Search - Gun Crazy on DVD

MPAA Rating: NR Content Advisory: Violence, Not For Children Movie Release: 1949 DVD Release: 07/06/2004 Format: DVD - Black and White - Closed Captioned Audio Tracks: English Subtitles: English, French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 27 mins Studio: Warner Home Video Members Wishing: 2 Genres: Crime, Film Noir, Crime Thriller

The definitive Joseph H. Lewis-directed melodrama, Gun Crazy is the "Bonnie and Clyde" story retooled for the disillusioned postwar generation. John Dall plays a timorous, emotionally disturbed World War II veteran who has had a lifelong fixation with guns. He meets a kindred spirit in carnival sharpshooter Peggy Cummins, who is equally disturbed -- but a lot smarter, and hence a lot more dangerous. Beyond their physical attraction to one another, both Dall and Cummins are obsessed with firearms. They embark on a crime spree, with Cummins as the brains and Dall as the trigger man. As sociopathic a duo as are likely to be found in a 1940s film, Dall and Cummins are also perversely fascinating. As they dance their last dance before dying in a hail of police bullets, the audience is half hoping that somehow they'll escape the Inevitable. Some critics have complained that Dall is far too effeminate and Cummins too butch, but Joseph H. Lewis was never known to draw anything in less than broad strokes: recall the climax of Terror in a Texas Town, wherein Sterling Hayden participates in a western showdown armed with a whaler's harpoon. The best and most talked-about scene in Gun Crazy is the bank robbery sequence, shot in "real time" from the back seat of Dall and Cummins' getaway car. Originally slated for Monogram release, Gun Crazy enjoyed a wider exposure when its producers, the enterprising King Brothers, chose United Artists as the distributor. The film was based on a magazine article by MacKinlay Kantor; one of the scenarists was uncredited blacklistee Dalton Trumbo. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Peggy Cummins - Annie Laurie Starr
John Dall - Bart Tare
Berry Kroeger - Packett
Morris Carnovsky - Judge Willoughby
Anabel Shaw - Ruby Tare

Joseph H. Lewis' Gun Crazy (1949) never made it to laserdisc, despite being in sufficient demand theatrically so that its distributor had to keep a 35 mm print available, but it has made it to DVD in very good edition. The movie looks excellent, about a match to the best 35 mm. What makes it special, however, is the lively commentary track by Glenn Erickson; he jumps all over the place, occasionally to his detriment, but usually to our benefit, bounding between the original short story, the opening section of the movie with its two flashbacks, the cast members, the director's background, and the stylistic characteristics of film noir. He gives an excellent account of the movie's subtext, which evidently slipped right past the Production Code office's censors, and he enjoys delving into the careers of the supporting actors, such as Berry Kroeger and Stanley Prager. Erickson's commentary might have used a little editing; once or twice he tries to anticipate a flawed scene or two later on without giving us sufficient warning, which tends to be distracting. Similarly, his attempt to equate the levels of violence and the sensibilities of audiences in 1950 with audiences in the 1990s, and specifically films such as Terminator 2, seems forced. On the other hand, when he uses one scene as a jumping off point for a broader discussion of film noir's cosmic angst, he's dead on target. And Erickson weaves a brilliant account of the tangled writing credits on the movie, though he misses the irony of original story author MacKinlay Kantor, who was a hardcore right-winger, whereas blacklistee Dalton Trumbo wrote the screenplay. When Erickson tells us of character actor Ray Teal's career, he also neglects to mention Teal's longest acting assignment in a string of lawmen, honest or corrupt, on Bonanza, as the sheriff of Virginia City. Still, Erickson's track is always engaging and engrossing, almost as much as the movie, and he is better than many other such commentators. Beyond that, the 87-minute movie has been given an extremely generous and well-placed 25 chapters, and a very clean audio transfer, although the volume is slightly low, but that shortcoming can be compensated for very easily. There is no trailer or other bonus visual material, but the commentary track is so much fun that this DVD would be worth owning even if the movie didn't look half as good as it does. The disc opens automatically on a simple but clever menu that includes options of English, French, and Spanish subtitles. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide