Criss Cross (film)

1949 film by Robert Siodmak

Not to be confused with CrissCross.

Criss Cross

Theatrical release poster

Directed by| Robert Siodmak
Screenplay by| Daniel Fuchs
Based on| Criss Cross
by Don Tracy[1]
Produced by| Michael Kraike
Starring| Burt Lancaster
Yvonne De Carlo
Dan Duryea
Cinematography| Franz Planer
Edited by| Ted J. Kent
Music by| Miklós Rózsa
Color process| Black and white

Production
company

Universal-International

Distributed by| Universal-International

Release dates

* January 19, 1949 (1949-01-19) (Los Angeles)
* February 4, 1949 (1949-02-04) (United States)

Running time

| 88 minutes
Country| United States
Language| English

Criss Cross is a 1949 American noir crime tragedy film starring Burt Lancaster, Yvonne De Carlo and Dan Duryea, directed by Robert Siodmak and written by Daniel Fuchs based on Don Tracy's 1934 novel of the same name.[2] The film was shot partly on location in the Bunker Hill section of Los Angeles. Miklós Rózsa scored the film's soundtrack.[3]

## Plot

[edit]

Steve Thompson returns to Los Angeles after two years of drifting trying to shake off a bad divorce, looking for his ex-wife Anna but tormented over seeing her again. Against all better judgment he continues to, resuming his old job as a driver at an armored-truck company.

Fended away by Steve's family and friends, Anna marries mobster Slim Dundee, but kindles a clandestine affair with Thompson. Caught together by Dundee, Thompson leads him and his gang into an armored-truck robbery caper, only to have the plan break down in the heist's chaos. Infuriated that his elderly partner - a close family friend who was supposed to have been left unharmed - is gunned down, Thompson switches sides mid-heist and he and Dundee exchange gunfire, wounding one-another.

In the aftermath the severely injured Thompson is considered a hero who fought off the robbers and saved half the payroll.

Dundee sends a man to the hospital to kidnap him and bring him to his hideout, but Thompson offers the hood $10,000 to drive him to Anna's hiding place instead. She’s there, with all the stolen loot. Thompson believes they will go back to the original plan - to double-cross Dundee and make off with all the money and start a new life together.

Seeing that he will only slow her down, Anna shows her true colors by announcing she needs to look out for herself and will take the entire haul and leave Thompson behind. He says he never cared about the money, he only loved her, and wanted to be together. She is unmoved.

Dundee arrives, having assumed Thompson would bribe the driver and lead him to the lovers. Declaring he too had fallen in love with Anna, he shoots both, Anna dying in Thompson's arms. As Dundee turns to flee, sirens fill the air and headlights wash over his face.

## Cast

[edit]

* Burt Lancaster as Steve Thompson
* Yvonne De Carlo as Anna
* Dan Duryea as Slim Dundee
* Stephen McNally as Det. Lt. Pete Ramirez
* Esy Morales as Orchestra Leader
* Tom Pedi as Vincent
* Percy Helton as Frank
* Alan Napier as Finchley
* Robert Osterloh as Mr. Nelson
* Griff Barnett as Pop
* Meg Randall as Helen
* Richard Long as Slade Thompson
* Joan Miller as The Lush
* Edna Holland as Mrs. Thompson
* John Doucette as Walt
* Marc Krah as Mort
* James O'Rear as Waxie
* John 'Skins' Miller as Midget
* Tony Curtis as dancer (uncredited)

## Production notes

[edit]

The production nearly derailed when producer Mark Hellinger died suddenly before filming began.

Tony Curtis made his uncredited screen debut briefly appearing as an extra dancing with De Carlo at the Round-Up Bar.

### Locations

[edit]

Criss Cross was shot around downtown Los Angeles, beginning with an aerial panorama that ends at a nightclub just north of downtown. Lancaster's character lives with his mother at a house on Hill Street, just above the north entrance of the short Hill Street Tunnel at Temple Street in the Court Hill section of Bunker Hill. The tunnel and the hill above it (including the house) were razed in 1955 for expansion of the Civic Center and a new Los Angeles County Courthouse on Hill Street, which can often be seen in episodes of Perry Mason. For the planning of the heist, Siodmak used the exterior and interiors of the rambling, rundown Sunshine Apartments on the steep Third Street steps between Hill and Olive, just opposite the Angels Flight funicular, seen in the background through the windows of the hotel room. This area of Bunker Hill was a favorite of noir directors, but was all torn down in the 1960s. There is also an extended scene inside and outside Union Station on Alameda near downtown.

