DRIVE A CROOKED ROAD (director/writer: Richard Quine; screenwriters: from the book by James Benson Nablo/Blake Edwards; cinematographer: Charles Lawton; editor: Jerome Thoms; cast: Mickey Rooney (Eddie Shannon), Dianne Foster (Barbara Mathews), Kevin McCarthy (Steve Norris), Jack Kelly (Harold Baker), Harry Landers (Ralph), Jerry Paris (Phil), Paul Picerni (Carl), Dick Crockett (Don), Mort Mills (Garage Foreman), Peggy Maley (Marge); Runtime: 82; Columbia; 1954)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A rather flat film noir that never gets that interesting. Eddie Shannon (Rooney) is a lonely grease monkey and amateur racing driver, who is cruelly ribbed by most of the men he works with and is insecure around women. Suddenly a very attractive lady, Barbara Mathews (Foster), lures him to be her steady date because her boyfriend, Steve Norris (Kevin McCarthy), whom he doesn't realize is her boyfriend, wants her to get him to drive the getaway car during the robbery of the Palm Springs bank. The gang needs an expert driver to go over a rough road and get to an exit in a short time so that the robbers will avoid the police roadblock.
Eddie only does it because he's afraid of losing Barbara, someone he has come to love, even though they have no physical contact, in the week he has known her. She cons him into doing it and he's so naive and hungry for her love that he's clueless as to what she's up to. Steve's strong-arm partner, the wisecracking Harold (Kelly), is ordered by the boss to bump off the poor sucker when he returns to Steve's place after the successful heist and the guilt-ridden Barbara tells him that he was setup as a chump.
Warning: spoiler to follow in the next paragraph.
But Eddie skillfully crashes the car headed for a secluded Santa Monica beach spot, where Steve is ordering him to go at gunpoint. This kills Harold, but the injured Eddie returns to Steve's house, where he shoots him when he sees him beating Barbara for disobeying his orders to not tell Eddie anything. The police arrive, as Eddie comforts Barbara.
The film is best at capturing how lonely and isolated Eddie is, and how his dreams of being a Grand Prix champion rider seem out of the question but are the only tangible things he has going for him until Foster enters his life. Eddie is portrayed in a sympathetic light, despite his poor judgment exercised. It's the simpleness of this tale and lack of any pretensions that makes it convincing but not necessarily sparkling.
REVIEWED ON 9/5/2001 GRADE: C
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
ozus@sover.net
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ
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