Crossfire (1947)
Edward Dmytryk
C

I’m afraid I have no use for these old Hollywood “social activism” films, good intentioned as they might be (I, similarly, have little affection for GENTLEMAN’S AGREEMENT which came out later the same year). I can easily appreciate how styles of filmmaking, performance and social mores have changed over the years but I’m pretty sure speeches about how “hate… is like a gun: if you carry it around with you it can go off and kill someone” were patronizing even in the 40’s. Furthermore in changing the hot button issue to anti-Semitism the film doesn’t even make any sense, with Robert Ryan’s burly, serviceman character talking about his hatred of Jews using such nonspecific language…

Time hasn’t been particularly kind to this murder mystery thriller. It may feature the familiar long shadows of a film-noir but this is essentially a heavy handed message movie dealing with post war anti-semitism. There is promising story here dealing with soldiers struggling to come to terms with life after the war but it is terribly stilted and it clumsily explores its worthy themes.

Robert Young plays a detective in charge of discovering why a man was murdered and with a group of soldiers as the only suspects. Young is decent enough, if a little wooden, and there is an okay role for Robert Mitchum too, but it is Robert Ryan that makes the biggest impression, delivering a strong and…

Part of: "Summer 2013 Vol. 1"

I guess I'm one of the few that didn't find Edward Dmytrick's Film-Noir totally deplorable, but damn it sure had flaws. Which is really sad cause the film had such a strong first act, with a great narrative story that fit perfectly into the budding world of Film-Noir.

CROSSFIRE is pretty much a whodunit with a whole cast of characters led by three powerful leading men at that time, who all happened to be named Robert. A murder has been committed, its told through shadow. We see no one involved until the real story begins, a group of soldiers are involved, a few of them have gone missing but pipe smoking ace detective Finlay…

Crossfire (1947)
Edward Dmytryk
C

I’m afraid I have no use for these old Hollywood “social activism” films, good intentioned as they might be (I, similarly, have little affection for GENTLEMAN’S AGREEMENT which came out later the same year). I can easily appreciate how styles of filmmaking, performance and social mores have changed over the years but I’m pretty sure speeches about how “hate… is like a gun: if you carry it around with you it can go off and kill someone” were patronizing even in the 40’s. Furthermore in changing the hot button issue to anti-Semitism the film doesn’t even make any sense, with Robert Ryan’s burly, serviceman character talking about his hatred of Jews using such nonspecific language…

Part of: "Summer 2013 Vol. 1"

I guess I'm one of the few that didn't find Edward Dmytrick's Film-Noir totally deplorable, but damn it sure had flaws. Which is really sad cause the film had such a strong first act, with a great narrative story that fit perfectly into the budding world of Film-Noir.

CROSSFIRE is pretty much a whodunit with a whole cast of characters led by three powerful leading men at that time, who all happened to be named Robert. A murder has been committed, its told through shadow. We see no one involved until the real story begins, a group of soldiers are involved, a few of them have gone missing but pipe smoking ace detective Finlay…

Time hasn’t been particularly kind to this murder mystery thriller. It may feature the familiar long shadows of a film-noir but this is essentially a heavy handed message movie dealing with post war anti-semitism. There is promising story here dealing with soldiers struggling to come to terms with life after the war but it is terribly stilted and it clumsily explores its worthy themes.

Robert Young plays a detective in charge of discovering why a man was murdered and with a group of soldiers as the only suspects. Young is decent enough, if a little wooden, and there is an okay role for Robert Mitchum too, but it is Robert Ryan that makes the biggest impression, delivering a strong and…

One of my favourite actors of Hollywood’s Robert Mitchum. A pot-smoking, wisecracking playboy, he embraced the hedonistic heyday of Hollywood’s post-war golden age and still managed to deliver some truly mesmerising performances (Out of the Past, Angel Face and the notorious Night of the Hunter are pretty great starting points).

A new-ish kid on the block, Mitchum turned up in the 1947 crime thriller Crossfire, directed by war-drama pioneer Edward Dmytryk. With a typically noir plot of a murder investigation amongst war vets, headed by the tempetuous Montgomery (Robert Ryan). It’s down to man of morals, Robert Young’s gumshoe detective to track down the murderer at loose amongst the ranks, meanwhile the captivating Gloria Grahame crops up briefly to throw…