The Bonnie Parker Story (1958) User Reviews

Should be a cult-movie

[pzanardo · 7/10 · 22 March 2004]

"The Bonnie Parker story" has the potential to be a cult movie. It is evident that a sad lack of bucks is the main cause of the faults of the film. No other reason, save some bizarre artistic choice, could justify the 1950s clothes and looks of the actors, within a 1930s story. And no bank-shot is shown all along the movie, another unwelcome by-product of a meagre budget.

In spite of its B-movie doom, "The Bonnie Parker story" has remarkable merits. The photography is accurate and evocative. The action scenes are realistic and very well filmed, the narration has a quick and smooth pace. The script oozes toughness and cynical wisecracking. In my opinion, a first rate job by the writer.

And then... that girl! That bomb of a wildcat-girl! Dorothy Provine is sensational, and not just for her stunningly gorgeous looks. Her aggressive, dynamic acting is unforgettable. She draws Bonnie's utterly amoral character, paired with an almost crazy courage, with a great force not lacking of subtlety. Huge fun to see her on the screen, especially when she ruthlessly ill-use and humiliate the male characters. An interesting, although undeveloped, side of Bonnie's psychology: she has an exclusive passion for command, while she seems not to give a damn for love. Well, let me give some credit to the little money used to make the movie. With a higher budget, probably they would have hired a more famous actress than Dorothy. What an enormous loss we escaped!

Dorothy Provine alone is largely enough to recommend "The Bonnie Parker story", but it's fair to take note of several other good sides of the movie.

POPULAR AIP CULT ITEM...MOSTLY BECAUSE OF SEXY & DOMINATING DOROTHY PROVINE

[LeonLouisRicci · 7/10 · 27 August 2021]

Drive-In/Grind-House Flick from American International Pictures that Specialized in Cheap "Teen-Age" Fodder.

Sci-Fi...Horror...JD...Rock n' Roll Pictures were Their Forte and most of them were Average in the Genre with some Rising Above Budget and Expectations.

This one, Featuring a Dynamo of a Performance from the Sexy, Platinum Blonde, Dorothy Provine Dominating Every Scene where She Appears.

Appear She Does, in a Few Scenes Stripping to the Lingerie, with others in Skin-Tight Tops.

All the while Spitting Put-Downs and Ridicules to any Male in Sight.

Toting a Tommy-Gun and Getting Down and Dirty when it Counts.

Dorothy Takes Over the Gang and the Movie with Ease.

The Production shows No Signs of Period with 1950's Hair-Styles, Costumes, Slang, Chuck Berry Riffs on the Radio, and Attitude...

One of the Gang Members Dreams...

"I want a big Steak with a green salad on the side with a bottle of good whiskey."

Someone comes back with...

"Didn't you ever want a hamburger and coke."

Bonnie Tells a Neighbor who is going to night school...

"You're the end"

Note...Look for a cameo from Gangster and Western and B-Movie Star Bob Steele as an armored truck driver.

PROVINE IS GOLD IN THIS EXPLOITATION GEM!

[shepardjessica-1 · 5/10 · 11 October 2004]

BONNIE AND CLYDE happens to be my favorite film, but as far as "exploitation" flicks go, this one is much fun and I wish I owned it. Ms. Provine is a jewel - sassy and bold and beautiful! Sidney Lassick from CUCKOO'S NEST has a small part as well. A 5 out of 10. Best performance = Dorothy Provine.

Late 50's and 60's exploitation flicks come with varying qualities, but this should be a camp classic, for it's inaccuracies, name changes, and outright hilarious dialogue, but Ms. Provine is a tough little cookie and means what she says and makes it a worthwhile film experience. Definitely hunt this one down!

No history here!

[benjgross-185-910837 · 6/10 · 10 December 2020]

Don't turn on this flick for a lesson about the real life gangsters here. Bonnie is the brains in this mob. Throw in some 1950s rockabilly on the radio from the future and enjoy the ride.

Lots of Fun

[Flixer1957 · 6/10 · 23 August 2002]

**May Contain Spoilers**

Blonde, pouty Dorothy Provine stars in this American International release. Jack Hogan is her boyfriend "Guy Darrow" and Joe Turkel is "Chuck Darrow." (Except for Bonnie Parker all the characters' names have been altered, possibly for legal reasons.) In this version the gang springs Bonnie's husband (Dick Bakalyan) from prison, leading to predictable clashes between him and Darrow. Lots of tough dialogue ("You're going to end up on a street corner, and not selling newspapers...") shoot-outs and smoke and flame in black-and-white. In one scene intended as comedy relief the gang is robbed by a young boy with a cap-gun. In another they scare off a Cub Scout troop led by goofy Sid Lassick. Bonnie's ghostly, echoing voice gives us a brief "Crime Does Not Pay" sermon after the foregone conclusion. Lots of fun, as most of these drive-in gangster pictures are, this originally played on a double-bill with MACHINE GUN KELLY. I'm still waiting for someone to make a movie with Bonnie and Clyde as butt-ugly, repulsive and perverted as they were in real life.

