The Crooked Way

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source: The Crooked Way

It's another one of those inexpensive mystery/gangster movies about an amnesic veteran who returns from the war and tries to recover his identity or, if he still has his memory, tries to figure out what's been happening in his absence. It's all pretty veiled. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Here, it's just unexceptional. John Payne discovers in Los Angeles that he has a shady past. But what else can you expect? (He turns out to have won the Nobel Prize for Medicine?) It's really another B feature with a careless plot and performances that are in no way interesting. Want an example of an unimaginable coincidence? He's just been released from an Army hospital. The psychiatrist has advised him to go to Los Angeles where he enlisted. That's the only thing they know about him. He steps off the train in beautiful Union Station. Two men are standing around and one turns to him and says, "Hey, Eddy!" A few minutes later he leaves them to make a phone call. He's spotted from across the street by his wife, who just happens to be at that particular point in space and time. Sonny Tufts is the most interesting performer in the picture. He usually is. He wears his debauchery on his face as if flying a flag. "Wow, have I been a bad boy!" I didn't find it worth sitting through. If I wanted a decent amnesia movie, I'd watch "The Bourne Identity" again. Someone else might enjoy it more. Judging from the user ratings, someone has.

....But the picture is 90 minutes long. "The Crooked Way" was cruising along with an unusually good storyline, some workmanlike acting performances and with the great John Alton's incomparable photography (Alton is a must for this genre and he never disappoints). John Payne reinvented himself in the late 40's, making the transition from musicals to noir just as Dick Powell did before him. Here he gives one of his best acting jobs as an amnesiac war vet who was a mob figure before enlisting. Sonny Tufts is cast against type as the mob boss and is remarkably good. They are ably supported by such stalwarts as Rhys Williams, John Doucette and weaselly Percy Helton. Ellen Drew is the love interest but is too refined in a part which called for someone like Claire Trevor, who could play trash in her sleep. Then about 10 minutes from the end the picture starts to unravel, with glaring illogic and several unanswered questions and non-sequiturs. For instance; why does Payne seek out Petey (whose part in the story is murky) to hide him out, why if he is the Boss does Tufts go in person to trap Payne - isn't that what his gunmen are for? and what was the point of trying to shoot it out alone with a squadron of heavily-armed police when he was cornered and without cover? Such questions would make you lower your rating on a first-rate picture. So I did.

Crooked Way, The (1949) ** (out of 4) Weak film noir about war vet Eddie Rice (John Payne) who is suffering from amnesia after going through shell shock. His doctor recommends he go back to his old stomping grounds to see if perhaps someone will notice him and tell him who he really is. This doesn't take long to happen but unfortunately for Eddie he learns that he's in bad with several gangsters. THE CROOKED WAYS features a few interesting ideas as well as some terrific cinematography but in the end the story is just way too loose and the direction downright flat. There are a few interesting ideas here including using a war vet who was a lousy crook only to discover bravery during the war. I think this aspect could have been focused on more and the film would have benefited. Another good aspect is simply the amnesia touch as this is a very simple but often effective gimmick used in various noirs and other dramas. I think this story line is something very hard to mess up but sadly Florey does just that. There isn't an ounce of energy to be found anywhere in this picture. The film is downright flat from the opening scenes all the way to the closing and it really appears that no one got the message that they needed suspense and tension in a film like this. The mystery involving who this guy is never comes off nor does anything doing with his ex-wife who is still with the gangsters. I think the twists and turns in the screenplay were all obvious ones that never really paid off. I also wasn't too impressed with any of the performances including Payne who seemed too bored here. I'm not sure what the reasons for but there wasn't any passion or energy in his performance. The same is true for Ellen Drew as the ex-wife. Rhys Williams is pretty good as the Lieutenant and Sonny Tufts isn't too bad as the gangster. Future Oscar-winner John Alton does a terrific job with the cinematography as he gives the film a unique and original look. As you'd expect there's a lot of darkness and shadows but the cinematography really makes the atmosphere something interesting and the look alone almost makes this film worth sitting through. With that said, overall this is 90-minutes worth of boredom without enough energy to keep it going through the end. Considering the talent you have to strike this one up as a disappointment.

