Crossfire (film)

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Crossfire
Crossfire213.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byEdward Dmytryk
Screenplay byJohn Paxton
Based onThe Brick Foxhole
1945 novel
by Richard Brooks
Produced byAdrian Scott
StarringRobert Young
Robert Mitchum
Robert Ryan
Gloria Grahame
Sam Levene
CinematographyJ. Roy Hunt
Edited byHarry Gerstad
Music byRoy Webb
Production
company
RKO Radio Pictures
Distributed byRKO Radio Pictures
Release date
  • July 22, 1947 (1947-07-22) (New York City)[1]
  • August 15, 1947 (1947-08-15) (U.S.)[1]
Running time
86 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$678,000[2][3]
Box office$2.5 million (US rentals)[4]

Crossfire is a 1947 American film noir drama film starring Robert Young, Robert Mitchum and Robert Ryan which deals with the theme of anti-Semitism,[5][6] as did that year's Academy Award for Best Picture winner, Gentleman's Agreement. The film was directed by Edward Dmytryk[7] 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.[8] It was the first B movie to receive a best picture nomination.[9]

Plot[]

Two men are seen beating a Jewish man named Joseph Samuels to death in the opening. After the police are called in to investigate his murder, investigator Capt. 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 murder.

A soldier named Monty tells his version of the story to Finlay. According to him, he and his friend Floyd met Samuels at the hotel bar and went up to his apartment to find Samuels talking to another soldier named Mitch. Mitch left Samuel's apartment and Monty and Floyd left a minute later. That was the last time they saw Samuels.

Sergeant Keeley, concerned that Mitch may be the prime suspect, decides to investigate the murder himself, hoping to clear his friend's name. After helping Mitch escape from being questioned, Keeley confronts him in a movie theater and Mitch tells his version of the story. Though he was drunk, Mitch remembered Monty arguing with Samuels in his apartment. After Mitch left, he spent the rest of the night with a girl he met in the city named Ginny Tremaine. When he woke up the next morning, he talked to Ginny's husband before leaving.

Meanwhile, Monty and Floyd, who are revealed to be the killers, meet in an apartment. Monty tells Floyd to stay out of sight and to keep their stories straight, that being how they didn't argue with Samuels and left his apartment shortly after Mitch left. Keeley knocks on their door and briefly talks with Floyd about the killing, while Monty hides. After Keeley leaves, Monty berates Floyd for refusing to stay out of sight and kills him.

Mitch's wife Mary meets with Ginny to attempt to form an alibi. If Ginny can remember spending the night with Mitch, it will prove he didn't kill Samuels. Finlay joins her. Ginny claims to have no knowledge of meeting Mitch, but Ginny's husband appears and says that he remembers Mitch, thus providing an alibi.

Back at the police station, Finlay and Keeley suspect that antisemitism was the likely motive for Samuels' murder. They also suspect that Monty was responsible for killing both Samuels and Floyd since he's anti-Semitic. With the help of a soldier named Leroy, they set up a trap to catch him. Leroy tells Monty that Floyd wants to meet him and hands him an address where he can find Floyd. Monty shows up to the apartment where he killed Floyd, presumably to check if he's 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. Monty tries to escape, but is shot dead by Finlay.

Later, Finlay and Keeley say their goodbyes as Keeley leaves with Mitch to get coffee.

Cast[]

Production[]

The film's screenplay, written by John Paxton, was based on director and screenwriter Richard Brooks's 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 anti-Semitism. The book was published while Brooks was serving in the Marine Corps. A fellow Marine by the name of Robert Ryan met Brooks and told him he was determined to play in a version of the book on screen.[10][11]

Premiere and U.S. military distribution notes[]

The film premiered at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City on July 22, 1947.[12]

The US Army showed the film only at its US bases. The US Navy would not exhibit the film at all.[12]

Reception[]

Critical response[]

When first released, Variety magazine gave the film a positive review, writing, "Crossfire is a frank spotlight on anti-Semitism. 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 [based 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."[13]

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."[14]

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."[15]

The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 85% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on 20 reviews.[16]

Box office[]

The film made a profit of $1,270,000.[17][18]

Awards[]

Wins

  • Cannes Film Festival: Award, Best Social Film (Prix du meilleur film social); 1947[19]
  • Edgar Allan Poe Awards: Edgar; Best Motion Picture, John Paxton (screenwriter), Richard Brooks (author), Dore Schary (producer), Adrian Scott (associate producer) and Edward Dmytryk (director); 1948

Nominations, 20th Academy Awards

Other nominations

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b "The Little Foxes: Detail View". American Film Institute. Retrieved May 8, 2014.
  2. ^ Scott Eyman, Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer, Robson, 2005 p 420
  3. ^ "Variety (July 1948)". 1948.
  4. ^ "Top Grossers of 1947", Variety, 7 January 1948 p 63
  5. ^ Variety film review; June 25, 1947, p. 8.
  6. ^ Harrison's Reports film review; June 28, 1947, p. 102.
  7. ^ Crowther, Bosley (2007). "Crossfire". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 2, 2007. Retrieved May 5, 2011.
  8. ^ Crossfire at IMDb.
  9. ^ Staff. "1947 Academy Awards, Winners and History". AMC Filmsite. American Movie Classics Company LLC. Retrieved August 9, 2010.
  10. ^ Daniel, Douglass K. (2011). Tough as Nails: The Life and Films of Richard Brooks Univ. of Wisconsin Press. p. 34
  11. ^ A detailed account of adapting The Brick Foxhole for the screen and the producers' battles with the censors is in James Naremore (1998). More Than Night: Film Noir in its Context. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 114-123. ISBN 9780520212947 OCLC 803190089
  12. ^ Jump up to: a b Brown, Gene (1995). Movie Time: A Chronology of Hollywood and the Movie Industry from Its Beginnings to the Present (paperback). New York: MacMillan. p. 186. ISBN 0-02-860429-6.
  13. ^ Variety. Film review, 1947. Last accessed: February 26, 2008.
  14. ^ Crowther, Bosley. The New York Times, film review, July 23, 1947. Last accessed: February 26, 2008.
  15. ^ Schwartz, Dennis. Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews, film review, February 18, 2000. Last accessed: May 19, 2021.
  16. ^ Crossfire at Rotten Tomatoes. Last accessed: July 15, 2021.
  17. ^ Richard Jewell & Vernon Harbin, The RKO Story. New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House, 1982. p. 222
  18. ^ Richard B. Jewell, Slow Fade to Black: The Decline of RKO Radio Pictures, Uni of California, 2016
  19. ^ "Festival de Cannes: Crossfire". festival-cannes.com. Archived from the original on February 20, 2012. Retrieved January 4, 2009.

External links[]

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