Criss Cross (1949)

Criss Cross is a 1949 Universal International film noir directed by Robert Siodmak. The screenplay by Daniel Fuchs was based on Don Tracy’s 1934 novel of the same name. Criss Cross isn’t just a film noir. It’s one of the great classic noirs (and one of several superb noirs directed by Siodmak). It’s also a heist movie.

Steve Thompson (Burt Lancaster) works for an armoured car company. We know from the start that he’s involved in a heist and if we weren’t told we’d know anyway. When you’ve got a guy who drives an armoured car for a living you can figure that there’s going to be a heist.

This movie makes use of narrative techniques that would later be seen as defining characteristics of film noir - flashbacks and voiceover narration.

What we don’t know is how Steve Thompson comes to be involved in a robbery. He’s a regular guy. He’s a bit hot-headed but he’s a nice guy. Nice, but not too bright. He thinks he has his life under control but in fact it’s totally out of control. He’s a classic noir protagonist - a decent guy who allows himself to be drawn into a world of betrayals, a basically honest guy who ends up mixed up in crime.

How did Steve’s life get so mixed up? If you’re guessing there’s a girl involved then you’re spot on the money. The girl is Anna (Yvonne De Carlo). Anna is Steve’s ex-wife. Their tempestuous marriage ended in divorce but he’s never been able to get her out of his system. Steve had enough sense to leave town after the divorce and get as far away from Anna as possible, but he doesn’t have enough sense to stay away. He has to come back. He tells himself he just wants to see his family again but he knows quite well that he’s come back because he can’t stay away from Anna.

Maybe Anna’s no good. Everybody tells him that she’s no good. He doesn’t care. She’s in his blood.

There’s another guy obsessed with her and unfortunately that other guy is Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea). Slim is a bad ’un. He’s a gangster with a mean ruthless streak.

The fact that Steve is mixed up in a heist has a lot to do with Anna and with Slim Dundee but not in an entirely straightforward way.

The heist comes fairly late in the movie. For most of the movie we have no idea why and how Steve got involved but thanks to the use of flashbacks we know it’s coming and it provides the necessary sense of doom lurking in the background. When a nice guy gets involved in a heist we expect that it won’t turn out too well for him.

Dan Duryea gives one of his trademark menacing performances. He’s in fine form but he isn’t the main focus. The focus here is entirely on Steve and Anna and the success or failure of the movie depends to a large extent on the performances of Lancaster and De Carlo, both playing extremely complex characters. Fortunately they come through with flying colours.

Burt Lancaster is not a favourite actor of mine but he’s excellent here - he’s like a stick of dynamite with the fuse slowly burning. In a film noir the protagonist can be led to disaster by fate or by his own character flaws but in this case it’s something much more deadly - love. His love for Anna is both romantic and sexual. He wants all of her - her body, her heart, her soul. For Steve Anna is like a drug. He knows he’s an addict but he can’t kick the habit. On more than one occasion he has tried to go cold turkey but the craving just won’t go away.

The problem is that his obsession with her blinds him to everything. Maybe he’s not in love with Anna the flesh-and-blood woman. Maybe he’s in love with an Anna who only exists in his fever dream. He cannot imagine any future that doesn’t revolve around her.

I’m a major Yvonne De Carlo fan and this is possibly her greatest performance. We can see why Steve is crazy about Anna. Any man would be. She’s gorgeous and sexy. She’s a hell of a drug. She has all the hallmarks of a femme fatale but we can’t be sure that she really is a femme fatale. Maybe she’s like Steve. Maybe she’s just let her life get out of control. Maybe she’s a nice girl at heart, more of a victim than a villainess. Maybe she’s a scheming spider woman. Or maybe she’s like the rest of us - neither good nor evil. Maybe she’s half angel and half demon. What makes this a truly great noir rather than a merely good one is that right up until the end we have no idea which way Anna will jump. There’s a possibility that she doesn’t know herself.

We also have to bear in mind that we’re mostly seeing her through Steve’s eyes.

This is a beautifully shot movie. There’s not as much emphasis on night scenes and shadows as you generally find in noir but Siodmak makes the California sunshine incredibly oppressive.

Siodmak was one of the grand masters of film noir. He made a lot of terrific noir movies but overall Criss Cross is the most complex and the most satisfying. It’s certainly one of the half dozen greatest noirs of the classic era. Very highly recommended.

I’ve reviewed the 1934 source novel, Don Tracy’s Criss Cross. The novel is excellent and the movie is surprisingly faithful not just to the plot but more importantly to the mood and the flavour and the spirit of the novel.