"Johnny One-Eye" director Robert Florey's crime thriller "The Crooked Way," starring John Payne and Sonny Tufts, qualifies as an above-average example of film noir, distinguished in part by "He Walked by Night" lenser John Alton and his atmospheric black & white cinematography. Alton endows this tense, but derivative law and order saga with an ominous sense of foreboding. Ostensibly based on Robert Monroe's radio play "No Blade Too Sharp," "Back to Bataan" scenarist Richard H. Landau has taken the narrative convention about a protagonist that suffers from amnesia to the next level. Most films about amnesiacs allow them to recover their memory long before fade-out. For example, co-writer & director Joseph L. Mankiewicz earlier made "Somewhere in the Night," about a GI with amnesia who comes home and finds himself tangled up in a plot to recover Nazi gold. To my knowledge, I don't think Hollywood has made another movie roughly like Florey's "The Crooked Way." The biggest problem with this movie is that the hero remains passive for far too long. Meanwhile, his chief nemesis is well played by Sonny Turfs. The action transpires in bars, night clubs, the back rooms of gambling joints, and occasionally in a warehouse. The cops believe the worst about our hero and he finds himself predictably up to his neck in trouble. One thing different about the hero is his ability to shoot at and generally hit and kill his adversaries. As one thug observes after Eddie Rice has plugged a henchman: "He shot him for breakfast, lunch, and dinner."
The character that heroic John Payne portrays differs from the usual amnesiac. Most amnesiacs struggle with psychological amnesia. Meaning, they will eventually recover their memories. Eddie Rice (John Payne of "Kansas City Confidential"), a.k.a. Eddie Riccardi, marched off to join the ranks for the Army in World War II and then spent five years in a psychiatric hospital because he had been wounded and had forgotten just about everything about himself. During combat, Eddie survived a devastating shrapnel wound. Army doctors removed most of the fragments, but they left one behind. Per the doctors, an operation to eliminate the last piece of shrapnel might place Eddie's life in jeopardy. You see, that piece of shrapnel in Eddie's head had generated thick scar tissue around it. Reluctantly, they allowed Eddie to leave the hospital and go back to his hometown of Los Angeles. The problem is that Eddie knows very little about himself, and Army Intelligence has not been able to dig up much more beyond what they know. No sooner has Eddie arrived in his old stomping ground of Los Angeles than a tenacious cop, Police Lieutenant Joe Williams (Rhys Williams of "The Sons of Katie Elder"), hauls our hero into headquarters and gives him the third degree. Eddie looks at a rap sheet and sees that his real name is Eddie Riccardi, but this knowledge doesn't change anything for him. Indeed, he is incredulous that he was a criminal. Williams is dubious about Eddie's claim that he received a Silver Star and has been hospitalized for war wounds. Lieutenant Williams recommends that Eddie leave town. Our hero, however, doesn't have a chance to get out of town before a homicidal mobster, Vince Alexander (Sonny Tufts of "The Seven Year Itch"), learns about his presence and pays him an unpleasant visit. It seems that Vince and Eddie had once been partners, and Eddie blew town and Vince wound up taking the rap and spend some time behind bars.
Detective Williams visits Vince after one of the lieutenant's stooge pigeons, Kelly (John Harmon), turns up murdered. Williams grilles Vince, and Vince shoots him. When the villains locate Eddie, they slug him unconscious and put his fingerprints all over the pistol that Vince used to kill Eddie. Eddie has just enough time to get out of the car parked on the side of the road and contains Detective Williams. He hitches a ride in an undertaker's van, and the police track him down to a warehouse where Eddie has knocked off two of Vince's henchmen and is facing down Vince. The police arrive and riddle Vince with a wave of gunfire.
John Payne delivers an appropriately tight-lipped performance as the sympathetic but strong protagonist. The problem is that he is a passive rather than an active hero. The authorities and criminals keep pushing him around until he takes charge in the last quarter hour of the action. One thing that is done extremely well is Eddie Rice's superb marksmanship. He doesn't miss his targets. Williams is perfect as a driven police detective who thinks everything about Eddie stinks. Sonny Tufts is good as Eddie's chief nemesis. One of Vince's flaws is that he uses a drug to control nervousness that gives him away as the real dastard. Although the premise is good, the plot is straight-forward and predictable, but director Florey handles the action with competence.
The character that heroic John Payne portrays differs from the usual amnesiac. Most amnesiacs struggle with psychological amnesia. Meaning, they will eventually recover their memories. Eddie Rice (John Payne of "Kansas City Confidential"), a.k.a. Eddie Riccardi, marched off to join the ranks for the Army in World War II and then spent five years in a psychiatric hospital because he had been wounded and had forgotten just about everything about himself. During combat, Eddie survived a devastating shrapnel wound. Army doctors removed most of the fragments, but they left one behind. Per the doctors, an operation to eliminate the last piece of shrapnel might place Eddie's life in jeopardy. You see, that piece of shrapnel in Eddie's head had generated thick scar tissue around it. Reluctantly, they allowed Eddie to leave the hospital and go back to his hometown of Los Angeles. The problem is that Eddie knows very little about himself, and Army Intelligence has not been able to dig up much more beyond what they know. No sooner has Eddie arrived in his old stomping ground of Los Angeles than a tenacious cop, Police Lieutenant Joe Williams (Rhys Williams of "The Sons of Katie Elder"), hauls our hero into headquarters and gives him the third degree. Eddie looks at a rap sheet and sees that his real name is Eddie Riccardi, but this knowledge doesn't change anything for him. Indeed, he is incredulous that he was a criminal. Williams is dubious about Eddie's claim that he received a Silver Star and has been hospitalized for war wounds. Lieutenant Williams recommends that Eddie leave town. Our hero, however, doesn't have a chance to get out of town before a homicidal mobster, Vince Alexander (Sonny Tufts of "The Seven Year Itch"), learns about his presence and pays him an unpleasant visit. It seems that Vince and Eddie had once been partners, and Eddie blew town and Vince wound up taking the rap and spend some time behind bars.
Detective Williams visits Vince after one of the lieutenant's stooge pigeons, Kelly (John Harmon), turns up murdered. Williams grilles Vince, and Vince shoots him. When the villains locate Eddie, they slug him unconscious and put his fingerprints all over the pistol that Vince used to kill Eddie. Eddie has just enough time to get out of the car parked on the side of the road and contains Detective Williams. He hitches a ride in an undertaker's van, and the police track him down to a warehouse where Eddie has knocked off two of Vince's henchmen and is facing down Vince. The police arrive and riddle Vince with a wave of gunfire.
John Payne delivers an appropriately tight-lipped performance as the sympathetic but strong protagonist. The problem is that he is a passive rather than an active hero. The authorities and criminals keep pushing him around until he takes charge in the last quarter hour of the action. One thing that is done extremely well is Eddie Rice's superb marksmanship. He doesn't miss his targets. Williams is perfect as a driven police detective who thinks everything about Eddie stinks. Sonny Tufts is good as Eddie's chief nemesis. One of Vince's flaws is that he uses a drug to control nervousness that gives him away as the real dastard. Although the premise is good, the plot is straight-forward and predictable, but director Florey handles the action with competence.