Criss Cross (Universal-International, 1949) (1)
I grabbed this image right at the end of that magnificent opening tracking shot, coursing over civic center and into the heart of Sonora Town northwest of the Plaza and technically speaking overshooting the Bamba Club on North Spring Street because the Bamba Club has no parking, no parking lot and no adjacent parking, so they had to overshoot and here, just after Siodmak's name has faded, they're about to dissolve and come back up in that parking lot right down there and into a heated embrace between our leads. This opening is certainly one of the all-time great establishing shots.
Criss Cross (Universal-International, 1949) (2)
And as with so much noir, we have the flashback...Here we have Steve Thompson (Burt Lancaster) coming home after a long time away, the streetcar just closing its doors, the step still folding back up, the coat of a boarding passenger still flying from the middle door as he or she steps aboard and looks for a seat. Steve has come home to 215 North Hill Street, the big white house right there over the top of the streetcar, and is smiling at familiar surroundings. He's going to cross in front for the streetcar and go up that hill and back to his old life or maybe just what's left of his old life. Here in the sunlight he's smiling. Yeah, here in the sunlight.
Criss Cross (Universal-International, 1949) (3)
Finding no one home and unable to hook up with his childhood friend Pete, now an LAPD Detective, he finds himself being drawn to the old haunts, looking for some of 'the old gang' all the while secretly hoping to find her. But here at the Round-Up he finds only strangers, Frank the bartender (Percy Helton in a signature role) instead of Harry the bartender, an end-of-the-bar drinker (Joan Miller, maybe overqualified for this but turns it into a little jewel of a performance), some assorted townies and layabouts and an empty dance floor. Yeah, an empty dance floor.
Criss Cross (Universal-International, 1949) (4)
An empty dance floor...and a telephone booth...
Criss Cross (Universal-International, 1949) (5)
Later that night he goes back, the end-of-the-bar drinker is still there and Frank is still there pouring and yakking, but now the place is jumpin', there's clinking glasses and laughter and music, loud and pulsing music, and dancing...and music...and dancing...
Criss Cross (Universal-International, 1949) (6)
And her, she's here too, Anna (Yvonne De Carlo, late of the Florentine Gardens), dancing with a stranger (Tony Curtis in a bravura debut), insouciant, twisting, cloying, flirting, embracing, pouting, smoldering...Steve stands at a distance and watches her across the crowded dance floor...he watches and the vortex opens slowly and he is pulled inexorably in...
Criss Cross (Universal-International, 1949) (7)
They meet, of course, and they fight, of course, and she leaves wounded but not without a backward glance to seal the deal...
Criss Cross (Universal-International, 1949) (8)
Fate firmly in command, their paths cross, there is no escape...'It was all finished, water over the dam...only it wasn't, you know how it is, you don't know what to do with yourself, you want to travel, get away, anywhere, everyplace you go you see her face, half the girls you pass are her, has it ever happened to you?...if I hadn't been hanging around the Union Station, if the clerk hadn't picked that moment to run out of cigarettes...'
Criss Cross (Universal-International, 1949) (9)
He watches her as she heads for the cab stand, Vincent in the Lincoln convertible on the left, headed for Vegas to meet Slim. He watches her as she crosses to the cab stand and he knows he's in for the long haul...
Criss Cross (Universal-International, 1949) (10)
Believing Slim is still out of town she drives up to Steve's house on North Hill and waits till his mother and her friend leave to go shopping...
Criss Cross (Unversal-International, 1949) (11)
Swept up in the planning of an armored car robbery, they steal a minute to reassure each other under the noses of the gang in the other room...
Steven McNally, Criss Cross (Universal-International, 1949)
The stick-up goes predictably bad, maybe worse, Pop is dead, Steve in a hospital bed and body cast and Pete Ramirez waits, he can see the whole thing, every bit of it...and he can't do a thing about it...
Criss Cross (Universal-International, 1949) (12)
Steve is kidnapped from the hospital by a thug working for Slim. Steve pleads and negotiates with him to let him go, to take him to Anna instead of to Slim, that he'll give him $10,000 dollars if he'll just take him to Anna...
Criss Cross (Universal-International, 1949) (13)
Delivered to Anna's hideout, Steve believes they're safe, that he's done a good thing, that now they can be together, but Anna knows better...Anna knows...better...there is the sound of a car, headlights streak across the wall...a car door slams...
Criss Cross (Universal-International, 1949) (14)
And fate walks in, a slender man with a limp and a .38.
cue the Rózsa...fade to black...
Finis
And did you see it? Did you see the structural anomaly, the prop that appeared twice when it should have only appeared once. The first time it showed up it shouldn't have been there at all.
Consider this beautiful shot of Lancaster and the house and street car again. An iconic shot by many measures, certainly in these parts a revered image. As well it should be. It is the kind of shot really fine directors put together to convey lots of information on several levels...It sets in motion the whole flashback...
Criss Cross (Universal-International, 1949) (2)
Now consider this shot of De Carlo again, driving up to Steve's house and having to wait in her car for his mother to clear the neighborhood...
Criss Cross (Universal-International, 1949) (10)
See it yet? Look at the Lancaster shot again.