The Cinematheque

“One of the most tragic and compelling of film noir.”

Alain Silver, Film Noir: The Encyclopedia

A moody, fatalistic urban nightmare, Criss Cross comes from noir stalwart and stylist Robert Siodmak (Phantom Lady, The Killers), one of the key contributors to noir’s aesthetic. Burt Lancaster plays brooding armoured-car guard Steve Thompson, on a drunken downward spiral since his divorce from Anna (Yvonne De Carlo). Encountering his ex-wife in an old haunt, he learns that she’s about to marry no-good gangster Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea). Slim can give Anna the lavish lifestyle Steve never could—but, she hints, he’s not nearly as satisfying in the sack! Believing he can still win Anna back, Steve gets involved in a daring robbery scheme. Most of the film’s doom-laden, dangerously erotic plot unfolds in flashback. Steven Soderbergh’s The Underneath, from 1995, was a remake.