Chuck Wheeler: “Some people take out insurance policies, I’d like to take you out.”
Almost as if designed to be a scripted crime version of a PSA for the greatness of armoured trucks, Guns Girls and Gangsters (1959), directed by Edward L. Cahn, is a late era film noir that still has some bite.
Voice-over narrated by the above quoted Chuck Wheeler (Gerald Mohr), he’s the hardened criminal with the plan. With a dead-eye shot that can blow out a moving tire from fifty yards and a mug to match said blown out rubber, he plans on knocking off an armoured truck carrying two million dollars.
Recently out of the clink, Chuck has learned that his former cell mate’s gal, lounge singer Vi Victor (Mamie Van Doren), has shacked up at a nightclub owned by mobster Joe Darren (Grant Richards) for the past five months, meaning there might be a different type of crooning going on as well.
Uneager to help, Vi has been looking for a divorce from his jailbird friend, Mike Bennett (Lee Van Cleef – just as menacing as in those classic westerns he’s known for), and has no interest in helping the very forward Chuck meet up with Joe – who has a liaison with a money washer in Chinatown, Charles Wong (Beal Wong).
Not taking no for an answer, the tough as nails Chuck gets his meeting (at gunpoint no less), convincing the greedy Joe that the take is worth it. Without a choice, Vi is forced into the seedy plot, her job – to rent a visible room at a highway diner/motel run by Ann and Steve Thomas (Elaine Edwards and John Baer) and learn the daily routines of every arrival, delivery, and daily coffee drinker. The above couple are almost heart wrenching in juxtaposition, as the simple apple pie life is exactly what the lonely, melancholic Vi is looking for and has never found. . . and will likely never find in the circles she travels in.
Of course, with Vi living the type of lonely life that only brings around lowlifes, dives, and gangsters, she starts to fall for the always there Chuck. . . a perfect noir scenario finding the two finally kissing at a New Year’s Party when breakout Mike, now on the lam, looks through the window and witnesses their embrace. Can two wildcard gangsters with guns coexist with a sultry dame like Vi in the middle? Is there too much testosterone for a timed-to-the-second job like this to be pulled off properly (despite some excellent Bulova watches used in this movie)? Might Vi get her divorce in a different type of way? Or is she destined to experience a slightly different type of shotgun wedding?
Full of style but lacking a bit in the story department, the PSA-style narrative comes across as more of a weekly tv serial plot than true twisty film noir glory, but thanks to the able cast, it more than makes up for it. Van Doren is mesmeric as the sultry lounge singer who has never truly had a break (a few musical numbers add a nice touch), while Mohr is the prototypical tough guy (but in a good way) who loves falling for those very types of lounge singers, and Van Cleef is masterful as the über heavy. Anger always at ten, he kills first and asks questions later. Making for a powder keg of tension, it will all lead to a place most will predict, but perhaps with a few little surprises along the way.
Formulaic fun, Guns Girls and Gangsters is, at just seventy minutes, an easy viewing B-noir foray. Though it might not add anything new to a genre that had already been around for close to two decades by this point, it makes up for what it lacks with a strong cast, classic noir visuals, and high octane pacing. So, discover if the three G’s are in the correct order, for they will all play their part in this motion picture.