Drive a Crooked Road (1954)

(On Cable TV, September 2021) If a film like Drive a Crooked Road can feel so familiar, it’s probably because it shares its plot with many other films. The story of a young man with a talent for racing being recruited into a criminal gang to act as getaway driver for a heist is not unique, and it’s perhaps best executed in the 1964 remake of The Killers. What this earlier version of the idea has in its favour is the sight of Mickey Rooney in the awkward phase of his career when he was trying to reinvent himself in older-harsher roles than the teenage and young-adult heartthrob characters that initially made him famous. He’s generally but not entirely convincing as a tougher, rougher young man getting mixed up in heavier trade even as he dreams of racing cars professionally. As a noir, though, Drive a Crooked Road is very watchable: The script, from future comedy director Blake Edwards (who turns out to have a very respectable film-noir early resumé), steadily ratchets up the tension and the loneliness of the protagonist, and seeing Dianne Foster playing the femme fatale only makes it better. Taut, efficient and just long enough at 83 minutes, Drive a Crooked Road is not a noir classic, but it’s a decent one.