Criss Cross

Directed by Robert Siodmak, Criss Cross follows Burt Lancaster’s Steve Thompson as he reunites with his ex-wife (Yvonne De Carlo’s Anna) and is subsequently drawn into a heist alongside her new husband (Dan Duryea’s Slim Dundee). It’s a solid setup that’s employed to watchable yet mostly underwhelming effect by Siodmak, as the filmmaker, working from a screenplay by Daniel Fuchs, employs a flashback-heavy structure that does, for the most part, prevent the viewer from wholeheartedly embracing the material or characters – with the somewhat uninvolving atmosphere compounded by a deliberately-paced, meandering first half that contains few engaging elements or sequences. There’s little doubt, then, that Criss Cross‘ extremely mild success is due almost entirely to the strong performances and a smattering of late-in-the-game interludes, with, in terms of the latter, the inevitable heist sequence boasting a vitality and excitement that’s otherwise absent from the proceedings. (The fairly tense closing stretch, in addition, ensures that the whole thing concludes on an admittedly stirring, striking note.) The end result is a disappointingly half-baked film noir that generally feels as though it should be much, much better, which is a shame, certainly, given the seemingly foolproof nature of its premise and the uniformly compelling efforts of its various actors.

**1/2 out of ****