Bonnie And Clyde

Arthur Penn, the three-time Oscar-nominated director best known for "Bonnie and Clyde," the landmark 1967 film that stirred critical passions over its graphic violence and became a harbinger of a new era of American filmmaking, died Tuesday. He was 88. Penn died of congestive heart failure at his New York City home, said his daughter, Molly. A veteran of directing live television dramas in the 1950s, Penn made his film directorial debut with "The Left Handed Gun," a 1958 revisionist western starring Paul Newman as Billy the Kid. Penn, who was often attracted to characters who were outsiders, directed only a dozen other feature films over the next three decades, including "The Miracle Worker," "The Chase," "Mickey One," "Alice's Restaurant," "Little Big Man," "Night Moves," "The Missouri Breaks" and "Four Friends.

Hollywood costume designer Theadora Van Runkle, whose influence spanned four decades and a range of movie genres including period pieces like "Bonnie and Clyde" — which earned her the first of three Academy Award nominations — and over-the-top comedies like 1989's "Troop Beverly Hills," has died. She was 83. Van Runkle died Friday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles of lung cancer, the Costume Designers Guild announced. Born March 27, 1928, in Pittsburgh, Van Runkle made connections in the entertainment industry not long after that.

Before dying at age 25 in a hail of lawmen's bullets, Clyde Barrow had achieved the fame he sought -- and he had killed 14 men, directly or indirectly. His loyal moll, Bonnie Parker, may never have shot anyone. But as one of their cohorts in the Barrow gang said, "She was one hell of a loader." The notorious 1930s bank robbers were transformed into mythical outlaw lovers by director Arthur Penn, actor-producer Warren Beatty and screenwriters David Newman and Robert Benton in the 1967 film "Bonnie and Clyde."

On what would have been its 100th performance at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, the Broadway musical "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" was canceled Wednesday night after a backstage worker was found dead from a possible drug overdose minutes before showtime. Several packets of heroin were found "in the vicinity" of the 29-year-old male, according to one law enforcement official, but the cause of death remained under investigation Thursday. Police were called to the theater at 7:55 p.m. Wednesday after the man, a carpenter whose name was not released, was found in cardiac arrest backstage.

Dusk was approaching high up on the rim of Mulholland Drive and Warren Beatty, relaxed at poolside, looked down on the twinkling lights of the Valley before he recounted a quarrel he had four decades ago at the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank. "I was arguing with Jack Warner about 'Bonnie and Clyde,' and he said to me, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's fine, kid, that's your opinion.' Then he says, 'You have your opinion, but you do know whose name is up on the water tower, right?' So I said, 'Yeah, hey, look, it's got my initials!

Dede Allen, the film editor whose seminal work on Robert Rossen's "The Hustler" in 1961 and especially on Arthur Penn's "Bonnie and Clyde" in 1967 brought a startling new approach to imagery, sound and pace in American movies, died Saturday. She was 86. Allen, who was nominated for Academy Awards for "Dog Day Afternoon" (1975), "Reds" (1981) and "Wonder Boys" (2000), died at her Los Angeles home days after having a stroke, said her son, Tom Fleischman. Allen was the first film editor -- male or female -- to receive sole credit on a movie for her work.

Sharp blue eyes peer out from beneath a casually cropped pixie mop of gray hair. A magnetic smile, set off by a dark tan, is both warm and savvy. Yet it's Estelle Parsons' unique voice--slightly gravelly, with penetrating timbre and distinctive inflection--that makes the most lasting impression. Mesmerizing yet earthy, it announces the actress' quirky persona like a "Danger: Curves Ahead" sign on a mountain road. Etched on the collective consciousness of the American TV audience as Roseanne's cantankerous mom, Parsons is also remembered for her Oscar-winning performance in the landmark film "Bonnie and Clyde," as well as such recent movies as "Looking for Richard.

I admire "Bonnie and Clyde" as much as the next film buff, but Patrick Goldstein's designation of it as "the first modern American film" is highly arbitrary and fails to consider the cultural context in which the film was made ("Blasts From the Past," Aug. 24). "Bonnie and Clyde" was preceded by Hitchcock's "Psycho" (1960), Frankenheimer's "The Manchurian Candidate" and Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove" (1964). There was also "A Hard Day's Night" (1964), which although made in England was directed by Richard Lester, an American.

Re David J. Fox's article on the mixed reaction to "Godfather III" at its first industry screening (Dec. 14): I for one can't wait to see the film. I'm sure not everyone remembers this, but the reactions to three of the greatest films of the 1960s--"Bonnie and Clyde," "2001" and "The Wild Bunch"--were decidedly mixed. People either hated them or loved them; there was no middle ground. But with the passage of time all three are now considered classics. STEVE BARR Culver City

A U.S. couple wanted by the FBI in a series of armed bank robberies across the American West agreed to be deported from South Africa to the U.S. Nova Esther Guthrie, 30, and Craig Michael Pritchert, believed to be 41 -- dubbed a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde by newspapers for their alleged crime spree -- looked calm but serious as they appeared in Cape Town Magistrates Court. They were expected to fly to the U.S. on Monday.