Odd period piece

[JohnSeal · 4/10 · 30 October 1999]

AIP makes a 30s gangster movie, starring a very 50s looking Dorothy Provine as bombshell and bank robber Bonnie Parker. Why the screenwriters felt compelled to keep Clyde Barrow OUT of the story is only one of the confusing things about this film; instead they substituted a character called Guy Darrow!! And dig the so-close-to-rock-n-roll-it-made-me-put-on-my-blue-suede-shoes music on the soundtrack. Obviously aimed at the teen market of the time, The Bonnie Parker Story just looks weird now. Provine is actually pretty good if you can get past her Mamie Van Doren hair and bustline, but there's not much else to recommend here.

You've read the story of Jesse James (...) If you're still in need....

[ulicknormanowen · 6/10 · 27 June 2020]

Do not look for a Penn-like movie,you would be disappointed ; in this film ,as the title reads, the star is Bonnie and Bonnie only;the others serve as foils to her .The poster tells the whole story.

The names were changed ,even Clyde's ; Buck and Blanche's appearance is short-lived .Blanche is not the ugly shrew (Estelle Parsons) of the sixties film : anyway the real sister-in-law always claimed she was more good-looking than Bonnie.Paul,Bonnie's husband, also shows up ,but he actually took no part in Bonnie's dangerous adventures, having not seen her after his time in jail .Gone are the "Robin Hood" side and Bonnie' s "trail's end" poem .

Here ,Bonnie is the gang's boss ,her authority over her accomplices is stunning . Fortunately ,Dorothy Provine -even though for today's audience Bonnie has Faye Dunaway's face forever- is up to scratch and it's for her you should watch this.

A 30's folk hero saga, told in the style of 50's rebels.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 31 May 2017]

The saga of Bonnie and Clyde has fascinated me since I was a kid. The classic 1967 film was probably the first adult movie that my parents let me watch; of course, TV greatly edited it, so when I saw it in its unedited state decades later, it had a larger impact. The songs of Frank Wildhorn and Don Black added soul to their characterizations in 2011, but as deeply touched as I was, I couldn't find my singing along with unrepentant killers. Even so, the twin soliloquy of "You Love Who You Love" stayed with me even though the show died a quick but painless death on Broadway.

So there we are, and I have finally gotten to the 1958 American International drive-in cult classic, showing Dorothy Provine as the sociopathic version of Bonnie Parker, altering the story just a tad, changing important character's names, and taking away the desirability of Faye Dunaway and the sultriness of Laura Osnes. Provine is unapologetically vile, seeming like a sorority girl from hell playing gangster for Halloween. Jack Hogan seems swallowed up by her as Guy/Clyde, making her seem like the leader of the gang rather than an interloper. His brother and his wife fave been altered too with a name and marital status change, and they involve Bonnie's estranged jailbird husband (Richard Balkayan) into the story, at least adding one true detail not in the Arthur Penn version.

I can see why this has a cult following and why it appealed to the lost generation of frustrated teens in the late 1950's. But like other gangster bio's of the late 1950's and early 1960's, it never feels like the era it's set in. Rothstein, Capone, Diamond, Floyd, all period stories with a modern style that never tried to step on the time machine to 25 years earlier. The time flow changes in badly edited in setting information that seems like it's off a bad TV documentary. Keeps em' on the cult list, but off the classic list.

Great...provided you wanted to learn NOTHING about Bonnie Parker, the 1930s or good acting.

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 16 August 2021]

When this story began, I noticed that this low budget film didn't even bother to try to look the correct period. While it was set in 1932, clothing and dress mostly looked like it was from 1958....and both had changed dramatically over this period of time. I can only assume the filmmakers simply didn't care about getting the look right or they had so little money to spend, they didn't bother. The real life Bonnie Parker looked about as much as Dorothy Provine as a tomato!

Either way, I wasn't very impressed.

The same can be said about the story itself. While it's supposed to be about Bonnie of Bonnie and Clyde fame, the story is only VERY broadly about them. Heck, they even call Clyde 'Guy' in order to avoid problems with royalties and permission to film the story in the first place! Had they stuck to the facts, such permission probably wouldn't have been needed but the film is essentially fiction.

Because of these problems, my advice is to just watch the film and accept it on its own terms. Ignore that it's not really Bonnie's story and ignore that the look of the film is all wrong...otherwise, finishing the movie will be very difficult! Ditto with the WAY over the top behaviors by Bonnie....she's played like a complete maniac with zero subtlety. And, at least this way, you CAN enjoy it because it's so ridiculous and overdone.

