Good solid noir, with Burt Lancaster possibly running a little below best but Yvonne DeCarlo as the supreme femme fatale is in stomping form and more than makes up for any lapses from others. Gets going immediately and the aerial shot makes us well aware that this is going to be a beautifully shot movie, which it certainly is. Really great camera movement, especially during a stunning dance sequence, that includes an unaccredited Tony Curtis, and the heist itself with the surprising element designed to catch out Mr Lancaster. Good all the way through and if Lancaster sometimes appears a little lame it is probably because of the sheer ruthlessness of Dan Duryea as the chief baddie and the aforementioned DeCarlo who seems to be able to run rings round them all. Oh and what an ending!
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christopher-underwood18 March 2009
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telegonus4 February 2003It was only fitting that Robert Siodmak directed Criss Cross, as he had also directed the film's star, Burt Lancaster, in his first film three years earlier, and this one is Burt's farewell to noir and city suits, as he was about to begin his swashbuckling phase, and after that would don military uniforms and cowboy gear.
Criss Cross is basically a "big heist" movie, full of people double crossing one another with alarming frequency, and to such a degree that the story is often hard to follow. Yvonne De Carlo is the love interest, and Dan Duryea is an exceptionally nasty bad guy even for noir. The setting is L.A., and there is much excellent location photography that makes the movie a treat for people who want to see what the city looked like before half of it was bulldozed to make way for the highways.
There's nothing startling or especially new about this movie. It has a fine and somewhat eclectic supporting cast which includes Alan Napier and Richard Long, Steve McNally and Percy Helton. As in The Killers, there's a strong air of fatalism in the movie, more oppressive here, with a darker tone, and a more Germanic, almost Langian feeling of hopelessness. -
seymourblack-14 March 2011"Criss Cross" is a well made movie about a gullible guy who's obsessed with the past and his ex-wife. Having tried to heal his obsession by leaving Los Angeles for a period of time, he decides to return home and deludes himself that he's simply returning to be with his family, when in fact everyone around him knows the real reason for his return. His decision to come back to L.A. and his past is a dreadful mistake which ultimately seals his fate.
Steve Thompson (Burt Lancaster) starts to frequent "The Round Up", a bar where he and his ex-wife Anna (Yvonne DeCarlo) used to hang out and when they meet up again, they rekindle their relationship. This exasperates his mother and his old friend Detective Lieutenant Pete Ramirez (Stephen McNally). They both know that Anna is not to be trusted and Pete is also aware that a local gangster called Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea) is infatuated with her.
Anna is very materialistic and marries Slim because he's wealthy. Steve is very hurt but when he meets her some time later, she tells him that she's unhappy in her marriage and that her new husband beats her. She also says that she married Slim because Pete had threatened to arrest her if she didn't stop seeing Steve. Predictably, the couple then resume their affair.
A little time later, Anna calls at Steve's home to tell him that Slim knows about their affair and almost immediately after, Slim and some of his gang have also entered his house. In a hurried attempt to justify why he and Anna had been alone together, Steve explains that he's planning an armoured car robbery and that he needs Slim's help to carry it out. Steve works as a driver for the armoured car company and suggests that he could be the gang's "inside man".
When arrangements are made for the robbery to go ahead, Steve and Anna plan to double cross Slim but Slim also plans a double cross of his own.
Director Robert Siodmak had collaborated previously with Burt Lancaster in the making of "The Killers" and their work together on "Criss Cross" produced another high quality crime drama in which Siodmak's influence is in strong evidence. The opening sequence which begins with an aerial shot of the city at night and eventually closes in on the guilty looking couple is very impressive as is the staging of the robbery and there's also a spectacularly high overhead shot of the armoured vehicle approaching the scene of the crime which is truly unforgettable.
"Criss Cross" is essentially about a heist, a dangerous love triangle, obsession, betrayal and a number of double crosses. With very good performances from its talented cast, it also has a consistently ominous atmosphere and is profoundly fatalistic. -
bmacv10 January 2004Robert Siodmak and Burt Lancaster made beautiful movies together - two of them, anyway (The Crimson Pirate is, as they say, another story). Together, they mark Siodmak's most assured work in film noir - and indispensable titles in the cycle. Siodmak introduced Lancaster to the world in The Killers; three years after that auspicious debut, he starred him again in Criss Cross. With his chiseled face and rugged physique, Lancaster was the embodiment of the all-American pluck that had just won a war and was setting out to assume hegemony of the globe. So Siodmak cast him, again, as a loser.
Lancaster returns to his family home in the shabby Bunker Hill section of Los Angeles; he'd been away trying to forget his marriage, which went bad after seven months. But absence made his heart grow fonder, and he thinks of his ex-wife (Yvonne DeCarlo) as a piece of apple core that gets wedged between the teeth and can't be dislodged, even with the cellophane from a pack of smokes. Ah, romance....
Lying to himself, he starts hanging around their old joint, The Round Up, hoping to spot her. Neither a ritzy club nor a down-and-out dive, it's a blue-collar night spot divided down the middle, with the bar and phone booth on one side and, on the other, the tables and dance floor. It's there he sees her again, doing a smoldering rhumba with young (and uncredited) Tony Curtis to the insinuating flute warblings of Esy Morales. She's ready to get back together, and so is he, but pride gets in the way; in retaliation, she marries flashy gangster Dan Duryea.
But Lancaster and DeCarlo keep bumping against each other, like cellophane and apple core. When Duryea confirms his suspicions by catching them together, Lancaster weasels his way out of a very tight corner by saying he's planning a job for them - knocking over the armored truck company he drives for, with himself as the inside man. He rationalizes his complicity away by thinking he and DeCarlo will abscond with their share of the loot.
