Drive a Crooked Road

1954
Approved
1h 23m

IMDb RATING

6.9/10

2.1K

YOUR RATING

Mickey Rooney, Kevin McCarthy, Dianne Foster, and Jack Kelly in Drive a Crooked Road (1954)

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1 Video

41 Photos

Film Noir Crime Drama Thriller

An upright car mechanic falls in love with the girlfriend of a gangster. This forces him to participate in the criminal underworld.An upright car mechanic falls in love with the girlfriend of a gangster. This forces him to participate in the criminal underworld.An upright car mechanic falls in love with the girlfriend of a gangster. This forces him to participate in the criminal underworld.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.9/10

2.1K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Pretty Girl
(uncredited)

John Close

Police Officer
(uncredited)

Richard H. Cutting

Bit Role
(uncredited)

John Damler

Police Officer
(uncredited)

Linda Danson

Pretty Girl
(uncredited)

Diana Dawson

Pretty Girl
(uncredited)

Jean Engstrom

Bit Role
(uncredited)

Mike Mahoney

Police Officer
(uncredited)

Peggy Maley

Marge
(uncredited)

Patrick Miller

Teller
(uncredited)

Director
- Richard Quine
Writers
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
This movie has a similar story line to the Ernest Hemingway movie The Killers (1946), starring Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner, which was remade (The Killers (1964)) with Lee Marvin, John Cassavetes, Angie Dickinson, and Ronald Reagan.

Goofs
(at around 10 mins) Eddie pulls up at Barbara's apartment and parks behind a gray Ford. When Barbara drives off a few minutes later, Eddie's MG is missing, but the Ford is still there.

Quotes
Marge: Could I peel this onion? I can't stand to see a grown man cry.
Steve Norris: Take it with you, beautiful; drop it into a large martini.

Soundtracks
From Here to Eternity
by Fred Karger and Robert Wells
played instrumentally as source music

User reviews33

Review

Featured review

8/10

A nice change of pace for Mickey Rooney

"Drive a Crooked Road" is an excellent picture--written by Blake Edwards and starring Mickey Rooney. Most would probably consider it an example of film noir, though its camera-work and dialog aren't exactly typical for noir.

When the story begins, you learn that Eddie (Rooney) is a small-time race car driver and mechanic. He also is rather quiet and is treated rather poorly at times due to his being so small. Because of that, he's vulnerable when a pretty lady (Dianne Foster) begins showing him a lot of attention. But she is not such a nice lady and halt ulterior motives. It seems her boyfriend (Kevn McCarthy) is a mobster and they are actually setting him up to become part of their robbery scheme! What's next? See the film.

Most Mickey Rooney films, particularly those earlier in his career, are similar because Mickey plays nice guys or guys who become nice guys. Here, however, he agrees to become entangled with gangsters...gangsters who really are scum. Overall, well acted and interesting throughout...and well worth seeing. If you are interested, it's currently posted on YouTube.