Rent Gun Crazy (1949)

Cult Noir. - Gun Crazy review by Steve

Poverty row cult film based on the Bonnie and Clyde legend and made by brilliant B director Joseph H. Lewis who shot many low budget films in the noir style. John Dall and Peggy Cummins are dynamite together as two outlaws compelled in different ways by their fatal obsession with guns.

Anne Laurie Starr is a poor, sexy circus shooter who acts by reflex, triggered either by violent crime or lust. Bart Tate is a working class kid who finds status through his talent with a gun. Driven by his desire for her, he is drawn into crime, holding up stores, and then banks, leading to murder.  

Dall and Cummins are sensational. Hot trash. They seem made for each other, except, he can't kill, and she has to kill! Cummins is a revelation. Starr is so happy when she is stealing, so fulfilled when she is killing, it's a bit infectious. It's a miracle that she got this part, unlike anything else she ever did.

There's a sassy script from the blacklisted Dalton Trumbo and the direction is ostentatiously stylish. The film is set in a timeless rural west it has the feel of a depression era gangster film, all getaway cars and shoot outs. The wild, desolate location shooting in poor rural towns conveys a powerful ambience of encroaching despair.