Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to In The Balcony. We hope you enjoy your visit.

You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Plus, you'll be eligible for the monthly $1 million prize. (Not really.)

Join our community!

If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Drive a Crooked Road (1954)
Topic Started: Apr 2 2012, 07:26 AM (275 Views)
Laughing Gravy
Member Avatar
Look for In The Balcony on Facebook!
[ *  *  * ]
Scarred, shy auto mechanic/weekend racecar driver Mickey Rooney meets beautiful Dianne Foster, and they hit it off, surprisingly, and he falls for her, hard, real hard. She introduces him to a couple of her friends, Kevin McCarthy and Jack Kelly, who have a surprising offer for him: they're robbing a bank, see, and need a getaway driver that can handle 18 miles of really bad, twisty mountain road in 22 minutes or less. His take? 15 grand. He balks, 'cause he's a right guy, see, but Dianne lets him know their relationship depends on him getting that dough, so he reluctantly agrees. Little does he know that it's a setup, she's Kevin's doll.

Very nice little movie from director Richard Quine (Bell Book & Candle) and writer Blake Edwards, with superb work by Rooney, really good here. The film is... leisure, shall we say, taking its time getting anywhere, but once it's there it's engrossing. Gorgeous widescreen cinematography, the getaway scene is well done, and Miss Foster is gorgeous. I liked this movie a lot. It's on the new Sony Columbia Noir Vol. 3 from TCM.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
JazzGuyy
Member Avatar
Balcony Gang, Foist Class
[ *  *  * ]
It is very good and Rooney plays it straight and well. Kevin McCarthy also plays the slimeball gang leader very well. This 3rd Columbia Noir collection is as good as the first two (as long as you skip "The Burglar", which Martin Scorsese (of all people) seems to think a lot of -- at best, it's a curiosity -- at worse, a hopeless mess).
TANSTAAFL!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Frank Hale
Balcony Gang, Foist Class
[ *  *  * ]
Mr. Rooney is good, as is the second half.

Something needed to be done with the first half, though, which is not not merely leisurely, but glacial. It shouldn’t take 45 minutes to show us that Eddie is a poor sap being taken in by a conniving dame. WB would have done this in one reel in the early 30’s.

I have to admire Mickey for hanging in there all these decades, even if he’s a long ways from my favorite performer. Wonder what Louis B. Mayer thought about this one?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
panzer the great & terrible
Member Avatar
Mouth Breather
[ *  *  * ]
Gee, wasn't Mayer gone by '54? As in, out to pasture and no longer caring? And was he ever such a sap that he believed his own PR about the randy Mr. Rooney?
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Frank Hale
Balcony Gang, Foist Class
[ *  *  * ]

Louis was fired in 1951 and didn’t die until 1957, so presumably he had plenty of spare time to catch Drive a Crooked Road in a theatre.

My understanding is that he was genuinely upset by pictures like The Asphalt Jungle, so it’s not too hard to imagine him sitting out there in the dark grumbling “So it’s come to this.”
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
« Previous Topic · The Dark Aisle · Next Topic »
Add Reply