GUN CRAZY aka DEADLY IS THE FEMALE (1940) Ab-noir-mal love affair

GUN CRAZY stars B-actors Peggy Cummins and John Dall, who give A+ performances as Bonnie and Clyde wanabees. Annie, a carnival sharp-shooter, loves to kill, while Bart, an out-of-work vet, loathes killing but has a fetish for guns. When the two meet at the carnival where Annie works and compete for best shot, sparks fly – and not just from their pistols. This is a remarkably erotic scene in which only body language and seductive looks communicate the pure lust each is feeling. Despite an minuscule budget, every scene is inventive in its dialog, sets, and especially camera work, which swings from documentary style to impressionist. One sequence, a bank heist, was shot on location in one long take. No one but the principal actors and people inside the bank were aware that a movie was being filmed. The dialog was improvised as the couple drive toward the bank (the cameraman sat in the back seat on a specially rigged saddle that allowed him to pivot), and when Dall as Bart adlibs "I hope we find a parking space," he really meant it! We actually hear an uninformed bystander shout, “There's been a bank robbery!” There are numberous scenes and moments that will surprise and delight you, but I urge you to get the DVD from Netflix, which includes a terrific special feature narrative, and experience them yourself. GUN CRAZY was written by Millard Kaufman, a pseudonym for famously blacklisted Dalton Trumbo, later famously hired by Kirk Douglas to write SPARTUCUS. (Trivia note: Bart as a young teenager, whose attempted theft of a pistol launches the story, is sensitively portrayed by 15-year old Rusty (later Russ) Tamblyn, who years later acted and danced in WEST SIDE STORY.)