Review of Crossfire (1947) by Kevin R — 14 Mar 2015

While it's handsomely photographed and it contains a few very well scripted moments, Crossfire is hampered by an unfocused narrative that spoon feeds its audience embarrassingly oversimplified Sunday School messages concerning anti-semitism within the United States very soon after World War II. It's a film that presents an array of interesting ideas, though completely falls flat on every front, lacking the moral complexity of great noir cinema, the intrigue and suspense of great murder mysteries, and despite its overtly preachy third act, it lacks enough substance to even remotely match that of a great sermon.

It centers around the murder investigation of an uncharacterized Jewish man, and immediately squanders nearly two thirds of its duration on a story that leads absolutely nowhere and is arbitrarily dropped the minute one of the main protagonists leaps to a wild conclusion about the true motive of the murder he is investigating, a motive so simple that it requires a villain with a great deal of established psychological complexity in order to remain convincing. Unfortunately though, instead of attempting a compelling character study on the kind of deranged prejudice that can lead an ignorant bigot into senseless violence and murder, Crossfire decides to wrap things up by simply stating "Hating Jews is bad," then closing with one of the most unsatisfying and anti-climactic endings I have experienced in years.