Steve Martin and Ed Helms are brothers of the banjo as well as of the film and television arts — a fairly exclusive fraternity as crossover disciplines go. So it's not too surprising that Martin would be a hero for "The Office"/"Hangover" star in more ways than one or that he would be first on the invite list when Helms puts together his Bluegrass Situation festival, which has its second annual (and sold out) stand Thursday through Sunday at the club Largo in Hollywood. On a weekday afternoon, in preparation for the fest, they are in Adirondack chairs in Martin's Beverly Hills-adjacent backyard, kicking out the five-string jams and turning the star's green, green grass blue.

'True Grit: The Golden Age of Road Movies' Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Leo S. Bing Theatre, 5905 Wilshire Blvd. Admission is $10 for general audiences; $7 for LACMA members, seniors (62+) and students with valid I.D and $5 for the 5 p.m. Saturday shows For information go to http://www.lacma.org Schedule: Friday: "Five Easy Pieces" at 7:30 p.m.; "Play It as it Lays" at 9:30 p.m. Saturday: "Easy Rider" at 5 p.m.; "Zabriskie Point" at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 13: "Harry & Tonto" at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 14: "Bonnie and Clyde" at 7:30 p.m.; "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot" at 9:40 p.m. Jan. 15: "Electra Glide in Blue" at 5 p.m.; "Scarecrow" at 7:30 p.m. with special guest, cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond Jan. 21: "Two-Lane Blacktop" at 7:30 p.m.; "Alice's Restaurant" at 9:40 p.m.

Arthur Penn, the three-time Oscar-nominated director best known for "Bonnie and Clyde," the landmark 1967 film that stirred critical passions over its graphic violence and became a harbinger of a new era of American filmmaking, died Tuesday. He was 88. Penn died of congestive heart failure at his New York City home, said his daughter, Molly. A veteran of directing live television dramas in the 1950s, Penn made his film directorial debut with "The Left Handed Gun," a 1958 revisionist western starring Paul Newman as Billy the Kid. Penn, who was often attracted to characters who were outsiders, directed only a dozen other feature films over the next three decades, including "The Miracle Worker," "The Chase," "Mickey One," "Alice's Restaurant," "Little Big Man," "Night Moves," "The Missouri Breaks" and "Four Friends.

SERIES Bachelor Pad: Also-rans from "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette" shack up together for a second chance at romance on this new spin-off series (8 p.m. ABC). Samantha Brown's Asia: Malaysia is the latest stop for your intrepid hostess in this new installment (8 p.m. Travel). Last Comic Standing: The latest winner of the comedy competition is announced in the season finale (9 p.m. NBC). Intervention : A heroin addict faces his lifelong demons in this new episode (9 p.m. A&E)

Dede Allen, the film editor whose seminal work on Robert Rossen's "The Hustler" in 1961 and especially on Arthur Penn's "Bonnie and Clyde" in 1967 brought a startling new approach to imagery, sound and pace in American movies, died Saturday. She was 86. Allen, who was nominated for Academy Awards for "Dog Day Afternoon" (1975), "Reds" (1981) and "Wonder Boys" (2000), died at her Los Angeles home days after having a stroke, said her son, Tom Fleischman. Allen was the first film editor -- male or female -- to receive sole credit on a movie for her work.

Before dying at age 25 in a hail of lawmen's bullets, Clyde Barrow had achieved the fame he sought -- and he had killed 14 men, directly or indirectly. His loyal moll, Bonnie Parker, may never have shot anyone. But as one of their cohorts in the Barrow gang said, "She was one hell of a loader." The notorious 1930s bank robbers were transformed into mythical outlaw lovers by director Arthur Penn, actor-producer Warren Beatty and screenwriters David Newman and Robert Benton in the 1967 film "Bonnie and Clyde."

Although 1967 was a very good year for film and well-represented on the American Film Institute's Top 100 list with "The Graduate," "Bonnie and Clyde" and "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," guess which movie from that year didn't make the controversial list? It's the one that managed to beat out the others for the best picture Oscar: "In the Heat of the Night."

I am sure that the Paulettes, the acolytes of the late film critic Pauline Kael, will yell and scream at the suggestion in Jay A. Fernandez's Scriptland column that Kael was an auteurist ["Scary Tale Has a Scarier Subtext," Jan. 3]. After all, it was Kael who first condemned auteurism in her seminal 1963 essay "Circles and Squares." She followed that up with a 1967 essay on the writers of "Bonnie and Clyde" and her famous 1971 essay on Herman Mankiewicz as the writer of "Citizen Kane."

Every writer has a personal stash of the misbegotten, that folder on the computer -- or section in the filing cabinet -- for work that the author has given up trying to fix. Maile Meloy, 37, revisited hers three years ago when the literary quarterly Granta asked to publish a new story to go with her listing as one of the "Best of Young American Novelists." Meloy didn't have any new stories "so I got out all the ones from the pile, from the 'secret stash' . . . the ones that I thought were closest, and started trying to figure out which of them I could get ready."

Hollywood makes myths and always has, and I guess that's as it should be. Moviegoers want to be entertained, after all, so moviemakers have long burnished history to make it more entertaining. From "Birth of a Nation" all the way up to "Mississippi Burning," "The Untouchables" and the little-remembered CIA-in-Laos film "Air America," the facts of American history have marched off to battle with Hollywood myth and, sadly, at least for me, lost almost every time.