Gun Crazy (1950) [aka Deadly is the Female]

Annie Laurie Starr:  Let's go for a walk on the beach.
Bart:  I just read an article about funerals.

Whilst it’s not a Genre as such, I have really been enjoying Noir films lately.  The quick, witty and sometime odd dialogue along with the style of filming is really appealing, or at least a nice change from the films of today where special effects/CGI is often more important than acting or storyline.  Films that fit the “Noir” flavour were mostly made during the 40’s and 50’s and some attempts have been made to make them in latter days (such as The Long Goodbye, Blade Runner, Chinatown and L.A. Confidential) with more modern themes but trying to retain that Film Noir feel minus the Black & White (apart from the Coen brother’s The Man Who Wasn’t There from 2002).  Anyway, in some of my browsing I stumbled across this older film called “Gun Crazy” which from the title sounds like a silly movie but it did inspire a remake with Drew Barrymore in the 90’s (I haven’t seen that one) so I thought ‘surely it can’t be all that bad’.  There is also a book specifically written about the movie and the behind the scenes stuff which adds to thought that it must be reasonably good to warrant a book about its making.  Sure it has good reviews but sometimes you can’t always rely on that (the recent movies Snowpiercer and Lucy are proof of that….for me anyway!).  

Without giving the story away, the film is about two crack-shot shooters who end up falling in love.   Annie (Peggy Cummins) convinces Bart (John Dall) that they should go on a robbing spree across the country (hence the alternate title – Deadly is the Female).  They take it a bit too far and one person ends up getting killed during one of the robberies and the police then conduct a major hunt for the pair.

It’s similar in a way to the 1967 release of Bonnie and Clyde but about 17 years older.  When it came out it didn’t gain much attention however over time it has become a highly respected classic, and rightfully so.  The chemistry between the two lead roles is fantastic and natural and this reveals itself when you find out that the Bank robbery that takes place (we only see outside the bank) was done in one take where they drive to the scene, improvised their lines, do the robbery and getaway.   The film is brilliantly filmed to keep up the suspense of the chase and I recall one scene where Annie is driving the car in a getaway and is being told by Bart to go faster and you can almost feel her frustration when she can’t get it to go any faster.  The final scene is also simply brilliant with its use of fog and natural surroundings (sorry, no spoilers here!).  The two lead roles do all their own driving in the film (except one scene) which also adds to its authentic feel.

This was initially a B movie with a style of shooting that was new for its day (in particular the robbery scene) which gave the movie a fresh feel and look.  As with many of the “B” movies, the directors had more freedom to experiment with new techniques and they often had to cut down on expensive lighting which also paved the way for the Film Noir we know today with its shadowy look.

The Bluray reviewed here was imported from Spain via www.amazon.com.   The image quality is generally very good, clean and sharp whilst retaining the nice film grain.  What I did notice (I checked on three different players) was that the video image was not completely smooth.  The image would be smooth than jump/skip a frame or two without affecting the sound.  As this is a made on demand (MOD) Bluray as opposed to a pressed disc (like every other bluray available here) I would assume there is a slight issue with the encoding.  The Spanish edition of the Bluray uses  a DTS HD Logo on the rear of the cover however its only Dolby Digital 2 channel at a very slim 192kbps in English and Spanish.  It is an authentic release and is still available at a price which is much much lower than the Warner Bros DVD (see below).  Those points aside the Bluray looks brilliant but there are no extra’s on the Bluray.

The Warner DVD (cover on the left above) is also available however only in the fantastic 5 film boxset “Film Noir Classic Collection Vol. 1” (cover shown above on the right).  The boxset has since sold out and is only available second hand, however the DVD in question has a great transfer fo the film though naturally not as sharp but has no encoding issue.  The DVD also has an audio commentary by film noir specialist Glenn Erickson which is a great bonus.

This film comes very highly recommended particularly if you’re interested in Noir film or simply movies from that era.  Either way this is a film that’s certainly worth seeing, it’s just a shame that it doesn’t have a wider release on DVD/Bluray.  The Bluray disc has only been rated 2.5 out of 5 due to no extras and the skipping issue, but the movie and image quality (minus what appears to be an encoding issue) gets 5 out of 5.

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