The brutal heist, filmed in a fog of smoke bombs, goes awry, with lives lost on both sides. Lancaster's arm is smashed, but he winds up acclaimed a hero - if one strung up by pulleys attached to his hospital bed. Only his erstwhile friend, a police lieutenant (Steven McNally) figures out the role Lancaster really played, and disgusted by his thick-headedness, warns that he's not safe from Duryea's henchmen, even while he's recuperating. He's right: Lancaster finds himself being abducted to the oceanside rendezvous where DeCarlo is waiting - and for a final reckoning with Duryea.
Siodmak's establishes full command from the movie's first shot - a stunning aerial glide over Los Angeles at night, swooping into the parking lot behind The Round Up where Lancaster and DeCarlo are trysting - to its last, a darkly poetic pietà . Characteristically, he fragments the narrative through flashbacks, counterposing the hopes of Lancaster's return home with the desperation into which he has fallen. He also slows down for virtuosic sequences that only a great director could bring off: a long scene when the heist is being plotted, with the bored DeCarlo smoking cigarettes (`It passes the time') while the Angels Flight funicular railway criss-crosses the window behind her; and an equally long one in the hospital, involving a cranked-up bed, a tilted mirror on the bureau, and a visitor in the corridor - a good Samaritan who turns out to be his worst nightmare.
Criss Cross displays almost documentary-style familiarity with the details of post-war life, when prosperity was finally trickling down to working stiffs. Lancaster's sporty duds showed a new, liberated look that would become the standard for men's casual wear for half a century (and counting), and DeCarlo, at the high-water mark of her career, looks as smashing in her slacks and barettes and print dresses as no woman has since. Siodmak catches the excitement of disposable cash in callused hands, but isn't condescending about it; but overzealous love for it, however unaccustomed, is still the root of all evils.
Another German expatriate like Siodmak, Franz Planer photographed the movie (and it's probably his finest hour, too). He shoots the armored truck from a vertiginous, almost abstract angle as it invades a huge industrial plant, or savors the shadows hurtling across its hood as it speeds across an ironwork trestle. Nor does the living scenery get short shrift - close-ups of both DeCarlo and Lancaster are voluptuous (and Duryea's especially fearsome).
As he was able to do in The Killers, Siodmak keeps the integrity of the script, never lightening the tone or taking refuge in sentimentality. The blend of crime and doomed romance, the tug-of-war between passion and self-interest, finds perfect balance here. Of course, it's the simplest and most infallible recipe for film noir. As DeCarlo says, `Love... love! You've got to watch out for yourself.' If only she'd said it a little sooner. -
Doylenf12 September 20041940's seedier side of Los Angeles makes a fitting noir background for this highly well made film noir starring BURT LANCASTER as the lovelorn hero foolish enough to go back to his ex-wife (extremely well played by YVONNE DE CARLO) who has taken up with a bunch of hoodlums headed by the sinister DAN DURYEA. True love never does run smooth, especially in this kind of fatalistic melodrama in which we have a hint from the very beginning of a dark conclusion.
The fact that Lancaster works for an armored car service is worked into the plot and makes for the movie's most suspenseful and action-filled moments. Some nice support from Stephen McNally as Lancaster's wise friend and Richard Long as his brother. Percy Felton does a standout job as an inquisitive bartender.
Robert Siodmak squeezes every bit of suspense as the story builds to a gripping climax. The hospital scene is extremely effective as Lancaster becomes aware of the dangerous situation he's in.
Lancaster displays some vulnerability and sensitivity despite his rugged good looks and has one of his best early roles here, even more impressive than he was in THE KILLERS. Miklos Rozsa's superb background score gives a jagged edge to the suspense.
Any lover of B&W film noir is guaranteed to find pleasure in this one.
Trivia: If you watch real closely, you'll spot the young Tony Curtis as de Carlo's dance partner in the crowded nightclub scene. -
Wow! Criss Cross was a blind purchase for me. I really had never read much about it until I decided to give it a try. While I was hoping to be entertained, I wasn't expecting to enjoy it this much. Burt Lancaster has never been a favorite of mine. In fact, other than The Killers, I can't think of another role of his that I've so completely enjoyed. He's wonderful in this movie. As for Yvonne De Carlo, the only other thing I remember seeing her in was the television show "The Munsters". And, while she may not be the greatest actress of all time, she's very good here. I never pictured Lily looking like this. As for Dan Duryea, he's a great baddie. Mannerisms, speech, and the rest of the package just ooze with sleaze. Together, and with the help of an excellent supporting cast, they're great.
As for the movie, it's a very entertaining noir with plenty of twists and turns along the way. Lancaster is the kind of man who drinks too much, De Carlo is the kind of woman who uses men to get what she wants, and Duryea is the kind of man who would as soon shoot you as look at you. It's gritty, sometimes violent, and always entertaining. The film is expertly directed by Robert Siodmak, whose work I've always enjoyed. The script is exceptional with more double-crosses in the final half than one movie has a right to. No one is above double-crossing anyone else. It makes for a very entertaining hour and a half. The movie also features a nice look at Los Angeles in the 40s. The scenes of middle-class, single-family neighborhoods are quite different from the city of today.
While Criss Cross may not be the best film noir I've seen, I would place it somewhere on a list of my ten favorite noirs. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to fans of the genre. -
As a film noir fan who read a lot of positive reviews of this film before seeing it, I wound up really disappointed with this after two views. For some reason, the first look wasn't bad but on a further viewing, it really dragged. The reason was simple: it took took long for the "heist" to happen.It turned out to be more of a talk-fest between Burt Lancaster and Yvonne DeCarlo before anything happened.
I have nothing against the main actors and their performances. Lancaster, as always, was interesting and DeCarlo is also intriguing, especially for someone like me who grew up knowing her only as "Lily Munster." She had a convincing 1940s film noir look: pretty, sultry and not only looked the part but acted the part well, too. I wish she had done a few more noirs that were available on disc or tape.
