Drive a Crooked Road (1954): Fun in the Sun Gets You Sunburned in Film Noir

“Fun in the Sun” is the theme of the Classic Movie Blog Association’s Spring 2022 Blogathon, and I’m guessing that most people would never pair up two terms like fun in the sun and film noir. It’s true that the fun part, if there is one, does not last long in film noir. It certainly doesn’t for Eddie Shannon, the main character in Drive a Crooked Road. A lot of the narrative in the film does take place at the beach, but as far as Shannon is concerned, that’s where all his troubles start: on the beach. He goes to this beach in Malibu, California, originally hoping for some “fun in the sun,” but as I said, fun is hard to come by in film noir, and Shannon learns that lesson the hard way.

Before he makes it to the beach, Eddie Shannon (played by Mickey Rooney) is driving his car in an auto race in which he places second. Two spectators in the crowd, Steve Norris and Harold Baker, size up two drivers, the winner and the second-place finisher. The winner is married with children, so he doesn’t suit their purpose. Someone with a family is not inclined to take chances and throw everything away. Then they describe Shannon as a master mechanic for International Motors, no family, few friends, lives alone and hates it: “the ripe type.” They are looking for someone to drive the getaway car in a bank heist in Palm Springs. They have the robbery and the route meticulously planned, and they need someone who can handle the escape route safely and quickly, someone who is a winner but is also desperate enough to go along with their criminal activity.

Steve Norris’s girlfriend Barbara Mathews is part of the plan for the bank heist, and she uses her appeal to reel in Eddie Shannon. He repairs her car at the garage where he works, but it won’t start the next day. Mathews requests Shannon specifically, and he is sent to her home address to fix the problem. Mathews is dressed and ready for the beach, 1954 style, when Shannon arrives: She wears a sheer scarf in her hair, espadrilles on her feet, sleeveless blouse, short shorts; she has a hamper, towel, and terry beach robe that she places in the backseat of her car while Shannon tries to start the ignition. I guess it was obvious to 1954 viewers from the start that Mathews has plans for the beach. But modern-day viewers are in luck: She and Shannon talk about the sun and the beach that she prefers. It’s all designed to reel him in, of course, not to be informative for viewers in 2022.

Shannon takes the bait. After a half-day at work, he heads to the beach that Mathews talked about. He finds her car, parks, and looks for her. She spots him and waves him down. She is on the beach with Steve Norris, whom Mathews calls an old friend. Norris leaves soon after Shannon arrives, and Mathews tells Shannon that Norris has a house on the beach, the implication being that she knows him because both of them met by chance on the beach. Viewers know already, however, that Mathews will be trouble for Shannon and that before long, the beach will not be the scene of too much fun for him. Even on this first afternoon, he stays too long in the sun and starts to burn. He doesn’t even notice until Mathews points it out to him.

(This article about Drive a Crooked Road contains all the spoilers.)

Barbara Mathews reels Eddie Shannon in using sex and affection. She takes what she learns about Shannon and feeds this information to Steve Norris. Norris reels Shannon in using money, specifically his share of the take in the bank heist, which he can eventually use to buy a race car and then race in the famous European auto races such as Le Mans and the Grand Prix. These are dreams for Shannon, and he has been willing to wait and work to achieve them. He would have continued waiting and working were it not for Barbara Mathews. The combination of achieving his dreams and getting the girl of his dreams proves too hard for Shannon to resist.

The narrative switches to the beach house at Malibu, which has now become the base of operations for the bank heist, with Shannon working with Steve Norris and Harold Baker. One of Shannon’s tasks is refurbishing a car for the heist. He still works his hours at the garage because he has to keep his cover now that he has agreed to be part of the bank robbery. Shannon sticks to this part of the plan, although he almost changes his mind the night before the bank heist, when he visits Mathews at her apartment. Norris warned him against it, using the argument that Shannon wouldn’t want to involve Mathews. Shannon still doesn’t realize how much Mathews is already involved. He decides that he just wants to assure her that he is participating because of her and that he will contact her once it is all over. He still believes that he will win the girl in the end.

