OVP: Crossfire (1947)

Film: Crossfire (1947)
Stars: Robert Young, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Gloria Grahame, Jacqueline White
Director: Edward Dmytryk
Oscar History: 5 nominations (Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor-Robert Ryan, and Supporting Actress-Gloria Grahame)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

On occasion Oscar decides to go with a film that doesn't seem extremely typical of his tastes.  It's not necessarily that he always ignores a specific genre or filmmaker (though occasionally he does), it's just that when he goes there, it seems to be at an odd time or in a big way.  Think of someone like Darren Aronofsky finally getting his moment with a horror film like Black Swan.  Or, in this case Edward Dmytryk, who made some of the best film noir films of the 1940's, getting randomly assigned a quintet of very big nominations for Crossfire, a film that is excellent but all of his films usually were, so I don't know why this particular film caught their fancy.

(Spoilers Ahead) I'm glad it did, though, as otherwise it would have just been another film that I need to get around to on Dmytryk's filmography rather than one that I'm reviewing right now.  The film is your classic detective drama: we open with a man named Joseph Samuels having died, with the likely killer being amongst a troupe of demobilized soldiers.  We see an investigator named Keeley (Young) who is determined to find the killer, though apparently only by staying behind his desk (was Robert Young pregnant or something during this movie-he seems like he's behind a desk 80% of the movie and he's the lead!).  Initially he's led to believe that a cowardly corporal named Mitchell is the killer, but slowly (and with a bit of help from Robert Mitchum, playing the always-honest but inevitably tough soldier-without-a-cause) figures out that it is of course one of the headliners, in this case Robert Ryan in the role that would win him an Oscar nomination and leading man status.

The film is a conundrum for me in terms of whether to love it or not.  For some reason (perhaps it's his weird blandness), but Robert Young is one of those leading men of Classical Hollywood whose appeal I just don't get (Dick Powell is also on this list).  He's easily the most boring character in every film that he ever makes, and I just feel underwhelmed with him when someone like, say, Paul Henreid would have been a more compelling leading man.  Still, the dialogue and plotting of this movie is brisk and wildly entertaining-you can see the killer coming a mile away, but you don't actually know how many people are going to die before he's caught, or even if they will find justice for him (noir being one of those rare genres where Hollywood cliche can occasionally get thrown to the wolves).  And I loved the way that the film took its time with certain scenes-one of the things you can enjoy when you watch old films, and something that newer directors should take note of, is that you build so much from characters if you let them sit and talk for a bit, rather than edit everything down to the absolute essentials of a scene.  Your actors get to stretch out their characters a bit, let us know their facial expressions and not just cliched cues of facial expressions.

The film's acting is easily the best part of it, particularly the Oscar-nominated supporting players.  Robert Ryan as an anti-Semitic soldier could so easily have drifted into cliche, and occasionally his dialogue does (1947 was the year of the Academy taking a stand against anti-Semitism, with both Crossfire and Gentleman's Agreement gaining nominations in the Best Picture race), but his performance feels very modern.  There is genuine fear felt against him onscreen, and there's a reason-he uses his massive frame and dark, penetrating eyes to great effect, and frequently talks in sentences that could be threats, but might be just normal chatter.  It's something that great screen villains are made of, and it was definitely something that left me wanting more.

The same could be said for Gloria Grahame, getting her first Oscar nomination as a taxi dancer (though you get the impression she's also a prostitute) with little going for her, but a lot of weariness.  So often films of this era would make the "hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold" style characters, but Grahame (best known to modern audiences as Violet in It's a Wonderful Life) doesn't go that route-she's not here to change the course of a hero, she's simply a random stranger that was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  I loved the complicated relationship she has with the man in her apartment, first claiming to be her husband and then we learn that he's clearly something darker, possibly a pimp or even a stalker.  There's so much gritty truth in this side character and her performance in what could have been a throwaway role.  I have to say that both Ryan and Grahame wholly deserved their Oscar nominations for this movie.

Those are my thoughts on Crossfire, a great little film that hopefully you catch late at night on a Saturday sometime (it plays better, like most movies, when you're watching it in the dark).  If you've seen it, what are your thoughts on the movie, and on Ryan and Grahame in particular?  Does anyone really love Robert Young (am I going to have to investigate his TV work to finally get the joke)?  And why do you think this film, of all of the movies that he made, got Dmytryk his sole Oscar nod for directing?  Share in the comments!