Load of rubbish!!

Instant Favorite.

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

***SPOILERS*** I'm not sure about the spoilers, given as many reviews that have gone before me; what the hey... The first time I saw this was when I was a kid - on the late late show (compared to today, it was tame; about midnight); I remember something just made me uncomfortable. It took quite a while to figure out (I don't think it showed for another twenty five years) what it was. I'll break it now - - It's the concept of Annie Oakley and Frank Butler gone bad. I mean, the what-ifs are a nasty possibility of two expert sharpshooters loose with little conscience. Still pretty spooky, ain't it? Annie Get Your Gun, indeed. deranged murderers as a musical?... It's a 10. p.s. the girl was really sexy; a MUST for a noir film.

At a time when gangster movies, thrillers and film noir were very popular - think Cagney, Bogart, Donlevy, Mitchum, Powell, Ryan, Raft et al - director Joseph Lewis and screen writer Dalton Trumbo, collaborated on a movie which casts a couple of ostensibly ordinary citizens, and not criminals, (Dall and Cummins) as two people with a special talent: both crack shots with guns. Nothing too unusual about that, though, because guns have always been a factor in American culture.Incidentally, it would be later that same year that Hollywood would release Annie Get Your Gun with Betty Hutton and Howard Keel - and also both crack shots with guns - in an upbeat musical-comedy biopic about Annie Oakley, full colour, big budget ($3.8 million) family type Saturday afternoon matinee, reinforcing all the positive aspects of American Individualism and the American Dream. And presenting guns as cute toys with which you too could do some darn good tricks; that is, if you work hard enough to achieve your own particular goals in life.No such dream with this offering and a budget of less than one-tenth of Annie, however. In this outing, Dall (Bart) is swept off his feet by a woman who brags about having killed a man already. Was that true in this fiction? Probably, because later in the plot, Cummins (Annie) has no compunction about shooting anybody, even a person cowering on the floor. Dall, who still can't forget about a chicken he killed when only seven, is completely under her spell, driven, and driving across USA, to murderous excess to satisfy and justify his lust for Annie and her pathological dreams of wealth; and how to get it all - violently. In effect, she's the boss, no question.In crisp black-and-white, we're with both all the way, right to the bitter end - sometimes in the back seat of their car, voyeuristically listening, watching, seeing what they see - and knowing what the poor saps don't, or won't face: the cops will get 'em, in the end, for sure. Though it would spoil that end for you, for me to say anymore.Trumbo's script (assisted by MacKinlay Kantor) is appropriately effective, detailing the manner in which a person's skill set can be subverted and manipulated, by another, into socially self-destructive behaviour. Cinematography by long-time expert Russell Harlan (Red River, The Thing from Another World, Blackboard Jungle, Lust for Life, too many to list...) is - no pun intended - picture perfect, in my opinion. And direction by Lewis is faultless to this viewer's eyes as we take in this devastating critique of a key aspect of American culture.I'd seen Dall only twice before, in Rope (1948), in which I think he was, chillingly, much more effective as an actor; on the other hand, his continuous self-effacing attitude, as not-so-smart Bart, fit the bill for this story; the other time I saw Dall was in Spartacus (1960), but didn't recognize him. Had not seen Peggy Cummins, before or since; one thing's for sure, though - she was no one-trick pony; and made a beautiful, ice-cold killer. One can speculate whether Arthur Penn watched this classic movie prior to directing Bonnie and Clyde (1967), there being so many thematic and plot similarities between both stories. The one question, though, still unanswered for me is: was it only simple coincidence that Annie Get Your Gun was released only six months after Gun Crazy? Hey, both movies have heroines called Annie, after all; and perfect counterpoints for the American Good and the American Bad. By the way, I liked Annie Get Your Gun; Gun Crazy, however, is the better story and movie, I think.Recommended for all suitable ages. At only 87 minutes, it's definitely worth your time to see another true American classic. And a solid eight out of ten movie. April 6, 2018

A man obsessed with guns falls in love with a reckless carnival sharp-shooter, but her ambitions draw him to the dark side.Moralizing tale of a crime spree, with good performances but an uninspired story. The male character's background is shown in a prologue and we can pretty much piece his motivations together, but the female character is a mystery who only once lets slip a tidbit from her past so we can form an idea of how she got this way. The depravity is contained, not just because we're encouraged to take the view of the law enforcers, but also because the relationship is shown in cute close-ups without a hint of savagery. The tension does mount as the net tightens, but I got a bit tired toward the end of what is a short run time.Most interesting element is the POV camera during a long take that tells the story of a heist - all from a fixed point behind the driver of the getaway car, with the only flaw an unconvincing run-in with a cop.Music is emotional but not too intrusive for a 1950s production. Direction and photography had their moments.Overall: well told story, but too tame.

There's something erotic about femme fatale Peggy Cummins' obsession with guns in this superb film noir, the best low budget example of the genre since "Detour". Like that film's hard boiled female, Ann Savage, Cummins is an outstanding example of what makes film noir as hot and dangerous as a ticking time bomb. John Dall is this film's version of "Detour's" Tom Neal, a troubled young man manipulated by sex, and he's going to get the best lay of his life, probably at the expense of his life! Like Neal, he's in a situation from which there is no escape, and even if he knew of a way, Cummins would find a way to block his exit. A scene where they try to leave each other in separate cars is quite sexual in nature as they can't leave each other. The only thing this is missing in its obvious insinuations (of which many got past the sensors) is a shot of their car heading into a very tight tunnel.This film starts off with a sequence of Dall's past, showing him as a kid (Russ Tamblyn playing him as a 14 year old), breaking the window of a store and stealing a gun, then a sequence where even younger, he broke down in tears after killing a baby chicken. Going to reform school, he meets up with gun shark Cummins in the circus. Unlike her, though, he despises shooting live targets, and for her, the violent urges are both carnal and sexual. She's impish, immature but every inch aware of what she's got to give, and even more aware of what she can get out of it. They become a post war era Bonnie and Clyde, and we all know what happened to them.Shocking in its time for its frank look at the carnal nature of a female so young, it never looses steam, and Cummins and Dall are fabulous together. This is quintessential film noir, one of the very best. While it has its moments where the audience has the chance to catch its breath, it quickly regains steam and twists the audience into quiet frenzy as the film reaches its obvious conclusion. The script, photography, editing and direction all crisp and tight, and one where you may feel your own carnal urges coming out by at times hoping they get away with it all, that is until you come to your senses. The photography, in particular, is fascinating with the fog representing the darkness of their minds, the approaching dangers as their fate awaits, and a shocking conclusion that continues to be used in similar dark dramas of men manipulated by their lusts and the women whose devious natures lead them both into a one way ticket to damnation.