Crossfire

This might have been a fine noir, but it never recovers from the censors and script doctors. Ryan's homophobic character was turned into an anti-semite, which makes nonsense of the plot. You know, it happens all the time: one fellah invites another fellah up to his hotel room for a drink, and the first fellah tells the other fellah he's a Jew, so the other fellah goes crazy and beats him to death. Hunh? Ryan is good and creepy, Mitchum is good too, but Robert Young is weak as the detective.

Not great, but pretty good, with flashes of greatness but some stretches of mediocrity as well. The story is compelling at times, but it's not edge-of-your-seat stuff, and the anti-prejudice message is pretty preachy and only really comes into play towards the end, feeling shoehorned in. The photography is pretty nice, and the acting is uniformly good, especially Mitchum, who should've had more on-screen time. One of the better noirs I've seen, but I don't think it lives up to its reputation.

Lacking in tension but decent performances.

A very good film noir, and one that I imagine was quite edgy at the time. It can get a little preachy with its anti-antisemitic themes, but it works as a character trait to make the murderer a pretty despicable guy. Even despite the viewer knowing who it is pretty early on, Dmytryk manages to hold the tension through conflicting accounts of exactly what happened (the Rashomon effect before Rashomon), and some pretty great photography. Mitchum, Ryan, and Young are all wonderful.

Nothing to get too excited about. In attempting to do an issues film disguised as a noir mystery thriller, it sort of does a half-hearted job at both. The message all comes flooding out at the end in a couple of eloquent but preachy speeches. The most interesting part is the theme of people wandering aimlessly through their post-war lives, but it doesn't get developed very far. Mitchum is great, the film could have used more of him. I don't care much for Ryan, but he does a pretty good job.

Not much to say about this one, but a bit underwhelming. Definitely suffers at the hands of the Production Code. Robert Ryan is very good, Robert Young is pretty good, but Mitchum is given nothing to do. He said himself that anyone could play his part. He's right. I also liked Gloria Grahame's short role. I find it cool that something so low-key could be nominated for Best Picture in the studio era and that it beat the winner Gentleman's Agreement to the anti-Semitic punch.

A pretty average police procedural that gets a little preachy as it snowballs to its ending. But it gets an extra star for the strong performance of Ryan (and Grahame, who needed more screen time) and for the gorgeous photography and lighting.

compelling thriller leaning a little into the didactic narrative territory. while the film fails to truly portray its main issue on a conceptual level (it individualizes systemic discrimination and fails to even hint at the most topical one at the time), robert ryan's brilliant performance makes up for that lack of conceptual depth. he's magnificent to convey what motivates his character in a very economical performance.

Crossfire (1947) is a film which takes a interesting approach to a murder investigation. We get to know a group of soldiers and one of them did it. The most notable of them being Robert Mitchum. A rather conventional role for him, toned down and not supposed to stand-out alongside the other pals. And it's that evenly aspect which shifts the focus on the story and not the stars. There might not be a peak to Edward Dmytryk only Oscar nomination, but it was always interesting.

The murder mystery is intriguing, it gives an good depiction of the post-war mindset of soldiers and has a good, although unsubtle, message about the dangers of xenophobia. Gloria Grahame steals the few scenes she's in as sassy "showgirl" (well for the smart viewer it's clear what her job really is).

Guys, racism is bad, but only if it's against the Jewish or Irish. Jokes aside, this was a decently thrilling noir, and I can't fault it for trying to deliver a message that was still kinda progressive for its time, even though it would have been a far better movie had it stuck to the novel's original theme of homophobia.

Decent film noir but felt more like propaganda.

An interesting cross between a message film and a noir procedural that works pretty well as both, if not especially great as either. It's one of the first (if not THE first) films to deal directly with antisemitism, but it frames it as a pretty average murder mystery and isn't really concerned with the deeper implications of the hatred on display. The performances are quite good and the direction, while perhaps held back a bit by the B-budget, is very competent.

Very intriguing noir with a murder mystery surrounded by unmistakable commentary on WWII and discrimination. While occasionally it straddles the line between insightful and blunt it's pretty well integrated into the film.The murder mystery aspect starts off being incredibly intriguing, and while fizzles a little early it's still engaging to the end. It lacks oomph with most of the best parts being in the first 2/3 and acting that could be better, but it's strong noir nevertheless.

Dmytryk's dark, shadowy photography elevates this film into something more interesting than an otherwise average morality tale. The acting is good, too, with Ryan's dimwitted bigot and Gloria Grahame's smart-mouthed showgirl standing out from the rest of the crowd. The condemnation of prejudice is overt, but doesn't feel out of place or heavy handed. Finally, I thought the homosexual subtext was still pretty evident at times, despite the enforced change to the source material by the censors.

Starts off being kind of good, but it has some very heavy-handed scenes in the latter half.

good post-WW2 noir. the action could've been snappier and more suspenseful; the preaching at the end, although containing some compelling stuff, could've been cut down a bit.

Strong noir that tailed off towards the end, could've been great

Given the cast you'd assume this would be an all timer but it's like just fine.

A good film noir that adds in a message about hate. I rather liked this film. The performances are decent, and the story isn't too long or boring. Contrary to some others, I loved the message the film had and didn't find it heavy handed at all. A brave film that would have been braver had they used a homosexual instead of a jew like it was originally written by Richard Brooks.

"Noir doesn't exist without that visual elaboration." http://illusionpodcast.blogspot.com/2015/04/episode-55-films-noir-of-edward-dmytryk.html