Criss Cross

Good solid noir, with Burt Lancaster possibly running a little below best but Yvonne DeCarlo as the supreme femme fatale is in stomping form and more than makes up for any lapses from others. Gets going immediately and the aerial shot makes us well aware that this is going to be a beautifully shot movie, which it certainly is. Really great camera movement, especially during a stunning dance sequence, that includes an unaccredited Tony Curtis, and the heist itself with the surprising element designed to catch out Mr Lancaster. Good all the way through and if Lancaster sometimes appears a little lame it is probably because of the sheer ruthlessness of Dan Duryea as the chief baddie and the aforementioned DeCarlo who seems to be able to run rings round them all. Oh and what an ending!

This film looks great - a classic noir - but the story is dull and predictable. I'm sure this frustrated Robert Siodmak as he can never really make the film fire in the way that he did "The Killers". The other weak link is Yvonne De Carlo, who looks great but is never really convincing. Much better is Burt Lancaster, also looking great, but very convincing as the love-sick fool hero. And the supporting cast of hoods and odd-balls is interesting. Worthwhile, but not great - with an excellent finale.

Sure, you've seen it all before: the snarling villain (Dan Duryea), the black widow babe (Yvonne DeCarlo), and the hapless fall guy who just can't help himself (Burt Lancaster). But this is vintage noir from the golden age, done with real style and conviction. What stays with me are those scenes that have since worked their way into the textbook. There's the nightclub scene, where Lancaster gazes longingly at lost love DeCarlo, while she sambas with new honey boy Tony Curtis. Meanwhile there's this pulsating Latin beat that keeps going and going and everybody's shaking it except poor Lancaster. You feel the doom in the air and know this has to end badly. Then there's that nervous scene in the hospital where Lancaster's all laid up. But who's this new guy. He looks like Joe Average, but is he.

Director Siodmak really knows how to shift gears and make these quiet moments creepy. Everybody's been waiting for the robbery, but it seems like a cloudy dream, the kind you only half remember and wish you could forget. Ghostly figures drift in and out of focus, yet which one's Lancaster and who's got the money. Hollywood's fog machines were really working overtime on this one. Of course, it all leads up to the final scene, which is about as good as noir gets. The moment of reckoning when everything comes together, this time with a good view of eternity and in the moonlight, no less. The feeling that it all had to happen from the beginning is so thick you can cut it with the proverbial knife.

Sure, the D-cup DeCarlo's not quite up to the acting challenge, and the great Duryea doesn't get enough scenes, but consider the screen time given to two deserving foot soldiers of the golden era. Once you've seen him, you never forget him: that raspy-voiced gnome Percy Helton as the bartender. There's been no one like him before or since, a sly little troll who's escaped from the pages of Grimm's Fairy Tales. Yet I've never seen him give anything less than an A-grade performance that lifted many a B-movie above the forgettable. On the other hand, there's the completely ordinary Robert Osterloh as the mysterious stranger. His face is sort of familiar. Maybe he's the guy who fixes your car or fills your prescription or on a really bad night, shoves a gun in your gut. But like Helton, he too never gave anything less than an expert performance. Too bad his little Hollywood star never glowed, but he sure made a lot of others brighter than they were.

It's all there and in the kind of irreplaceable black and white that Hollywood's been trying to remake in Technicolor for years. So catch up with this original and find out why.

.....typical entry for the genre. Dumb hero guy gets tangled up w/ the wrong gal for the wrong reasons, mobsters are hanging around, and there is a heist that winds up blowing everything apart in their lives.

I liked how Lancaster played against type and was a 'sap' pretty much. Clearly DeCarlo was the one calling the shots in that pairing. Duryea plays his usual nasty Willem Dafoe/Peter Strauss type villain, and for my money was the most effective actor in the movie. The finale w/ him showing up at their door, well.....it's quite something, very striking.

I also was surprised at the violence of the heist itself-gas going off, killings, etc left and right. Considering the laughable lack of security, personnel and etc that these keystone Brinks guys are showing, it's amazing how close the baddies came to not getting a cent for their efforts.

Pretty decent cast too-there's Percy Helton as the barkeep, there's Alan Napier, there's Tony Curtis in a cameo, there's you other typical baddies of the day. Nice turn by Steve MacNalley too.

Fine movie, bit lax on the plotting I think--but the tone, camera work, and of course DeCarlo-make this a worthy view.

*** outta ****

This flick is a keeper. If you see one film noir from the Forties this should be it. Starring a very young Burt Lancaster, Dan Duryea and the great Yvonne DeCarlo, this dark and shadowy movie shakes the genre to its core. The movie is set in a post-W.W.II Los Angeles when the city was about to burst free and become a Metropolis. Virtually everything we see is gone: trolleys, single-family homes on hills and probably the worst armored car security put on film. (A driver is called away from a run by a suspicious phone call and no supervisor is notified!) The roster of character actors include Alan Napier, Alfred on "Batman," the ever present Percy Helton, and Stephen McNally. Another actor I've seen before has a habit of exclaiming "That's the ticket!" Could this be where Jon Lovitz got his lucrative catch phrase? But the true standout in the film is the exotic and sinfully talented Yvonne DeCarlo. Hollywood never utilized this this lady right. She was always dumped into B-Westerns or costume pics. However, whenever she was given something juicy such as an adult comedy or A-Drama, like this film, she excelled. And if you want to see her belt out a few tunes just check out the pilot episode of "Bonanza" or the ultra cool episode of the "Munsters," where she performs a bluesy number on the harp, you know, the one with the rock band The Standells.