Guns Don't Argue

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Guns Don't Argue
Film poster
Directed byBill Karn & Richard Kahn
Screenplay byWilliam Faris; Phillips Lord
Produced byWilliam Faris
StarringMyron Healey
Jean Harvey
Paul Dubov
Sam Edwards
Richard Crane
Lash LaRue
CinematographyClark Ramsey
Edited byRobert T. Spar
Music byPaul Dunlap
Production
company
Visual Drama Inc.
Release date
  • December 1, 1957 (1957-12-01) (United States)
Running time
92 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Guns Don't Argue is a 1957 low-budget feature film about the early achievements of the FBI in defeating the most notorious criminals of the 1930s. The film involves dramatizations of the crimes and the eventual demise of various gangsters, told with a moralistic narrative.

Plot

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The film takes the form of a docudrama in which actors who are cast as FBI special agents speak to camera about the war on gangsters in the 1920s and 1930s. Using contacts with gun molls, agents hunt criminals. The film dramatizes the crime careers and final capture or deaths of John Dillinger, the Barker Gang (Ma Barker, Fred Barker, Arthur Barker, Alvin Karpis), Bonnie and Clyde, Homer Van Meter, Doc Barker and Pretty-Boy Floyd.

Cast

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Production

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Guns Don't Argue consists of footage compiled from three episodes of the 1952 television series Gangbusters, which was based on the Gang Busters radio program. The franchise was the source of the Gang Busters serial film in 1942 starring Kent Taylor and Gang Busters in 1955, which was also composed of excerpts from the television series.

The film is a revisionist docudrama, portraying the war on gangsters from the 1920s and 1930s from an FBI point of view. Most notable is the portrayal of the deaths of Bonnie and Clyde and John Dillinger. The scenes show each firing the first shot and having ample time to surrender, when in fact they were shot in ambushes by police and federal agents. Another inaccuracy is the misidentification of FBI agent Raymond J. Caffrey, who was killed in the Kansas City massacre of 1933, and the false assertion that it had been his first day with the FBI.

Reception

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In a contemporary review, The Springfield Union called the film's depiction of crime a "better-than-average job" but noted that the acting occasionally elicited unintended laughter from some audience members.[1]

The film is greatly admired by Martin Scorsese, who has said: "It's an amazing film. It's to be studied, because it shows you how to make a film on a low budget."[2]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "'Guns Don't Argue' Capitol Feature". The Springfield Union. Springfield, Massachusetts. 1957-09-26. p. 38.
  2. ^ Woods, Paul, Scorsese: a journey through the American psyche, Plexus, 2005, p.91.
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