Thieves Like Us (film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Thieves Like Us is a 1974 film directed by Robert Altman and starring Keith Carradine and Shelley Duvall. The film was based on the novel Thieves Like Us by Edward Anderson, which was also the source material for the 1948 film They Live by Night, directed by Nicholas Ray. The supporting cast includes Louise Fletcher and Tom Skerritt.
The film was entered into the 1974 Cannes Film Festival.
Plot summary
Bowie, a youthful convicted murderer, and bank robbers Chicamaw and T-Dub escape from a Mississippi chain gang in 1936. They hide out with some colorful associates and continue robbing banks. Later, they hole up with T-Dub's sister-in-law Mattie and her children -- including her older daughter Lula, the object of T-Dub's lascivious attention.
Bowie is injured in an auto accident and takes refuge with the daughter of the gas station attendant, Keechie. They become romantically involved but their relationship is strained by Bowie's refusal to turn his back on crime. Chicamaw is eventually recaptured and T-Dub is killed while waiting in his car for his wife. Bowie poses as a sheriff's deputy to spring Chickamaw from jail but he quickly becomes disgusted with the violent, raving Chicamaw and abandons him on the side of the road. The Texas Rangers catch up with Bowie, who is betrayed by Mattie and meets a violent end. Keechie carries on, pregnant with Bowie's baby. (In Anderson's novel, she too is killed by the Texas Rangers.)
Cast
- Keith Carradine as Bowie
- Shelley Duvall as Keechie
- John Schuck as Chicamaw
- Bert Remsen as T-Dub
- Louise Fletcher as Mattie
- Tom Skerritt as Dee Mobley