The Crooked Way
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Movie Reviews of The Crooked Way
Movie Review: A rare film noir...
Summary: 5 Stars
finally available. The transfer is excellent (there are some cropping issues and it appears to be converted from PAL) especially for under 10 bucks! Every noir fan will love this one...Movie Review: An okay noir with great John Alton style and that odd, unnerving character actor, the fine Percy Helton
Summary: 4 Stars
If you believe that noir is a style more than a genre and that you'll recognize the style as soon as you see it, you'll have The Crooked Way pegged ten minutes in. That's when Eddie Rice (John Payne), a war vet who won the Silver Star and has a hunk of shrapnel in his brain, hits the streets of Los Angeles to find out who he is. Eddie has spent five years in an Army hospital in San Francisco while doctors worked to help him recover his memory. He has complete amnesia. But as his doctors point out, there's amnesia and there's amnesia. Eddie has the kind that's organic. His brain has been damaged and nothing will bring back his past. He can start anew. All Eddie knows is that his papers say he enlisted in Los Angeles. That's where he goes to see if he can find someone who knows who he was. And that's when John Alton's great noirsh cinematography kicks in. We know we're going to find ourselves walking right next to Eddie Rice in a grandly-lit crime caper of violence and betrayal, of wet streets and dark warehouses, of shadows cast by no sun or moon we've ever seen before, and of harsh, blinding whites and deep, deep blacks. The movie looks great. Please note that elements of the plot are discussed.
As soon as Eddie walks down the steps of the L.A. train station, however, he meets police lieutenant Joe Williams, just by accident. Williams tells Eddie he'd be wise to turn around and leave L.A. for good. It turns out Eddie Rice is really Eddie Riccardi, a crook and an informer who helped put away his friend and partner, crime boss Vince Alexander (Sonny Tufts). If Eddie doesn't get out of down, Williams almost chortles, just think of what Vince will do to you. Eddie, again just by accident, then happens to come across Nina Martin (Ellen Drew), who also tells him to get lost. It seems Eddie did her wrong and she now works for Vince...even though she's still Eddie Riccardi's wife. Then Vince learns Eddie's back. Vince is a tough guy who gets mad easily and believes in permanently disposing of people who cross him. He's in the rackets and runs a big gambling operation. By the time Vince and his goons get through with Eddie, Eddie looks worn around the edges. By the time Eddie gets through with Vince, Vince is air-conditioned. But Eddie stays Eddie Rice. All those memories are gone. It seems that he and Nina will, as Eddie says, have a chance at a decent life.
Coincidence plays such a big role in this movie it's apparent the writers didn't seem to have the time to do a better job. Too bad, because elements of the movie are good. The old amnesia device still works. The plot, powered by the uneasy, threatening style Alton creates, moves briskly. And for those who really enjoy the worn-down look of Los Angeles in the late Forties, the movie is a treat. Much of the movie was filmed in some grubby parts of down-town Los Angeles. When Eddie stops to get a glass of orange juice, he's at what looks like an Orange Julius stand. Later, at night, we see streets filled with open-window shops selling ten-cent red hots, tamales and "Western Farms Fresh Churned Buttermilk." A set of narrow stairs leads to a grubby hot-sheet second floor hotel next to a flashy dance hall. A worn-out movie house is showing Pitfall with Dick Powell.
As for the acting, it's a mixed bag. John Payne has always seemed to me to be stiff and empty as an actor. He has two expressions here, puzzled and sad or as if someone is stepping on his big toe. Sonny Tufts was a big, blond guy with a light voice and a meaty face. He started to hit the big time in the mid-Forties, usually as a big, lovable lug. Then booze hit him hard. It didn't help when two women filed separate charges against him for biting their thighs. Neither he not his career ever recovered. He became a punch-line for comedians. Tufts tries to make Vince menacing by often speaking in a kind of whisper. With his light voice, he sounds like a cross between Clint Eastwood and Alice Faye. But then we have Rhys Williams as Lt. Joe Williams. He does a fine job as an energetic, confident cop who likes to bait the bad guys. Most of all, we have that wonderful, odd character actor, Percy Helton. He was a small, round-headed, balding man with an unforgettable high, squeaky voice. If you've seen him, you won't forget him. He almost always played unreliable or slimy or cowardly characters. In The Crooked Way, he's a two-bit crook who cares greatly for his sick cat, Samson.