When you add Dan Duryea, Stephen McNally and others, this should have been better and the middle just went on too long. The beginning and ending are, by far, the best parts of this movie. -
jem13212 January 2009This Robert Siodmak-directed noir deserves closer attention. It's an excellent film that is much, much more than a re-hash of his 1946 noir masterpiece "The Killers". Granted, the plot involves a heist, director Siodmak is back on board and Lancaster again plays a big lug who dangerously falls for a sexy femme fatale and gets mixed up in a payroll heist, but it's deep, dark and tragic. Yvonne De Carlo's Anna is one of the more sympathetic of femme fatales, and as mentioned in some literature, her relationship with Lancaster is more romantic and complex, sort of "Romeo & Juliet", than first envisaged.
De Carlo is Lancaster's beautiful ex-wife, now married to shady gangster Slim Dundee (the always interesting, always menacing Dan Duryea). Lancaster's Steve Thompson, an armored car driver, is constantly urged by friends and family to stay away from her, but he looks for her every time. In voice-over, Lancaster muses on the workings of fate that always seem to drive him and Anna back together. But Siodmak shows us that Lancaster is a very active participant in his own destiny. He fools himself that it is fate-- in reality, he can't live without her. And it is that way too with De Carlo. Anna is a realist while Steve is an idealist. He stupidly believes that, after the bungled payroll heist, and he is kidnapped by one of Slim's henchman from the hospital, that the henchman won't give the money that Steve has bribed him with to take him to Anna, back to Slim. She flies off the handle and packs to leave, knowing that if Slim finds her he will kill both of them. But he is strangely at peace with coming death, because Steve is doomed with or without her. Steve is not the only one who keeps running back to their love--in the tragic, but cathartic, final scene Anna runs back to Steve as Slim pulls the gun to kill him. They die in each other's arms. Slim is also hopelessly in love with Anna, and he can't live without her either. Killing her because he can't have her, he also seals his own fate as the police arrive at the hideout.
Aside from the complex emotions dealt with in this great noir, it is also quite excellent on a technical level. Siodmak handles a tricky flashback with ease, helped immeasurably by Franz Planer's excellent black-and-white photography, There is a brilliant overhead shot as Lancaster's armored car sets up for the failed heist. The hospital scenes, with an injured Lancaster fearing that Duryea will send henchman to kill him, is filled with nail-biting suspense. Francis Ford Coppola might have borrowed a trick or two from Siodmak in adapting the famed hospital scene in "The Godfather" to the screen. Lancaster does very good work in a role that, on surface, he would seem to be miscast in. Instead he excels. Stephen McNally actually plays the good guy for once, but he's nowhere near as attention-grabbing as in his other films. Watch for Tony Curtis as De Carlo's dance partner in a sexy rumba dance scene! -
David-24015 December 1999This film looks great - a classic noir - but the story is dull and predictable. I'm sure this frustrated Robert Siodmak as he can never really make the film fire in the way that he did "The Killers". The other weak link is Yvonne De Carlo, who looks great but is never really convincing. Much better is Burt Lancaster, also looking great, but very convincing as the love-sick fool hero. And the supporting cast of hoods and odd-balls is interesting. Worthwhile, but not great - with an excellent finale.
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While driving an armored car in a lonely road, Steve Thompson (Burt Lancaster) recalls his life, after divorcing his beloved wife Anna (Yvonne De Carlo) and working in many places in the United States of America, from the moment he returned home in Los Angeles a few days ago. Although traveling for almost two years trying to forget Anna, he is still obsessed with her. However, when he arrives in town, the sentimentally inconstant Anna gets married with the gangster Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea). Steve plans a heist of the armored car with Slim, expecting to double-cross the criminal and escaping with Anna to another city to begin a new life, but things do not happen as he intended it was. "Criss Cross" is a magnificent film-noir, indeed another masterpiece of master Robert Siodmak. From the initial long scene, with an aerial view of Los Angeles reaching a spot in a parking area where Steve and Anna are having a conversation, to the conclusion of the story, there is no flaw in the script. Burt Lancaster has an outstanding performance in the role of a honest man obsessed with his former wife, who becomes criminal trying to regain the love of his fickle ex-wife. Yvonne De Carlo is also perfect and very beautiful, in the role of a cold and manipulative woman, being a perfect "femme-fatale". The black and white photography with many shadows is awesome in the DVD released in Brazil by the distributor Classicline, and the music score is simply perfect. In 1995, Steven Soderbergh updated this story with the excellent remake "Underneath". My vote is ten.
Title (Brazil): "Baixeza" ("Lowness') -
funkyfry9 November 2008First of all, thanks to regular commenter Neil Doyle for confirming my suspicion that I did actually see a very young Tony Curtis on the dance floor in this film.
This is a very tidy little movie, pretty gritty and very intense in its action scenes. Burt Lancaster stars as Steve, a guy who's willing to give up way too much to get back together with his ex-wife Anna (Yvonne De Carlo) even though she's taken up with a sadistic hoodlum (Dan Duryea). Duryea seemed to specialize in small-time guys who carry their nasty world-views on their sleeves, and he adds a lot to this movie although I wish maybe there was just a bit more of him. A few more scenes with Duryea and a few less with the moralizing cop friend (Stephen McNally) would have helped. But this film motors very efficiently towards its dark conclusion at any rate.
The real set-piece is a big caper, so you could look at this movie as a heist film. Everything builds up to the heist by way of a flashback; Steve works for an armored car company and he's set up a heist with Duryea's character, Slim Dundee. There's nothing very original in the set-up, and it's not hard to see the double-double cross coming. But it's thoroughly enjoyable because of Siodmak's tight direction, Miklos Rozsa's subtle score, and quality performances from all 3 leads. -
Like many viewers I was initially disappointed by Criss Cross. Some have claimed it to be a poor imitation of Lancaster's debut in "The Killers" but after repeated screenings I find that my appreciation increases with each viewing. The rather direct flashback plotting, the excellent supporting work of Dan Duryea and the whole stable of Universal bit players contribute to a delightful film noir experience. It does lack the irony and richness of story of "The Killers" and can't compare to "Out Of The Past" but the dynamic between Lancaster and DeCarlo ranks as some of the best interplay in the genre, even if a bit one dimensional.
