Starts off great - loses steam, 26 July 2021
The Crooked Web gets off to a flying start. It’s got a good set-up straight out of the film noir handbook. Stan (Frank Lovejoy) doesn’t know it yet, but he’s about to be taken for a ride. He “accidentally” overhears his girl Joanie’s (Mari Blanchard) brother (Richard Denning) discussing a business opportunity. It’s pretty clear that it’s all a scam, just not the kind we think it’s going to be. Being a sap, Frank goes along for the ride. Up to this point, The Crooked Web is outstanding. But once things move to Germany, the plot gets confusing and changes tone from a film noir to some sort of spy/espionage type thing. There are still some thrills and nervous moments as Frank almost stumbles on the truth, but the entertaining, dark noir is gone.
As I indicated, the film sort of loses its way once our main characters arrive in Germany. Maybe I missed something, but all the scheming and plotting in Germany seems designed to get Stan to confess to a war crime - right? How is that supposed to work? How is making him think they’re about to come into thousands of dollars in gold supposed to make him suddenly decide to do what’s right and admit to what he did? Even when he finally does confess, it makes no sense. Why would he do it? All he had to do was keep his yapper shut. It’s not like Joanie had anything concrete on him. Ridiculous.
Lovejoy and Denning are fine as the two male leads, but Blanchard is terrible. She’s horribly unconvincing as the “young, naive” thing she’s supposed to be playing. The film looks terrific. For what is unmistakably a B film, the technical aspects exceed what you’d expect. And that gorgeous opening shot of Stan’s Drive-In is like a work of art - stunning!
In the end, I’m going to call The Crooked Web bang-on average. It looks good, it’s mostly well acted, and about half the plot works well. But when the film changes gears, it lost me.
5/10
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