Walk a Crooked Mile *** (1948, Dennis O’Keefe, Louis Hayward, Louise Allbritton, Carl Esmond, Onslow Stevens) – Classic Movie Review 11,489

FBI director J Edgar Hoover forced them to change the title from FBI vs Scotland Yard to Walk a Crooked Mile (1948).

Director Gordon Douglas’s rousing little 1948 black and white film noir crime Cold War espionage thriller Walk a Crooked Mile borrows documentary techniques, as FBI Agent Dan O’Hara (Dennis O’Keefe) flushes out commies with the help of the British police, Scotland Yard Detective Philip ‘Scotty’ Grayson (Louis Hayward) .

Onslow Stevens has a good time as Igor Braun, the head spy trying to steal scientists’ A-bomb secrets, after a communist spy ring has infiltrated the Southern California atomic research centre Lakeview Laboratory of Nuclear Physics. Also good value are Carl Esmond as Dr Ritter von Stolb and Raymond Burr as villainous heavy Krebs.

Commendably, actors and director take the hokum for real.

George Bruce writes the screenplay from the story by Bertram Millhauser, with an anti-communism slant.

The main cast are Louis Hayward as Philip ‘Scotty’ Grayson, Dennis O’Keefe as Dan O’Hara [Daniel F. O’Hara], Louise Allbritton as Dr. Toni Neva, Carl Esmond as Dr. Ritter von Stolb, Onslow Stevens as Igor Braun, Raymond Burr as Krebs, Art Baker as Dr. Frederick Townsend, Lowell Gilmore as Dr. William Forrest, Philip Van Zandt as Anton Radchek, Charles Evans as Dr. Homer Allen, Frank Ferguson as Carl Bemish, and Reed Hadley as Narrator.

FBI director J Edgar Hoover got them to change the title from FBI vs Scotland Yard.

Walk a Crooked Mile is directed by Gordon Douglas, runs 91 minutes, is made by Edward Small Productions, is released by Columbia Pictures, is written by George Bruce, from the story by Bertram Millhauser, is shot in black and white by George Robinson, is produced by Edward Small and Grant Whytock, and is scored by Paul Sawtell.

The Best of Raymond Burr: Desperate (1947), Sleep, My Love (1948), Raw Deal (1948), Pitfall (1948), Abandoned (1949), Red Light (1949), M (1951), His Kind of Woman (1951), The Blue Gardenia (1953), Walk a Crooked Mile (1948), Borderline (1950), Unmasked (1950), The Whip Hand (1951), FBI Girl (1951), Meet Danny Wilson (1952), Rear Window (1954), They Were So Young (1954), A Cry in the Night (1956), Affair in Havana (1957), and Crime of Passion (1957).

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,489

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/