If you are new to the genre, Criss Cross is not a first choice. But as you work your way through the cycle this film represents one of the high points of the studio systems addressing this film-making trend with non of the drawbacks often associated with "B" films. -
Bunuel197611 October 2007This is basically an inferior rehash of THE KILLERS (1946) by the same director and star, but a solid enough noir entry on its own; it was remade, much later, by Steven Soderbergh as THE UNDERNEATH (1995).
Burt Lancaster has the same role of the 'chump', Stephen McNally is the cop too eager to look out for him, Dan Duryea is remarkable standing in for Albert Dekker as the jealous crime boss, but Yvonne De Carlo isn't fatale enough – she merely comes across as someone who can't make up her own mind whether it's love she wants or money! Tony Curtis made his film debut here as De Carlo's dance partner in a club sequence; he would eventually co-star with Lancaster in the circus drama TRAPEZE (1956) and, most impressively, a superior noir-ish effort – the cynical masterpiece SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (1957).
Miklos Rozsa's score here is quite similar to that of BRUTE FORCE (1947), another noir featuring Lancaster – but, then, this particular composer's work always seemed to provide variations on the same theme (of course, depending on the genre). The highlight of the film, as was the case with THE KILLERS, is undeniably the elaborate heist sequence; the aprupt downbeat ending, then, is typical of the more doom-laden examples of the noir style. -
slokes5 December 2009Burt Lancaster in this film reminds me of the Billy Joel song "Stiletto": "But you stand there pleadin'/With your insides bleedin'/'Cause deep down you want some more..." Like a lot of noir protagonists, he deserves it. My problem with "Criss Cross" is I never cared.
Is Steve just a sap, or is he a jerk? A lot depends on what is in the heart of the center of his affections, his ex-wife Anna (Yvonne De Carlo). When Steve returns to the old neighborhood after a long absence, Anna draws herself to him, then pulls away and marries a local crime boss just as Steve begins to respond. Then she reaches out to Steve again. If only they had money to get away. Did I mention Steve works as an armored-car guard, delivering bags of money?
De Carlo was a beautiful actress who didn't get the right parts, and that includes this. Is Anna genuinely conflicted, or just a tramp? Daniel Fuchs' script shortcuts the need for character depth by writing Anna both ways, and not expecting us to notice. The convenience of Steve's job also grates, as well as the film's flashback-dependent structure and logic-defying conclusion.
I understand why others regard this film more highly than me. Lancaster is a classic film star who looks marvelous here. Director Robert Siodmak, who collaborated so well with Lancaster in the earlier noir "The Killers", employs interesting angles and textures to communicate a visual freshness unusual for early postwar cinema. Dan Duryea is a sleek and sturdy villain with a refreshingly snide sense of humor.
Three sequences are standouts. One, taking place in a hospital, dramatizes the adage: "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you." Another involves planning a big heist, with Anna and Steve's smoldering relationship as subtext and suspense point. "You're going to need a cover story" Duryea's Slim Dundee is told, and thus distracted from watching his wife and her ex-husband a moment longer than he should.
Finally, the heist itself is well shot, a boldly paced shootout with layers of tear gas substituting for the fog you get in other noir films. But "Criss Cross" is not at its heart a heist film but a love-gone-wrong film, and that's what goes wrong here.
Okay, Steve's a lunkhead, and his core issue: "He's divorced, but he's still got her in his bones" is one a lot of guys can identify with, but other than looking great together, Lancaster and De Carlo give us no reason to see what Steve sees, why he betrays family and friends. If De Carlo had more ambiguity to play with, that might have been effective, but here it's just that she's one person one moment, another the next.
Too often we idle around Steve's mother's house or a bar where Steve is pestered by a well-meaning cop friend, who's got it all figured out but can't seem to do a thing to protect Steve. Expositional dialogue runs amuck, which shouldn't happen in a movie loaded with flashback. The crooks even discuss their heist plans loudly in an alley behind the bar where they could be overheard by anyone, just to fill us in.
Siodmak has an eye for real-life detail a lot of people respond to, but this time, unlike "The Killers", he only has half a story and a psychosis to work with. "Criss Cross" has a classic noir title but it's almost too apt here. -
dougdoepke21 July 2015Sure, you've seen it all before: the snarling villain (Dan Duryea), the black widow babe (Yvonne DeCarlo), and the hapless fall guy who just can't help himself (Burt Lancaster). But this is vintage noir from the golden age, done with real style and conviction. What stays with me are those scenes that have since worked their way into the textbook. There's the nightclub scene, where Lancaster gazes longingly at lost love DeCarlo, while she sambas with new honey boy Tony Curtis. Meanwhile there's this pulsating Latin beat that keeps going and going and everybody's shaking it except poor Lancaster. You feel the doom in the air and know this has to end badly. Then there's that nervous scene in the hospital where Lancaster's all laid up. But who's this new guy. He looks like Joe Average, but is he.
Director Siodmak really knows how to shift gears and make these quiet moments creepy. Everybody's been waiting for the robbery, but it seems like a cloudy dream, the kind you only half remember and wish you could forget. Ghostly figures drift in and out of focus, yet which one's Lancaster and who's got the money. Hollywood's fog machines were really working overtime on this one. Of course, it all leads up to the final scene, which is about as good as noir gets. The moment of reckoning when everything comes together, this time with a good view of eternity and in the moonlight, no less. The feeling that it all had to happen from the beginning is so thick you can cut it with the proverbial knife.
