I was hoping this would come out soon and it was only a matter of time. I reviewed this a few years ago when it was available on DVD. It disappeared from sight for a while but now Warner Archive has brought it back in a beautiful Blu-ray presentation.
Joseph Lewis directed this brilliant study in insanity and sexual urges out of control. The movie opens with a young boy named Bart Tare, played by a very young Russ Tamblyn breaking a store window to steal a gun. In court we learn he has always had an overpowering love for guns and he is sent to reform school.
Flash ahead several years and Bart comes back to his hometown a grown man and out of the Army. He still has a love of guns. When he goes to a carnival in town that night with two friends, he meets and instantly falls in love with a sharp shooter called Annie Laurie Starr, who also has eyes for him after a sharp shooting competition.
Annie (Peggy Cummins) uses her feminine wiles to convince Bart (John Dall) that they need to start stealing money and live the good life. Before long the two are the most wanted thieves in the country. Bart has never been able to kill anyone, but Annie does during a robbery without remorse and now they are wanted for murder as well.
All of this is done in a great visual style very typical of film noir. Lewis even has us in the back seat of the car while Tare and Starr are looking for a parking place to rob a bank. The scene is a standout. I could rave all day about the greatness of this film. It is pure genius. I highly recommend this film for any movie fan. BTW, this Blu-ray has a wonderful extra called "Film Noir: Bringing Darkness To Light" and it's a doozy!!
The rest of the cast for this remarkable film include Berry Kroeger, Harry Lewis, Nedrick Young and Morris Carnovsky.
A huge thanks to Warner Archive for finally giving this a great Blu-ray release.
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