The Crooked Way

The Crooked Way is a 1949 American film noir starring John Payne, Sonny Tufts and Ellen Drew. Directed by Robert Florey and shot by John Alton, the film has a similar plot (a war hero loses his memory from a combat wound) to another film noir Somewhere in the Night.

Plot
After sustaining a head wound in combat, decorated World War II veteran Eddie Rice (John Payne) is treated at a San Francisco military hospital for a permanent form of amnesia. This leaves him with no knowledge of his life, family and friends prior to his enlistment. Army intelligence is unable to fill this void as all, they know about his past is that he enlisted in Los Angeles. Doctors tell him that no medical cure exists for his condition, but suggest that returning to L.A. might allow him to run into people who know him and might help fill in the blanks.

Rice does so, and promptly runs into some folks who recognize him. However, they know him as Eddie Riccardi, a dangerous gangster gone missing, whose past record generates mistrust both among the police and all those who formerly knew him. Worse, ruthless crime boss Vince Alexander (Sonny Tufts), who was betrayed by Eddie before leaving town, is now out for revenge.

Cast

 * John Payne as Eddie Rice/Eddie Riccardi
 * Sonny Tufts as Vince Alexander
 * Ellen Drew as Nina Martin
 * Rhys Williams as Lieutenant Joe Williams
 * Percy Helton as Petey
 * John Doucette as Sgt. Barrett
 * Charles Evans as Captain Anderson (as Charlie Evans)
 * Greta Granstedt as Hazel Downs
 * Raymond Largay as Arthur Stacey, M.D.
 * Harry Bronson as Danny
 * Hal Baylor as Coke (as Hal Fieberling)
 * Don Haggerty as Hood
 * Jack Overman as Hood
 * Crane Whitley as Doctor Kemble/Off-Screen Narrator
 * John Harmon as Kelly
 * Garry Owen as Man from Green Acres Mortuary

Reception
The contemporary The New York Times film critic wrote, "The Crooked Way races along as a melodrama should and it has more than enough plot to keep its hard-working actors going from one dangerous situation to another. But there is so much pointless brutality in it that one may seriously question whether the movie people are wise to go on with the making of such pictures. The human family may not be perfect, but why subject it to so-called entertainment that is only fit for savage beasts." In the 2009 book 100 Film Noirs, Jim Hillier compares and contrasts the film to Somewhere in the Night. Hillier says that The Crooked Way benefited from its low budget by forcing the filmmakers to be more creative, which makes it the better film.