1949: Criss Cross (35th!)

What else happened this year? The formation of Communist China, East and West Germany, and... Nato was formed after a treaty was signed. So, not much fun that year.

What is the plot - in one sentence? An abusive couple try to continue their affair under the guise of a plan to rob an armoured car, despite her being married to a mobster. 

I don't have time, just spoil it for me? The robbery goes off after a double cross, and the affair couple end up in a hideout with the money. He's injured, and just as she tells him that she's leaving with the money, the mobster husband (injured in the robbery) comes and shoots them both. The End. For the record, Burt Lancaster is the guy she's having an affair with, some other guy is her husband, and she is Lily Munster, aka Yvonne De Carlo.

What is the meaning of the title? At the end, she her paramour that she's criss-crossing him and is going to leave with his money. She even says the phrase, but it comes at the end of a bunch of betrayals in the movie, so it probably refers to all of them.

Here's Burt Lancaster in a vest, a couple of years before A Streetcar Named Desire. Yvonne Di Carlo is behind him. This is them pretending they haven't just had 1949-style sex. They're fooling no one.

Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? She doesn't, onscreen, but she shows the bruises she's got from her husband. She went from an abusive relationship to a violent one. Also of its age: this mentions Einstein (as did 1947's Boomerang) as a 'genius' of the age, something which is still going on now. Burt Lancaster also has a mate from his past who is now a policeman, who offers him a way out of crime, and I think that's an addition that was made at the behest of the studio, as he adds very little except a 'moral safety net.'

Any thoughts? Burt Lancaster is in a lot of really good movies. He's usually the hero, or at least a good guy, and in this one it's surprising that he absolutely isn't. We're told at the beginning that he went away around the country in order to clear his head after a particularly unpleasant relationship ended, and when he gets back he's stunned and shocked that she's now married to a gangers. It's implied that he's stalked her. 

The two still rile each other up, have an affair, and show themselves to be trapped in a circle of abuse and co-dependence. Lily Munster says 'I with I'd never met you' more than once to him. Surprisingly, he also seems like a bit of a dick. That she left him and married a persistent, possessive, violent gangster says a lot about the situation.

To avoid getting caught out by the gangster, Burt Lancaster comes up with a plan to rob the company he's working for and who have treated him kindly, but he's double-crossed by the gangsters he teams up with, and then by Yvonne De Carla. It's pretty much the pinnacle of the double-cross film noir, and it ends up with everyone either dead or about to be arrested.

Despite that, he's got a few allies, his family are happy to see him, and his police mate is there to stop the whole movie from being too bleak, and giving him an option to leave the crime business. He chooses Yvonne De Carla instead, which is a fair decision.

There are some nice side-characters in the story, as there often are in movies like this. There's a drunk woman at the bar that they all hang out at, I liked an old guy who was driving in the armoured car, and you can even briefly but unmistakably see Tony Curtis dancing around with Yvonne De Carlo in one scene.

Would you recommend this? Kinda. It's a solid noir story with strong performances, unpleasant characters, double-crosses and an unexpectedly bleak ending, but it is pretty grim. would I recommend it because it's good? Yeah.

Final thoughts? After the robbery goes awry, Burt Lancaster lies in hospital, injured, and worried that every person who is there may be an assassin coming for him. It's very similar in 'tense-ness' and in intent as the scene in the Godfather where Michael protects his father from attack, and something similar to Bullitt where an assassin is seeking to kill a witness. It's a good scene and seems to have influenced other good scenes.

I was also really glad that his dog wasn't killed, it was seen in the arms of a criminal flunky, but is later shown alive and well with his family. I think that would have been a step too far.

That's it. 35 done, to check out the other 34, with their weird formatting errors and general shitty grammar that I'm slowly going through, you can click here.