Customer Reviews

Gun Crazy (BFI Film Classics)

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Kitses, a film professor at San Francisco State and author of the seminal Western study "Horizons West," brings his full powers to bear on this, one of the finest B-movies ever made. Alternating between film history and textual analysis, Kitses weaves a brief but rich story of the unlikely genesis of an American cult classic. He also provides revealing insights on the film's relationships to the western genre. One of the best in the BFI Film Classics series

When I popped "Gun Crazy" into my DVD player a while back, I was just hoping for an entertaining "B-movie" experience... you know, guns, crooks on the lam, a tempress who tries to be good but just can't, all that kind of stuff. So I was quite surprised that, in addition to getting all those things, I also got an extremely well crafted, excellently directed film with great performances and complex things to say about guns, the American dream, child psychology, and gender roles. It was a great film. So, I wasn't surprised to later see that the British Film Institute produced one of its thin BFI Classics volumes about "Gun Crazy". Written by film scholar Jim Kitsis, this is a great examination of the movie and very entertaining to read. I particularly liked the 5-page or so postscript, which describes the author's visit to the home of Peggy Cummins, the female lead in the film, in 1995. Ms. Cummins shares lots of great stories about the film with the author, as well as her reactions to the author's opinions about the film. A highly recommended little book for those who enjoyed "Gun Crazy".

Within the first few pages of BFI's GUN CRAZY we have Jim Kitses making stylistic analogies between this intriguing film and CITIZEN KANE--and the provocative comments keep coming. Originally bogged down in the title DEADLY IS THE FEMALE, GUN CRAZY has gain much-deserved status with the passage of time. Kitses credits French writers with the first in-depth study of this cult classic, a film largely forgotten and ignored by Americans until the release of BONNIE AND CLYDE. He gives excellent information about the film noir genre, discussing its inherent symbolism and iconography (rain, deserted street, stranger and policeman), and even demonstrates how Gene Kelly turned all of this on its head during the uber-famous SINGIN' IN THE RAIN number. Specifically, he views the protaganists of GUN CRAZY as figures reminiscent of the Old West, their hyper-developed sense of individualism at odds with the hum-drum status quo--which, naturally, makes them noir, too. Particularly worthwhile is Kitses' handling of Bart Tare's fanatical relationship with guns, a topic the film never quite explains. Of course, censorship problems are addressed, with excerpts from various letters from the dubious Breen Office. The romantic coupling of Tare and Laurie Starr, a genuine love match, is dealt with at length and with sensitivity--they're not your usual noir couple. The book concludes with Kitses' recap of his meeting with Peggy Cummings, who played Laurie Starr. It's a charming anecdote to top off an excellent study of the wonderful film called GUN CRAZY.

Jim Kitses did a wonderful job of remembering this great, great film, which was magnificently directed by Joseph H. Lewis. For those of us who love this movie, Kitses left its fans with wonderful memories.