Not bad, it's worth seeing!

[RodrigAndrisan · 8/10 · 18 June 2020]

I hadn't heard of William Witney until this movie. Checking his profile on IMDb, I find that he was a complete filmmaker, a very prolific director, "Bonanza" and "Mike Hammer" being two of the most famous things he worked on. Now, about the salt and pepper in this movie: the very beautiful Dorothy Provine! Very beautiful! And very gifted! She is the film, it's worth seeing only because of her. I never thought I'd see her in such an extremely tough gangster role, after seeing her in very soft parts in movies like, "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World", "Good Neighbor Sam" "The Great Race", "That Darn Cat!", "Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die", "Never a Dull Moment", all 6 excellent comedies that delighted my adolescence and that I have seen each many times, especially "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World", which is also the best of all. Only 42 credits as an actress on IMDb but, due to her unique personality and talent, I'm convinced, she deserves to be discovered in all the movies in which she starred.

Ridiculous.

[valstone52 · 1/10 · 19 June 2021]

One of the most stupidest of the movies ever. From hair, music and clothes, this is the stinks.

Watchable but totally unhistorical programmer from AIP

[michaelprescott-00547 · 5/10 · 11 November 2023]

This no-budget take on Bonnie & Clyde interested me mainly in terms of the evolution of Bonnie Parker as pop culture figure.

In the 1930s, nobody imagined Bonnie as the top dog; it was always understood that Clyde Barrow ran the show. The roving band of bank robbers and cop killers was even known as the Barrow Gang. But by the '50s, the irresistible allure of a sexy lady gangster was turning Bonnie into a bad-girl icon, as also seen in Gun Crazy, a (far superior) film similarly inspired by the notorious pair.

Unlike the gun-toting Dorothy Provine, who expends more rounds than Rambo, the real Bonnie probably never fired a gun, though she did pose for her picture with one. She was no looker, either; in contrast to Dorothy's curvaceous charms, Clyde's Bonnie was a short, scrawny, tomboyish gal who, in the later stages of their frantic multi-state spree, was hampered by a busted leg that never properly healed, the result of a car smash-up. A less likely candidate for pinup status is hard to imagine.

But this movie isn't going for accuracy. Other than the title character, all the names are changed (Clyde Barrow becomes Guy Darrow, lawman Frank Hamer becomes Tom Steel, etc.). Most of the events, including the crimes, are pure fiction, although the final ambush isn't too far from reality. And the armored car heist, while completely made up, is handled with tension and skill.

What I like best about this unpretentious B pic is that it depicts Bonnie & company as ruthless, conscienceless thugs. A decade later, in a new phase of the story's pop culture evolution, they would become cool rebels - sexy, glamorous, and fun. That's probably how they're remembered today.

In that respect, at least, this forgettable outing actually tells the story straight.

A great action flick!

[Chris-147 · 10/10 · 14 June 2000]

The Bonnie Parker story is very different from many other American International movies. It doesn't deal with monsters or spaceships, but with a tough gangster, Bonnie Parker. Bonnie is played very well by Dorothy Provine, who's absolutely smashing in this picture (for all 50s style fans: she's a very good reason for watching this movie!). The story may not be as truthful as "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967), but there are many similarities between these two films. A difference is the fact they changed Clyde Barrow, Bonnie's partner, into Guy Darrow. I don't know why they did this, but it may very well be AIP wasn't allowed to use the real name, as has been the case with many classic true stories made in those days. Considering the low budget they had for making this movie, it's very well done. Some people complain about the 50s style approach to the story and to the music, but it didn't bother me at all. If you like the 50s style B-movies, you'll love this one!

One of the best of William Witney's films

[searchanddestroy-1 · 9/10 · 24 July 2022]

For those who don't know who Bill Witney was, let me explain, he was the most famous serial maker ever. The most gifted in that domain. Besides this, he also directed films and also TV episodes. Grade Z westerns too, starring Allan Rocky Lane, Gene Autry or Roy Rogers, singing cowboys. So, you see...This one, made in the late fifties, tells a topic in the early sixties mode ( rebel youth, juvenile delinquency) but which actually takes place in the thirties. Bill Witney, long before Arthur Penn, told Bonnie Parker's story using this juvenile revolt; smart, isn't it? Dotty Provine is outstanding here. It is taut, tense, tragic, and an excellent film noir from a serial specialist. But after all Spencer Gordon Bennet, also a vet serial director, gave us THE BOUNTY HUNTER, which was for him BONNIE PARKER STORY was for Witney. Try one day to watch, also from Witney, STRANGER AT MY DOOR, a strange film really worth; don't worry I will talk about it later.