The story of a young couple whose anarchic amour fou extends beyond each other to the fact that they both “just love guns,” Gun Crazy is vintage noir. Critics including Paul Schrader, Peter Bogdanovich, and Andrew Sarris have noted its superiority to its thematic counterpart, Bonnie and Clyde, Schrader calling it a “shockingly brilliant film.” A virtual paean to sex and violence in a noir proletarian setting, Gun Crazy makes no attempt to psychoanalyze its heroes, and it is perhaps as noted for this absence as for the three tour-de-force sequences for which it is famous: a brilliantly executed robbery of a meat-packing plant; the one-take Hampton heist; and the evocative meeting at the carnival where John Dall accepts the barker's challenge to outshoot Peggy Cummins.