Gun Crazy

Dir. Joseph H. Lewis. 1950. 86 mins. DCP. With Peggy Cummins, John Dall. This B-movie precursor to Bonnie and Clyde was work-for-hire from the blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo. The gun-obsessed Bart falls for carnival sharpshooter and quintessential femme fatale Annie Laurie Starr, and the lovers on the run soon descend into a spiral of heists and getaways. The location shooting and inventive camerawork clearly inspired Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless.