Crossfire

Antisemitism was definitely a topic on people’s minds in the years shortly after World War II. Hitler’s war against everyone led to an influx of Jewish immigrants into the United States and not everyone greeted them with open arms. Hating someone for no real reason other than being different from you has always been a thing and will probably always be one. “Hating is always senseless. One day it kills Irish Catholics, the next day Jews, the next day Protestants, the next day Quakers. It’s hard to stop. It can end up killing men who wear striped neckties. Or people from Tennessee.” Captain Finlay (Robert Young) makes this observation during one of his speeches, making a point to call out just how senseless this type of thinking really is.

The film opens with a scuffle as a Jewish man, Joseph Samuels (Sam Levene), is beaten to death in a hotel room. The guilty party is not clearly seen. Captain Finlay is called in to investigate the murder and he immediately suspects the murderer may be among a group of demobilized soldiers who were seen with Samuels and a female companion earlier that night at a hotel bar. Ex-cop Monty (Robert Ryan), one of the soldiers with Samuels that night, claims that he and his friend Floyd Bowers (Steve Brodie) met Samuels in the hotel bar and followed him to his apartment where he had met up with Cpl. Mitchell (George Cooper). According to Monty, Mitchell was sick from excessive drinking and left. Monty and Floyd left shortly afterwards with Samuels still alive at the time. 

Finlay calls in Sergeant Keeley (Robert Mitchum) for questioning and informs him that evidence left in Samuels room may implicate Mitchell of the murder. Keeley doesn’t believe Mitchell is the type of man to commit such a crime and sets out to prove it. As the investigation gets underway Floyd disappears, then turns up dead, ostensibly by his own hand. A motive for Samuels’ murder cannot be established which leads Finlay to believe it may have been motivated by antisemitism. With that in mind it becomes apparent who really is the prime suspect as Monty obviously has a hatred for the Jews. The only problem is there is no evidence to justify an arrest. Meanwhile, Mitchell may have an alibi for the time of the murder but said alibi puts him in a compromising position with another woman and he is a married man. 

Crossfire is two different films rolled into one. Whenever that happens it usually means that it isn’t focused enough to do either type any justice. The mystery side of the equation is where this one is really lacking. There is little attempt to hide who the real killer is and once that has been spelled out most of the energy the film had is deflated. There is enough information for a keen eyed viewer to figure this one out from about five minutes in, really, but it gets confirmed at about the halfway point when Monty confronts Floyd and spells everything out. On the other side of the equation this film isn’t all that great at pointing the finger at antisemitism either. Monty is shown from the start to be intolerant towards minorities as well as people like Leroy (William Phipps), a southerner whom Monty disparages as being simple minded because of his accent and southern mannerisms. 

Towards the end of the film it turns into an outright lecture on intolerance as Finlay comes up with a plan to entrap Monty and prove he is the guilty party. At first he tries convincing Leroy to assist in laying the trap. When the southerner seems reluctant to risk his safety over it Finlay lays it on pretty thick about how, two generations previous, Irish farmers immigrated to America because of the potato famine in their home country. Americans at the time looked upon these Irish immigrants with hatred, viewing them as foreigners there to take all the jobs and other such nonsense. One such man, a farmer with a family, was ambushed and killed for no other reason than being Irish. That man was Finlay’s grandfather. He equates that to what happened during the war with the migration of Jews into America.

“This business of hating Jews comes in a lot of different sizes. There’s the ‘you can’t join our country club’ kind and ‘you can’t live around here’ kind. Yes, and the ‘you can’t work here’ kind. And because we stand for all of these, we get Monty’s kind. He’s just one guy, we don’t get him very often, but he grows out of all the rest.” Finlay lays it on like a preacher at the pulpit, spelling out the message of the film in a way that, while noble, is heavy handed and obvious. Just a few months later Gentleman’s Agreement would come out, tackling the exact same issues and would do so much more effectively. 

Crossfire is an utterly forgettable film and had it not been for the moralizing on an issue plaguing the United States at the time it probably would have come and gone from the theaters without making much of a lasting impression. Because of the timely messaging, though, it managed to secure an Academy Award nomination for best picture losing out to the far superior Gentleman’s Agreement. It awkwardly infuses its messaging into a lackluster murder mystery which is unfortunate because the message is a good one, one that is topical again in current days with the ongoing and increasing hatred towards immigrants, especially those coming across the southern US boarders, illegally or otherwise, It is not a bad film but it’s one of those that I saw once a few years ago and, watching it again today I remembered nothing about. My guess is in a few years time I will once again struggle to remember anything about it.

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture: Adrian Scott

Best Director: Edward Dmytryk

Best Supporting Actor: Robert Ryan

Best Supporting Actress: Gloria Grahame

Best Screenplay: John Paxton

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Release Date: August 15, 1947

Running Time: 86 Minutes

Not Rated

Starring: Robert Young, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Gloria Grahame, and Sam Levene

Directed By: Edward Dmytryk