Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Micah Lloyd Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

SnoopyStyle Paris Pitman, Jr. (Kirk Douglas) is the sole survivor of a homestead robbery and hides the loot in a snake pit. He is caught in a bordello and sentenced to 10 years in territorial prison. He makes friends and enemies. Corrupt warden LeGoff offers him a deal for a split of the loot but is killed in a prison riot. Lawman Woodward W. Lopeman (Henry Fonda) arrives to improve the prison as the new warden and he laughs off Pitman's offer.This movie takes its time to get going mostly because Fonda doesn't arrive at the prison until much later. Instead, Paris is playing the long game and shows his cards only after awhile. This needs to be a mano a mano movie with Douglas facing off against Fonda. It would be better to have Fonda arriving sooner and one of the guards being the corrupt one with the offer. It is still great to have these men face off but it is not a classic.

deickos Beginning and ending look cool but the story is not good. In fact it is bad - pretentious is the word I suppose. It is always a pity to see technically good films to be betrayed by their own story - it is sad. And that is always the primal responsibility of the director. Mr. Mankiewicz has a tendency for scale but this time it betrays him. It is difficult (if not disastrous) to put many things inside a western - the genre is frugal by definition. Few directors have managed more complex forms and Mankiewicz is definitely not among them.

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.

qormi Great actors, but the film lacks identity. The film's musical score completely decimated any semblance of drama or relevance. The same six notes played on a trumpet over and over again, resembling contemporary music of the time from "The Dating Game" or "Love, American Style" was out of place and in your face. Thus, when a man gets shot in the chest at point blank range with a rifle, there is no shock value. Nobody really cares when a beautiful woman's clothes are ripped off by a rioting prison mob and she is obviously raped - it's all light - hearted, you see. Douglas's compelling performance is wasted. Imagine any great drama plagued by recurring, obnoxious music and you have a mess. Imagine a great speech by Lincoln or JFK punctuated by comical music - it means nothing. Pathetic.