marriage, living on the money, it not being enough? Her persuading him to the robberies?

9.The filming of the robberies, from the back of the car? Authentic sequences, people’s reaction? The camera point of view? The police, Laurie getting out of the car while Bart was in the bank? The collage of events, the escapes, the collage of front pages, their reputation?

10.The effect of the robberies on each of them? Hopes, discussions? Laurie as calculating yet passionate? Bart and his sincerity? Their travelling? Getting the jobs, planning to leave after the robbery, their not being able to, turning the cars around?

11.Getting the job in the armour company, Laurie as secretary, Bart and his executing the plan, the guns, the holdup, getting the bags, the alarm going off, Laurie shooting the woman who had been hard on her, their driving, escaping together, the nervousness at the roadblock, the man beeping behind and the police letting them through? The intensity of the chase through the meat-packing company? The various falls, grabbing the bags, clutching them?

12.Eluding the police, going down the coast, going to the hotel, the sexual relationship? Tension? Spending the money, the fur – and later Laurie having to leave it on the footpath? Dancing, the song? The happiest moments of their lives? The police, the notes, escaping at the back of the dance hall, getting the train, arriving at Ruby’s?

13.Ruby, the effect on Bart, Ruby and her children? Laurie and her standing in the kitchen, staring at Ruby, hostility? Ruby’s fear? The phone?

14.David and Clyde, getting the news, the description of the house from next door, suspicions, going over to talk to Bart? Leaving the guns behind? Trying to persuade him to give up? Bart pulling out the phone, fleeing to the mountains?

15.Laurie and her reaction to David and Clyde, with her gun, the escape, crashing through the roadblocks, into the mountains, walking, the exhaustion, in the swamp?

16.Laurie and her character, lies, her talk about fears, killing, sex and love? Bart as a fool for her?

17.The confrontation, Laurie going to shoot David and Clyde, Bart and his stopping Laurie, killing her, his own death?

18.The film presenting a story rather than spelling out a moral perspective? Yet a moral critique in itself?