I referenced CROSSFIRE at the IMDb before watching it on television a couple of days ago and what I found very interesting is that the original source novel featured the murder victim being a homosexual and not a Jew . This is very interesting not to mention helpful because it makes the story much easier to understand if you look upon murder victim Joseph Samuels as being homosexual rather than Jewish . For example if anti- semitism is prevalent would Joseph Samuels with his obviously Jewish sounding name invite strangers back to his flat ? But I guess RKO or any other Hollywood studio would be closed down and its studio heads thrown in prison if they'd have even thought of making a movie dealing with a homophobic murder and the movie has developed the anti-semitism angle with lines of dialogue like " Some of them are named Samuels and some of them have funnier sounding names " . Unfortunately am I seeing some anti British rhetoric here because of the mandate in Palestine by having the villain called Montgomery ? Am I reading between the lines too much ?
Regardless of this we can all agree that this is a very well acted piece of film noir with fine performances from Robert Young as Captain Finlay , George Cooper as Cpl Arthur Mitchell and a disconcertingly young Robert Mitchum as the idealistic Peter Keeley , but they're all over shadowed by Robert Ryan as Montgomery a role for which Ryan was Oscar nominated and it's this performance you'll remember the movie for long after the credits have rolled .
Regardless of this we can all agree that this is a very well acted piece of film noir with fine performances from Robert Young as Captain Finlay , George Cooper as Cpl Arthur Mitchell and a disconcertingly young Robert Mitchum as the idealistic Peter Keeley , but they're all over shadowed by Robert Ryan as Montgomery a role for which Ryan was Oscar nominated and it's this performance you'll remember the movie for long after the credits have rolled .