Drive a Crooked Road (1954) July 4, 2007
Posted by jackal in : Films, Film Noir , trackbackFrom the writer/director team of Blake Edwards and Richard Quine comes the minor yet engaging little robbery noir Drive a Crooked Road
Mickey Rooney stars as Eddie Shannon, a shy, lonely car mechanic and amateur race car driver with hopeless dreams of turning professional. When the beautiful, sophisticated Barbara (Dianne Foster) takes a shine to Eddie, he’s smitten. Then Barbara’s amiable friend Steve (Kevin McCarthy) casually mentions that he has a job for a top driver like Eddie - handling the getaway car on the demanding escape route from a planned bank heist. Eddie’s no criminal, but begins to think of the life he and Barbara could enjoy with all that money. But what Eddie doesn’t realise is that he’s being played by them both …
It’s easy to pick holes in the film. For starters, the climactic robbery is rather rushed, while Steve and Barbara’s nefarious scheme is laid out in the very first scene, leading to a sort of Columbo situation in which the audience is always ahead of the main character. It’s also obviously a ‘B’ grade production, but well-directed by Quine, and with good use of locations throughout, which adds immensely to the realism.
The performances are uniformally good, too, and the characters well-drawn. Mickey Rooney gives a sensitive, low-key portrayal of an interesting character - even as Eddie is drawn into crime, Rooney makes the guy such a likeable dope that you’re totally on his side. Dianne Foster is good as the duplicitous Barbara, especially when she begins to harbour doubts about what she is doing to Eddie. Kevin McCarthy is also excellent as the charming Steve, disarmingly friendly to 
the nervous Eddie until he finally reveals his true cold, callous nature. To go slightly off-topic, I’m immensely fond of McCarthy - Innerspace was one of my favourite movies as a kid and remains tremendous fun, while the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a genuine classic. Hopefully we’ll get a new special edition DVD while McCarthy and co-star Dana Wynter are still around to contribute. At the age of 93, McCarthy is still busy working in movies today.
I often find that small-scale little noirs like this - not great, but not bad - either click with me straight away or not at all. Drive a Crooked Road drew me in and is one I know I’ll watch again sometime. It’s a Columbia picture, pretty much unknown, and not that likely to show up on DVD. A pity.
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