I love this movie so much

That was an excellent one.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

I am writing this review today because it was previewed at the 15th addition of Noir City film festival in San Francisco. It was shown on Friday January 20th, 2017.I owe a copy and have watched it eight (8) times over the last ten years, most recently today. It is one of my favorite film noir movies because of its director Robert Siodmak and the outstanding primary cast. This includes Burt Lancaster, Yvonne De Carlo and Dan Duryea. In my opinion, it is De Carlo's best performance in her career.The supporting cast includes: Stephen McNally, Percy Helton, Alan Napier, Meg Randall and Richard Long.When you watch it, look for uncredited performances by Raymond Burr, Tony Curtis, Gene Evans and Diane Stewart.

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.

"Criss Cross" is a typical noir, made in 1949 by Robert Siodmak. Burt Lancaster, a fairly new star at that time, really shines as Steve Thompson, a young man who comes home for the war and wants to see his ex-wife Anna (Yvonne DeCarlo) but keeps telling himself he's through with her and doesn't want to see her. However, he's drawn to the old hangouts and inevitably does see him. By now she's taken up with a hood, Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea), but she seems to want Steve as much as he wants her. They get back together quietly, but what they both want is to go away permanently.One night, Slim catches them at Anna's apartment, and to cover, Steve says he has an idea for a job, a robbery of the Brinks truck he drives. Brinks are supposedly impossible to rob, and all criminals know this, but Steve says it will work with an insider (himself) helping.Quite a movie, with the beautiful, exotic DeCarlo just smoldering - she and Lancaster, so athletic and good-looking, made a beautiful couple. Duryea is downright scary. The film is violent at times and quite exciting.This film actually proved to be a break for James Curtis, who is uncredited in the movie but can be seen dancing with Yvonne DeCarlo. Apparently people handing in the preview cards wanted to know more about him. He changed his name to Anthony Curtis for his next film. It would be a few years before Tony Curtis became immensely popular. Later, he costarred with Burt Lancaster. Raymond Burr can also be seen as a gangster.Good movie.

"Criss Cross" is a well made movie about a gullible guy who's obsessed with the past and his ex-wife. Having tried to heal his obsession by leaving Los Angeles for a period of time, he decides to return home and deludes himself that he's simply returning to be with his family, when in fact everyone around him knows the real reason for his return. His decision to come back to L.A. and his past is a dreadful mistake which ultimately seals his fate.Steve Thompson (Burt Lancaster) starts to frequent "The Round Up", a bar where he and his ex-wife Anna (Yvonne DeCarlo) used to hang out and when they meet up again, they rekindle their relationship. This exasperates his mother and his old friend Detective Lieutenant Pete Ramirez (Stephen McNally). They both know that Anna is not to be trusted and Pete is also aware that a local gangster called Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea) is infatuated with her.Anna is very materialistic and marries Slim because he's wealthy. Steve is very hurt but when he meets her some time later, she tells him that she's unhappy in her marriage and that her new husband beats her. She also says that she married Slim because Pete had threatened to arrest her if she didn't stop seeing Steve. Predictably, the couple then resume their affair.A little time later, Anna calls at Steve's home to tell him that Slim knows about their affair and almost immediately after, Slim and some of his gang have also entered his house. In a hurried attempt to justify why he and Anna had been alone together, Steve explains that he's planning an armoured car robbery and that he needs Slim's help to carry it out. Steve works as a driver for the armoured car company and suggests that he could be the gang's "inside man".When arrangements are made for the robbery to go ahead, Steve and Anna plan to double cross Slim but Slim also plans a double cross of his own.Director Robert Siodmak had collaborated previously with Burt Lancaster in the making of "The Killers" and their work together on "Criss Cross" produced another high quality crime drama in which Siodmak's influence is in strong evidence. The opening sequence which begins with an aerial shot of the city at night and eventually closes in on the guilty looking couple is very impressive as is the staging of the robbery and there's also a spectacularly high overhead shot of the armoured vehicle approaching the scene of the crime which is truly unforgettable."Criss Cross" is essentially about a heist, a dangerous love triangle, obsession, betrayal and a number of double crosses. With very good performances from its talented cast, it also has a consistently ominous atmosphere and is profoundly fatalistic.