With the soul of a B-movie, but with high-class direction, production, cinematography ja acting, this black-and-white classics does not let go for one moment. From the hard-hitting beginning through the multilayered depiction of childhood all the way to the leg-sweeping finale of the young rebels’ tale, Gun Crazy keeps the viewer in its irresistible traction.
The comprehensive storytelling of crime movie auteur Joseph H. Lewis’ generous and pictorially inventive 87-minute film brings today’s three-hour lumps to shame. The fetishistic gun craziness of the shootists Annie Laurie and Bart reflects the mad erotic attraction between the couple.
Cast against type as a blonde femme fatale, Peggy Cummins lives up to the original title Deadly is the Female and does everything in her power to lure the mild-mannered man to evil ways. The spirited and tragic John Dall as her foil (the teenage Bart is played by 14-year old Russ Tamblyn) endows the story with layers that transcend the Bonnie and Clyde -style bank robbery genre. This psychological depth makes the film as touching as the on-the-run stories of Fritz Lang‘s You Only Live Once and Nicholas Ray’s They Live by Night. (Hannu Björkbacka)
Language: English, subtitles: Finnish and Swedish