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White man’s jungle

Another act from the enjoyably eclectic “Bob Harris Saturday Night” playlist is Australian C.W. Stoneking.

I hope Bob Harris has another, similarly mixed show coming up on BBC Radio 2. And I’m looking forward to the possibly probable return to Boston radio this spring of one of my favorite DJ’s, Barnes Newberry. A song that Barnes liked to play on his Highway 61 Revisited radio program is this one, by Leonard Cohen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ61su9H5RU

I first heard this on the old WBCN at least 40 years ago, and only its use of my sister Marianne’s name kept me from fully embracing it. Later, I would mentally substitute another, similar sounding, name and that gave it meaning.

Gun hater loves Gun Crazy!

Last week, Turner Classic Movies showed Rififi, a superb 1955 French noir film I’d never seen, or even knew about, until I happened to see a tiny snippet of it at 37 seconds into this video I posted a few weeks ago. This evening on TCM I saw a movie I knew by reputation only, as the inspiration for Bonnie and Clyde — a film that I’ve never managed to watch past the first half hour, maybe because I’m not much of a Faye Dunaway fan.

The movie is Gun Crazy, a fast and tight 1950 B-grade flick. Originally released in 1949 as Deadly is the Female, it was written by Dalton Trumbo, and it’s noted for its brisk direction and groundbreaking camera work. But Gun Crazy belongs to stunning Peggy Cummins, in one of the most viscerally exciting performances I have ever seen. Now 85, Cummins was 24 when she made Gun Crazy.

The only other movie I know Peggy Cummins from is Night of the Demon, that I blogged here. Cummins in Gun Crazy is simply thrilling, defining a look and persona that reminds me of later roles by Carroll Baker, Carol Lynley, and Tuesday Weld.

Somebody has gone to the trouble of posting Gun Crazy in its entirety on YouTube, so I may as well take advantage of that and embed it here.