Criss Cross

A first-rate, fatalistic urban nightmare, Criss Cross comes from noir stalwart and stylist Robert Siodmak (Phantom Lady, The Killers), one of the key contributors to the genre’s aesthetic. Burt Lancaster plays brooding armoured car guard Steve Thompson, whose life has been on a drunken downward spiral since his divorce a year earlier from wife Anna (Yvonne De Carlo). A chance encounter with Anna in the hallucinatory haze of an old haunt leads to the discovery that she is about to marry no-good Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea), a gambler with mob connections. Slim can give Anna the lifestyle Steve never could — but, she hints, he isn't nearly as satisfying in the sack as her ex-husband. Believing he can still win Anna back, Steve finds himself drawn into a daring robbery scheme. Criss Cross opens with an aerial shot of Los Angeles teeming at night; most of its doom-laden, dangerously erotic plot unfolds in flashback; the finale is “one of the great dramatic endings of film noir” (Michael Walker). Steven Soderbergh’s The Underneath (1995) was a remake. “Wonderfully seedy . . . As always with Siodmak, the suspense is maintained throughout by taut pacing, visual precision, and excellent characterisation” (Geoff Andrew). “One of the most tragic and compelling of film noir” (Alain Silver). B&W, 35mm. 87 mins.