Criss Cross (1949): Double-Crossed Hearts in the Neon Glow of Noir Betrayal

In the flickering shadows of 1940s Los Angeles, loyalty crumbles under the weight of forbidden passion and a million-dollar heist gone spectacularly awry.

Robert Siodmak’s Criss Cross plunges viewers into a labyrinth of moral ambiguity, where a simple armoured truck robbery spirals into a vortex of jealousy, violence, and inescapable fate. Released in 1949, this taut film noir exemplifies the genre’s mastery of psychological tension and visual poetry, blending high-stakes crime with the raw ache of romantic disillusionment. Burt Lancaster’s haunted everyman anchors a tale that resonates through decades of cinematic underdogs chasing impossible dreams.

  • The intricate heist mechanics and their catastrophic unraveling showcase noir’s fatalistic blueprint, where every plan frays under human frailty.
  • Yvonne De Carlo’s femme fatale Anna embodies the deadly allure that dooms her lovers, echoing the era’s anxieties over post-war desire.
  • Siodmak’s shadowy visuals and Donen’s pulsating score elevate a standard crime yarn into a symphony of betrayal, influencing generations of noir revivalists.

The Armour-Plated Heartbreak: Unpacking the Labyrinthine Plot

Steve Thompson, played with brooding intensity by Burt Lancaster, slouches back into the humid nights of Los Angeles after a self-imposed exile in New Mexico. His return stirs memories of Anna, the sultry ex-wife who shattered his world with her infidelity. Now remarried to the sadistic gangster Slim Dundee, Anna spots Steve from her hilltop mansion and rekindles their flame with a mix of genuine longing and calculated seduction. Steve, a loyal employee at the armoured car depot, finds himself drawn into Slim’s orbit when Anna whispers of a grand robbery targeting the very trucks he guards.

The heist itself unfolds with meticulous precision laced with dread. Slim assembles a crew including the volatile Big Boy and Steve’s confidant Pete, who harbours his own suspicions. Under cover of a staged dockside distraction, they blast open the truck’s rear doors, seize the loot, and scatter into the fog-shrouded warehouse district. But noir fate intervenes: Anna, promised a share to buy her silence, betrays Slim by tipping off Steve’s mother and the police, igniting a chain of recriminations that ends in a rain-slicked shootout.

Siodmak layers the narrative with criss-crossing motivations, revealing flashbacks that expose Steve’s vulnerability. His mother’s quiet disapproval and bartender friend Brandy’s sage warnings underscore the isolation of the doomed protagonist. As Slim tortures Steve for the missing cash—suspecting his old rival—Anna’s duplicity emerges fully, her love for Steve twisted by greed and fear. The film’s centrepiece confrontation atop the mansion’s staircase, with Slim’s gang closing in, captures the genre’s essence: no victory, only pyrrhic survival amid rubble and regret.

Microcosm of post-war malaise, the plot mirrors returning GIs grappling with fractured families and economic desperation. The armoured truck symbolises untouchable security in an insecure world, its breach inevitable when personal desires collide with criminal ambition. Siodmak avoids simplistic morality, portraying each character as trapped in their own web of half-truths and desperate gambles.

Shadows and Silhouettes: Siodmak’s Visual Mastery

Robert Siodmak, a refugee from Nazi Germany, infuses Criss Cross with Expressionist roots, transforming mundane settings into nightmarish tableaux. Cinematographer Franz Planer’s deep-focus compositions bathe interiors in venetian-blind striations, while exteriors pulse with wet asphalt reflections under sodium lamps. The heist’s nocturnal chaos, shot on location amid Long Beach docks, evokes the precariousness of urban underclass life.

Close-ups dominate emotional beats: Lancaster’s sweat-beaded forehead during Slim’s interrogation, De Carlo’s parted lips whispering temptation. Mirrors recur as motifs, fracturing identities and foreshadowing duplicities—Steve glimpses Anna’s reflection in a bar glass, presaging her dual loyalties. This stylistic rigour elevates the film beyond pulp origins, drawn from Don Tracy’s novel, into a cornerstone of noir aesthetics.

