CROSSFIRE

" The snakes are loose."


Back in the '70s, film director Edward Dmytryk did a one semester director in residency program at the University of Texas. In addition to working with film students he also did guest lectures and hosted screenings of several of his films. I was lucky enough to have Dmytryk speak to my film class one afternoon and I recall attending screenings of THE CAINE MUTINY (1954) and CROSSFIRE, his hard-hitting film noir from 1947. I watched this film the other day for the first time in almost forty years and thoroughly enjoyed it. I had forgotten just how good it is.

Adapted by John Paxton from Richard Brooks' 1945 novel THE BRICK FOXHOLE (note: Brooks would go on to a distinguished film directing career), CROSSFIRE deals with a group of World War II vets with time on their hands and, for one, insane hatred in his heart.

Several of the men, including Mitch (George Cooper), Montgomery (Robert Ryan) and Floyd (Steve Brodie), meet Joseph Samuels (Sam Levene) in a bar. They strike up a conversation and before you know it, Samuels has invited Mitch back to his apartment for more drinks and conversation. Montgomery and Floyd show up, Mitch leaves and eventually Samuels is murdered. Sergeant Keeley (Robert Mitchum) gets involved in the investigation spearheaded by Detective Finlay (Robert Young). Keeley believes Mitch is innocent and sets out to find him and clear his name over the course of one long night that is fraught with tension (and another murder).

Mitch makes for a very plausible suspect however. Clearing suffering from what we know now as PTSD (at the time, it was described as battle fatigue or combat shock), Mitch is a broken man, lost and confused who eventually turns to the arms of Ginny (Gloria Grahame), a B-girl floozy who takes sympathy on the wounded man and serves as a possible witness to clear his name.

Keeley and Finlay slowly piece together the puzzle and set a trap for their number one suspect. It's not a huge surprise as to the identity of the killer but what is interesting is the killer's motive. One of the men is a rampant anti-Semite whose hatred for Jews drives him to kill a man whom he believes sat out the war (Samuels is actually revealed to be a veteran himself). In the original novel, the killer hated homosexuals, a theme that just wouldn't have played in 1947 Hollywood. Anti-Semitism was raw enough and the subject is superbly handled by Dmytryk and a stellar cast.

CROSSFIRE was produced at RKO studios with a relatively small budget and short shooting schedule. Nevertheless, it managed to earn five Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Ryan), Best Supporting Actress (Grahame) and Best Adapted Screenplay. It was unheard of at the time for a genre B picture to win this much acclaim. It lost the Best Picture Oscar to GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT, another film about anti-Semitism from major studio 20th Century Fox.

For my money, CROSSFIRE is the better film. Highly recommended.