CROSSFIRE

This 1947 beauty was the first 'B' movie to garner a Best Picture Oscar nomination.

It’s a tightly directed drama with film noir aspects, centring on a murder which we see right at the start, and leading to the murderer being apprehended some 24 hours later.

The cast is headed up by three Roberts, each of whom is perfectly cast: Robert Young as the world-weary investigating police captain, Robert Ryan as the army soldier who committed the murder, and best of all Robert Mitchum as a laconic (what else?) army sergeant.

Besides being an absorbing crime drama the film has a Message, about the dangers of prejudice in general, and anti-Semitism in particular, which turns out to be the motive for the crime.

This Message gets spelt out maybe a bit too explicitly towards the end but that’s to nit-pick.

And to further nit-pick I might also say that this film is an example of where the perpetrator doesn’t need to confess, given the weakness of the hard evidence against him.

These very small quibbles apart this is a terrific film, with the bonus of an Oscar-nominated performance by the always watchable Gloria Grahame.

RATING: ✓✓ Catch It If You Can