Gun Crazy - Plot

Plot

Bart Tare (John Dall) has a lifelong fixation with guns—they make him feel good inside. At the age of 14, he is sent to reform school by a sympathetic Judge Willoughby (Morris Carnovsky) for stealing a pistol from a hardware store, despite the testimony of his friends Dave (Nedrick Young) and Clyde (Harry Lewis), his older sister Ruby and others that he would never kill any living creature.

After reform school and a stint in the Army, Bart returns home. He, Dave and Clyde go to a traveling carnival. There he meets a kindred spirit in sharpshooter Annie Laurie Starr (Peggy Cummins); she gets him a job with the carnival. However, their attraction to each other inflames the jealousy of Packett (Berry Kroeger), who wants Laurie for himself, and they both get fired.

The couple get married and embark on a happy honeymoon. She warns him beforehand that she is bad, but will try to be good. When their money runs out though, Laurie gives her husband a stark choice: join her in crime or she will leave him. They hold up stores and gas stations, but the cash they steal does not last long. Finally, she persuades him to take on one last big robbery so they can flee the country and live in peace and comfort. They get jobs at a meat processing plant and make detailed plans. They get away with a lot of money, but Laurie has an uncontrollable homicidal streak that comes out when she is frightened; during the robbery, she kills her office manager and a security guard. Afterward, they are supposed to split up for a couple of months, but neither can bear to be away from the other that long.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is brought in, and the fugitives become the targets of an intense manhunt. In California, Bart arranges for passage to Mexico, but the authorities track them down by the serial numbers from bills from the plant. They are forced to flee, leaving all their loot behind.

With no place else to go, they go to Ruby. Bart's old friends, now a reporter and the local sheriff, plead with him to give himself and Laurie up. Instead, they flee into the mountains where Bart used to go camping in the summer. They are surrounded, and Dave and Clyde approach them to try to save their lives. When Bart sees Laurie preparing to gun them down, he shoots her and is turn killed by the police.