Miklós Rózsa’s score, though uncredited in some prints, throbs with dissonant strings during tense sequences, amplifying psychological strain without overpowering dialogue. Sound design captures the era’s grit: clanging truck doors, muffled gunshots, the hiss of rain on tin roofs. These elements coalesce to immerse audiences in a world where light betrays as much as it reveals.

Femme Fatale’s Fatal Charm: Anna De Carlo’s Enigmatic Allure

Yvonne De Carlo’s Anna stands as noir’s quintessential siren, her exotic beauty masking a cyclone of self-preservation. Clad in form-fitting gowns that accentuate every curve, she navigates between Slim’s brutality and Steve’s tenderness with predatory grace. Her plea to Steve—”I want to go away with you”—drips sincerity, yet her eyes flicker with avarice, embodying the genre’s distrust of female agency.

De Carlo, transitioning from Universal’s exotic dancer roles, brings lived-in sensuality to Anna, drawing from her own Hollywood struggles. Scenes of domestic entrapment in Slim’s mansion highlight her gilded cage, jewels clashing against barred windows. Her betrayal, motivated by a desire to flee with Steve and the loot, humanises the archetype, making her downfall tragically relatable.

Influence ripples through later fatales like Jane Greer’s in Out of the Past, but Anna’s complexity—lover, thief, victim—sets a template. Critics note how Siodmak subverts expectations: Anna’s not pure evil, but a product of systemic neglect, her actions a desperate bid for autonomy in a man’s underworld.

The Heist Deconstructed: Crime as Existential Trap

Criss Cross dissects the heist genre before its Ocean’s Eleven polish, emphasising improvisation amid chaos. Slim’s plan hinges on insider knowledge, yet human elements—jealousy, incompetence—doom it. The crew’s warehouse rendezvous devolves into paranoia, with Pete’s death marking the point of no return. Siodmak draws from real 1940s armoured car robberies, grounding fantasy in procedural authenticity.

Burt Lancaster’s physicality sells Steve’s arc: from weary driver to reluctant mastermind, his broad shoulders slump under invisible burdens. Dan Duryea’s Slim, with his pencil-thin moustache and venomous drawl, personifies psychopathic control, his torture scene a masterclass in restrained sadism. Supporting turns, like Stephen McNally’s policeman brother, add layers of institutional betrayal.

The film’s pacing builds inexorably, cross-cutting between preparation and fallout, mirroring the title’s intersecting paths. Legacy endures in heist films like Reservoir Dogs, where Tarantino echoes the post-robbery implosion.

Noir’s Post-War Echoes: Cultural Resonance

Emerging amid 1949’s economic unease, Criss Cross reflects veterans’ alienation, Steve’s malaise akin to broader GI disillusionment. Hollywood’s Production Code wanes, allowing bolder explorations of adultery and avarice, paving noir’s mature phase. The film grossed modestly but gained cult status via late-night revivals and home video.

Collecting culture reveres Criss Cross for pristine 35mm prints and original posters, fetching premiums at auctions. Its influence spans The Killers (Lancaster’s debut) to modern neo-noir like Drive, where brooding anti-heroes chase redemption in vain. Siodmak’s oeuvre cements its place in Universal’s noir cycle, alongside The Spiral Staircase’s terror.

Fresh lens: the film’s queer subtext in Steve’s bond with Brandy, unspoken tensions hinting at 1940s repression. This overlooked facet enriches rereadings, underscoring noir’s coded critiques of conformity.

Legacy in the Dark: Enduring Shadows

Criss Cross endures as underrated gem, its box-office overshadowed by contemporaries like White Heat yet superior in emotional depth. Remade loosely in 1992’s Against All Odds, it proves timeless. Streaming revivals introduce millennials to its craftsmanship, sparking podcasts and essays on femme fatale evolution.

Collector appeal lies in Technicolor-tinged black-and-white transfers, rare lobby cards capturing De Carlo’s gaze. Siodmak’s direction inspires Scorsese and Nolan, who praise his lighting in interviews. In retro cinema, it bridges 1940s grit with 1950s fatalism, a pivotal noir text.

Director in the Spotlight: Robert Siodmak

Born Robert Otto Siodmak in 1900 in Dresden, Germany, to a Jewish family, Siodmak immersed in theatre before silent films. Fleeing Nazis in 1933, he honed craft in France then Hollywood, debuting with Her Jungle Love (1938). Universal signed him for B-movies, elevating to noir virtuoso with Phantom Lady (1944), where Ella Raines unmasks a killer amid psychological intrigue.

