Crossfire (1947) is a landmark movie disguised as low-budget film noir that asks the question, ' Was it a hate crime or just a run-of-the mill murder?' In typical noir fashion, the story opens with a brutal beating death shown in shadows cast on an apartment wall. At first, when police Captain Finlay investigates the crime, he considers robbery as the motive. But the more he looks into the people involved, the more he begins to wonder if another motive might be the cause - anti-Semitism. The movie stars Robert Young, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Sam Levene and Gloria Graham.

Finlay, played low-key by Robert Young, is soon revealed to be intelligent and intuitive. He quickly figures out who the murderer is and why, but it takes clever scheming to flush out the culprit.

Montgomery (Robert Ryan) and Sgt. Peter Keeley (Robert Mitchum) are still in the Army although the war has already ended. They are trying to adjust to a post-war America where there are "no more people to fight and hate." In flashbacks, Montgomery, is clearly shown to be an intolerant bully. Finlay enlists the fair-minded Sgt. Keeley to help trap Montgomery in order to "close the case quickly."

Also in flashbacks, we meet Joseph Samuels (Sam Levene) a kindly Jewish man who provides an ear to a lonely soldier and winds up murdered for his trouble. Gloria Graham as dance hall girl Ginny Tremaine who gets caught up with the men involved was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

Cpt. Finlay delivers a monolog about social restrictions against the Jews and other people as well. He declares that since we allow the restrictions, we also get the hate. Pretty tough words in a movie in 1947. The quintessential anti-Semitism themed film, A Gentleman's Agreement, was being filmed at the same time as Crossfire, but the latter beat Gentleman's to the theaters by several months.

Crossfire was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar and Ryan was nominated for Best Supporting actor. The Oscar went to Edward Dmytryk for Best Director and to John Paxton for Best Writing. The film also received a nod at the Cannes Film Festival as Best Social Film.

Special Features

• Commentary by film historians Alain Silver and James Ursini - They talk about the censors and what they had to do to get approval because of the film's subject matter.

• Crossfire: Hate is like a Gun -a featurette in Director Dmytryk, among others, is interviewed abut the one change: originally, the victim was to be a homosexual, but knowing that was way too taboo, they made the victim a Jew and sugar coated the message within a murder mystery.

Director: Edward Dmytryk

Screenplay: John Paxton

Cast: Robert Young, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Gloria Graham

Rating: Not Rated. (but suggested for???)

Classic Movie Guide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

DVD Release Date:

Run Time: 85 minutes

Studio: Warner Home Video

Format: Black & White, Full Frame