Starring Mickey Rooney, Dianne Foster, Kevin McCarthy, Jack Kelly, Harry Landers, Jerry Paris

(7-Very Good Film)

Modest. Gripping. Adroit.

Mechanic and aspiring driver, Eddie Shannon (Rooney), seems to those around him a bit odd. Quiet and repressed, while his coworkers discuss different women, Eddie sits in the corner and offers nothing. One day, Eddie has what appears to be a chance encounter with a beautiful woman named Barbara (Foster). Eddie falls for her, but their relationship is actually a part of a plan made by her real boyfriend, Steve (McCarthy), who’s getting ready to rob a bank and needs a getaway driver. Like many excellent noirs, Drive a Crooked Road, with its screenplay by a young Blake Edwards, is a simple story. At its heart is the note-perfect performance by Mickey Rooney. Used to seeing him in big performances in grand Hollywood musicals, his subtle, observant performance here is surprising and moving.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

(503)