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`Crossfire' Tackled
A Very Not Subject

MORRIE WARSHAWSKI

Special to The Jewish News

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124

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1989

S

ensational? . . . No it's
DYNAMITE!" reads
the headline splashed
across the original poster for
Edward Dmytryk's 1947 film

Crossfire.

Based on a Richard Brooks'
novel about homophobia,
the movie version turned
that then-too-hot-to-handle
topic into anti-Semitism
and, in so doing, became the
first serious Hollywood at-
tempt to deal with racial
discrimination.
Crossfire was nominated for
five Academy Awards (best
picture, director, supporting
actor and actress, and
screenplay) but won none.
Many say the Academy found
the film too controversial. In
fact, Dmytryk himself was
quite controversial and was
included in "The Hollywood
Ten" sentenced to a jail term
after being investigated by
the House Un-American Ac-
tivities Committee.
National audiences can now
see just what all the hubbub
was about either by renting
the home video cassette ver-
sion or, in some communities,
attending a theatrical screen-
ing of a brand new, pristine
black and white 35mm print
which led Turner's organiza-
tion struck from the original
nitrate stock.
Viewers will find a movie
molded in a hard-boiled
murder mystery style that
presaged "film noir" techni-
que. The whodunit features
fine performances by Robert
young, Robert Ryan, Robert
Mitchum and Gloria
Grahame. Ryan, especially,
dominated much of the movie
as the psychopathic bigot
soldier Montgomery.
As the film opens, a man is
being beaten to death by a
soldier but the camera has
been placed so the killer's
face cannot be seen. Detective
Finley (Robert Young) hones
in immediately on trying to
capture a soldier called Mit-
chell whose wallet has been
found in the apartment.
The film progresses
through a series of scenes
that take place that evening
and the next day, as well as
through flashbacks of the
events surrounding the
murder. Mitchell is wander-
ing around in a daze when he
is found by his war buddy Kel-
ly (Robert Mitchum).
Apparently Mitchell got
very drunk, spend some time
in the apartment of a man

a

called Sammy, took a nap at
a woman's apartment, and
that's all he can remember.
Piecing together the puzzle
of what happened that even-
ing will seem elementary to
most viewers. Ryan's
character, Montgomery, is a
rabid anti-Semite. The
minute he meets the civilian
Sammy in the bar we can <
predict trouble ahead. Mon-
tgomery is convinced that ali-
"Jewboys" are rich and that
all were draft evaders.
Montgomery says to Kelly,_
"I've seen lots of guys like
him. Some of them are named ,
Sammy. Some get funnier
names." To which Kelly

The re-print of
"Crossfire" is a
crisp version of
the first film to
deal with
anti-Semitism.

replies, "Look at the casual-
ty list. There are lots of fun-
ny names there too." In fact,
we discover later that Sammy
was injured at Okinawa and
was given a medical
discharge.
But for Detective Finley it
takes a bit more time to sort
through the conflicting
evidence and discover the
truth. Finley is used to hav-
ing a readily apparent motive-
to explain a killing of this
violent nature. As he admits
later, "The motive was so sim-
ple, so general, it slipped
through the machinery."
In a key scene, Finley has to
convince a young soldier from
Tennessee to help in a plot to
catch Montgomery. Finley
tells a story about his own im-
migrant Irish grandfather be--
ing killed because of
prejudice:
"That's history. They don't
teach it in school, but that's
American history. Hating is
always senseless. . . . It's hard
to stop. It can end up killing--
guys with striped neckties or
guys from Tennessee."
Director of photography J.
Roy Hunt shot most scenes in
dark interiors full of ominous
shadows accentuated by
harsh, direct lighting. All of__
this becomes accentuated by
the crisp quality of the new
print.
John Paxton's screenplay
crackles with dialogue that
throws its best lines to a
dance hall floozie, played by
Gloria Grahame, and to
Robert Mitchum as his ever-
unflappable, aloof self. ❑