Sure, the D-cup DeCarlo's not quite up to the acting challenge, and the great Duryea doesn't get enough scenes, but consider the screen time given to two deserving foot soldiers of the golden era. Once you've seen him, you never forget him: that raspy-voiced gnome Percy Helton as the bartender. There's been no one like him before or since, a sly little troll who's escaped from the pages of Grimm's Fairy Tales. Yet I've never seen him give anything less than an A-grade performance that lifted many a B-movie above the forgettable. On the other hand, there's the completely ordinary Robert Osterloh as the mysterious stranger. His face is sort of familiar. Maybe he's the guy who fixes your car or fills your prescription or on a really bad night, shoves a gun in your gut. But like Helton, he too never gave anything less than an expert performance. Too bad his little Hollywood star never glowed, but he sure made a lot of others brighter than they were.
It's all there and in the kind of irreplaceable black and white that Hollywood's been trying to remake in Technicolor for years. So catch up with this original and find out why. -
Yvonne De Carlo smolders as a sultry femme fatale who juggles both fall guy Burt Lancaster and bad guy Dan Duryea in "Son of Dracula" director Robert Siodmak's "Criss Cross," an above-average but predictable exercise in film noir that boasts gloomy atmosphere, a gritty urban environment, and solid performances. Burt Lancaster gives an exceptional performance as the vulnerable protagonist who cannot conceal his sentiments about the De Carlo character from anybody, even the supporting characters. Speaking of supporting characters, "Criss Cross" boasts its share and they take an active part in the proceedings. Percy Helton as a bartender, Alan Napier as a crime planner, Joan Minor as the lush, Griff Barrett as Pop, and Tom Pedi as Dundee's accomplice all contribute memorably to the action.
Although the film noir elements aren't as oppressive as in Siodmak's earlier and superior collaboration with Lancaster on "The Killers," "Criss Cross" is unmistakably noir. For example, a larger number of scenes in "Criss Cross" take place during the day rather than at night. Siodmak never wears out his welcome here and the use of an extended flashback 14 minutes into the action that takes us back for important exposition is expertly integrated into the narrative. Siodmak stages the action nimbly without lingering unduly on anybody or anything. A Dresden-born German, Siodmak is a highly underrated helmer who has never received the well-deserved recognition accorded Fritz Lang. Mind you, Siodmak doesn't have Lang's cinematic flair with staging scenes, but his films are nevertheless robust.
Scenarist Daniel Fuchs, who later won an Oscar for "Love Me or Leave Me" (1955), based his screenplay on Don Tracy's crime novel with tough guy dialogue and continuity supplemented by William Bowers that emphasizes the theme of fatalism so essential to film noir. Moreover, Fuchs received an Edgar nomination for his "Criss Cross" script. Everybody in "Criss Cross" is destined to lose in some way or another. Lancaster's doomed character, however, suffers the greatest anguish by comparison. De Carlo's siren is second in line. Surprisingly, Fuchs and Siodmak generate more tension among their scheming principals in the first half of the action than they do with the gripping armored truck heist in broad daylight during the second half of the movie. Interestingly, the police don't figure prominently in "Criss Cross, though they hover on the periphery in the form of Lieutenant Frank Ramirez. The heist is still pretty engrossing material from its carefully planned stages to its skillful execution.
The production values of "Criss Cross" look first-rate. Universal doesn't appear to have confined either Siodmak or the film--despite its B-movie subject matter—to claustrophobic studio sets. The armored truck set looks terrific, particularly when they load the truck up and leave with a tilting high angle shot that shows them exiting the building. "Champion" cinematographer Frank (later Franz) Planer's evocative black & white photography is a considerable asset. Planer's location lensing is top-notch in several scenes, especially the multi-layered Round Up Bar and later at the factory where the heist occurs. Planer does an exceptional job of photographing the Lancaster character after he winds up in the hospital with his arm in traction. An interesting slice-of-life moment occurs early in the movie during a conversation between two employees at the armored truck firm when they discuss about the competitive price of two grocery stores and how one store undercuts the other with their prices o soap and tomato juice that enhances the 1949 setting.
"Criss Cross" starts out suspensefully as we learn that Anna (Yvonne De Carlo of "Brute Force") and Steve Thompson (Burt Lancaster of "Elmer Gantry") are hiding in the parking lot of the nightclub called The Round Up where they are necking. The story unfolds chronologically to begin with because Anna is married to notorious gangster Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea of "Black Bart") who is looking for her at that very moment inside the Round Up. Dundee gives Anna the third degree later when she comes back inside about what she was doing. Steve cautions her earlier that they must be discreet or they could blow the entire set-up. Later, Steve enters the Round Up to gate crash on Dundee's party. You see, Dundee and company plan to relocate to Detroit and he is giving a farewell party. Los Angeles Police Detective Lieutenant Pete Ramirez (Stephen McNally of "Winchester '73") tries to dissuade Steve from butting in where he hasn't been invited. Steve blows him off and moments later Ramirez gate crashes the party himself after Dundee has pulled a knife on Steve. Ramirez is Steve's friend, though we never know the basis of their back and forth relationship. Whenever Steve calls Ramirez 'lieutenant,' Ramirez has him call him 'Pete.' When Ramirez is all business because Steve has crossed the line, he makes Steve call him 'lieutenant.' Steve drives an armored truck and Dundee and his henchmen plan to rob the armored track company that employs Steve. Sure, "Criss Cross" has the stock-in-trade message that 'crime doesn't pay' and it is emphasized by everybody but the optimistic Steve. Initially, an armored truck official brags, "Nobody ever got away with the heist on an armored truck in 28-years. Matter of fact, they don't even try any more." Later, Finchley (Alan Napier, who played Alfred the Butler on TV's "Batman") objects to the robbery because they always end in failure until he listens to Steve's inside idea. Vincent (Tom Pedi of "The Taking of Pelham One, Two, Three") raves about the interjection from another henchman that everybody on that robbery wound up dead or in the chair.
