After the breakup of his 7-month marriage to Anna (Yvonne DeCarlo), Steve Thompson (Burt Lancaster) leaves town for awhile. Needing to get Anna out of his system, he drifted for a time, and then eventually returned to Los Angeles and his former job at an armored truck company. Anna is never far from Steve's mind, though, and he begins haunting their old hangouts, hoping to run into her. One evening, he does, and although she had begun seeing gangster Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea) after their divorce, Anna is still very much interested in reconnecting with Steve. She convinces him that they need to try again to make a go of things, but shortly after saying that, she ends up marrying Slim.
Of course, Steve is destined to run into the now-married Anna, and after she informs him that Slim beats her and that he and his gang are killers, the two fall into an affair; however, with Slim watching Anna's every move, it's not long before he learns of it. Trying to protect Anna, Steve claims there is nothing going on between them, that they were only together because Steve wanted her to contact Slim about the two of them partnering together in an armored truck robbery. Now Steve, who is really a good guy at heart, finds himself the "inside man" on a major heist. Will he go through with it? And will Anna really leave Slim and run away with Steve after the job is done?
Criss Cross is an interesting, exciting film, with good performances by all. Dan Duryea oozes nastiness here---he's his usual wonderful, sleazy self. Burt Lancaster, whose characters I find almost always a bit rough around the edges, was super as the man who wants to be good, but who is drawn to a bad woman. And Yvonne DeCarlo...wow, she was a stunning beauty in 1949. The only thing I've ever seen her in is The Munsters, and I would never in a million years have believed she was a beautiful woman. But she was gorgeous here!! I was beyond in love with her hairstyle. Another thing---to my mind, the film offers a surprise ending---truly, I never saw that ending coming! I love surprise endings like that.
The film is out on DVD and should be quite easy to track down. If you are a Burt Lancaster, Dan Duryea, Yvonne DeCarlo, or film noir fan, I am sure you will enjoy this one. Hope you get a chance to see it.
Happy viewing!!
