Universal
Pictures, 87m 43s
Why
are some people compelled to do the wrong thing when they know they are doing
the wrong thing? The driving force behind director Robert Siodmak's
uncompromisingly downbeat film noir CRISS CROSS is life's painful
predictability in the face of supposedly random events. Good or bad, randomness
gives shape to our lives, both in terms of insignificant things as well as how our
days might come to an end. The way human lives interlock may be based largely
on chance, but the resulting decisions people make probably are not. A pure
distillation of the noir form, CRISS CROSS explores how fate might
dovetail with genetic destiny.
In
the film's opening segment, Steve Thompson (Burt Lancaster) and Anna Dundee
(Yvonne De Carlo) meet clandestinely in the parking lot of the Round Up Café
owned by her husband Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea). Later inside the club, an
argument between Steve and Slim almost turns violent, but when policeman Pete
Ramirez (Stephen McNally) arrives on the scene, all witnesses go silent. Steve
and Slim have an armored car robbery in the works, and do not want personal
differences to spoil the potentially massive take.
Successfully
pulling off this type of heist is thought to be an impossibility by the film's
characters that are schooled in such matters. It is said an armored car holdup
has not been attempted in 28 years, and those involved all got the chair for
their efforts. What makes this battle plan different is the band of criminals
is led by Steve, who recently has returned to his old job as a driver for
Horten's Armored Car Service. Once the caper is in motion, the inside man Steve
reflects upon the curious past events that led to his involvement with known
criminals he dislikes. While he is driving the vehicle scheduled for robbery,
the film dissolves into flashback form. "It was only eight months ago that
I came back," he recalls.
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| Two faces of Anna |
Steve
drifted around the country before his instinctive return home, where he knew he
would find his ex-wife Anna. After a sustained attempt to forget her, he
succumbs to his hardwired attachment to her. Clearly in a state of denial, he
tries to convince himself and others he has come home to assume a
head-of-household role in the family home. It's a lie. Like a soldier coming
home from war in a foreign land, he has returned to reclaim the woman he lost,
even though on some level he understands they are not meant for each other
(both recall constant bickering). But in respect to film noir's most dominant axiom, the power of fate cannot be
bargained with, and Steve is aware of that, too. "It was in the cards, or
it was fate, or a jinx, or whatever you want to call it—but right from the
start." Soon after his return to LA, Steve surveys the rumba club for his
former wife, with whom his obsession persists. He finds her. They start dating
again, but before long she turns her back on him in what looks to be a
permanent move. Anna's self-serving ways frustrate Steve, but his emotional investment
in her never fades for long. He seems all too eager to serve as a scratching
post for Anna. Via narration, he reveals awareness for his hopeless addiction,
and even pleads for the viewer's empathy:
"Every place you go, you see her face. Half the girls you pass are
her. Did it ever happen to you?"
Anna
is introduced as an unfaithful wife, and her character does not improve much as
the story unspools. Steve's marriage to her yielded seven months of wreckage.
His mother openly dislikes Anna, as does his old friend Pete. When she displays
evidence of being physically abused, whether one should take her side or not
seems open to debate. She is concerned only with taking care of herself. What's
good about her? Well, as portrayed by Yvonne De Carlo (yes, Lily Munster), Anna
is one of the most luscious-looking film
noir femme fatales, especially on the packed dance floor at the rumba club,
where her irresistible combination of awkwardness and sex appeal is apparent
(notice an uncredited Tony Curtis as her dancing partner in this sequence). The
bond between her and Steve is sex, nothing beyond that. Despite all their
squabbles, they both enjoyed "the making-up part" as Anna describes
it. But in the end, "You always have to do what's best for yourself,"
she summarizes.
CRISS CROSS
opens with Anna's vision of a bright future for her and Steve. Because this is film noir, even the first-time viewer is
sure to be suspicious of that prediction. Steve believes her, and thinks he
knows Anna better than his family and friends do. Of course he will be dead
wrong. Throughout the film, characters read other people with confidence, only
to be proven wrong more than right. Steve mistakenly assumes the robbery take
will win him Anna for good. A front-page newspaper story christens Steve a
hero, which he most certainly is not. Steve thinks Mr. Nelson (Robert Osterloh)
has a concealed weapon under his jacket, which he doesn't. That discovery
prompts Steve to believe Nelson is on the level, though he isn't. Pete is
correct when he assumes Steve has returned home looking for Anna, but later
badly misunderstands Steve's level of involvement in the heist attempt. Pete
errs again when he envisions Anna and Slim united after the heist. Pop (Griff
Barnett) suppresses his better instincts and tragically follows Steve, who
leads them into a doomed operation. Steve feels he has assurance Pop will not
be hurt, another error in judgment. Bartender Frank (Percy Helton) figures
Steve for a "checker" (an investigator for the state liquor board).
