This drama was one of the first major-studio efforts to confront anti-Semitism (beating the Oscar-winning Gentleman's Agreement by several months), and it features a standout performance from Robert Ryan as a bigoted soldier on the run. Monty Montogomery (Ryan) is a violent and unstable soldier who, while out on a pass, goes on a drinking spree with three buddies, Floyd (Steve Brodie), Arthur (George A. Cooper), and Leroy (William Phipps). While boozing it up in a tavern, the four men meet Joseph Samuels (Sam Levene), and ...
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This drama was one of the first major-studio efforts to confront anti-Semitism (beating the Oscar-winning Gentleman's Agreement by several months), and it features a standout performance from Robert Ryan as a bigoted soldier on the run. Monty Montogomery (Ryan) is a violent and unstable soldier who, while out on a pass, goes on a drinking spree with three buddies, Floyd (Steve Brodie), Arthur (George A. Cooper), and Leroy (William Phipps). While boozing it up in a tavern, the four men meet Joseph Samuels (Sam Levene), and end up at his apartment for a party. Monty, however, has a fierce hatred of Jews, and he later goes into a drunken rage in which he beats Joseph to death. Monty's friends can barely remember the incident through their liquor-shrouded memories, but they recall just enough to make themselves scarce when police detective Capt. Finlay (Robert Young) begins making the rounds looking for information on Joseph's murder. Sgt. Kelly (Robert Mitchum), a soldier who knows the four men, begins to suspect that something is up, and he works with Leroy's wife and Finlay to help ferret out the killer in his ranks, while Monty kills Floyd when he becomes convinced that he's going to talk to the authorities. While director Edward Dmytryk showed real bravery in bringing this story to the screen, it had greater repercussions than he might have expected; the film's controversial themes led to Dmytryk's denunciation by the House Un-American Activities Committee during the McCarthy-era investigations of the 1950s. Luckily, unlike other filmmakers who suffered similar accusations by HUAC, Dmytryk continued to work steadily through the '50s and '60s. Mark Deming, Rovi
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Add this copy of Crossfire [Dvd] to cart. $6.49, good condition, Sold by HPB-Diamond rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2005 by Turner Home Ent.
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Robert Young, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Gloria Grahame, Paul Kelly, Sam Levene, Jacqueline White, Steve Brodie, George... Good. Run time: 86. Providing great media since 1972. All used discs are inspected and guaranteed. Digital copy/codes may be expired or not included. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!
Add this copy of Crossfire (Dvd-R) to cart. $12.71, very good condition, Sold by HPB-Movies rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2014 by Warner Archive Collection.
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William Phipps, Lex Barker, Jacqueline White, Steve Brodie, Paul Kelly, Sam Levene, Gloria Grahame, Robert Ryan, Robert... Very good. 1947 Run time: 85. Providing great media since 1972. All used discs are inspected and guaranteed. Digital copy/codes may be expired or not included. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!
Add this copy of Crossfire to cart. $19.50, new condition, Sold by groovaciousrecords rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Cedar City, UT, UNITED STATES, published 2005 by Warner Home Video.
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Robert Young, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Gloria Grahame, Paul Kelly. New in new packaging. Language: English. Run time: 86 mins. Aspect ratio: 1.33: 1. Originally released: 1947.
Add this copy of Crossfire to cart. $25.06, new condition, Sold by newtownvideo rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from huntingdon valley, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2014 by Warner Archive Collection.
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William Phipps, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Gloria Grahame, Sam Levene, Paul Kelly, Steve Brodie, Jacqueline White, Lex... New. 1947 Run time: 85. Buy with confidence-Satisfaction Guaranteed! Delivery Confirmation included for all orders in the US.
Add this copy of Crossfire to cart. $25.08, new condition, Sold by newtownvideo rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from huntingdon valley, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2014 by Warner Archive Collection.
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William Phipps, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Gloria Grahame, Sam Levene, Paul Kelly, Steve Brodie, Jacqueline White, Lex... New. 1947 Run time: 85. Buy with confidence-Satisfaction Guaranteed! Delivery Confirmation included for all orders in the US.
Add this copy of Crossfire [Blu-Ray] to cart. $28.46, new condition, Sold by newtownvideo rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from huntingdon valley, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2021 by Warner Archives.
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Marlo Dwyer, Lex Barker, Jacqueline White, Steve Brodie, Paul Kelly, Gloria Grahame, Sam Levene, Robert Ryan, Robert Mitchum,... New. Run time: 85. Buy with confidence-Satisfaction Guaranteed! Delivery Confirmation included for all orders in the US.
Add this copy of Crossfire [Blu-Ray] to cart. $32.93, new condition, Sold by newtownvideo rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from huntingdon valley, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2021 by Warner Archives.
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Marlo Dwyer, Lex Barker, Jacqueline White, Steve Brodie, Paul Kelly, Gloria Grahame, Sam Levene, Robert Ryan, Robert Mitchum,... New. Run time: 85. Buy with confidence-Satisfaction Guaranteed! Delivery Confirmation included for all orders in the US.
Add this copy of Crossfire/Colorized [Vhs] to cart. $44.95, new condition, Sold by David M. Riley rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Coon Rapids, MN, UNITED STATES, published 1992 by Warner Home Video.
very year, I eagerly attend the Noir City, D.C. film festival sponsored by the Film Noir Foundation and hosted by the AFI Silver Theater in Silver Spring. The theme for this year's festival is "They Tried to Warn Us". Many of the films feature social issues that still are with us today. Eddie Muller, the "Czar of Noir" and founder of the Film Noir Foundation selected the films and offered perceptive introductions during the first weekend of the festival.
The films today included "Crossfire" (1947), directed by Edward Dymtryk and Robert Mitchum, Robert Young, and Robert Ryan. The film is set during a single evening in Washington, D.C., but it was shot on a studio set rather than in the city. Still, it has a shadowy, dark noir feel of city streets, hotels, and seedy places. The film is a noir murder mystery as well as a work with a message -- in this case an exploration of antisemitism. It was released in the same year as the Academy Award winning movie "Gentleman's Agreement" which also had a theme of antisemitism. "Crossfire" is an important movie in its own right and was nominated for five Academy Awards in addition to receiving the Cannes Film Festival's 1948 award for Best Social Film among other honors.
The film involves a group of demobilized soldiers in Washington, D.C. At the outset of the film, in a shadowy scene, a Jewish man is beaten to death in a hotel room. He had earlier in the evening been keeping company with a group of soldiers and a young woman. The redoubtable Captain Finley (Robert Young) investigates the killings, including working around the false leads and information from some of the soldiers. It soon becomes apparent to Finley that the sole motive for the killing was hatred for Jewish people. The film slowly develops the nature of this senseless hatred. In the process, it offers a noir view of the underside of Washington, D.C. during the 1940s. A pair of secondary characters, a bar girl named Ginny (Gloria Grahame) and her doofus husband (Paul Kelly) do not steal the show, but they add a great deal of color.
The plot shows many twists and turns. The film includes sharp dialogue and towards the end a substantial amount of preaching on antisemitism and other forms of race hatred. The message of the film remains, unfortunately, pertinent, and the point comes through well in its setting of noir crime drama.
I was fortunate to be able to see "Crossfire" at the D.C. Noir Film festival in the company of other lovers of film noir.
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