Siodmak and Planer do a good job staging the heist. The criminals set off smoke bombs so that everything takes place in a kind of limbo with Steve trying to thwart the robbery after shooting breaks out that he didn't want. The paranoia in the hospital scenes where Steve feels trapped is gripping as is the ill-fated ending that Anna and Steve meet at Dundee's hands. -
Quinoa198427 April 2007It will be arguable with most viewers on whether or not Criss Cross, Robert Siodmak's quasi follow up to The Killers (featuring the same star, Burt Lancaster), is a definitive entry in the period of the film-noir. Part of this could be attributable to the heist sub-plot in the film, the one that drives on the characters to their bleak conclusions, is only good, not great, and is only inventive in how it is set up at the start, in typical noirish style, and then comes around again right at the 2/3 mark. What is essential or definitive about the picture, however, is the relationship between Steve (Lancaster) and Ann (the sultry late Yvonne DeCarlo). Here's a bond that has 'noir' written all over it; they've been divorced and estranged for quite a while, and when Steve comes back to town thinking at first with no intention of seeing her, it happens, old feelings stir up, and what he doesn't know, of course, is that she's married, this time to a mobster, Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea). When they attempt at seeing each other again- as their push and pull relationship has them at a disadvantage- Slim gets wise to it, and Steve only gets out of this jam by offering a job- a "can't-be-done" job involving an armored car.
There's something about the main actor and actress in a film-noir that always gets me perked up a little more, especially if they're in juicy roles, and here Siodmak has a near perfect pair on his hands. Lancaster, with his natural appeal as a (for a noir anyway) average-Joe, and DeCarlo, with everything that can make a man allured and dismayed by what he sees (dismayed, of course, because one might think that a girl like that would be unapproachable), play into these roles like it's second nature, and if for nothing else they're the real draw in Criss Cross. It's part of a sort of male psychological streak in these films, perhaps, that it's from the man's POV in how one gets drawn in by pure desire, even if the sense of fate and circumstance feel all too uneasy. There's great scenes in the nightclub, where Steve sees Ann again, dancing to a Latin tune that gets the mood to a high pitch, of the two of them talking together and seeing how they could work out as a couple, but also how tempers could flair at any moment on either side (I loved one bit where he asks her to go swimming with her on a weekend, and they're both grimacing the whole time). And then there's the sort of conventional fall-out where a paradoxical set of chances and bad choices send them to their respective dooms, of love getting criss-crossed (ho-ho) with greed and more pragmatic sensibilities. The ending at the rendezvous may seem a little too much without any hope, but then again who goes to see relationships like these work out as a happy ending?
Not Siodmak and his writers, for sure, and it's a major credit that his whole cast pulls off the parts, not just the principles (Duryea, by the way, is another in a long line of film-noir villains who never has to raise his voice to let himself be known as a threat in a room full of gangsters), but supporting players, like the old bartender, the even older guy who plans out part of the robbery (and waits to have his drink), or the concerned lieutenant Pete who stands on the sidelines not with the usual determination to bust the case, but as a kind of witness to Steve's demise ("I should've kicked you to get it in your head," he says late in the movie). On top of this Siodmak lays on the moody thrills and suspense with effortless glee, with the actual heist scene itself, shrouded mostly in smoke, a winner. Although much of the typical aspects of Criss Cross are worth the while, it's really the core of the picture, of the ties between such an easily read love-triangle, that becomes most fascinating. If it were on television sometime I would watch it again just for their scenes- as well as a few others- and it should stand the test of time as a very fine Hollywood thriller from one of the better directors of the period. -
Lejink4 November 2018Gritty film noir with a young Burt Lancaster playing armoured truck driver Steve Thomson led by the nose by his beautiful ex-wife Anna, played by Yvonne DeCarlo into pulling a hold-up of his own truck with a gang led by Dan Duryea's Nick Dundee, in the hope of getting away with her.
Told in a series of flashbacks by Thomson the film is aptly named as double and even triple crosses proliferate throughout before one final betrayal sees a shockingly bleak conclusion to proceedings.
Unlike other noirs, this one is shot mostly in daylight but the dark motives of its participants, violence and deceptions fully identify the movie with noir trademarks. Occasionally Lancaster looks a little inexperienced in his lead role but grows into his part as the plot thickens. No problems on that score with experienced heavy Dan Duryea while Yvonne De Carlo perhaps just lacks that air of mystery and dark streak to fully convince as the femme fatale. There's good support behind the lead triangle with Stephen McNally as the pursuing detective with a conscience, while 60's TV fans will spot Allan Napier in a pre-Alfred, Batman's butler role as a dipsomaniacal criminal logistician and Richard Long, well before his "The Big Valley" days in a minor role as Steve's sister's young boyfriend. Look even closer and you might catch Tony Curtis getting his start as a good looking young gigolo dancing Anna around before Steve stakes his claim. He of course would go on to taste the sweet smell of success years later and meet up again with Lancaster at the same time.
Filmed on location in the bright daylight sun of Los Angeles just after the war, the dialogue is convincingly mundane among the characters in their everyday pursuits but sharpens up for the key dramatic scenes. There's one superb high-viewpoint shot of the delivery truck arriving at the scene of the heist, emphasising the film's title while elsewhere, some slight confusion over when Steve's flashbacks begin and end notwithstanding, this is a convincingly depicted fast-paced thriller well deserving of its high regard amongst noir admirers, not least for that unforgettable closing shot -
jotix10017 November 2010Steve Thompson returns to Los Angeles after eight months of roaming around the country trying to forget his painful divorce from sultry Anna. He finds a changed city, but a trip to a night club brings him again in close contact with a woman he should have been better off by staying away from. Anna, now married to Slim Dundee, a gangster operating in the city. She cannot resist the idea of two timing her present man when she meets Steve again.
