Admired by critics from Paul Schrader to the surrealist Ado Kyrou, Gun Crazy is the film that put "B" director Joseph H. Lewis on the movieland map of auteurs. Lewis' expert noirs, like this film and The Big Combo (see May 19), are equally remarkable for their thought-provoking deviations from that mode in twists of vigorous intelligence and originality. Gun Crazy tells of a willowy, peaceful young man (John Dall) who, inexplicably, "just loves guns"; he meets a hot sharpshooter (Peggy Cummins) who knows why she loves guns, and their sexual/shooting spree takes them far from society's borders (on "the road which leads from l'amour fou to la revolte folle"--Ado Kyrou). Despite some hokey business about the young man's fatherless boyhood, once the action starts, the two lovers are stripped of all psychological depth or "character logic," and are to be interpreted only by their actions. With bravura set-ups and camerawork by Russell Harlan, Lewis emulates and embodies the recklessness of his heroes.