Gun Crazy
Bart Tare is an ex-Army man who has a lifelong fixation with guns, he meets a kindred spirit in sharpshooter Annie Starr and goes to work at a carnival. After upsetting the carnival owner who lusts after Starr, they both get fired. Soon, on Starr's behest, they embark on a crime spree for cash.
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- Cast:
- John Dall , Peggy Cummins , Berry Kroeger , Morris Carnovsky , Anabel Shaw , Harry Lewis , Nedrick Young
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Reviews
Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
You won't be disappointed!
It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.
A story that's too fascinating to pass by...
This is probably the worst acted and worst scripted film I've ever seen rated this high. The dialogue is laughably bad and the acting is without exception execrable. Now, if people are saying this is so bad it's good, then I get it. If they're actually saying this has any subtlety or depth as a real drama, they're a bit cracked.
Classic 'Flim Noir' One of the most distinguished works of art to emerge from the B movie swamp. Art it is with most of the films dialog was performed via improvisation. There is the famous bank robbery scene that is shot in one continuous take from the back seat of the getaway car. Repeat 'one take' improvised acting genius . 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. 'Gun Crazy' is a Quintessential film-noir .
The postwar era was ripe with cinematic outcasts, characters who either struggled to conform to all-American ideals of normalcy or outright rebelled. One thinks of James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause, Marlon Brando in The Wild One, or the young lovers in They Live By Night. Gun Crazy (1950) is a great example of this tradition as well, a violent and erotically-charged B-noir about married couple Bart Tate and Annie Laurie Starr who commit serial bank robberies and obsess over firearms.Being a B-noir, Gun Crazy is allowed to be a little more rough and experimental. There is a stunning scene shot from the back of a car, for instance, one that felt like something out of a Tarantino movie. The action scenes are great too. The main couple's obsession with violence and one another has a sense of amour fou; their love is destructive and yet also tragic, despite their unsavory natures.Annie Laurie Starr is about the best example of a femme fatale out there, perhaps because she is the most complex of them during the classic period. She is alarmingly amoral in her regard for human life, yet she is not a simple seductress out to conquer saps. You get the feeling she does love Bart, but neither she nor he can bear the traditional postwar dream of a stable job, three kids, and a picket fence. They are restless rebels, driven compulsively to seek greater and greater thrills. There is a fatalistic bent to their lives, as is common with most noir.The film never suggests that it would have been better for the lovers to live a domestic life. Annie is compared with Bart's hapless sister, who starts the movie as a content young bride and ends up in a dumpy house, burdened by several children and a respectable husband who rarely bothers to come home it seems. She is all but a prisoner in the domestic space, making Annie's revulsion to such a life all the more understandable, even if her attraction to violence isn't.
In Cashville, the boy Bart Tare steals a gun from a hardware store and during his trial, his sister Ruby (Anabel Shaw) and his best friends Dave and Clyde testimonies to Judge Willoughby (Morris Carnovsky) disclose that Bart has always loved guns. Further, he is a skilled shooter but incapable to shoot a living being. However he is sentenced to spend four years in a reform school and after that, he joins the army. Years later, he returns to his hometown and is welcomed by Ruby and her family, and his friends Deputy Clyde Boston (Harry Lewis) and Dave Allister (Nedrick Young). They go to a carnival to celebrate, where Bart meets the performer Annie Laurie Starr (Peggy Cummins) that is also a crack shot. Bart is hired by the owner of the carnival and soon the ambitious Annie convinces him to leave the carnival and try a better life. They get married and do not have lucky in gambling, losing all their money. Soon Annie convinces Bart to rob different towns in the beginning of their crime spree. Although Bart is unable to use his gun for killing, he does not know the violent past of his wife that murdered a man in St. Louis years ago. Until the day she kills again and they become wanted by the FBI. "Deadly Is the Female", a.k.a. "Gun Crazy", is a good film-noir with a story of a couple robbing several towns probably inspired by Bonnie and Clyde. But the acting and the great action scenes make this movie worthwhile watching. Peggy Cummins performs the femme fatale that ruins the life of a man that is not capable to shoot another human being. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Mortalmente Perigosa" ("Deadly Dangerous")