The Crooked Way 1949 ★★★½ CC: Film-Noir [1:29:27] John Payne

About this film

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 to another film noir, Somewhere in the Night 1946, (a war hero loses his memory from a combat wound). 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. A woman, Nina Martin, appears to help him, but instead turns him over to ruthless crime boss Vince Alexander (Sonny…

Directors & creators

Benedict Bogeaus

Subjects

Amnesia, Head Wound, W.W.II, Army, Gangster, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Crime Boss, Girlfriend, Revenge

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