Criss Cross

After a full decade, Criss Cross returns to the program of the Noir Film Festival. In the film, Robert Siodmak draws on his rich experience from previous years and offers viewers pure film noir with all its characteristic attributes: a cynical protagonist, an unpredictable femme fatale, retrospective narration, and a fatalistic atmosphere (wait for the ending). In addition, the film features one of the best staged and filmed robbery sequences ever. In Criss Cross, Siodmak continues the trend he began in Cry of the City (1948) and makes extensive use of authentic locations: the film begins with an aerial shot of Los Angeles, and following scenes are set in the Bunker Hill neighborhood downtown. The film stars Burt Lancaster and Yvonne De Carlo, who had appeared two years earlier in Jules Dassin’s prison noir Brute Force, but did not share a single scene in that film. (mh)