Thompson, who has gone back to work as a driver for a security company, has no idea about how his life will change because of the fatal obsession he develops following Anna around town. As the two are surprised by Slim in his house, Steve, trying to get out of the situation, tells Dundee he has come with an offer he cannot refuse. He has the perfect solution about the perfect caper.
The 1949 Universal film, directed by Robert Siomak, one of the best men that worked in the noir genre, is a film that will not disappoint the viewer because it has the right ingredients going for it. The screenplay is by Daniel Fuchs, based on a novel by Don Tracy. The material was the right one for Mr. Siomak, who must have seen the potential in a movie that embodied all the elements that made this type of pictures a favorite of audiences. The amazing black and white cinematography by Franz Planer contributes to our enjoyment, as well as the music score by Miklos Rosza, that adds another layer in the texture of the finished product.
Burt Lancaster was at the height of his career. Having worked with Mr. Siomak in "The Killers", he probably felt this was the right vehicle, as he gives a subdued performance of the obsessed Steve Thompson. Yvonne DeCarlo plays the treacherous Anna with equal passion. Ms. DeCarlo always brought a sexual allure to most of the work she did, as it is the case of her Anna. Bad guy Dan Duryea specialized in the type he was asked to play, again, and again. He is a laconic Slim, who does not appreciate being double crossed by either Anna, or Steve.
The supporting casts in most of the Hollywood films of that era were a joy to watch, no matter in what film they were called to grace with their appearances. Thus we watch a young Tony Curtis, uncredited, dancing a rumba with Ms. DeCarlo. We also spotted Raymond Burr in a minor role. Stephen McNally is seen as a good guy, a change of pace for the characters he played in most films. Richard Long, John Doucette, and an effective Robert Osterloh, without credit in the film, do a good job for the director. -
fntstcplnt19 December 2019Directed by Robert Siodmak. Starring Burt Lancaster, Yvonne De Carlo, Dan Duryea, Stephen McNally, Percy Helton, Tom Pedi, Joan Miller, Alan Napier, Robert Osterloh.
Lancaster's lovelorn tough guy haunts this dour crime noir, one of the better examples of the sub-genre during its most fruitful period. Still carrying a torch for his ex-wife (now married to heartless gangster Duryea), Lancaster plots an armored truck robbery while carrying on an affair, but the title makes it clear that not everything is going to go according to plan. Stylish direction from Siodmak (re-teaming with the star after they scored a few years earlier with "The Killers"), moody black-and-white photography from Franz Planer; even more cynical than expected of the type, talky at times with a tendency toward redundancy during the set-up scenes, with a memorably fatalistic finale. Lancaster is an odd choice for someone bordering on sadsack status, but he excels at hard-boiled presentation throughout and sweating during a suspenseful hospital scene; De Carlo is a middling fit as the femme fatale, though--more insensitive than calculating, she does little to inspire so much obsession. In his dialogue-free feature film debut, Tony Curtis can briefly be spotted dancing with the female lead.
75/100 -
planktonrules3 February 2011Yvonne DeCarlo sure plays a heck of a femme fatale in this film! And, she's a heck of a lot sexier than when she played Lily Munster! It seems that she was married to a poor sap (Burt Lancaster) but they've since divorced. However, he has it bad for her...and she is beginning to show signs that she might like to marry him all over again. So his hopes raise quickly---only to be dashed when she suddenly runs off with a hood (Dan Duryea--who almost ALWAYS played bad guys). Yet, oddly, despite this, she STILL has her claws in him and is able to manipulate him into being the inside man for an armored car robbery--as he's one of the crew of the truck. Things, however, don't go as you'd expect...see this excellent film to see what happens next.
Considering the film has great baddies and a taut script, it's one of the better examples of film noir--true film noir with the perfect dame, great dialog, wonderful camera work--the whole shebang! -
gpeevers10 June 2009Steve Thompson (Burt Lancaster) returns to Los Angeles after a few years and despite his own misgivings and warnings from friends and family hooks up with his ex-wife Anna (Yvonne De Carlo) who is now involved with a hood named Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea) and this sets him on a dangerous path Though this is not amongst the best 'noir's', Criss Cross is overall a good film that uses many of typical 'noir' elements quite well. We have people trapped by their circumstances, we have double crosses, we have a heist and we have a femme fatal. Outside of the story elements we have some great use of light and shadow that along with the music (Miklós Rózsa) sets the appropriate mood for some typical 'noir' locations. Admittedly though the story is not really one of the films strength's, it's fairly straightforward and predictable though some parts work better.
The film opens with what I assume is a helicopter shot over Los Angeles which looks fairly impressive, especially given that this is 1948. There is also some nice use of crane and some other high angle shots. The neighborhood of downtown Los Angeles where the film was partially shot along with a few other locations are used effectively in the film as well and integrate effectively with the sets.
I found both Lancaster and Duryea fairly effective, but I have seen better work from both of them, I didn't think De Carlo really worked although she had her moments. I'm not entirely sure why Yvonne De Carlo didn't work for me in the role, but every once in a while I could help but hear Lily Munster in her voice. Another voice that may seem familiar to some is that of the raspy Percy Helton as Frank the bartender who is a fairly memorable character actor. The film also features the debut of Tony Curtis in brief appearance as a dancing partner for De Carlo.
The novel upon which the film is based was again adapted in 1995 by Steven Soderberg as 'Underneath'. -
Criss Cross is directed by Robert Siodmak and adapted by Daniel Fuchs from Don Tracy's novel. It stars Burt Lancaster, Yvonne de Carlo, Dan Duryea and Stephen McNally. Music is scored by Miklós Rózsa and cinematography is by Franz Planer.
