Bonnie and Clyde was a film that broke boundaries upon its release in 1967 and, in a monumental watershed, transcended the taboos of mainstream Hollywood cinema. Arthur Penn’s excellent outlaw biopic shocked with its anti-hero celebration, open sexuality and bloody shootout action. It also, as an interesting aside, marked the movie debut of Gene Wilder, most famous for playing the title character in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and being a key player in many a Mel Brooks movie.

Making a brief cameo as Eugene Grizzard who suffers the indignity of having his car nabbed by Bonnie and Clyde’s Barrow Gang, Wilder’s first feature film role is a memorable, marvellously comic episode. Impulsively going after the thieving gang, led by Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway as the notorious criminal couple, Grizzard and girlfriend Velma find the tables turned as they become the prey and are taunted and taken hostage in Grizzard’s own automobile.

Trapped and out riding with the famous fugitives and their fellow hoods (including Gene Hackman as Buck Barrow) what follows is a crackingly humourous scene in which Grizzard and Velma squirm uncomfortably in the presence of the unsavoury company. Wilder’s nifty display of nervous apprehension is especially enjoyable to watch and the scene is commendable in the way it crams so much black comedy and additional detail into such a short segment.

One alternative title may have proclaimed “Bonnie and Clyde… Were Killers!” but those hoodlums sure did have a sense of humour. It ends on a sour note, however, as Wilder’s character reveals that he’s an undertaker. Sick man: he makes money out of dead people (Bonnie and Clyde have no time to dwell on their own double-standards). Eugene and Velma are subsequently ditched and abandoned by the roadside as the ethic-free outlaws make something resembling a moral judgement. In a film that oscillates between tense drama, tough violence and feel-good capering, the incident that introduced Gene Wilder to the silver-screen is one particular sparky moment in this masterpiece of the crime genre.

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