The Crooked Way (1949)

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Memorable, crazy movie

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Like another warbler, Dick Powell, John Payne saw himself as a tough guy. So after fighting the war in films and singing in musical movies during the war, he went more and more into noirs, even producing one, Kansas City Confidential.In this film, which reminded me of Somewhere in the Night, Payne plays a war hero, given the Silver Star, who knows himself as Eddie Rice. He has a steel plate in his head from a battle injury and has permanent amnesia. He wants to know who he is, so he takes what information the doctor has on him and goes to Los Angles. He soon learns he was a thug, and a double-crossing thug at that, and the list of people who want to get even with him -- Eddie Riccardi -- is long.This is a pretty good movie, with great cinematography by John Alton, photographed in true noir fashion.Payne is very effective in his role. He was always a good, likable actor with impressive looks. He also had a brain in his head, putting his own money into Miracle on 34th Street when the studio was less than enthusiastic (and released it in August) and heavily investing in real estate. As Nina, Ellen Drew is good and very attractive.As a criticism -- I realize that in 1949 Los Angeles wasn't as populated as it is today, but it certainly had more than a dozen or so people in it. The minute this guy gets off the train, he starts running into people who know him, some of whom want him dead. Let's just say word spread instantly, with no twitter or texting.

Robert Osborne introduced "The Crooked Way" on TCM as nothing special when it was first released but a particular favorite of film noir fans now. I count myself as one of those fans, but have to admit that I'm a bit perplexed as to what it is about this film that would cause it to stand out from any number of other perfectly serviceable films like it. The deep-shadow photography courtesy of John Alcott was another of the film's attributes pointed out specifically by Osborne, and it is indeed probably its best asset. As for the rest, it's standard-issue noir with John Payne in one of his tough-guy roles. Granted, standard-issue noir is fine with me, but there are countless other noirs I've liked more than this one.Grade: B

With all the past notoriety in the Los Angeles papers and the officials couldn't figure out who amnesiac John Payne (Eddie Rice- Riccardi) was? That I found to be somewhat hard to digest.Nonetheless, this is a nicely paced action thriller where an amnesiac returns to where he had originally enlisted only to find that he has some criminal past and that a guy who was guilty when he was freed is out to get him.Ellen Drew does a nice job as Eddie's wife, now working for the ruthless Sonny Tufts. To add more to this, the Tufts character frames Eddie for the murder of a police officer and therefore the majority of the film becomes centered around Eddie trying to prove his innocence while eluding the police.

. . . slicing through the brain of sociopath\killer Eddie Riccardi to turn him into altruistic Silver Star-winning Boy Scout Eddie Rice, eager to work as an unpaid operative for the LAPD. Though we never find out HOW a mob hit man made it into the U.S. military during WWII, who better to go after the likes of Hitler and Hirohito? Many viewers had trouble believing that actor John Payne--who plays the two Eddies in THE CROOKED WAY--actually would settle down with Pouty sad sack Susan (Natalie Wood) for a stepdaughter at the close of MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET. Sure enough, Payne quickly ditched his law books as soon as he realized that the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy would not need his rather specialized legal services, and began looking for a flashier lifestyle--one with a spunkier mate, to boot. He attains both objectives in THE CROOKED WAY, with plenty of man-style fighting and a ready-made wife in Ellen Drew. If Payne needs a touch of melancholia at the close to substitute for not having Susan, he can always adopt the late Petey's feeble feline, Sampson.