Crossfire (film)

''Crossfire'' is a 1947 American film noir drama film starring Robert Young, Robert Mitchum and Robert Ryan which deals with the theme of antisemitism, as did that year's Academy Award for Best Picture winner, ''Gentleman's Agreement''. The film was directed by Edward Dmytryk and the screenplay was written by John Paxton, based on the 1945 novel ''The Brick Foxhole'' by screenwriter and director Richard Brooks. The film's supporting cast features Gloria Grahame and Sam Levene. The picture received five Oscar nominations, including Ryan for Best Supporting Actor and Gloria Grahame for Best Supporting Actress. It was the first B movie to receive a Best Picture nomination.

Plot

In the opening scene, a man is half-seen beating a Jewish man named Joseph Samuels to death in a hotel room. After the police are called in to investigate his murder, Captain Finlay suspects that the murderer may be among a group of demobilized soldiers who had been with Samuels and his female companion at a hotel bar the night of his death.

Ex-cop "Monty" Montgomery tells Finlay that he and his friend Floyd Bowers met Samuels at the hotel bar and went up to his apartment to find Samuels talking to Cpl. "Mitch" Mitchell. Soon upon their arrival, a heavily drunk Mitch left Samuels' apartment alone, then Monty and Floyd left a minute or so later. Monty claims that it was the last time they saw Samuels alive.

Sergeant Keeley, concerned that Mitch may be the prime suspect, investigates the murder himself, hoping to clear his friend's name. After helping Mitch escape from police capture, Keeley meets him in a movie theater, where Mitch recalls Monty arguing with Samuels inside his apartment. After Mitch left, he spent part of the night with Ginny Tremaine, a working girl he met in a dance hall. When Mitch woke up the next morning in Ginny's apartment, she was not there. After hearing a knock at the door, Mitch met an odd man, who offered to make him coffee, and claimed he was waiting for Ginny too. While the man looked for some cigarettes, Mitch hastily left the apartment.

Meanwhile, Monty and Floyd meet in an apartment. Monty tells Floyd to stay out of sight and to keep their stories straight, that they had no argument with Samuels and left his apartment shortly after Mitch. Keeley knocks on their door and asks Floyd about the killing while Monty hides. After Keeley leaves, Monty – the actual killer – kills Floyd for refusing to stay out of sight, and then stages a hanging suicide.

Escorted by Captain Finlay, Mitch's wife Mary visits Ginny at her apartment, hoping that Ginny will confess to spending the night with Mitch and prove he is innocent. Mary asks Finlay to wait outside, as a cop might make Ginny clam up. Ginny claims to have no knowledge of meeting Mitch, at which point Finlay enters the apartment to question her. Ginny recants and admits to knowing Mitch, but states that she never met him at her apartment. At this point, the odd man appears from a back room and tells Finlay that he remembers Mitch, thereby providing a partial alibi, but not for the estimated time of the murder.

Back at the police station, Finlay questions Monty a second time, hoping to uncover the motive for Samuels' murder, but sends him on his way. With Keeley in his office, Finlay suspects that antisemitism was the likely motive for Samuels' murder, because no person involved knew Samuels personally. Both suspect that Monty was responsible for killing both Samuels and Floyd since he is clearly antisemitic.

Finlay delivers a personal antiracist message to Keeley and a naive soldier named Leroy, who was in Monty's unit, by recalling the death of his Irish grandfather during earlier historical bigotry. Winning over Leroy, Finlay sets a trap to catch Monty. Leroy tells a surprised Monty that Floyd wants to meet him and shows him an address he wrote down where he can find Floyd. Monty shows up at the apartment where he killed Floyd, presumably to check if he is still alive, and encounters Finlay and another cop. Finlay tells Monty he gave himself away as the address on the piece of paper was actually to a different building, nevertheless he came to the right apartment, proving he had been there before when he killed Floyd. Monty tries to escape but is shot dead by Finlay.

After Monty is killed, Finlay and Keeley say their goodbyes. As Finlay drives away, Keeley offers to buy Leroy a cup of coffee.

Cast

Production

The film's screenplay, written by John Paxton, was based on director and screenwriter Richard Brooks' 1945 novel ''The Brick Foxhole''. Brooks wrote his novel while he was a sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps making training films at Quantico, Virginia, and Camp Pendleton, California.

In the novel, the victim was a homosexual. As told in the film '' The Celluloid Closet'', and in the documentary included on the DVD edition of the ''Crossfire'' film, the Hollywood Hays Code prohibited any mention of homosexuality because it was seen as a sexual perversion. Hence, the book's theme of homophobia was changed to one about racism and antisemitism. Nevertheless, the fast rapport which develops between the artistic soldier and the sensitive older man hints at the original subtext. Director Edward Dmytryk later said that the Code "had a very good effect because it made us think. If we wanted to get something across that was censorable... we had to do it deviously. We had to be clever. And it usually turned out to be much better than if we had done it straight."

