Crossfire
Written by Andreas Babiolakis
This review is a part of the Palme d’Or Project: a review of every single Palme d’Or winner at Cannes Film Festival. This is a Grand Prix winner: what the Palme d’Or was originally called before 1955. Crossfire won for the 1947 festival as one of five honourees in different categories: the only year that Cannes did this. This film won specifically for Best Social Film.
The film was selected by the following jury.
Jury President: Georges Huisman.
Jury: Raymond Borderie, Georges Carrier, Jean-François Chosson, Joseph Dotti, Escoute, Jean Grémillon, Maurice Hille, Robert Hupert, Alexandre Kamenka, Jean Mineur, Henri Moret, Jean Nery, Maurice Perisset, Georges Raguis, René Jeanne, Georges Rollin, Régis Roubin, Marc-Gilbert Sauvajon, Segalon, René Sylviano.
Seven years before he directed The Caine Mutiny, Edward Dmytryk made another politically conscious genre film that maybe didn't get nearly as much of a legacy after the fact. That's the classic noir film Crossfire, starring one of the style's biggest icons Robert Mitchum. Well, actually the head honcho is Robert Young playing Capt. Finlay: an officer that is trying to get down to the bottom of a hate crime. Well, actually the other major character is Private Monty, played by Robert Ryan, who delivers his side of the story, but we aren't sure if we are able to trust Monty's intentions from the get go. Round these off with Mitchum's Sgt. Kelly, and you have a tale of the three Roberts within Crossfire: a palette of acting splendour within a noir film that needs commanding misdirection and statements to land with emphasis.
At its core, Crossfire means to be a bigger film than just a pulpy mystery. There is a theme of antisemitism being rampant even after World War II (as if to say that hate can still exist outside of the darkest times). What better style to try and challenge audiences with a difficult subject matter than films noir? Well, Crossfire tries to make the best of both identities, but it settles for something a little more obvious and preachy. Noir is about subtlety and being subsumed by the unknown: not about being educated. The mystique and suspense just doesn't work as well in this kind of a setting. Still, Dmytryk does his best to use this genre film for good, by highlighting an issue that needed to be heard by any means necessary. It was a low budget film akin to what you’d find via Poverty Row (okay, maybe not that low of a budget), but everyone here tries their best to get the points and genre conventions across (even if it’s all a teensy bit much); maybe it’s an overcompensation.
Led by great performances from the Roberts three, Crossfire is a thrilling and meaningful noir, even if the blend doesn’t always work as strongly as it could.
Despite being heavy handed at times, Crossfire is still very much a shadowy, engaging film that will have you following leads and retracing steps. At least the film manages to keep up with the preliminary elements of films noir: the descent into delirium whilst trying to figure the bigger picture out. All things considered, Crossfire is at least a great experiment on a film style that was about to be on its way out a few years later, but I don't even think Dmytryk was concerned with making a noir. I think he wanted to make his piece via this stylistic vehicle, so the message was always the top priority. So, as a noir, Crossfire is a little too upfront, but as a film and a film alone, it is actually quite thrilling to watch and enjoy, all whilst taking in a message about bigotry that paints an uglier picture of society than any noir world building ever could. Crossfire is a really good film about the ugly side of the human experience, told within the style that dedicated itself towards the darkest capabilities of our species. It works well enough, even with its minor shortcomings, to feel worthwhile as a film noir and as societal commentary; the former is long gone and renders Crossfire a relic, and the latter is a lesson we still need to hear (and thus Crossfire remains current enough, sadly).
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Toronto Metropolitan University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.