Barstool babe (Joan Miller, credited as "The Lush") makes the same
flawed deduction, and later mistakes Steve for a racetrack loser; she claims
she can size up anyone. Like most people in the film, her perceptions prove
either misleading or completely inaccurate in an upside-down post-WWII society.
The
photoplay is rich with exterior footage around Los Angeles, including Angels
Flight Railway, Bunker Hill, Commodore Schuyler F. Heim Bridge and Union
Station. Director of photography Franz Planer (credited here as Frank Planer)
makes the most of set designs as well, with the scenes at the club among the
most atmospheric. I particularly like the use of low camera angles in the
club's entrance area, which work well to emphasize a sense of entrapment when
Steve returns to his old stomping grounds. Some of the other noir motifs are more subtle. For
example, there are multiple instances of men walking with canes, an important
component of film noir grammar
(compromised masculinity). In terms of dialog, good lines aplenty were baked into
the screenplay by Daniel Fuchs, who adapted the 1934 novel of the same title
written by Don Tracy. Casting is superb from top to bottom, with Burt Lancaster
locked in as Steve, another of his great film
noir protagonists along with the characters he portrayed in THE KILLERS (1946), BRUTE FORCE (1947), I WALK ALONE (1947) and the fascinating
SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (1957), in
which he portrayed one of the genre's great villains. The always reliable noir icon Dan Duryea (THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW [1944], SCARLET STREET [1945], TOO LATE FOR TEARS [1949]) offers one
of his most controlled performances as the story's least admirable male
character.
Newly
released on dual-layered Blu-ray from Shout! Factory as part of their Shout
Select product line, CRISS CROSS is
reissued by way of a new 4K scan of the original nitrate negative, framed at
1.35:1 (though the packaging states 1.37:1). The transfer is acceptable, but
falls a little short compared to alternate Blu-ray releases of this title, as
documented by physical media analyst Gary Tooze [Criss Cross (1949)]. The Shout! Factory
incarnation reveals its limitations most obviously during the heist sequence,
when protracted instances of tiling and ghosting noticeably corrupt the
presentation. The screen captures below compare the surprisingly soft look of
this new Blu-ray edition to the Universal Pictures Home Entertainment DVD
released in 2004. This Blu-ray disc hardly offers a quantum visual leap. I
actually prefer the more textured look of the DVD presentation.
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| Shout! Factory Blu-ray |
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| Universal DVD |
A
worthwhile supplement from Shout! Factory is the commentary track by film
historian Jim Hemphill, though it too has technical problems. On three separate
occasions, Hemphill calls for cuts that for whatever reason did not take place.
Those imperfections aside, Hemphill shows a lot of passion for a film noir title he rightly ranks highly.
He sees the character Steve as more of a self-destructive personality than a
victim of fate; perhaps all of Steve's fatalistic notions are nothing more than
convenient excuses. That is a fair reading, though I see Steve's behavior as
more of a genetic issue; he is predisposed to follow Anna and there is nothing
he can do about it. Another good line of analysis from Hemphill is that Anna
does not always look the glamorous
noir vixen. When she wears slacks, the wardrobe transition adds a dose of
realism to the story. A student of the Robert Siodmak oeuvre, Hemphill
correctly notes the filmmaker's work often featured strong women and weak men,
i.e. PHANTOM LADY (1944), THE STRANGE AFFAIR OF UNCLE HARRY
(1945) and THE KILLERS (1946,
Lancaster's debut). Other bonus material includes a theatrical re-release
trailer (2m 19s), an immense collection of production stills (14m 8s) and a
poster & lobby card still gallery (6m 9s).
The
same source novel by Don Tracy was called upon for THE UNDERNEATH (1995), directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Peter
Gallagher, Alison Elliott and William Fichtner. As Hemphill mentions, a
different director adds new dimensions to the same basic story material, while many
similarities to CRISS CROSS remain.
I encourage fans of the film noir
classic to seek out the Soderbergh interpretation, another classic in its own
right.
