Trivia / Bonnie and Clyde

• Ability over Appearance: Faye Dunaway was nine inches taller than the real Bonnie Parker.
• Career Resurrection: Since his Star-Making Role in Splendor in the Grass, Warren Beatty had been in a succession of films that weren't successful, and was in danger of being remembered only as "Shirley MacLaine's little brother who was in a few movies." In producing and starring in this film, he not only turned his career around, but became a Hollywood powerhouse.
• Colbert Bump: Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs (and Bluegrass in general) got a huge boost after "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" was featured prominently on the soundtrack.
• Completely Different Title:
  • Italy: Gangster Story
  • Japan: We Have No Tomorrow
• Creative Differences: Cinematographer Burnett Guffey was dismissed during this production, due to artistic clashes with Arthur Penn (Guffey wanted more light, Penn wanted a more subdued tone). In the meantime, veteran Cinematographer Ellsworth Fredericks replaced Guffey, but only for a brief period. Penn, realizing that he'd misjudged Guffey, ultimately reinstated him, and Guffey went on to win a second Oscar for Best Cinematography for his efforts.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Faye Dunaway was told to lose 25 pounds off her 5'7" frame. For weeks she fasted except for an occasional salad and walked around wearing a 12-pound weight belt, with smaller weights around her wrists to help her burn the pounds off faster. She only took the weights off to sleep and bathe.
• Follow the Leader:
  • The film's success inspired a few exploitation films about other '30s gangsters, such as A Bullet for Pretty Boy (1970), directed by Larry Buchanan and starring Fabian Forte as Pretty Boy Floyd; Bloody Mama (1970), directed by Roger Corman and starring Shelley Winters as Ma Barker; and Dillinger (1973), directed by John Milius and starring Warren Oates as John Dillinger.
  • Likewise, many films in the Outlaw Couple genre (also inspired by other real-life and similar incidents) followed on: The Honeymoon Killers, Badlands, Thieves Like Us, The Sugarland Express, to name a few.
• Gay Panic: Bonnie and Clyde were originally supposed to have a bisexual relationship with C.W. Moss, but that was changed when Arthur Penn felt that would have defused the audience sympathy, leading them to be dismissed as "perverts" because they are criminals and ultimately harmed the story. There were also rumors that Warren Beatty was unwilling to portray a bisexual and potentially “ruin” his image
• Irony as She Is Cast: Warren Beatty, one of Hollywood's biggest womanizers, plays a character who suffers from impotence and in his own words "ain't much of a lover boy".
• Playing Against Type: Warren Beatty produced the film for this reason, eager to prove that he was more than just a prettyboy.
• Produced by Cast Member: Warren Beatty produced and was instrumental in getting it made (legend has it that he got on his knees and begged Jack L. Warner to make it).
• The Red Stapler: Thousands of berets were sold worldwide after Faye Dunaway wore them in this film.
• Screwed by the Network: Attempted. Warner Bros. — and Jack L. Warner himself — considered the film an unwanted and unpleasant gangster flick doomed to bomb and treated it accordingly, giving it a limited release. Even after the film turned into a runaway success, Jack L. Warner was said to have carried a hatred of it until his death.
• Sleeper Hit: Warner Bros. thought that the film would bomb, feeling that nobody would want to cheer for the outlaws in a gangster flick, and dumped it in August and offered Warren Beatty 40% of the gross as a result. Upon release, the mixed critical reception seemed to bear out their fears. But when young people started raving about it to everybody in earshot, it turned into one of the biggest films of 1967, and remains a classic.
• Star-Making Role: For Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. To a lesser extent for Gene Hackman, though he wouldn't quite be recognized as a leading man until The French Connection a few years later.
• Throw It In!: The famous shot of a cloud passing overhead while Clyde is chasing Bonnie through a cornfield was unplanned.
• Uncredited Role: Robert Towne was an uncredited script doctor on the film.
• Wag the Director: Warren Beatty and Arthur Penn quarreled constantly during filming, as the star questioned almost every one of the director's choices. As a result, the rest of the cast often spent hours waiting for them to settle their differences. One major bone of contention was Penn's insistence that they add a scene in which Bonnie and Clyde pretend to be dead. Beatty insisted the idea was ridiculously pretentious, but Robert Towne tried to write it anyway. The writer soon realized that Beatty was right, but cautioned him to avoid a confrontation on the matter. In his opinion, Penn was only holding onto the idea out of insecurity - he couldn't admit he was wrong. After a few weeks of filming bolstered Penn's confidence, Towne was sure he'd drop the idea, which is exactly what happened.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The writers of this film originally hoped to they could get either of the great French New Wave directors to helm this film, François Truffaut or Jean-Luc Godard. Unfortunately, after helping develop the script, Truffaut ultimately decided to direct Fahrenheit 451 instead and Godard made unreasonable demands when the producers were courting him.^note Supposedly, he wanted to shoot the film in New Jersey during winter, and was deeply offended when they refused. Given his disposition towards Hollywood, he was likely seeing just how much they would let him get away with. So Arthur Penn, whom Truffaut had recommended, did it instead. Sydney Pollack, John Schlesinger, George Stevens and William Wyler were offered the director's chair.
  • Shirley MacLaine was considered for Bonnie, but Warren Beatty decided to play Clyde and preferred not to have to kiss his sister on the mouth on-camera. Natalie Wood, Warren Beatty's ex-girlfriend (one of many actually), was considered for the role of Bonnie – and, incidentally, was actually a lot closer to the real Bonnie's physicality (they were both short ladies). Cher auditioned for Bonnie Parker, but when her husband/manager at the time, Sonny Bono, heard about the audition, he was furious at Warren Beatty for letting his wife audition for such a "controversial film". Jane Fonda auditioned for the role, and Leslie Caron and Julie Christie were also considered. Tuesday Weld, with whom Beatty had worked during his brief time in the cast of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, turned down the role because she was a new mother.
  • Before deciding to play the role himself, producer Warren Beatty's first choice for the role of Clyde Barrow was Bob Dylan, who, at the time, bore a physical resemblance to the actual Clyde. Truffaut had hoped to cast either Terence Stamp or Paul Newman.
  • Warren Beatty wanted to shoot this movie in black and white. This was rejected by Warner Bros.
  • Jack Nicholson was considered for either Buck Barrow or C.W. Moss, but he looked too similar to Warren Beatty.
  • Dennis Hopper was considered for C.W. Moss.

---