GUN CRAZY (1950)

After making a name for himself with an atmospheric psychological thriller (MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS/’45), B-pic helmer Joseph H. Lewis seemed poised to move on the A-list.  It never happened.  Instead, Lewis retired young after tv series work in the ‘60s.  But before that, plenty of tasty titles hiding in plain sight in the ‘50s.  None better, nor more influential, than this proto-BONNIE AND CLYDE tale about sexy young couple Peggy Cummings (never so good again) & John Dall, ‘Carny’ sharpshooters who ankle in the face of a jealous boss and hit the road to rob small stores & medium-sized banks before finding a full measure of doom.  And while the duo’s psychological underpinnings now come off as pat & simplistic (reluctant Dall; killer Cummings), that’s about the only non-advanced element in here.  Technically, the film on fire with imagination, from a clever prologue laying out Dall’s youthful delinquency & gun lust (that’s Russ Tamblyn as little Dall), thru frame busting camerawork and an amazing one-shot bank hold-up, made cinema verité style from the back seat of the getaway car as it drives thru a real Midwest town.  No backscreen process effects here for cinematographer Russell Harlan (a classy vet with credits that run from Howard Hawks thru Blake Edwards), on something of a busman’s holiday shooting this little programmer.  (And he’s not the only first-class talent on this road trip, Oscar’d names include composer Victor Young and writers Dalton Trumbo, hiding behind a ‘front,’ and MacKinlay Kantor, author of the source material for BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES.)  Some of Harlan’s setups are really something to see.  Check out the framing on Dall when he unexpectedly shows up, a Wanted Man, on his sister’s front porch, the door blocking all but the upper right side of the screen and most of his head.  A shot none of the ‘majors’ would have let Lewis get away with.

DOUBLE-BILL: You have to wonder if BONNIE AND CLYDE/’67 holds up half as well.  (Not seen here since its release.)

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Typically, almost no Black roles in here, only a single butcher seen handing steaks to Dall.  ‘Thanks, George,’ he says.  The name a possible allusion (by Trumbo?) to the way all Black Pullman Porters were insultingly called ‘George,’ no matter their real name.   There’s even a pretty good 2002 Showtime film called 10,000 BLACK MEN NAMED GEORGE about them.