MovieChat Forums > Gun Crazy (1950) Discussion > Long shot scene in Gun Crazy

Long shot scene in Gun Crazy

posted 17 years ago by jasonbourneagain
18 replies | jump to latest

From IMDB trivia section:
"The bank heist sequence was done entirely in one take, with no one outside the principal actors and people inside the bank aware that a movie was being filmed. When John Dall as Bart Tare says, "I hope we find a parking space," he really meant it, as there was no guarantee that there would be one. In addition, at the end of the sequence someone in the background screams that there's been a bank robbery - this was actually a bystander who saw the filming and assumed the worst."

It wasn't the first long take sequence in Hollywood film history, but the first time a long shot was done with the camera was placed in the back seat. It's a fantastic shot! Wow! It drives me Gun Crazy !!!

Did it blow you away, too?

Put Dirty Harry in the IMDB top 250!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066999/ratings

[–] st-shot 16 years ago

A great shot. It truly gives you the subjective feeling that your the third bank robber in the back seat. Thanks for the extra info, there's nothing like a stolen shot in metropolitain areas.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] bbowman-7 15 years ago

It's obvious the dialogue was totally improvised, giving it even more realism.
Dall, of course was familiar with the long-take process, having done it with Hitchcock two years before in ROPE.

[–] dobberx 9 years ago

That was an amazing scene!

Loved the idea of a bank robbery where we don't actually go into the bank with the crook. The entire sequence from the perspective of being in the back seat of the car was brilliant.

The two leads did an excellent job in the entire film.

A very impressive piece of work.

[–] Adler-99 9 years ago

I just watched "Gun Crazy" for the first time last night (Man, where has it been all my life! I feel like an idiot). The long continuous shot of the bank robbery struck me immediately. Yes, Laurie's conversation with the policeman seemed forced and strained, which fit the scene perfectly.

So many interesting visuals in this film -- the shots from the back seat of the car, the scene where both leads are speaking despite having their backs completely to the camera, the overhead shot of them planning their big heist.

Wonderful chemistry between Dall and Cummins as well.

[–] bbowman-7 15 years ago

{...at the end of the sequence someone in the background screams that there's been a bank robbery - this was actually a bystander who saw the filming and assumed the worst." ...} Sorry am I deaf? Ran it back and forth and couldn't hear it.

[–] hoyo-mont 14 years ago

"Did it blow you away, too?"
YES.

The whole film is great, but this scene in particular feels so far ahead of it's time. It's so perfectly executed, and absolutely thrilling without seeming to try too hard. There was nothing like it at the time, and it's still better than robbery/getaway scenes filmed 10, 30, 60 years later.

[–] Zipper69 14 years ago

Several uses of the camera positioned inside the car with the actors (not stunt doubles or stand-ins) clearly driving the car and throwing it around pretty robustly too (no sign of under-cranking for speed) give this a intensely modern aspect.

Especially when one considers how many CURRENT films still depend on green screen (just a more sophisticated version of back/front projection) to show "driving".

Come on lads, bags of swank!

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] Sproketer 14 years ago

I just thought I would time it, and it's exactly three and a half minutes long. I wonder if they had to do it more than once.

[–] pt100 10 years ago

Check out Hitchcock's 'Rope' (also starring John Dall), that was shot entirely in 10-minute takes. For that sort of thing, actors really have to know their lines and be very proficient and rehearsed. It must be rather difficult.

[–] qwertzxcv 13 years ago

The shot overall was very good except for the conversation between Annie and the police officer, which I experienced as pretty strained.

As for the bystander who 'assumed the worst', that must have been something that was caught up by someone outside the car, I'm fairly sure it's neither hearable or in sight in the actual scene in the film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju67DqaRE7k

[–] hoyo-mont 12 years ago

There's a couple pages about this scene in Bogdaovich's interview with Joeseph Lewis in Who The Devil Made It.

The original script had 17-pages with a typical bank robbery scene, and Lewis thought it was a bore. He filmed his own test with a 16MM camera sitting in the back seat of a car while friends drove through Montrose CA. The end up shooting the scene in a stretch Cadillac with the cameraman on a makeshift board & saddle with two small mics under the sunshades, and a couple others outside. No overdubs, no rear projection screens. Billy Wilder calls him later and says, "we ran your film - it's great. How did you do that shot in the car? Somebody said you might have shot it real. I say impossible."

[–] oscarunger 11 years ago

the shot was stunning, I watched without any knowledge of the film at all and midway through I realized its all one take with improvised dialogue, felt very real and way ahead of its time, was this movie a hit at the time?

[–] 10 years ago

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