An amnesiac soldier (John Payne) tries to find out who he is, and in the process, finds a ton of evidence to prove why everybody who recognizes him instantly hates him. Treated on San Francisco but moving to Los Angeles, he is snagged by police the minute he walks out of Union Station. Both the law and the lawless seem out to get him for reasons he can't remember, and even an alleged ex-wife resents him for more reasons than just am obvious unhappy marriage. This wasn't the first (or last) film noir dealing with the subject of amnesia brought on apparently by a war injury. It also wasn't the first or last where the hero seemingly had mob connections, in this case the ever uncharismatic Sonny Tufts who had the screen presence of a hair glued to the negative. At some points, it is unclear whether Payne is faking his amnesia, faking knowing who he is, or faking either his amnesiac identity or his perceived identity. Ellen Drew is the femme fatal ex-wife, while film noir regular Percy Helton adds spark as another one of his typical sludges of society. Long before he became one of T.V.'s most popular country store owners, Frank Cady was a regular in these dark dramas of the degradation of society at its smarmiest. Not really anything new by 1949 film noir standards, it still creates interest in finding out what Payne's story really is. There's plenty of intrigue, dark shadowy photography and clever dialog spoke with glaring hostility and convincing power by everybody but Tufts who was handsome on the surface, but in profile looked like something out of a Dick Tracy comic strip. What really makes this above average is the obvious fact that there is a ton of possibilities as to how this could wrap up, and the writers are intent on not taking the easy way out. The ending, involving Helton and his huge cat, is both gripping and touching. Deliciously complex, this deserves higher marks than its gotten, resulting in a nice sleeper of a film noir, highly worth remembering.

Amnesiac war hero Eddie Rice (John Payne) searches Los Angeles for clues to who he is. He quickly discovers he is, or was, a not-so-nice guy. Sonny Tufts plays his former friend, a rough & tough crime boss. He's probably the most memorable performance in the movie, though nothing groundbreaking. Ellen Drew is the embittered ex-wife. Rhys Williams is a suspicious cop. The plot's a little similar to the superior Somewhere In the Night. Robert Florey's direction is nice. Ditto for John Alton's cinematography. Script could've used some punching up. It's not classic but it's a good time-killer for noir fans.

Robert Osborne introduced "The Crooked Way" on TCM as nothing special when it was first released but a particular favorite of film noir fans now. I count myself as one of those fans, but have to admit that I'm a bit perplexed as to what it is about this film that would cause it to stand out from any number of other perfectly serviceable films like it. The deep-shadow photography courtesy of John Alcott was another of the film's attributes pointed out specifically by Osborne, and it is indeed probably its best asset. As for the rest, it's standard-issue noir with John Payne in one of his tough-guy roles. Granted, standard-issue noir is fine with me, but there are countless other noirs I've liked more than this one.Grade: B

With all the past notoriety in the Los Angeles papers and the officials couldn't figure out who amnesiac John Payne (Eddie Rice- Riccardi) was? That I found to be somewhat hard to digest.Nonetheless, this is a nicely paced action thriller where an amnesiac returns to where he had originally enlisted only to find that he has some criminal past and that a guy who was guilty when he was freed is out to get him.Ellen Drew does a nice job as Eddie's wife, now working for the ruthless Sonny Tufts. To add more to this, the Tufts character frames Eddie for the murder of a police officer and therefore the majority of the film becomes centered around Eddie trying to prove his innocence while eluding the police.