Part of the Columbia Noir series running on the Criterion Channel Drive a Crooked Road stars Mickey Rooney in a dramatic lead along with Kevin McCarthy a couple of years before his encounter with Pod People in Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Diane Foster in the role of the obligatory Femme Fatale.

Rooney plays Eddie Shannon a mechanic and a driver in local car races. After coming in second in a race Steven Norris (McCarthy) and his partner in crime Harold (Jack Kelly) single out Eddie as someone without a family or a girlfriend, perfect for their scheme. Playing upon Eddie’s social awkwardness and self-consciousnesses over his prominently scared face Barbara (Foster) seduces the naïve Eddie emotionally manipulating him so that he will be willing to assist the gang in a daring bank robbery that requires his impressive driving and mechanical skills.

With a brief running time of just 83 minutes Drive a Crooked Road doesn’t have the room to fully explore either that characters or the situation but rather races from plot element to plot element ticking off the elements of a story without ever fully engaging the audience. Directed by Richard Quine from a script by Blake Edwards and Quine this movie presents a serviceable premise that fails to deliver. An overreliance on under cranking the camera, lowering the frame rate artificially acceleration the action on screen, along with an intrusive musical score that doesn’t know when to back off and allow the actors to carry a scene Drive a Crooked Road ends up feeling cheap despite boasting an impressive and skilled cast. While the story is a classic noir set-up and pay off, he did it for the money, he did it for the girl and he didn’t get either the money or the girl, this film spins its wheels without ever reaching a destination.