Steve Thompson from CRISS CROSS (1949)

Film noir and its losers...

Image from classicfilmnoir.com

Before he started rolling around on the beach with Deborah Kerr, ordering Tony Curtis around, or diving in everyone's swimming pools, Burt Lancaster played naive fools in 1940s noirs. Robert Siodmak, in particular, clearly thought he had a knack for it, as he played a similar character in not one but two of his films. One is The Killers (1946). The other is Criss Cross (1949) - see if you can spot Curtis’ early cameo.

Based on Don Tracy's novel of the same name, Criss Cross stars Burt Lancaster as an armored truck driver caught up on a bad case of double crossing. Steve Thompson returns to Los Angeles in search of his ex-wife, Anna (Yvonne De Carlo), who is now married to Slim Dundee, one of the many ridiculously-named characters Dan Duryea ever played. They start an affair, and in order to throw Slim off the scent, they plan an armored truck robbery. They will need Slim's men. Slim agrees and the plan is afoot. No prizes for guessing what happens next. All right, I'll tell ya. Everyone double crosses everyone and Steve ends up in hospital.

'The old trolley line looked the same. The old street. The old houses. I was glad to be back.' Steve Thompson

Cue the flashback. After a series of odd jobs, Steve Thompson goes back home. He wants to reconnect with his parents and his younger brother, his childhood friend Pete Ramirez (Stephen McNally) and most of all, he wants to reconnect with Anna. We get to see how his humble beginnings in sunny Los Angeles were a far cry from his frantic work life all over the country. He feels good at home. He feels safe. But that all changes the minute he runs into Anna again. One of film noir's most ambitious heist plans comes as a result of a toxic love triangle that Steve Thompson doesn't want to get out of. He just wants Slim out of the picture and Anna all to himself. And he almost gets what he wants...

Enveloped in fuzzy smoke and a Miklos Rosza score, the robbery is an action-packed, trigger-happy, double-crossing affair that leaves you gasping for air… Steve wakes up in hospital, with his arm in a cast. He learns that his father is dead, caught in the crossfire as he tried to protect his armored truck service. Steve is devastated, but everybody thinks of him as a hero. The newspapers all say so. But he can't handle the remorse and faints... When he wakes up again in the middle of the night, Pete comes to visit him in the hospital. He tells him he knows everything and that Slim and his men will be looking for him...

‘I should have been a better friend. I should have stopped you.' Pete Ramirez

Steve knows he's right. And when Pete leaves, he's terrified of anyone and everyone that might come in. The nurse reassures him that the man sitting outside is just waiting for news about his wife, who was in a car accident... but is he? You would be forgiven for thinking this was a Hitchcock film just based on the hospital sequence alone. Tense as anything, and just when you think Criss Cross couldn't get more tense, Steve and Anna reunite under the worst possible circumstances, only to be met with a fate only Dan Duryea could be responsible for. The climax of Criss Cross is heartbreaking, and so immensely brutal. Almost unspeakably so. And for what?

'I knew that somehow I'd end up seeing her that night' Steve Thompson

Steve Thompson's yearning for what was once a happy life led to his downfall. The familiarity and comfort of his Los Angeles childhood was something he longed for. He just wanted to settled at home with his parents and brother. But he also wanted Anna. He wanted to make it work this time. He thought going home and looking for her was the right thing to do. It wasn't. His naive nature got the better of him and he made a stupid mistake. The death of his father may well be one of the most cruel twists in film noir and somehow it gets worse from there. The look on Steve’s face as he realizes, in the film's final moments, that betrayal was just around the corner the whole time, is heart-wrenching. And all of it was completely unnecesary, if only Steve hadn't been so naive. But, unfortunately and like many of his noir peers, he was.

We bid farewell to Steve Thompson and Criss Cross. Our next loser is an informant with a heart of gold. The film is Pickup on South Street (1953), the actress is Thelma Ritter, and the loser... is Moe Williams.

See you on the sunny side of the street.