The DVD transfer is surprisingly good, in the order of a solid VHS tape. There are chapter stops but no menu; the movie just starts when you put it in the player. If the price is right and you enjoy B noirs, this might be one worth getting.
Movie Review: Despite a too-straight script, this noir works thanks to actors & photography
Summary: 4 Stars
Amnesia is one of the staples - even cliches - of film noir, and it is often used brilliantly, especially in the short-term variety brought on by alcohol or knocks on the head (Black Angel is a fine example that comes to mind). There are a number of reasons for this usage - the war and it's psychological effect on the returning soldiers is certainly the most obvious external one, but in the labyrinthine, shadowy world of noir a search for a missing identity, a missing past can often add layers to an already complex story or set of characters.
THE CROOKED WAY shows us a less-common variant - total amnesia afflicting the protaganist, Eddie Rice (John Payne). Rice only knows from the Army doctors that he enlisted in Los Angeles, so he gets off the bus there to try to find clues as to his old life - and is quickly accosted by a pair of cops who know him as Eddie Riccardi, a small-time criminal in the employ of much bigger name Vince Alexander (Sonny Tufts) that they're still trying to put away for good, though Eddie's testimony against him had put him in the slammer for a while. And Eddie was apparently married, to Nina Martin (Ellen Drew) - who blames her for walking out on him. So he's got some problems - an angry wife prepared to turn him over to the mob, and a mob boss who wants him dead or at least hurt for what he did in the past. And Eddie can't remember any of it.
THE CROOKED WAY suffers a bit from not doing enough with the whole memory-loss angle. Eddie never seems even on the verge of really recovering his memories, but he manages to put together a past record pretty easily - and there's never any real doubt that it's the real past either. A masterpiece like THE BIG SLEEP keeps you guessing as to the motives and actions of nearly everybody throughout; here there's no question that Eddie is more or less the "hero" and that he's on the road to moral recovery ever if he can't get his old memories back. Though apparently a pretty nasty piece of work in his former life, now he's a typical example of the positive noir protaganist, someone trying to do right and atone, rarely if ever tempted into his old ways. And the cops badger him and go after him mercilessly - until they all of a sudden get the word from the Army that in fact his amnesia story is true, at which point they're more or less on his side. It's all a little too easily put together, and wrapped up.
But if the plotting and screenplay (by Robert H. Landau, based on a radio play) are obvious and sometimes even perfunctory, nothing else in this excellent production is particularly problematic. The cast is fine - why Payne, a better looking Fred MacMurray or a tougher Dana Andrews - never developed a better career is beyond me, he's been excellent in the half-dozen films (noir and westerns) that I've seen him in; and Tufts certainly gives a performance good enough to make me wonder why he was long considered a joke. Ellen Drew is tough and just attractive enough - little attempt is made to make her a glamor-girl type; Rhys Williams as Lt. Joe Williams does one of the better cynical cops I've seen in these films. And director Robert Florey's camerawork is fluid and his attention to the L.A. locations is as good as anything from the 40s I think - this really gives a feel for the place that set-bound work can never quite capture. But the biggest star is probably the photography of John Alton, the great master of the noir lighting style, who here shows that he's just as good at capturing the blinding L.A. sun as he is at depicting dimly lit nightclubs, police stations and alleys.
Note on the DVD: I wouldn't normally expect much from a company like Geneon, but this is a decent release with good contrast and fair sharpness; don't think it's a crappy public domain copy, it's quite decent. No extras at all though, not even a menu - the disc starts up as soon as you pop it in. Worth it I'd say for the noirophile at a budget price.
Movie Review: Simplistic, but Exhibits Iconic Noir Themes and Cinematography by John Alton.
