Other Titles • Crossfire (1947) • Cradle of Fear • Im Kreuzfeuer (1973) • Kreuzverhör (1950)
Synopses for Crossfire (1947)
1.
Crossfire was nominated for the 1947 Best Picture Oscar won by Gentleman's Agreement. Gentlemen may propose, if not agree, that Crossfire was better. Like its upscale rival, the film noir raises the specter of anti-Semitism in America: just after World War II, an affable Jew (Sam Levene) is beaten to death by one of several GIs out "crawling." Solving the crime takes all night, but for the audience the killer's identity is scarcely in doubt; Robert Ryan's chilling study in psychopathic bigotry scored him his lone Oscar nomination. He's nearly matched in creepiness by Paul Kelly as an odd nightbird married to sultry Gloria Grahame. Two other worthy Roberts--Young and Mitchum--respectively play the police detective and the Army sergeant wondering which of his guys is a murderer. Incidentally, the hot button in the Richard Brooks novel was not anti-Semitism but homophobia--a sweaty subtext in Edward Dmytryk's film. --Richard T. Jameson
2.
This unusual and worthwhile black-and-white film noir was one of the first movies to deal with issues of anti-Semitism. A weary Washington detective (Robert Young) must get to the bottom of a seemingly motive-lacking murder, with the prime suspect a boozy soldier who can only vaguely recall the events of the night. The story really digs its heels into lots of postwar issues--how soldiers need a place to put all their violence once the war is over and the other problems of readjusting to civilian life. Robert Mitchum stars as a friend of the accused soldier who helps the detective solve the case.
Edward Dmytryk had already established himself as a fine noir director with MURDER, MY SWEET, made a few years earlier. Here he takes the shadowy, midnight world of desperate people and seedy dives and slyly turns it into a vehicle for the exploration of bigotry. The result is a quietly stunning, low-key classic. Young is especially good as the detective and gets ample help from Mitchum and Robert Ryan in this well-written, atmospheric drama.
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