Gun Crazy movie storyline. From the time he was old enough to hold a gun, Bart Tare was fascinated with firearms, and was put into a reform school for stealing one. He becomes an expert marksman, but after killing a chicken because it was a running target he becomes remorseful and vows to never again kill a living thing.
Returning to his mountain home town of Cashville after World War II, he goes to a carnival and wins a shooting match against the sharp-shooting queen, Annie Laurie Starr. They marry, but Annie prefers luxurious living and persuades Bart to set out with her on a series of holdups. They move through the West committing robberies and holdups, and their life becomes a constant flight from lawmen.
In fleeing the scene of a payroll robbery, which is to be their last crime, Laurie commits robbery and the manhunt is intensified. They try to hide out in the home of Bart’s sister but their presence becomes known. Two of Bart’s childhood friends, Dave Allister and Clyde Boston, are deputized and lead the posse which pursues them deeper into the mountains.
Gun Crazy (also known as Deadly Is the Female) is a 1950 American crime film noir directed by Joseph H. Lewis, and produced by Frank King and Maurice King. The production features Peggy Cummins and John Dall in a story about the crime-spree of a gun-toting husband and wife.
The screenplay by blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo—credited to Millard Kaufman because of the blacklist—and by MacKinlay Kantor was based upon a short story by Kantor published in 1940 in The Saturday Evening Post. In 1998, Gun Crazy was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
The screenplay was credited to Kantor and Millard Kaufman; however, Kaufman was a front for Hollywood Ten outcast Dalton Trumbo, who considerably reworked the story into a doomed love affair. The picture originally was slated to be released by Monogram Studios. However, King Brothers Productions, the producers, chose United Artists as the distributor. Gun Crazy enjoyed wider exposure because it was a United Artists release. The King Brothers originally announced they wanted Veronica Lake for the lead.
The bank heist sequence was shot entirely in one long take in Montrose, California, with no one besides the principal actors and people inside the bank alerted to the operation. This one-take shot included the sequence of driving into town to the bank, distracting and then knocking out a patrolman, and making the get-away. This was done by simulating the interior of a sedan with a stretch Cadillac with room enough to mount the camera and a jockey’s saddle for the cameraman on a greased two-by-twelve board in the back. Lewis kept it fresh by having the actors improvise their dialogue.
Gun Crazy (1950)
Directed by: Joseph H. Lewis
Starring: Peggy Cummins, John Dall, Berry Kroeger, Rusty Tamblyn, Morris Carnovsky, Anabel Shaw, Harry Lewis, Nedrick Young, Trevor Bardette, Mickey Little, David Bair, Virginia Farmer
Screenplay by: Dalton Trumbo, MacKinlay Kantor
Production Design by: Gordon Wiles
Cinematography by: Russell Harlan
Film Editing by: Harry Gerstad
Set Decoration by: Raymond Boltz Jr.
Makeup Department: Carla Hadley
Music by: Victor Young
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: United Artists
Release Date: January 20, 1950 (United States)
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