mmallon4 If more westerns were like The Was a Crooked Man I could consider myself a bigger fan of the genre. The opening scene in which a black maid who fakes the mammy act sets the stage for a film which defies convention. To date I've never seen another western like it; it's not like a John Ford western or a Howard Hawks western, this is a Joseph L. Mankiewicz western; the first and only Mankiewicz western. I also love that theme song and am happy to hear it again and again in instrumental form throughout the film.Mankiewicz was a master of handling dialogue and thus there is such a snappy pace to the whole film. "Nothing like fried chicken while it's still hot and crispy" may be my favourite line Kirk Douglas has ever uttered in a film. The film is full of characters whom each get their own unique stories. The two homosexual lovers and comic buffoons played by Hume Cronyn and John Randolph have the most interesting character arc with an outcome which is the only time in the film someone isn't totally out for themselves. The large scale prison set on the other hand captures the mundanity of prison life with the film gradually building up to the impending escape, ranking There Was a Crooked Man among the great prison escape movies.There Was a Crooked Man is a movie which combines old Hollywood mixed with new Hollywood with its traditional western setting and it's dosing of cynicism. The cast features stars both veteran actors and younger stars and a script by David Newman and Robert Benton of Bonnie & Clyde fame. Even the one moral character in the film ends up turning bad. Henry Fonda plays the moral role he was known for throughout his career right up until the very end of the picture, leaving me with a big smile on my face. The movie is very cynical but it's that kind of wonderful cynicism that makes you feel happy, and not feeling down. Although I would call There Was a Crooked Man a funny movie, it is not the kind of film in which I find myself laughing but rather laughing inside to myself.

thinker1691 The direction for this film owes it's life to Joseph L. Mankiewicz who guides this clever Western movie to it's eventual and Classic end. It's a great story dealing with the weakness in every man. " There was a Crooked Man " also deals with Life's opportunity for good and evil. The story centers it's sights on Paris Pitman (Kirk Douglas), Jr. a thieving conniving, unscrupulous con and sneaky gunman who is fortunately sent to a territorial prison where he collects a motley group of Convicts whom he persuade to join him in a grand escape. While at the prison, he is watched by Woodward W. Lopeman (Henry Fonda) the new prison warden who suspects that Pitman is much too clever to remain behind bars without attempting to escape. The movie is well directed and the prison convicts are notable actors which are a who's-who of talented Thespians who are easily recognizable. They include Hume Cronyn, Warren Oates, Burgess Meredith, John Randolph, Arthur O'Connell, Martin Gabel, Alan Hale Jr. and Victor French. Together they create a story which is interesting and well worth the title of Classic. Easily enjoyed and hardily recommended. ****

scottsmusic-622-405281 Wow, caught this wildly unbalanced "crapterpiece" on basic cable and could not believe how times have changed, you could never make this today - and why would you want to? This movie is in a lower class by itself. The killing here is random and wimpy, nobody seems bothered at all as people get murdered left and right with no affect. I understand this is trying to be a comedy, but you'll find none blacker. Kirk Douglas role basically takes Newman's character from Cool Hand Luke and removes everything likable or charming from it. Henry Fonda is as wooden as a wagon wheel and the rest of the cast does their best to clean up the mess. Racism, sexism, homosexuality, rape, robbery, murder - it's all here and you don't care at all. And I can't help but bitch about the score, which was perhaps the worst and most inappropriate of any Western, maybe any movie! Imagine a contemporary 70s style urban soundtrack from a Gene Wilder film or a Mel Brooks feature and you get the idea. Ugh - even basic cable could do better.

writers_reign Mank didn't write the screenplay for this, his penultimate movie but elected instead for a script from the team responsible for Bonnie and Clyde. The plot itself, a melange of Western meets Big House was also something of a departure though given his proved eclecticism no one was really surprised. Curate's Egg is as good a description as any for while it is definitely good in parts ultimately it fails to satisfy. Hume Cronyn, working for a third and final time with Mank may well have relished the return to at least half the genre where he made his name - at least as a film actor - as the brutal warder in Brute Force playing someone diametrically opposite in the form of a gay con. I didn't note that much chemistry between the two leads, Douglas and Fonda, unlike say, Douglas and Lancaster but the film does benefit from a rich assortment of support in the shape of John Randolph, Warren Oates, Arthur O'Connell, Burgess Meredith and Lee Grant. Douglas' exotically named Paris Pitman seems out of place in the Arizona desert but charms his way through. Interesting rather than memorable.