As a good guy caught up in a crime that’s out of his depth, Lancaster perfects one of the tried-and-true protagonists of the heist film. Siodmak made use of the iconic Bunker Hill neighborhood of Los Angeles (now torn down and redeveloped), staging a heist on the streets of the city with the famous Angels Flight funicular train for a backdrop. The film features so much backstabbing and double-crossing, it’s no wonder it’s titled Criss Cross. He devises a plan to double-cross Slim in a robbery of the armored car he drives for work, but things quickly take an unexpected turn. Steve (Lancaster) can’t get ex-wife Anna (a pre- Munsters Yvonne De Carlo) out of his head, but when he returns to town he finds himself in a love triangle with gangster Slim Dundee (noir stalwart Dan Duryea). Though he’s never formally confirmed it, Woody Allen’s 2000 film Small Time Crooks seems to have been influenced by this charming twist on the heist film.Īfter their success with the film noir The Killers, director Robert Siodmak and star Burt Lancaster re-teamed for this tale of an armored truck driver who finds himself mixed up in underworld dealings when he tries to win his wife back. contract players including Broderick Crawford, Jack Carson, and Anthony Quinn. It also features many other beloved Warner Bros. Ronald Reagan, has a memorable role as Robinson’s niece who helps propel the store to success as a legitimate enterprise. Robinson had grown weary of the persona that had made him famous since 1931’s Little Caesar and jumped at this chance to take a comedic turn. The trouble begins when the store starts turning a profit. When he finds his business plans have gone awry, he purchases a luggage store next to a bank with the intention of using the proximity to tunnel into the bank. Robinson spoofed his beloved tough guy persona as “Pressure” Maxwell, a recently released felon who has vowed to go straight. The basic plot of a heist film often lends itself to a multitude of genres.
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