Criss Cross by Robert Siodmak is considered one of the best film noirs to come out of Hollywood in the post-war years and is set in Los Angeles.
This film stands as one of the most bleakly romantic and fatalistic films noir of the classical era.
Director Robert Siodmak again teamed with his leading man from The Killers, Burt Lancaster, a couple of years after making that Oscar-nominated hit for Universal creating one of the most important post-war noir films.
Burt Lancaster plays Steve Thompson, a man who seals his dark fate when he returns to Los Angeles to find his ex-wife Anna Dundee (Yvonne DeCarlo). He reconnects with his friend Detective Pete Ramirez (Stephen McNally), secures a job as an armoured car driver, and reunites with Anna at their favourite hangout, the Round-Up club. Steve and Anna start dating again and discuss getting remarried, despite his mother's vehement disapproval. Suddenly, Anna abandons Steve and marries mobster Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea). She soon regrets her impulsiveness and they resume what is now an affair, but Slim starts to get suspicious. Steve conceives of a daring armoured car heist as a distraction...
Τhe film contains multi-connected elements and is not only about a love affair. On the contrary, it has to do with romantic desire, romantic confirmation and perhaps the possessive control in relationships. Anna Dundee was a person who knew how to love, to seduce without strings, having a sense of freedom meandering until she found futile happiness..
The feeling of despair on the road to freedom is deeper than love, and love can be sacrificed on the altar of our independent existence.
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