After the robbery, Shannon calls Mathews, but she has moved out of her apartment and into Steve Norris’s beach house. When Shannon shows up at the beach house one night to ask Norris and Baker where she is, she comes out of hiding to confess everything to Shannon. Norris, now convinced that Shannon will go to the police and talk, throws a gun to Baker, who takes Shannon out to Norris’s car so that Shannon can drive to a more remote location, one where Baker can shoot and kill him. Mathews becomes hysterical at this turn of events because she doesn’t want anything to happen to Shannon. She tries to get away—twice, but Norris now feels that he has to get rid of her, too.

Shannon drives Norris’s car along the beach highway while Baker holds a gun on him. Baker eggs him on, asking Shannon what he is thinking about, knowing that he will soon die. It was the wrong question to ask because Shannon, now facing the truth, purposely crashes the car over an embankment onto the beach. Baker is killed in the crash, but Shannon crawls out of the wreckage, takes Baker’s gun, and walks back along the shore toward Norris’s beach house.

When Shannon arrives on the beach behind Norris’s house, he sees Norris throwing Mathews onto the sand. He rushes to her defense, threatens Norris with the gun he took from Baker, and eventually shoots and kills him. As Norris’s body rolls down to the edge of the surf, Shannon consoles Mathews on the beach. He barely notices when the police arrive: They had found the car wreck further along the beach and discovered that the car belongs to Steve Norris. Shannon points out Norris’s body at the edge of the surf and then continues to console Mathews.

Strictly speaking, Eddie Shannon has only one afternoon of fun in the sun, and he gets more than a sunburn for his effort. He spends a good deal of his time at Steve Norris’s beach house, but most of that time is devoted to preparation for his role in the bank heist. The only other bit of fun Shannon has on the beach is the Friday night party at Steve Norris’s, before he knows anything about a bank robbery in Palm Springs and about Barbara Mathews’s role in the scheme. His time believing that an attractive woman is interested in him is short-lived. Film noir doesn’t always end well for the main characters, and Shannon’s and Matthew’s lives are now in shambles. They are on the beach once again, this time in the dark of night and surrounded by police officers.

This article about Drive a Crooked Road is my entry for the Classic Movie Blog Association’s 2022 Spring Blogathon: Fun in the Sun. Click here for the complete list of blogathon participants and links to their blogs. The list is updated each day of the blogathon, from May 17 to May 20.

March 10, 1954, release date  •  Directed by Richard Quine  •  Screenplay by Blake Edwards, Richard Quine  •  Based on the story “The Wheel Man” by James Benson Nablo  •  Music by Ross DiMaggio  •  Edited by Jerome Thoms  •  Cinematography by Charles Lawton, Jr.

Mickey Rooney as Eddie Shannon  •  Dianne Foster as Barbara Mathews  •  Kevin McCarthy as Steve Norris  •  Jack Kelly as Harold Baker  •  Harry Landers as Ralph, mechanic  •  Jerry Paris as Phil, mechanic  •  Paul Picerni as Carl, mechanic  •  Dick Crockett as Don, mechanic  •  Patrick Miller as the chief teller at the Bank of Palm Springs  •  Mort Mills as the service manager at International Motors

Distributed by Columbia Pictures  •  Produced by Columbia Pictures

Four Favorite Noirs: Born to Kill (1947), The Dark Corner (1946), Marlowe (1969), and Too Late for Tears (1949)

To celebrate National Classic Movie Day on May 16, Rick at Classic Film & TV Café is hosting the Four Favorite Noirs Blogathon. What a great idea! My only qualm: How am I going to pick only four!

I managed to whittle my list down, as requested, but it was tough. And I cheated a little by including a neo-noir. I decided to write about four little-known noirs because I think they deserve to be seen at least once. If you want to see them again and again, like I do, so much the better!

◊ Born to Kill (1947), starring Claire Trevor and Lawrence Tierney

Born to Kill is a gritty look at two people who are a match made in hell. Sam Wild (Lawrence Tierney) and Helen Brent (Claire Trevor) are attracted to one another for all the wrong reasons. Both of them are turned on by violence and death, and their story doesn’t end well for either one of them (but you already know that because this film noir). Born to Kill is a perfect example of a noir that shows you what you shouldn’t be doing if you want to avoid the dreadful consequences of a life of crime—that is, in case you are toying with the idea of a life of crime! Tierney and Trevor are fantastic in their lead roles. And many of the supporting actors, some of the great character actors of film noir—Walter Slezak, Elisha Cook Jr., Esther Howard—are, too.