Summary: 4 Stars
"The Crooked Way" is a minor film noir from 1949 with a familiar premise. Eddie Rice (John Payne) is a World War II veteran who has been in a rehabilitation hospital in San Francisco due to amnesia. A piece of shrapnel imbedded in his brain has caused him to loose all memory of his life and identity. Army records say only that he is Eddie Rice from Los Angeles. So he goes to Los Angeles in hopes that someone will recognize him, and someone does. Two police officers stop him at the train station and take him in for questioning. They say he is Eddie Ricardi, a gangster who ratted out his colleague Vince Alexander (Sonny Tufts) to save himself before skipping town 5 years ago. His ex-wife Nina Martin (Ellen Drew) also recognizes Eddie and rings Vince to say he's back in town.
"The Crooked Way" was based on a radio play called "No Blade Too Sharp" and directed by Robert Florey. The cinematographer is John Alton. The print I watched is very high contrast, to the point that shadows are often completely black. I don't know if the contrast on that print or transfer might be too high, but, as Alton is famous for not caring about detail in shadows, I'm inclined to think this is just a very high contrast film, like the great T-Men. In any case, this is a classic scenario of a man with no memory trying to discover himself, only to discover that he was not a good guy. He cannot recapture his memory or escape his past. It's reminiscent of the 1946 film noir Somewhere in the Night, a more iconic film that takes itself less seriously.
John Payne is tall, handsome, and tough as Eddie Rice, but he isn't given a lot to do. Eddie is a simpler character than "Somewhere in the Night"'s George Taylor. He seems oddly unfazed to learn that he was a sadistic thug in a previous life. Police Lieutenant Williams (Rhys Williams) has a quality unlike any policeman I've seen on film: a disarming combination of affability and nerve. Nothing scares him, and he is equally at ease with cops and gangsters. His manner is non-threatening; his pursuit of justice in not. "The Crooked Way" is not complex. It's dialogue is not especially sharp. But it is an entertaining film characteristic of the noir style.
The DVD (Geneon 2005): This is a grainy print, but there are only a few scratches or visible flaws apart from the grain, so it's not bad. Sound is ok. It isn't distracting, but it's not quite clean either. As I mentioned, the film is unusually high contrast, even for 1940s crime film, but I chalk that up to Alton. There are no subtitles, bonus features, or scene menu.
Movie Review: Ya Hadda Be There-
Summary: 4 Stars
The film has all the production features of a first rate movie. Chiaroscuro Black and White, sharply etched images, beautifully modeled characters. It has John Payne, an experienced actor by the time of the film, 1949, for years a second or third tier leading man (not strong enough himself to carry a film but a successful support to some of the top actresses of the day). There is a workmanlike script, not seeking nor finding originality, but successfully covering all the bases of a tough guy-cops thriller.
There is an accomplished cast of professional actors who help make any star look good. Most of all, there is Sonny Tuft. As I said in the lead-in, to appreciate seeing Sonny Tuft as a ruthless gang leader, "ya hadda be there" during WW2, when most established stars were in service and Sonny Tuft, come from nowhere and going to nowhere, co-starred with Bing Crosby and Betty Hutton, then coming into her own as one of Hollywood's Big Ones, in a major A film for Paramount. In fact, he made a series of A films getting above the title billing. Then the guys came back and Sonny Tufts picked up work as the guy who was once a star. There were jokes about Sonny Tuft, the actor; though, a husky, not bad looking man, who had trained operatically, he had a weedy voice and awkward demeanor. He was not Paul Muni (Scarface), Edward G. Robinson (Little Caesar) nor even Richard Widmark (Tommy Udo in Kiss of Death), he was a big, rather clumsy guy with an unimpressive voice and ungainly manner. Last I saw of him was on stage in a live theater, part of a circuit, including neighborhood playhouses throughout NYC, playing in a farce of the Yukon, a production which was never meant to hit Broadway (or even Kansas City).
Well, nostalgia aside, this is a well done film, of excellent B, though not A caliber. I would put it on the level of a decent, made for TV, film, with superior camerawork.