Plot
In the opening scene, a man is half-seen beating a Jewish man named Joseph Samuels to death in a hotel room. After the police are called in to investigate his murder, Captain Finlay suspects that the murderer may be among a group of demobilized soldiers who had been with Samuels and his female companion at a hotel bar the night of his death.
"Monty" Montgomery, an ex-cop, explains his version of the story to investigator Finlay. He claims that he and his friend Floyd Bowers met Samuels at the hotel bar and went up to his apartment to find Samuels talking to Cpl. "Mitch" Mitchell. Soon upon their arrival, Mitch sick from heavy drinking, leaves Samuel's apartment alone, then Monty and Floyd leave a minute or so later. According to Monty's story, that was the last time they saw Samuels alive.
Sergeant Keeley, concerned that Mitch may be the prime suspect, investigates the murder himself, hoping to clear his friend's name. After helping Mitch escape from police capture, Keeley meets him in a movie theater, where Mitch tells his version of the story. Although he was drunk, Mitch remembered Monty arguing with Samuels inside his apartment. After Mitch left, he spent part of the night with Ginny Tremaine, a working girl he met in a dance hall. When he wakes up the next morning in her apartment, Ginny is not there, but after hearing a knock at the door, he meets an odd man, who offers to make him coffee, and claims he was waiting for her too. While the man looks for some cigarettes, Mitch hastily leaves the apartment.
Meanwhile, Monty and Floyd meet in an apartment. Monty tells Floyd to stay out of sight and to keep their stories straight, that they had no argument with Samuels and left his apartment shortly after Mitch. Keeley knocks on their door and talks briefly with Floyd about the killing while Monty hides. After Keeley leaves, Monty – revealed to be the killer – berates Floyd for refusing to stay out of sight, beats and kills him, then stages a hanging suicide.
Escorted by Officer Finlay, Mitch's wife Mary visits Ginny at her apartment, and in an attempt to discover an alibi for her husband, asks Finlay to wait outside, as a cop might make Ginny clam up. If Ginny admits to spending the night with Mitch, it will prove he didn't kill Samuels. Ginny claims to have no knowledge of meeting Mitch, at which point Finlay enters the apartment to question her. Ginny recants and admits to knowing Mitch, but states that she never met him at her apartment. At this point, the odd man appears from a back room and tells Finlay that he remembers Mitch, thereby providing a partial alibi, but not for the estimated time of the murder.
Back at the police station, Finlay questions Monty a second time, hoping to uncover the motive for Samuels' murder, but sends him on his way. With Keeley in his office, Finlay suspects that antisemitism was the likely motive for Samuels' murder, because no person involved knew Samuels personally. Both suspect that Monty was responsible for killing both Samuels and Floyd since he's clearly anti-Semitic.
Finlay delivers a personal antiracial message to Keeley and a naive soldier named Leroy, who was in Monty's unit, by recalling the death of his Irish grandfather during earlier historical bigotry. Winning over Leroy, Finlay sets a trap to catch Monty. Leroy tells a surprised Monty that Floyd wants to meet him and shows him an address he wrote down where he can find Floyd. Monty shows up at the apartment where he killed Floyd, presumably to check if he's still alive, and encounters Finlay and another cop. Finlay tells Monty he gave himself away as the address on the piece of paper was actually to a different building, nevertheless he came to the right apartment, proving he had been there before when he killed Floyd. Monty tries to escape but is shot dead by Finlay.
After Monty is killed, Finlay and Keeley say their goodbyes. As Finlay drives away, Keeley looks to Leroy and replies, "Well, how about a cup of coffee, soldier?"
Production
The film's screenplay, written by John Paxton, was based on director and screenwriter Richard Brooks' 1945 novel The Brick Foxhole. Brooks wrote his novel while he was a sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps making training films at Quantico, Virginia, and Camp Pendleton, California.
In the novel, the victim was a homosexual. As told in the film The Celluloid Closet , and in the documentary included on the DVD edition of the Crossfire film, the Hollywood Hays Code prohibited any mention of homosexuality because it was seen as a sexual perversion. Hence, the book's theme of homophobia was changed to one about racism and anti-Semitism. Nevertheless, the fast rapport which develops between the artistic soldier and the sensitive older man hints at the original subtext. Director Edward Dmytryk later said that the Code "had a very good effect because it made us think. If we wanted to get something across that was censorable... we had to do it deviously. We had to be clever. And it usually turned out to be much better than if we had done it straight." [9]
The book was published while Brooks was serving in the Marine Corps. A fellow Marine, the politically-active actor Robert Ryan, met Brooks and told him he was determined to play in a version of the book on screen. [10] [11]
Reception
Critical response
When first released, Variety magazine gave the film a positive review, writing, "Crossfire is a frank spotlight on anti-Semitism. Producer Dore Schary, in association with Adrian Scott, has pulled no punches. There is no skirting such relative fol-de-rol as intermarriage or clubs that exclude Jews. Here is a hard-hitting film [based on Richard Brooks' novel, The Brick Foxhole] whose whodunit aspects are fundamentally incidental to the overall thesis of bigotry and race prejudice... Director Edward Dmytryk has drawn gripping portraitures. The flashback technique is effective as it shades and colors the sundry attitudes of the heavy, as seen or recalled by the rest of the cast." [14]
The New York Times film critic, Bosley Crowther, lauded the acting in the drama, and wrote, "Mr. Dmytryk has handled most excellently a superlative cast which plays the drama. Robert Ryan is frighteningly real as the hard, sinewy, loud-mouthed, intolerant and vicious murderer, and Robert Mitchum, Steve Brodie, and George Cooper are variously revealing as his pals. Robert Young gives a fine taut performance as the patiently questioning police lieutenant, whose mind and sensibilities are revolted—and eloquently expressed—by what he finds. Sam Levene is affectingly gentle in his brief bit as the Jewish victim, and Gloria Grahame is believably brazen and pathetic as a girl of the streets." [15]
Critic Dennis Schwartz questioned the noir aspects of the film in 2000, and discussed the cinematography in his review. He wrote, "This is more of a message film than a noir thriller, but has been classified by most cinephiles in the noir category... J. Roy Hunt, the 70-year-old cinematographer, who goes back to the earliest days of Hollywood, shot the film using the style of low-key lighting, providing dark shots of Monty, contrasted with ghost-like shots of Mary Mitchell (Jacqueline White) as she angelically goes to help her troubled husband Arthur." [16]
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 88% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on 24 reviews. [17]
Box office
The film made a profit of $1,270,000. [18] [19]
