Criss Cross

 

                                       

 

Criss Cross: Burt Lancaster and Yvonne DeCarlo play star-crossed lovers in this 1949 heist drama that critics rank among the top three of all film noir. Robert Siodmak directed this film full of plot twists and turns, excellent cinematography, and a film score by Miklos Rozsa. 84 minutes. CC.

There is a tragic love triangle at the heart of the story. Lancaster is still in love with his beautiful ex-wife, played by  DeCarlo, but she has taken up with a smarmy gangster played by Dan Duryea, one of Hollywood’s greatest film villains.

Lancaster gets involved with the gangster, and although the hatred between them is palpable, he agrees to participate in the robbery of an armored car bearing a company payroll. Lancaster, a driver for the armored car company, will be the inside man. As usual the gang members mistrust each other and plan to double cross each other once they get their hands on the loot.

The cast is superb. Lancaster’s character has his flaws, and is engaged in a criminal enterprise, but our hearts go out to him right to the tragic ending. He is tough but his innocence makes him a true tragic hero. Fate is against him. 

Apparently,  the producers wanted Ava Gardner or Rita Hayworth for the female lead, but since neither was available, they settled on DeCarlo. It was a happy accident. I can think of no other actress that could have matched her passion and intensity in this film. Her fiery personality is especially evident in a beautifully photographed Latin dance number performed by her and an uncredited Tony Curtis on a crowded night club floor. No wonder Lancaster could not forget her. It is sad to think that this beautiful actress ended her career playing Mrs. Herman Munster on the TV comedy series, the Munsters.

As always, Dan Duryea is superb as a sleazy, vicious gangster.

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."

Eddie Muller of Turner Classic Movies (TCM) rated Robert Siodmak as the best director of Film Noir, and called Criss Cross his masterpiece. Clicl on this link for Muller's six minute introduction to the film, or watch the video below.

Note: I would just like to add one more word about the final scene. It seems to me that whoever designed this scene must have had Michelangelo’s famous Pieta in mind. There was a cultural heritage that filmmakers and viewers shared back in Hollywood’s Golden Age, that sadly is no more. 

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