Joseph L. Mankiewicz, best known for his sharply observed dramas and witty satires (Letter to Three Women, All About Eve) tried his hand at making a Western (his only one) with There Was a Crooked Man.
Grade: C+ (** out of *****)
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The scenario was written by David Newman and Robert Benton, their first script after the 1967 Oscar-winning Bonnie and Clyde.
Though starring Kirk Douglas and Henry Fonda, the film was not popular with either critics or viewers.
Grade: B- (** out of *****)
Douglas, a vet of many good Westerns, plays Paris Pitman, Jr. a man who has pulled off a $500,000 robbery. Having murdered his partners, he’s the only one who knows the site of the money. Captured in a bordello, Pitman is tried, convicted and sentenced to Arizona penitentiary.
The corrupt warden LeGoff (Martin Gabel) cuts the prisoner a deal, he’ll let Pitman break out of jail for an even split of money. Pitman agrees, but the plan goes awry when LeGoff is murdered during an inmate uprising.
Former sheriff Woodward Lopeman (Henry Fonda) becomes the new warden. Although they are enemies, he and Pitman had work together to improve the prison’s conditions. When the lieutenant governor visits, Pitman sparks a riot and escapes, but three inmates are killed, and Pitman himself does away with two more partners. Pitman heads for the money (hidden in a nest of rattlesnakes), pursued by Lopeman. When Pitman is suddenly bitten by rattlesnake and dies. Lopeman collects the money and Pitman’s body, and rides back to the prison.
In the cynical ending, which reflected the zeitgeist during the Vietnam War era, Lopeman drops the body and absconds to Mexico with the money.
The good supporting cast includes Warren Oates, Burgess Meredith, and Lee Grant.
A middling Western, There Was a Crooked Man, seldom finds its right tone or unified vision, meandering between long verbal scenes (a signature of Mankiewicz) and compelling prison melodrama. The director shows no special affinity with the genre, and he is not much helped by the scenario of Newman and Robert Benton, which like their text for Bonnie and Clyde is anachronistic in language and incongruous in humor.
A sluggish, low-key feature, There Was a Crooked Man takes its time in relating a melodrama in which the characters are far more interesting than the plot.
Mankiewicz would go on to make only one more picture, Sleuth, in 1972, a well-acted thriller adapted from a successful play.
Credits:
Produced, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Written by David Newman, Robert Benton
Cinematography Harry Stradling Jr.
Edited by Gene Milford
Music by Charles Strouse
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date: December 25, 1970 (US)
Running time 126 minutes
Cast
Kirk Douglas as Paris Pitman Jr.
Henry Fonda as Sheriff Woodward W. Lopeman
Hume Cronyn as Dudley Whinner
Warren Oates as Floyd Moon
Burgess Meredith as The Missouri Kid
John Randolph as Cyrus McNutt
Lee Grant as Mrs. Bullard
Arthur O’Connell as Mr. Lomax
Martin Gabel as Warden Francis E. LeGoff
Michael Blodgett as Coy Cavendish
