Watched this in my Film class today...

Indeed the film's Blanche was based in part on Mary O'Dare, Raymond Hamilton's girlfriend. Hamilton was one of the Barrow Gang's accomplices. After Bonnie and Clyde broke Hamilton, Henry Methvin, and several others out of Eastham prison in early 1934, Hamilton and Methvin rode along with Bonnie and Clyde. Along the way, they also picked up O'Dare, but she constantly clashed with the other gang members, so Clyde gave Hamilton the ultimatum to ditch his girlfriend or get out. Hamilton chose to leave. Shortly thereafter, O'Dare betrayed Hamilton and turned him in to the authorities and he was put to death a year later. So only the bit about annoying the gang was based on O'Dare. However, in Blanche's memoirs, Riding with Bonnie and Clyde, she mentions a couple of instances where she and Bonnie didn't get along, so that part of the movie is based on reality, too.

Mary O'Dare:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_EA7GXg-xAWk/TSk-1oTkcaI/AAAAAAAADRQ/2Lio6Gcb KOM/s320/Copy%2Bof%2Bmaryod.jpg

As for Blanche's "screaming horse's ass" portrayal in the film, that was also taken from accounts at the time. When the Joplin apartment was raided, Blanche did indeed run outside screaming with her little dog yapping at her heels. The reason Blanche may have been high-strung in Joplin was because a) it was her first gunfight, and b) it was so unexpected. Originally, she and the recently paroled Buck had gone to talk Clyde into giving himself up. They were only supposed to visit for a short while, but suspicious neighbors alerted the police and Blanche and Buck got caught in the crossfire. Buck instinctively grabbed a gun and began returning fire, killing a police officer. After that, there was no turning back and Blanche stayed with him out of loyalty.

Blanche being held back during her capture at Dexfield Park, as depicted in the movie (wearing breeches, riding boots, and sunglasses), while other men attend to the gunned-down Buck:
http://texashideout.tripod.com/bcaught.jpg

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Had she really been like that in real life, I think that I would have seen to it that she "accidently" caught some friendly fire during one of the shootouts. It was only a matter of time before that sort of behavior would have bought all of them a cemetary plot even earlier than they expected.

That's hilarious! I can actually picture it, too.


But truth be told, Parsons did more than just scream in her movie. She had tender moments, too, like when she took that drive with C.W. and lamented about being a preacher's daughter, and then later after her capture when Hamer goes to see her and she breaks down. I think the latter scene is what sealed her Oscar win, and she's very effective and touching in it. Furthermore, her character is really the only one who undergoes a metamorphoses. When she is first introduced, she's a mousy, prissy wife, but, over the course of the film, she becomes emboldened (i.e. challenging Bonnie to a fight and speaking up for herself) and eventually ditches her dresses and begins wearing slacks and smoking.


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What is the greatest film ever made?? Because it certainly isn't Bonnie and Clyde. Perhaps the biggest disappointment I have ever had when I sat down to watch a "classic". The movie is so dated and