Crossfire

SYNOPSIS

This terrific and neatly compressed thriller tells the story of four GIs, just back from the Second World War, who become involved in a murder. The GIs are Robert Ryan, Steve Brodie, George Cooper and William Phipps. Robert Young is the investigating detective, who enlists the help of another GI, Robert Mitchum, and Sam Levene is the victim. Gloria Grahame established her star credentials as a wise-cracking dame who befriends murder suspect Cooper. Directed by Edward Dmytryk and produced by Adrian Scott (both were later blacklisted in the Communist witch-hunt), it's an impressive and gripping film, superbly performed by its stars. Richard Brooks's source novel made the victim a homosexual, but in the movie he's a Jew - at the time, not only a safer choice as far as censorship was concerned, but also more resonant in the aftermath of the war and considering Hollywood's own racial mix.