Dalton Trumbo

Gun Crazy

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Laurie and Bart, both with guns in their hands

A crazy mixed-up kid is dragged to hell by a sexy dame in Gun Crazy (not for nothing also known as Deadly Is the Female), a film that has us by the scruff of the neck right from its fabulous opening scene. In super-sharp close-up a kid smashes the plate glass window of a hardware shop, steals a gun and then falls flat on his face in the rain as he tries to run away. Bad luck of this sort is to dog Bart Tare for the whole of his life. Flashback scenes flesh out this pretty decent kid with a strange obsession with guns – “Shooting’s what I’m good at. It’s what … Read more

He Ran All the Way

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John Garfield and Shelley Winters

Dead of a heart attack at only 39, John Garfield’s final film, He Ran All the Way, is a typically punchy affair, the scrappy Garfield playing a smalltime criminal who holds a family hostage after a heist gone wrong results in the death of a cop. In early scenes reminiscent of Brighton Rock fugitive Nick Robey (Garfield) darts among the holiday crowds at an amusement park and picks up a sweet blonde, Peg (Shelley Winters), using her to help him hide in plain sight from the police. But for the most part this short, cheap movie is set at the apartment where Peg lives with her father (Wallace Ford), mother (Selena Royle) and … Read more

The Prowler

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Mrs Gilvray opens the door to cop Webb Garwood

“A masterpiece of sexual creepiness” – writer James Ellroy’s verdict on 1951’s The Prowler, a film that gave two good actors roles of a lifetime and which languished in the pit of obscurity until it was rescued by a restoration in 2011. The “sexual creepiness” arrives early on. Married woman Susan Gilvray (Evelyn Keyes) calls the cops after seeing what she thinks is a prowler outside her window, peeking at her as she got out of the bath. The cops turn up. No one there. Or is there? One of the policemen, Webb Garwood (Van Heflin), has taken an instant interest in Mrs Gilvray and he returns later that evening, ostensibly just to … Read more