Le destin est au tournant

I should say that "Drive a Crooked Road" probably won't hold your attention quite as much as most movies that I've seen. What's mostly eye-opening about it is just seeing Mickey Rooney in a gritty role in a film noir. He plays Eddie Shannon, a mechanic with little aim in life. The high points in his daily routine are when his co-workers ogle women walking by the shop. But when he gets mixed up with the wrong woman, he suddenly finds himself involved in a bank robbery with apparently no way out.

While some people might assert that Mickey Rooney was miscast here, I beg to differ. In this role, he shows that he can be something totally different from the "family-oriented" roles with which he's usually been associated (though I best remember him from "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" and "Night at the Museum"). This movie is approximately as gritty as the average film noir, and while it's not any kind of masterpiece, still worth seeing. As it's apparently not widely available on video or DVD, Portland's video/DVD store Movie Madness has a copy.

Also starring Kevin McCarthy (of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers") and Jerry Paris (the neighbor on "The Dick Van Dyke Show").

In California, the mechanic Eddie Shannon (Mickey Rooney) is also an excellent racing-car driver that expects someday to save money to race in Europe in Le Mans, Grand Prix and other car races driving a European car. Eddie is a short and shy man that has difficulties to date a woman. When the crooks Steve Norris (Kevin McCarthy) and Harold Baker (Jack Kelly) see the performance of Eddie in a local race, they use Steve´s girlfriend Barbara Mathews (Dianne Foster) to seduce Eddie to convince him to drive the getaway car in a bank heist. What will be Eddie´s attitude?

"Drive a Crooked Road" is a film-noir written by Blake Edwards and directed by Richard Quine. Mickey Rooney performs a dark and sad role that seems to be tailored for him. The femme fatale Dianne Foster is the key element of the story, first seducing Eddie and then triggering his anger leaving him full of hatred. The gloomy conclusion surprises, but fits perfectly to the story. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Os Valentões" ("The Bullies")

Richard Quine probably has his best "non comedy" film with this one, but maybe has to take the rap also for what's weak about this film. The opening car race and the key bank "race" are pretty blandly done as is any other action set piece in the movie. The opening scene is really poor, like something you'd see in a film made in the Early silent days. Badly matched rear projection, the camera angle is so wrong in the rear projection that is doesn't match the action of Rooney driving at all. The process work isn't bad, the footage shot is. The rest of the race material is also poor. And for a film about the ability to race, the fact that the racing is bad can't be overlooked. After this crappy beginning the excellent performances and dialog drive the film along perfectly. Most of the cast is perfect and the personal violence between characters is very strong. Rooney is very understated here--in many of his other adult work he'd tend to over act, not here though at all. It's an award worthy performance.

Just too bad that the action is treated like sloppy second unit work--some say (un)credited to Blake Edwards himself--but with Edwards interest in fast cars etc., hard to believe he'd shoot this stuff so badly. The ending, which also involves some action is perfunctorily done and the resolution too quick. Too bad because otherwise this would be a nearly perfect movie. Still if you get over, the opening especially, this is a must see.

If you've seen Quicksand and Killer McCoy, you know that Mr. Rooney was, at the core, a serious actor and entertainer. He tries hard to make his character believable in this film, but the script ultimately lets him down. He manages to deliver a great performance anyway!

A shoutout to the director for not using music during certain important sequences. An even bigger shoutout to composer George Duning, ultimately a five-time Oscar nominee, for an engaging score nonetheless.

Worth one watch.

A shy Los Angeles mechanic and weekend racer (Mickey Rooney) is duped into being the getaway driver for bank robbers played by Kevin McCarthy and Jack Kelly. It seems as if they have a rather elaborate plot to hook him into their scheme by using McCarthy's girlfriend played by attractive Dianne Foster as lure for the shy and withdrawn Rooney who only has his job and his racing trophies to keep him going. It all works fairly well and shows how an innocent person is lured into doing something he would never ordinarily do with the bait being implied sex. Rooney is really good but so are both Kevin McCarthy and his partner played by Jack Kelly. The robbery itself occurs in Palm Springs and does not disappoint in execution with Kelly especially good as the gunman cracking jokes as he accompanies the head teller to the bank followed by the getaway car (which was souped up by Rooney). The film's title comes into play as Rooney drives like mad over a twisting mountain road back to the highway in under twenty minutes. All the elements of the story are mixed pretty well with a tough ending.