Steve Thompson (Lancaster) and old flame Anna (de Carlo) begin to rekindle their love, much to the dismay of those closest to Steve. She's now unhappily married to mobster Slim Dundee (Duryea), they plan to run away together but Slim is apparently getting wise to their affair. When the two are caught together by Slim, Steve quickly concocts a story that they were plotting an armoured-truck robbery that he wants Dundee to be involved in. Slim notes it's near impossible, but with Steve working for the armoured-truck company it opens the way for inside man possibilities. It deviates suspicion on the lovers, but this is only the start of their problems, for nothing is as it seems.
Criss Cross has come to be a favourite of many a film noir purist, a picture often held forward as one of the shining lights of the 1940's noir universe. But it so easily could have been so different given that the film's original producer, Mark Hellinger, suddenly died of a heart attack. The film under Hellinger's guidance was to be based around a racetrack heist, but with Hellinger's passing the project dropped into limbo and was sold off to Universal along with Lancaster and Siodmak as part of the deal. Although Lancaster was unhappy with the rewritten plot, his relationship with Siodmak had already been cemented three years earlier when they made The Killers, another of film noir's greatest triumphs. For Criss Cross, Siodmak, Fuchs and producer Michael Kraike took Tracy's novel and combined it with elements of The Killers (an Ernest Hemmingway short story). Ava Gardner wasn't on hand to reprise her Killers femme fatale performance, while Shelley Winters was considered but not offered the role that eventually went to de Carlo, who had worked with Lancaster previously on tough as nails prison movie, Brute Force (1947). Rounding out the link between the three protagonists comes with Duryea, he and de Carlo had made Black Bart & River Lady in 1948.
Alls well that ends well, figuratively speaking, because Criss Cross is a superb movie, one that begs to be re-watched whenever possible. All the classic traits of film noir are evident, both technically and narratively. The film begins with a portentous swirl of music from Rózsa, which in turn leads us into a dramatic aerial view of night time Los Angeles. From there we descend towards a parking lot and become witness to an illicit romance between Steve & Anna. At the film's finale we again will be the only witness' to their coupling, only this time it has a kicker, out shot being that Criss Cross is bookended by sheer brilliance. Obsession, betrayal and inescapable fate pervade the narrative from the moment we the audience are clued in to the history of Steve, Anna and Slim. As the tale unfolds in flashback there is a constant sense of feverish doom lingering in the air, aided considerably by Planer's evocative lighting set-ups and Siodmak's wonderful gliding camera and clinical framing compositions of the characters. Even the perky action high point of the robbery comes laced with smoggy gloom, the chaotic sequence only serving as a precursor to the present, where a hospital and a mirror shift us tonally back to the world of unease. And then the finale, one of the most bleakest, and therefore essential, ending in film noir history.
Cast are excellent, Lancaster, all square jawed and square shouldered, plays obsessed loser better than most, thanks in no small part to Siodmak's direction of him. Duryea does what he does best, playing a villain with oily verve and smirky menace, while de Carlo looks great and offers up a nice blend of sweet and rough, a different kind of femme fatale, the actress earning her acting stripes during "that" finale. In the main support slot, McNally impacts well with what he's given to do, and there's good value in the criminal ranks where Alan Napier lurks as the mastermind behind the robbery. Look out, too, for Tony Curtis, who is seen in a cameo dancing seductively with de Carlo at the Round-Up Bar. Also worth mentioning are the Los Angeles locales used for the shoot, mostly at night we get Bunker Hill, Angels Flight and Union Station. It's sad to report that Bunker Hill, a favourite spot for noir directors, was raised to the ground in the 60's
An obvious bedfellow to The Killers for sure, but even on its own terms it's essential film noir viewing for those of that persuasion. 9/10 -
drjgardner21 June 2016To a purist like me "Cross Cross" is not really "film noir" because it lacks some critical elements. The protagonist (Burt Lancaster, just off "The Killers") isn't really seduced into his ill-fated venture by a femme fatale. It may look that way, but in reality the plan to rob the armored car comes from Steve (Burt), not from Anna (Yvonne de Carlo), and not even at her instigation. And Anna is not really a femme fatale who double crosses our hero. In fact she stays wonderfully true to him until she must chose between his life and hers. In most film noir the femme fatale is not merely working for herself but usually with the antagonist (Dan Duryea). In this film she is double crossing Duryea, not Lancaster. There are many noir elements in the film. The urban setting (really nice to see downtown LA in the late 40s), the motley crew of crims, and the off-beat photography are all tried and true noir elements along with the downbeat ending. But many elements are not present, as indicated above, along with the unrelenting rain and lots of night scenes.
Putting aside the film noir bonafides, there are some real big plot holes in the film, all of which you will discover for yourself.
It's an OK film. You get to see an uncredited Tony Curtis dancing with de Carlo, and trolley cars operating in downtown LA. But don't expect to see your classic film noir. Best case, it is noirish. In reality it is more about the dangers of obsessive love, which is one of the themes in film noir, but usually done better.
BTW – if you're a fan of Robert Siodmak this isn't one of his better films – "The Killers" (1946) and "Spiral Staircase" (1945) are my favorites, and for a change of pace his teaming again with Lancaster for "The Crimson Pirate"(1952) -
sol-17 January 2006There are three things that stand out as being particularly good about this film - a superb Miklos Rosza score, great black and white photography, and an excellent supporting performance by Percy Helton as a knowledgeable bartender. Other than these aspects though, there is little else to make the film worth watching. It is too slowly paced, and has a dull plot in which a heist plan is meshed in with relationship drama. It is also rather nasty at times, and the flashback narration feels like a forced way of explaining events. Even so, there are still some well done sequences and a number of exciting moments in the final third of the film, which help bring it up to scratch. Overall, it is a pretty typical noir thriller - but with some interesting elements.