For this visit to the Lonely Streets Bar Noir Pub Crawl, we stop off at the 1950 noir classic GUN CRAZY starring John Dall and Peggy Cummins as a latter-day Bonnie and Clyde. Joseph H. Lewis directs a script penned by Millard Kantor, Miles Kaufman, and Douglas Trumbo.
Like all emotionally stunted, ill-fated lovers (Romeo and Juliet, Bonnie and Clyde, you get the picture) Bart Tare (Dall) and Annie Laurie Starr (Cummins) share a desire for adventure and guns. They meet at a circus where Cummins is a trick shooter with a handgun. One shot is all it takes to ignite a passion inside Dall's Bart Tare. They playfully take turns firing at one another.
From this moment on they become two wild and crazy kids on a crime spree. They're actually too busy knocking over pharmacies and holding up payroll departments to go out to let off a little steam. Then again, shooting up a place is probably how they relax. Like visiting one of those stress-release places where you smash things but with dire consequences.
This is some fine cinematography from Russell Harlan.
With the cops on their tails, they manage to make a pit stop at some little, out-of-the-way diner that looks like a submarine. It's not much, and it looks like the only beverage they serve is coffee, so maybe this is a morning after the pub crawl kind of place.
Of all the places to eat, why here?
When you want a steak and a beer....
...and all they have is ham and cheese and coffee.
(Is that a location shot of the city behind the detectives or some kind of an interesting matte?)
Dall and Cummins have no time for such nonsense. They're on the run and in one of the most suspenseful and gripping climaxes, the two part ways in a foggy swamp.
🎶🎶🎶
In the wetlands, the foggy wetlands, our antiheroes hide
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It's film noir at its finest, even if there aren't many nightclubs and bars to visit.
GUN CRAZY (1950) shouldn't be confused with the 1992 GUNCRAZY (one word) starring Drew Barrymore as a delinquent teen who helps her boyfriend escape from jail before also heading off to adventure with guns and crimes. The 1950 GUN CRAZY is a quick study of the genre. Five out of five slugs.
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