That was an excellent one.

Thanks for the memories!

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

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.

Boy, Yvonne De Carlo really managed to pull it off here. For the entire picture you believe Anna Dundee is in love with Burt Lancaster's character Steve Thompson. Then, when Steve shows up at Palos Verdes, she throws him over in favor of the stolen loot from the Bliss Company payroll heist. What a low down, dirty, double dealing dame.But then again, that's what cool film noir is all about. Like many viewers who only ever saw De Carlo as Lily Munster, this was an eye opener. She looked sultry and seductive and had a way of wrapping Steve right around her little finger, even with gangster Steve Dundee (Dan Duryea) in the same room. Told in limited flashback style, the picture catches the viewer up to real time about half way through, at which point Steve makes his out of left field proposal to play inside man on the armored truck heist. Man, this guy was so blinded by love/lust he couldn't get out of his own way.You know, I couldn't get over the conversation between a couple of Herton security guards when they began discussing their wives' shopping habits. I realize it's all relative, but could it really have broken the guy's budget to buy the soap powder for forty three cents instead of thirty seven at the Great Western? Or the couple cans of tomato juice for a quarter and save another six cents there? Boy, it really makes you think how things were, going back a half dozen decades.This one ought to appeal to fans of film noir and gangster flicks, but you will have to pay attention. The business with the hood at the hospital looking in on Steve was a clever hook. For a while I couldn't figure why he would have been there on the pretext that his wife had an accident, but heck, lying would have been part of his repertoire. Same thing with Anna having the money from the hold-up, but during the planning, all the participants agreed that she would pay off the split with Steve. That's probably the one concession you have to make to suspending disbelief; knowing Slim Dundee, why would he agree to that knowing his wife's past with Steve.Keep a sharp eye out during the scene with the rhumba band. Dancing with Anna is a sharply dressed Latin looking guy who turns out to be Tony Curtis. Don't blink or you'll miss it.

"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.

At times the plot got a little hard to follow, but at least it held my attention. I don't think there's anything special about the film,but its definitely not a bad one overall. Entertaining to see how the characters cross one another(hence the title) is somewhat suspenseful enough to make you wonder what is going to happen next. Was very interesting to see the female role kind of take on the lead as head bad guy and mastermind, which i would think would be very uncommon in films of that time. Anna, the female character, was extremely manipulative. It seemed to me that all she cared about was money. You actually come to feel bad for steve, because hes really just a man in love. One scene that was all too real for me and kind of freaked me out, the couple is running through a meat packing plant. And there's like cows, and parts of cows hanging everywhere.