It was hard watching this not to be reminded of Bonnie and Clyde but this film precedes it by seventeen years.
Bart Tare (John Dall) grows up with an obsession with guns but has no interest in shooting any living thing. When he returns home from a stint in the military he attends a funfair where he meets sharpshooter Laurie (Peggy Cummins). The pair quickly form a relationship and Laurie persuades Bart to go on an interstate robbery spree where he discovers just how deadly she is.
This is considered by some to be a B-movie. Part of the reason is because the couple of a crime spree plot feels quite different from other films of the time but it's the sort of theme that is now relatively common. I also think it's far too well-made to really be considered a B-movie.
The performances are pretty good here. In a later interview director Joseph H. Lewis had the following to say about his instructions to the leading pair: "I told John, "Your cock's never been so hard", and I told Peggy, "You're a female dog in heat, and you want him. But don't let him have it in a hurry. Keep him waiting." He perhaps put it unnecessarily crudely but the actors clearly understood and delivered an effective sexual chemistry. If this was made today there'd undoubtedly be several steamy sex scenes.
Lewis may have had an interesting way with words but he was clearly a talented director. The shots inside a sedan car were made using a stretch Cadillac and a jockey's saddle for the cameraman. There are some great sequences such as the chase through the abattoir, the closing moments in the swamp but the most memorable is the bank heist which is completed in a one-take shot that is dynamic and superbly well executed.
I think the biggest problem this film has is having to comply with the Hayes code. It could have been sexier and more violent and I think the ending could have been more interesting if it didn't necessarily have to comply to the expectation that people who had done bad things had to get the comeuppance. It was written off my some as pulp fiction at the time but it was actually ahead of its time in many ways.
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