The book was published while Brooks was serving in the Marine Corps. A fellow Marine, the politically-active actor Robert Ryan, met Brooks and told him he was determined to play in a version of the book on screen.

Premiere and U.S. military distribution notes

This was a prestige picture during Dore Schary's brief tenure as Head of Production at RKO. The film premiered at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City on July 22, 1947.

A few months later producer Adrian Scott and director Edward Dmytryk were cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), becoming part of the blacklisted Hollywood Ten.

The US Army showed the film only at its US bases. The US Navy would not exhibit the film at all.

Reception

Critical response

When first released, '' Variety'' magazine gave the film a positive review, writing, "''Crossfire'' is a frank spotlight on antisemitism. Producer Dore Schary, in association with Adrian Scott, has pulled no punches. There is no skirting such relative ''fol-de-rol'' as intermarriage or clubs that exclude Jews. Here is a hard-hitting film ased on Richard Brooks' novel, ''The Brick Foxhole''whose whodunit aspects are fundamentally incidental to the overall thesis of bigotry and race prejudice... Director Edward Dmytryk has drawn gripping portraitures. The flashback technique is effective as it shades and colors the sundry attitudes of the heavy, as seen or recalled by the rest of the cast."

''The New York Times'' film critic, Bosley Crowther, lauded the acting in the drama, and wrote, "Mr. Dmytryk has handled most excellently a superlative cast which plays the drama. Robert Ryan is frighteningly real as the hard, sinewy, loud-mouthed, intolerant and vicious murderer, and Robert Mitchum, Steve Brodie, and George Cooper are variously revealing as his pals. Robert Young gives a fine taut performance as the patiently questioning police lieutenant, whose mind and sensibilities are revolted—and eloquently expressed—by what he finds. Sam Levene is affectingly gentle in his brief bit as the Jewish victim, and Gloria Grahame is believably brazen and pathetic as a girl of the streets." In '' The Nation'' in 1947, James Agee stated, "... a gruesomely exciting story... excellently written and directed...it is, even as melodramatic entertainment, the best Hollywood movie in a long time... ''Crossfire'' is an unusually good and honest movie and may—I hope, will—prove a very useful one." Writing about Dore Schary, RKO-Radio's then vice-president in charge of production, Agee continues: "I do not question the goodness of his deepest motives, and I certainly wish him well; but it may as well be remembered that, at best, Hollywood's heroism is calculated to land buttered side up."
British film critic Leslie Halliwell gave it four of four stars: "Tense, talky thriller shot entirely at night with pretty full expressionist use of camera technique: notable for style, acting, experimentation, and for being the first Hollywood film to hit out at racial bigotry."

In an essay published in 1977, the Scottish writer Colin McArthur challenged the social reading of ''Crossfire'' by several Anglo-American critics, arguing that thematically and stylistically it was a film noir, and that it reflected that genre in being less concerned with the problems of a particular society, such as antisemitism, than with angst and loneliness as essential elements of the human condition.

Critic Dennis Schwartz questioned the noir aspects of the film in 2000, and discussed the cinematography in his review. He wrote, "This is more of a message film than a noir thriller, but has been classified by most cinephiles in the noir category... J. Roy Hunt, the 70-year-old cinematographer, who goes back to the earliest days of Hollywood, shot the film using the style of low-key lighting, providing dark shots of Monty, contrasted with ghost-like shots of Mary Mitchell (Jacqueline White) as she angelically goes to help her troubled husband Arthur."

The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 88% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on 24 reviews.

Box office

The film made a profit of $1,270,000.Richard Jewell & Vernon Harbin, ''The RKO Story''. New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House, 1982. p. 222Richard B. Jewell, ''Slow Fade to Black: The Decline of RKO Radio Pictures'', Uni of California, 2016

Awards

Wins
* Cannes Film Festival: Award, Best Social Film (''Prix du meilleur film social''), 1947
* Edgar Allan Poe Awards: Best Motion Picture, 1948

Nominations, 20th Academy Awards
* Best Picture - Adrian Scott, producer
* Best Director - Edward Dmytryk
* Best Supporting Actor - Robert Ryan
* Best Supporting Actress - Gloria Grahame
* Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay - John Paxton

Other nominations
* British Academy of Film and Television Arts: BAFTA Film Award, Best Film from Any Source, 1949

References

External links

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''Crossfire''
review at DVD Savant by Glenn Erickson
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1940s American films
1940s English-language films
1947 crime drama films
1947 films
American black-and-white films
American crime drama films
American police detective films
Edgar Award–winning works
English-language crime drama films
Film noir
Films about antisemitism
Films about veterans
Films based on American novels
Films directed by Edward Dmytryk
Films scored by Roy Webb
Films set in Washington, D.C.
Opposition to antisemitism in the United States
Palme d'Or winners
RKO Pictures films