‘Bonnie And Clyde’ Shot Their Way Across Movie Screens 58 Years Ago

David Cohea 41 seconds ago

BONNIE AND CLYDE, Faye Dunaway, Warren Beatty, 1967 — Bonnie and Clyde (1967): Everett Collection

During the 1930s, the bank-robbing team of Clyde Barrow, Bonnie Parker, and their gang went on a crime jaunt across the Southwest, stealing cars, robbing banks and committing 13 murders. They were eventually killed in a police ambush on a highway near Sailes, Louisiana. Their spree became the stuff of folk legend, fed by a popular resentment of banks, which had foreclosed on so many homes and farms during the Depression.

In 1967, producer Warren Beatty and director Arthur Penn updated that tale for the Baby Boomer generation, turning Bonnie and Clyde into stand-ins for ’60s rebels. In their re-creation, the young couple are on a wild, anti-authority tear that only has one possible conclusion. Or, as the film’s famous tagline read, “They’re young, they’re in love, and they kill people.”

BONNIE AND CLYDE, director Arthur Penn, Warren Beatty on set, 1967

Everett Collection

Beatty originally wanted to cast girlfriend Leslie Caron as Bonnie Parker, the bored waitress who hits the road to perdition for a thrill — Jane Fonda and Natalie Wood were also considered, along with Shirley MacLaine, Beatty’s real-life sister. But the role eventually went to Faye Dunaway, a relative unknown who had greatly impressed Penn in her audition. The cast was rounded out with Gene Hackman in a his first breakthrough role as Clyde’s brother Buck, Estelle Parsons as his wife Blanche and, in one of his early roles, Michael J. Pollard as getaway driver C.W. Moss. (There’s a funny moment with Gene Wilder in his first film role playing hostage Eugene Grizzard.)

In addition to casting in the lead role, the film was Beatty’s first as a producer. He and Penn fought continually over the filming, and there were frequent delays while they worked it out.

The studio disliked the finished product and had attempted to get it released in second-string drive-ins. Beatty, however, convinced them to premiere it at the Montreal Film Festival, where the stars got 14 curtain calls and a standing ovation.

BONNIE AND CLYDE, from left: Faye Dunaway, Warren Beatty, 1967

Everett Collection

Initial reviews were not all favorable, as many disliked its heightened level of violence. (Penn said he was influenced by nightly news reportage from the deepening Vietnam War.) But audiences loved the film, and it went on to become one of the top-grossing movies of the year. The film received 10 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and five acting nominations. It made new stars out of Hackman and Dunaway, and her street-smart, swaggering rebel wardrobe complete with beret, became a fashion trend.

The film score composed by Charles Strouse featured Earl Scruggs’ banjo bluegrass piece “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” recorded by Flatt and Scruggs in 1949 and backdated for the movie. The song charted in 1968 on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 55.

As a side note, Morgan Fairchild began her film career in this movie as Dunaway’s stand-in.