I watched Born to Kill on DVD, with commentary by noir expert Eddie Muller. Muller’s commentary is packed with information about the film, the director, and the actors. In fact, the commentary includes some recorded material from director Robert Wise, and Muller recounts some of his personal experiences meeting Lawrence Tierney, which adds to the fun. RKO produced Born to Kill as an A picture, a vehicle to make Tierney a leading man and star. But Tierney’s own proclivities toward violence off-screen helped sabotage that plan. If you watch Born to Kill on DVD, I highly recommend Muller’s commentary, too.

◊ The Dark Corner (1946), starring Mark Stevens and Lucille Ball

• Brad Galt: “There goes my last lead. I feel all dead inside. I’m backed up in a dark corner, and I don’t know who’s hitting me.”

The Dark Corner is one of those films I can watch again and again and never tire of it. The witty dialogue is one of the things I like best about the film. The repartee between Kathleen Stuart (Lucille Ball) and Brad Galt (Mark Stevens) is so much fun. And their on-screen chemistry works, too, which is amazing when you consider that Lucille Ball was going through a rough patch in her marriage to Desi Arnaz and that she hated working on this film. Somehow Lucille Ball and her costars make it work, and I found myself rooting for Kathleen and Brad to succeed every step of the way.

Lucille Ball is given top billing, but her costar, Mark Stevens is fourth in the list. Two great noir actors come second and third: Clifton Webb (who plays Hardy Cathcart) and William Bendix (who plays White Suit). Their performances add so much to a great film. Clifton Webb has some dry lines and observations that add an appropriately cynical touch, and he can exude menace when he needs to. William Bendix is the hired thug who knows what he’s doing—until he is outwitted, that is, by . . . well, no spoilers this time because this is a good one.

◊ Marlowe (1969), starring James Garner and Rita Moreno

Forget about Humphrey Bogart! Forget about Dick Powell! Don’t get me wrong: I happen to like both of them as Philip Marlowe, but Marlowe has James Garner. And he gives one of the best portrayals of Philip Marlowe. Yes, he is that Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler’s famous detective. Another huge plus is Rita Moreno, who costars as Dolores Gonzáles. Moreno, in addition to having a well-deserved “moment” in 2022, is fantastic in Marlowe. Is Gonzáles really a good friend to Mavis Wald, or is she the femme fatale in this story? She keeps everyone, including Marlowe, guessing.

The film is adapted by Stirling Sillphant from Chandler’s novel The Little Sister. The film takes place in 1969, but the story is updated to fit the times while managing to stay true to the novel. For instance, the film opens with Marlowe driving up to a ramshackle beach hotel called The Infinite Pad. People in hippie-style clothing lounge about on the front stairs and porch. And Marlowe shows up in his suit jacket and tie, trying to find the lost brother of his client, one Orfamay Quest. Philip Marlowe is a throwback to the past, a relic of pulp novels from the 1930s and 1940s, but Silliphant’s screenplay and James Garner’s portrayal make Philip Marlowe relevant still in 1969 and so much fun to watch in 2022.

◊ Too Late for Tears (1949), starring Lizabeth Scott and Dan Duryea

In France, Too Late for Tears is called La tigresse, the perfect name for Lizabeth Scott’s character Jane Palmer. It’s the French translation of Danny Fuller’s (Dan Duryea) nickname for Jane. The minute Jane gets behind the wheel of the car at the start of the film, orders her husband Alan to get in, and drives off with a bag of stolen money thrown into their backseat, you know you are in the noir universe. Jane wants her slice of the American dream, and she doesn’t care who she has to cut out of the picture to get it. Only one man can match her scheme for scheme.

Too Late for Tears holds a special place in my heart because I could swear that I saw it as a child on television. It was Don DeFore who made me wonder. If you are used to seeing him in the television sitcom Hazel or other film comedies, you’re in for a real treat. His performance as Don Blake is certainly memorable. And that’s quite an achievement in a film with two noir greats in Lizabeth Scott and Dan Duryea.

This article about Born to Kill, The Dark Corner, Marlowe, and Too Late for Tears is my entry for the Four Favorite Noirs Blogathon, which is presented by Rick at Classic Film & TV Café to celebrate National Classic Movie Day on May 16. Click here for the complete list of blogathon participants and links to their blogs. The list will be updated throughout the day.