While driving an armored car in a lonely road, Steve Thompson (Burt Lancaster) recalls his life, after divorcing his beloved wife Anna (Yvonne De Carlo) and working in many places in the United States of America, from the moment he returned home in Los Angeles a few days ago. Although traveling for almost two years trying to forget Anna, he is still obsessed with her. However, when he arrives in town, the sentimentally inconstant Anna gets married with the gangster Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea). Steve plans a heist of the armored car with Slim, expecting to double-cross the criminal and escaping with Anna to another city to begin a new life, but things do not happen as he intended it was. "Criss Cross" is a magnificent film-noir, indeed another masterpiece of master Robert Siodmak. From the initial long scene, with an aerial view of Los Angeles reaching a spot in a parking area where Steve and Anna are having a conversation, to the conclusion of the story, there is no flaw in the script. Burt Lancaster has an outstanding performance in the role of a honest man obsessed with his former wife, who becomes criminal trying to regain the love of his fickle ex-wife. Yvonne De Carlo is also perfect and very beautiful, in the role of a cold and manipulative woman, being a perfect "femme-fatale". The black and white photography with many shadows is awesome in the DVD released in Brazil by the distributor Classicline, and the music score is simply perfect. In 1995, Steven Soderbergh updated this story with the excellent remake "Underneath". My vote is ten.

Title (Brazil): "Baixeza" ("Lowness')

Yvonne DeCarlo sure plays a heck of a femme fatale in this film! And, she's a heck of a lot sexier than when she played Lily Munster! It seems that she was married to a poor sap (Burt Lancaster) but they've since divorced. However, he has it bad for her...and she is beginning to show signs that she might like to marry him all over again. So his hopes raise quickly---only to be dashed when she suddenly runs off with a hood (Dan Duryea--who almost ALWAYS played bad guys). Yet, oddly, despite this, she STILL has her claws in him and is able to manipulate him into being the inside man for an armored car robbery--as he's one of the crew of the truck. Things, however, don't go as you'd expect...see this excellent film to see what happens next.

Considering the film has great baddies and a taut script, it's one of the better examples of film noir--true film noir with the perfect dame, great dialog, wonderful camera work--the whole shebang!

'Criss Cross' had bags of potential from the get go, so seeing it was always going to be a must and a no-brainer. A good cast, star Burt Lancaster and director Robert Siodmak collaborating again after the brilliant 'The Killers' three years earlier, my love for film noir and classic film, many holding it in high regard and a great idea for a story. It would have been hard to mess up with that much going for it.

Luckily after seeing a fair share of potential wastes recently and starting to despair and tire of it, it was great to see a film like 'Criss Cross' meeting these high expectations and come close actually to exceeding them. Know that sounds very cliched but that's my stance. 'Criss Cross' may not be one of my favourite film noir films, not without imperfections and it is not as good as 'The Killers', but in its own right of its genre and overall it's a very good film. A very good film with many great elements that is nowhere near as confusing as one worries it would be with the title and tagline. It may not work for some as there are a couple of components that can be easily criticised, yet those couple of components are outweighed by the great things that are praised for good reason.

The story doesn't hold as many surprises as it sounds and it is not always plausible when it gets richer.

While to me most of the pace is fine and taut enough, some of the middle could have been tightened with a little bit of trimming.

However, the cast are strong all round and throughout. Lancaster excels in a role against type, it is the complete opposite to his usual roles but it actually suits him very well and he brings enough intensity to stop the role from being bland. Yvonne DeCarlo smolders with allure in the romantic role and their chemistry charms and sizzles, while Dan Duryea is on sinister form on villain duty. Steven McNally is nicely sympathetic, while Percy Helton's sly bartender really does shine. As said, Tony Curtis before he rose to stardom makes a cameo/brief appearance dancing with DeCarlo. Siodmak was the perfect choice for director, his direction here is expertly and he brings the same powerfully bleak and intense qualities that he brought to 'The Killers'. The script crackles in its tautness and the characters compel.

As does much of the story, which is suspenseful and intriguing with the romance suitably intricate. It is amazing that the film had this many double crosses yet didn't feel confusing or over-stuffed, while the standout scenes are the powerful downbeat ending and especially the thrillingly staged and shot robbery/heist. The production values are very atmospheric and stylish while Miklos Rozsa's doom-laden score is every bit as ominous and stirring as his for 'The Killers'.

Overall, very good. 8/10 Bethany Cox