John Payne is good. The photography is great. Ellen Drew is a little long in the tooth, but she is convincing. The guy who steals the film is Sonny Tufts as a White Heat kind of Jimmy Cagney; very intense. The film will grab you from the beginning and take you to the end without any dead spots, except for all the bodies of the hoods that get knocked off along the way. Lots of fun to watch, and highly recommeneded.

Decent, if unexceptional noir. Amnesiac ex-GI (Payne) exits VA hospital to pursue his real identity, which soon involves him in LA underworld. Real star here, as others point out, is photographer Alton, who provides the production with a strong visual edge. Too bad that neither the script nor the performances rise to that same visual level. Payne is workman-like as the afflicted vet trying to escape his old life and start a new one. However, there's nothing dramatically distinctive about his presence. Note too how deglamorized Drew is in her role as Nina, which is unusual for that kind of gangland role. The real problem, however, as others also point out, is Sonny Tufts' impersonation of a tough guy mastermind. It's just not his natural disposition, and he lacks the acting range to successfully fake it. Instead, we get a series of near laughable facial distortions meant to prove his tough guy intent. On the other hand, in the right kind of nice guy role, e.g. Easy Living {1949}, Tufts could be quite effective. Too bad we don't get more of Percy Helton's raspy Petey. He lends just the right kind of character color the movie sorely needs. Likely, the film is too low-key for its own good. Not even the abrupt killing of the cop registers the way it should. We simply observe without being made to feel. Anyway, the movie remains a visual treat in b&w, even though the dramatics fail to work up a level of edge or impact that could make the results memorable. A routine noir, at best.

-- This film would seem to have all of the ingredients necessary for film noir, but I was disappointed. The plot seems to have no sense of forward motion or suspense. The screenwriter doesn't seem to know what to do with the characters. The old ploy of amnesia is used here. Then, John Payne just happens to bump into someone who knows him on his arrival at the L.A. train station ! Immediate coincidence. I also thought the ending was forced, after many dark happenings up to then. One bright spot is the performance of Sonny Tufts. I've never seen him so tough & scary. And when he is trapped, he shows many different emotions as he deals with the tense situation. I had never heard of Ellen Drew, but she is photographed here at the height of her beauty. --

Poor old John Payne. It must have been hard working in Golden Age Hollywood with that last name, so close to that of a genuine A-list star. Of course, Payne came by his nom de screen honestly, whereas his counterpart was born Marion Morrison — so chances are JP believed he had every right to use his birth-name, damn the consequences. And, indeed, he managed to parlay his talents into a reasonably solid if unspectacular 30 year career, including the male lead in holiday favorite Miracle on 34th Street. Still, one wonders if he could have gone further with a different moniker — which brings us to The Crooked Way, a film made only two years after the aforementioned Christmas classic but already a step down from A to B-list for Payne. Directed by Robert Florey for indie La Brea Productions, the film stars Payne as Eddie Rice, a veteran suffering from amnesia. Unfortunately, Eddie's forgotten that, prior to his war service, he'd been the wise guy responsible for sending gangster Vince Alexander (Sonny Tufts) up the river — and Vince is still eager for revenge. Co-starring Rhys Williams as a friendly cop and squeaky-voiced Percy Helton (who I ALWAYS get confused with John Fiedler) as a cat-loving criminal, The Crooked Way is a better than average pseudo-noir featuring astonishing cinematography by genre specialist John Alton. Even if you don't find the story engaging, you won't soon forget Alton's work.

As opposed to COVER UP (1949), the film noir stylistics – courtesy of master cinematographer John Alton – are all over this one and they are its main raison d'etre; alas, the plot is rather routine, though by no means uninteresting. This low-budget effort proved to be one of Robert Florey's last movie projects and he competently handles the action throughout; most effective, perhaps, is chief villain Sonny Tufts' violent demise in a hail of bullets. John Payne, however, is miscast in the main role of the amnesiac war veteran as one doesn't quite believe in his earlier persona of a vicious thug! This opinion, though, might very well change after watching him in the reportedly superior KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL (1952), 99 RIVER STREET (1953) and THE BOSS (1956), three other noirs I have on VHS...