The Crooked Web 1955

World's Most Beautiful Bait!

5.9 / 10   14 vote(s)
NR
Crime

Following WWII, ex-G.I. Stan opened up a drive-in restaurant. His girlfriend, Joanie, is one of the car hops. They want to get married someday, but the less-than-stellar business the restaurant takes in puts a hold on that plan. One day, Joanie's ne’er-do-well brother Frank blows into town with a money-making scheme. She's against it, but Stan - an inveterate gambler - finds the promise of riches too seductive to resist…

Release Date 1955-11-30
Runtime 1h 17m
Directors Nathan H. Juran, Henry Freulich
Producer Sam Katzman
Writer Lou Breslow

This is just a bit too convoluted for it's own good. It's all about a scheme to retrieve some gold from Germany buried at the end of WWII by Richard Denning ("Frank"). Frank Lovejoy ("Stan") and his gal Mari Blanchard ("Joanie") are the pair trying to manoeuvre their mark into taking them back to find the loot, but they also they have an ulterior motive of which poor old "Frank" is unaware. It's got a few twists and turns to keep the plot moving, but much of the story seems to exist in order to perpetuate itself, rather than offer us anything to get our teeth into and after a while it becomes a bit dull. The performances are weak, the dialogue really wordy and I found the music got on my nerves a bit, too. Director Nathan Juran usually had a good eye for a story and phototography at his best; this isn't it.

CinemaSerf