FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Matho The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Roger Burke At a time when gangster movies, thrillers and film noir were very popular - think Cagney, Bogart, Donlevy, Mitchum, Powell, Ryan, Raft et al - director Joseph Lewis and screen writer Dalton Trumbo, collaborated on a movie which casts a couple of ostensibly ordinary citizens, and not criminals, (Dall and Cummins) as two people with a special talent: both crack shots with guns. Nothing too unusual about that, though, because guns have always been a factor in American culture.Incidentally, it would be later that same year that Hollywood would release Annie Get Your Gun with Betty Hutton and Howard Keel - and also both crack shots with guns - in an upbeat musical-comedy biopic about Annie Oakley, full colour, big budget ($3.8 million) family type Saturday afternoon matinee, reinforcing all the positive aspects of American Individualism and the American Dream. And presenting guns as cute toys with which you too could do some darn good tricks; that is, if you work hard enough to achieve your own particular goals in life.No such dream with this offering and a budget of less than one-tenth of Annie, however. In this outing, Dall (Bart) is swept off his feet by a woman who brags about having killed a man already. Was that true in this fiction? Probably, because later in the plot, Cummins (Annie) has no compunction about shooting anybody, even a person cowering on the floor. Dall, who still can't forget about a chicken he killed when only seven, is completely under her spell, driven, and driving across USA, to murderous excess to satisfy and justify his lust for Annie and her pathological dreams of wealth; and how to get it all - violently. In effect, she's the boss, no question.In crisp black-and-white, we're with both all the way, right to the bitter end - sometimes in the back seat of their car, voyeuristically listening, watching, seeing what they see - and knowing what the poor saps don't, or won't face: the cops will get 'em, in the end, for sure. Though it would spoil that end for you, for me to say anymore.Trumbo's script (assisted by MacKinlay Kantor) is appropriately effective, detailing the manner in which a person's skill set can be subverted and manipulated, by another, into socially self-destructive behaviour. Cinematography by long-time expert Russell Harlan (Red River, The Thing from Another World, Blackboard Jungle, Lust for Life, too many to list...) is - no pun intended - picture perfect, in my opinion. And direction by Lewis is faultless to this viewer's eyes as we take in this devastating critique of a key aspect of American culture.I'd seen Dall only twice before, in Rope (1948), in which I think he was, chillingly, much more effective as an actor; on the other hand, his continuous self-effacing attitude, as not-so-smart Bart, fit the bill for this story; the other time I saw Dall was in Spartacus (1960), but didn't recognize him. Had not seen Peggy Cummins, before or since; one thing's for sure, though - she was no one-trick pony; and made a beautiful, ice-cold killer. One can speculate whether Arthur Penn watched this classic movie prior to directing Bonnie and Clyde (1967), there being so many thematic and plot similarities between both stories. The one question, though, still unanswered for me is: was it only simple coincidence that Annie Get Your Gun was released only six months after Gun Crazy? Hey, both movies have heroines called Annie, after all; and perfect counterpoints for the American Good and the American Bad. By the way, I liked Annie Get Your Gun; Gun Crazy, however, is the better story and movie, I think.Recommended for all suitable ages. At only 87 minutes, it's definitely worth your time to see another true American classic. And a solid eight out of ten movie. April 6, 2018

happytrigger-64-390517 I discovered Gun Crazy around 1985, I was twenty and was fan of film noirs, having seen all the classics in the Action theaters in Paris. And then appears that incredible Gun Crazy. At that time, I studied Cinema in university, having a B movie section, and Gun Crazy was the main movie studied.Gun Crazy is well remembered for being a Bonnie and Clyde story with the hold-up shot in long take. In fact, there are a lot of sequences brilliantly shot, especially another hold-up or the kid shooting sequence. The director Joseph H. Lewis was a master in shooting sequences in long takes placing the camera at the heart of the action, see the virtuoso intro in "The Undercover Man". But he never achieved any more masterpieces than "Gun Crazy" and "The Big Combo". Too bad. The rebel lovers are played by Peggy Cummins and John Dall, their meeting is unforgettable : as J. H. Lewis says in an interview, "you are like dogs in heat".The french DVD box of Gun Crazy is outstanding, with the book written by Eddie Muller, telling the origins and the shooting of that cult movie with lot of rare pictures and documents. And explaining the difference of the titles "Gun Crazy" and "Deadly is the Female", as well as on the posters, the "Gun Crazy" poster being more wild than the "Deadly is the Female" too classic.I saw the movie "Persons In Hiding" with a story close to Bonnie and Clyde. Patricia Morison is terrific as a strong, nasty and sexy woman like Peggy Cummins in "Gun Crazy". Hold-up scenes are shot and edited in the same style than later in "Gun Crazy" (but there isn't the long take hold up). And we hear twice the expression "gun crazy". That movie is from 1939, the novel "Gun Crazy" was written in 1940.For me, "Gun Crazy", with its special characters played by inspired casting and shot masterfully by Joseph H. Lewis, is one of the very best in Film Noir. Far more better than many other cult classics.

Claudio Carvalho 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")

A_Different_Drummer Usually I like to review films that are under-rated. Every now and then I will take the other end of the pole, and come before you, kind reader, shell-shocked at how some critics can make so much out of nothing. A friend told me that this film was rated one of the "100 best" of all time on a competing net database, and supposedly a great example of film noire. Since I had never heard of it, I borrowed his copy. OMG. Here are some notes. If you don't agree, fine. I have some swampland in Boca you might find equally appealing: 1. Aside from the date, all the earmarks of a 50s B-movie. Stars you may never have heard of, unless they are relations. Bit parts go to the same group of character actors you see in every 50s film. Closeups for no other reason than they were popular in that era. Drenched with hidden moral judgements, pregnant pauses, ominous looks. 2. The music. Oh, if you really wanted to make prisoners confess, don't send them to Gitmo, make them watch a dozen films like this, one after the other. They will tell you whatever they know. While it is true that all 50s B-movies are equally guilty, any cinephile from an earlier period (the 40s saw some of the best films ever made) or a later period (anything after 1979) would be able to stand no more than a few minutes of this over-loud, brazen, intrusive, unctuous, music track; and then ask the musical question, what were these guys smoking? Did they have no concept that less is more? (Answer: no they did not). 3. Camera work is very 50s. It is as if they suddenly discovered that you get very high depth of field with certain apertures, so the whole movie is filmed as though it were just one scene. To consider this film up there with the great filmes noires of the 40s is heresy. The only redeeming factor is the memorabilia from the era, the cars, the clothes, even the diner where the two stars, short of cash, refuse onions on their burgers because it is 5 cents extra. A classic? What are you thinking?