The Killers (1946), adapting Hemingway, launched Lancaster and vaulted Siodmak to A-list, its taut structure earning Oscar nods. Spiral Staircase (1946) terrified with Dorothy McGuire stalked by a scissors-wielding murderer in Victorian gloom. Cry of the City (1948) pitted Victor Mature against Richard Conte in ethnic underworld wars.

Post-noir, Timecop (1957) sci-fi and The Rough and the Smooth (1959) British drama showed range, though Hollywood blacklist suspicions curtailed US work. Returning Europe, he directed Katia (1959) historicals and The Evil Eye (1963) giallo precursor. Retired 1969, died 1973 in Monaco, leaving 27 features.

Influences: German Expressionism via Murnau, French Poetic Realism. Peers admired his atmospheric command; Truffaut called him “poet of the night.” Filmography highlights: F.P.1 Doesn’t Answer (1932) aviation thriller; Absolute Quiet (1936) desert survival; Son of Dracula (1943) horror with Lon Chaney Jr.; The Suspect (1944) Claude Rains domestic noir; Uncle Harry (1945) psychological chiller; The Dark Mirror (wait, no—actually Dark Mirror 1946 with Olivia de Havilland dual role); Berlin Express (1948) train intrigue; Desperate Journey (wait, no—postwar: Fly-By-Night (1942) spy caper. Comprehensive: over 40 credits, blending genres masterfully. Siodmak’s emigré perspective infused American films with continental fatalism, cementing noir legacy.

Actor in the Spotlight: Burt Lancaster

Burt Lancaster, born Burton Stephen Lancaster in 1913 New York to working-class parents, vaulted from circus acrobat to screen icon. Spotted in army shows, debuted in The Killers (1946) as doomed boxer, echoing Criss Cross’s Steve. Brute (1953) with Ava Gardner showcased raw power; From Here to Eternity (1953) beach clinch won hearts, Oscar nom.

El Dorado (1966) teamed with Ford; Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) prison biopic earned nom; Seven Days in May (1964) political thriller. Directed own: The Kentuckian (1955) Western. Late career: Atlantic City (1980) Oscar win as aging con. Acted into 80s, died 1994.

Cultural footprint: epitomised masculine vulnerability, trapeze physique belying sensitivity. Founded Hecht-Hill-Lancaster productions, championing Sweet Smell of Success (1957). Filmography spans 70+ roles: Desert Fury (1947) jealous racer; Variety Girl (1947) cameo; I Walk Alone (1948) Lanza musical-noir; All My Sons (1948) Miller adaptation; Rope of Sand (1949) Africa intrigue; Criss Cross (1949); Senso (1954) Visconti epic; Trapeze (1956) aerial drama; Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957); Separate Tables (1958) ensemble drama; Elmer Gantry (1960) Oscar nom preacher; Judgment at Nuremberg (1961); Birdman; The Train (1964) WWII sabotage; The Swimmer (1968) surreal odyssey; Executive Action (1973) conspiracy; Twilight’s Last Gleaming (1977) nuke thriller; Local Hero (1983) Scottish charmer. Lancaster’s charisma, progressive politics, and physical dynamism defined Hollywood’s golden era.

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Bibliography

Christopher, N. (1997) Somewhere in the Night: Film Noir and the American City. Faber & Faber.

Hirsch, F. (1981) Film Noir: The Dark Side of the Screen. Da Capo Press.

Naremore, J. (1998) More Than Night: Film Noir in its Contexts. University of California Press. Available at: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520213031/more-than-night (Accessed 15 October 2023).

Place, J. L. and Peterson, L. S. (1974) ‘Some Visual Motifs of Film Noir’ in Silver, A. and Ursini, J. (eds.) Film Noir Reader. Limelight Editions, pp. 11-36.

Server, L. (1993) Danger is My Business: An Illustrated History of the Fabulous Pulp Adventure Writers. Chronicle Books.

Silver, A. and Ursini, J. (1995) Film Noir Reader. Limelight Editions.

Troy, W. (1949) ‘The Screen’, The Nation, 19 February.

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