## Reception

[edit]

### Critical response

[edit]

The New York Times film critic T. M. Pierce gave the film a mixed review, writing, "A tough, mildly exciting melodrama about gangsters and a dame named Anna who 'gets into the blood' of a guy named Steve and causes him no end of trouble...In many ways Criss Cross is a suspenseful action picture, due to the resourceful directing of Robert Siodmak. But it also is tedious and plodding at times, due partly to Mr. Siodmak's indulgence of a script that is verbose, redundant and imitative. However, the writers should be credited with having invested the old triangle-gangster formula with a couple of fresh if not exactly revolutionary twists."[4]

The film was reissued by Universal-International in 1959.[5]

### Reappraisal

[edit]

In 2004, film critic Dennis Schwartz wrote, "Robert Siodmak ... directs this cynical film noir of obsessive love and betrayal. It's 1940s film noir at its most influential as far as style goes, that is further enhanced by the beautiful dark photography of Frank Planer, the tight script by Daniel Fuchs, and the taut pacing by Siodmak. It's based on a story by Don Tracy ... Siodmak keeps the suspense at a feverish pitch, and the characterizations are well drawn out. Criss Cross is one of the great examples of 1940s film noir at its most tragic. A must see film for fans of the genre."[6]

Dave Kehr, film critic for the Chicago Reader, lauded the film and wrote, "Robert Siodmak was one of the most influential stylists of the 40s, helping to create, in films such as Phantom Lady and The Killers, the characteristic look of American film noir. But most of his films have nothing more than their pictorial qualities to recommend them—Criss Cross being one of the few exceptions, an archly noir story replete with triple and quadruple crosses, leading up to one of the most shockingly cynical endings in the whole genre."[7]

Film Noir Foundation founder Eddie Muller lists Criss Cross as No. 2 in his Top 25 Noir Films saying: "Stupidly, I used to think there was something missing at the core. But it keeps getting better every time I see it. De Carlo in the parking lot pleading straight to the camera might be noir's defining moment."[8]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 92% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on 12 reviews.[9]

### Awards

[edit]

Nomination

* Edgar Allan Poe Awards: Edgar, Best Motion Picture, Daniel Fuchs and Don Tracy (novel); 1950.

## Adaptation

[edit]

The film was remade as The Underneath directed by Steven Soderbergh in 1995.[10]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Greene, Brian (31 October 2014). "Lost Classics of Noir: Criss-Cross by Don Tracy". criminalelement.com. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
2. ^ "The 100 Best Film Noirs of All Time". Paste. August 9, 2015. Archived from the original on August 12, 2015. Retrieved August 9, 2015.
3. ^ Criss Cross at IMDb.
4. ^ The New York Times. Film review, "Burt Lancaster Same Old Tough Guy," March 12, 1949. Last accessed: March 22, 2008.
5. ^ Boxoffice Barometer (1959)
6. ^ Schwartz, Dennis. Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews, film review, October 26, 2004. Last accessed: July 14, 2024.
7. ^ Kehr, Dave. Chicago Reader, film review, 1996–2008. Last accessed: March 23, 2008.
8. ^ Muller, Eddie. Top 25 Noir Films, Last accessed: November 11, 2019.
9. ^ Criss Cross at Rotten Tomatoes. Last accessed: December 9, 2020.
10. ^ The Underneath at IMDb

## External links

[edit]

Wikiquote has quotations related to Criss Cross (film).

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Criss Cross (film).

* Criss Cross at IMDb
* Criss Cross at the TCM Movie Database
* Criss Cross at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
* Criss Cross at Rotten Tomatoes
* Criss Cross is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive
* Criss Cross film clip on YouTube

* v
* t
* e

Films directed by Robert Siodmak

Europe
1930–1939|

* People on Sunday (1930)
* Farewell (1930)
* Inquest (1931)
* About an Inquest (1931, MLV)
* The Man in Search of His Murderer (1931)
* Storms of Passion (1932)
* Quick (1932)
* The Burning Secret (1933)
* The Weaker Sex (1933)
* The Crisis is Over (1934)
* La Vie parisienne (1936)
* Parisian Life (1936)
* The Great Refrain (1936)
* Compliments of Mister Flow (1936)
* White Cargo (1937)
* Mollenard (1938)
* The Corsican Brothers (1939)
* Personal Column (1939)

Hollywood
1941–1951|

* West Point Widow (1941)
* Fly-by-Night (1942)
* The Night Before the Divorce (1942)
* My Heart Belongs to Daddy (1942)
* Someone to Remember (1943)
* Son of Dracula (1943)
* Phantom Lady (1944)
* Cobra Woman (1944)
* Christmas Holiday (1944)
* The Suspect (1944)
* The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (1945)
* The Spiral Staircase (1946)
* The Killers (1946)
* The Dark Mirror (1946)
* Time Out of Mind (1947)
* Cry of the City (1948)
* Criss Cross (1949)
* The Great Sinner (1949)
* The File on Thelma Jordon (1950)
* Deported (1950)
* The Whistle at Eaton Falls (1951)

Europe
1952–1969|

* The Crimson Pirate (1952)
* Flesh and the Woman (1954)
* Die Ratten (1955)
* My Father, the Actor (1956)
* The Devil Strikes at Night (1957)
* Dorothea Angermann (1959)
* Magnificent Sinner (1959)
* The Rough and the Smooth (1959)
* My Schoolfriend (1960)
* The Nina B. Affair (1961)
* Escape from East Berlin (1962)
* The Shoot (1964)
* The Treasure of the Aztecs (1965)
* The Pyramid of the Sun God (1965)
* Custer of the West (1967)
* Kampf um Rom (1968)

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