Gun Crazy (original 1949 tasteless release title: Deadly Is the Female) is generally accepted as both one of the greatest B-movies of its time, and as a classic piece of film noir.

John Dall is Bart Tare, a man who's been obsessed with guns ever since he was a young child. He can shoot like no other. He killed an animal one day as a child, was devastated, and he vowed never to kill again. Real NRA poster child. His character might even be cliché if this were a Western, but putting him in a Noirish flick like this was pretty original. Bart's adult life begins well, he's at an age where he can buy expensive guns and...shoot things.

Peggy Cummins plays the femme fatale, Annie Laurie Starr. She's a classic femme fatale, beautiful, money-grubbing and deadly. (Despite her deadliness, Deadly Is the Female is still a really bad name, and it was wise of them to rename it). The two meet at a traveling carnival where Laurie is currently working as the main attraction, a sharpshooter. There's an offer for anyone in the audience to try and outshoot Miss Starr. Bart takes it up and outshoots her. They fall in love immediately. They marry, but are without a real source of money. Laurie slowly convinces Bart join her in robbing stores at gunpoint. The remainder of the film is Bonnie and Clyde before Bonnie and Clyde, as the lovebirds flash their guns and fill their pockets. Laurie occasionally kills people in the process, and this plays on Bart's conscience.

The screenplay was adapted from a Saturday Evening Post story by MacKinlay Kantor. Kantor collaborated with blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, who was one of the infamous Hollywood 10. Trumbo went by Millard Kaufman in the credits.

The film was completely ignored at The Academy Awards, not a single nomination. However, it has proven to be an important film, and in 1998 the Library of Congress appointed National Film Preservation Board decided it was a film worth preserving.

It was remade as "Guncrazy" in 1992, starring Drew Barrymore. I personally haven't seen that version, and I don't plan to.