CROOKED WAY, THE (director: Robert Florey; screenwriter: Richard H. Landau; cinematographer: John Alton; cast: John Payne (Eddie Rice), Sonny Tufts (Vince Alexander), Ellen Drew (Nina Martin), Rhys Williams (Lieutenant Joe Williams), Percy Helton (Petey), John Doucette (Sergeant Barrett), Charles Evans (Captain Anderson), Greta Granstedt (Hazel), Harry Bronson (Danny), Hal Fieberling (Coke), Crane Whitley (Doctor Kemble), John Harmon (Kelly), 1949)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A minor noir film, originally made for radio. But its motif, about how someone can attempt to change his dismal past after getting amnesia, is pure noir. When Eddie Rice (John Payne), a war hero with the Silver Star, gets some shrapnel in his brain, he develops amnesia and is being treated for it in a San Francisco hospital by Dr. Kemble (Crane), who explains to him that his amnesia will be permanent because it is organic and not psychological. The doctor tells him, "Since the only thing we know about you, is that you enlisted in Los Angeles, go back there and maybe someone will recognize you and you can start your life over as a new person."
In Los Angeles, Eddie, who is prone to talk to himself, which the viewer hears as a voiceover, is immediately recognized by the police and told that he is a gangster named Eddie Ricardi. The police captain, Anderson (Evans), tells him to get out of Los Angeles, your presence here only spells trouble. Lieutenant Joe Williams (Rhys), who knows Eddie from having worked on his case before, doesn't believe his amnesia story and doesn't believe a person can change and go from bad to good, at least someone who was as bad as Eddie was.
Eddie meets Nina Martin (Drew) at an orangeade stand, but he doesn't recognize that she is his ex-wife. She brings him to the hotel he used to reside in and calls his old crime partner, Vince Alexander (Sonny), to warn him that Eddie is in town. She now works for him in his casino and also does odd errands for the crime boss. Vince, when receiving her call, is busy with a petty criminal, Kelly (Harmon), who just got his bail bond posted by Nina. He squealed about Vince's slot machine operation to the police and is being worked over by the boys, who will then waste him.
When Vince pays Eddie a visit with his henchmen, they rough him up after telling him only a sucker would come back. Vince tells him I grew up with you, we took a lot of raps together, and then you turned stool pigeon on me, turning state evidence on me so that you could beat the rap, making me serve a two year sentence for manslaughter. He warns him to leave town or else.
After the beating by Vince, Eddie returns to his hotel room and thinks to himself, "Why didn't Vince kill me?" "I should call Dr. Kemble!" But Kemble is not available. So he goes to Nina's luxurious apartment and tries to tell her that he is a different person, he is now Eddie Rice, the past is forgotten. She can only tell him that he brought her into this crime lifestyle and she likes it.
Vince changes his mind about Eddie leaving town and has Nina try and seduce Eddie to stay in town. But Nina now looks at Eddie differently and starts to believe that he has changed, as she tells him he better leave or Vince will kill him.
Eddie foolishly walks into the Golden Horn casino and meets Nina as she is sweet talking some fat cat customers, trying to get them to lose their money at the tables. Vince's boys in the casino take Eddie away with them, and Vince senses the change of mood coming over Nina and decides to get her later, after he takes care of Eddie. Meanwhile Joe Williams has Eddie tailed to the casino and when he goes there to get him, he is told by Nina that Vince's men have him.
At Vince's place, Williams is getting too close to what Vince is planning to do to Eddie and is shot by him. Vince has the best line in the flick, looking at the dead cop, he says, "Just when he was coming up in the department."Vince, thusly, frames Eddie for the killing, knocking him out and leaving him where they dumped the cop's body and also placing Eddie's fingerprints on the murder weapon. The police now want him for the officer's death, sending out an All Points Bulletin. Eddie doesn't help matters by robbing a gun store and taking a gun, as he tries to get away with Nina by his side. She has a shoulder wound from one of Vince's henchmen, and Eddie decides to leave her with a doctor.
The film's finale is done in grand noir-style, filmed in a Santa Monica warehouse, where one of Vince's flunkies, Petey, played by the rotund, minuscule veteran character actor with the high-pitched squeaky voice, Percy Helton, my all-time favorite bit player, who must have had thousands of uncredited parts in a variety of films. He is hiding out with his cat Samson after following Kelly, for Vince, and now he knows that Vince killed Kelly. Petey wheezes and coughs, reluctantly letting Eddie into his hideout, then calling Vince to let him know that Eddie is there.
The final shootout is well-done, as Vince comes looking for Eddie, and Vince winds up holding a gun to Eddie, using him as a shield to get away from the police, but Petey distracts Vince, allowing Eddie to go free, and Vince thereby turns on the police but is shot by them.
In the hospital, Nina and Eddie start over again, hoping that they can both overcome their past mistakes.
What distinguishes this film as not the normal crime-type of film, with a happy ending, but as a noir-work, is how it captures the changing societal attititudes of the protagonists, who desperately want to fit into postwar American society despite their prior misdeeds. This is seen mainly through the dark Los Angeles settings depicted by the camerawork of probably the best noir cinematographer ever, John Alton, and not through the thin plot structure of the film. What leaves a lasting impression on the viewer, is the warehouse shootout, as we see these antisocial types trapped like rats and how they react. The darkness of Vince's past and current life is contrasted with the John Payne character, who has a second chance in life to redeem himself, something noir characters think is impossible for them to ever get. That is the happy ending here, but its optimism is muted on the belief that his amnesia is permanent and because of that he won't revert back to his old self. It all seems credible because John Payne has the look of someone who has just come out of a laundry washing machine and is now being hung out to dry.
REVIEWED ON 1/10/2000 GRADE: C+
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
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