"Criss Cross" is a well made movie about a gullible guy who's obsessed with the past and his ex-wife. Having tried to heal his obsession by leaving Los Angeles for a period of time, he decides to return home and deludes himself that he's simply returning to be with his family, when in fact everyone around him knows the real reason for his return. His decision to come back to L.A. and his past is a dreadful mistake which ultimately seals his fate.

Steve Thompson (Burt Lancaster) starts to frequent "The Round Up", a bar where he and his ex-wife Anna (Yvonne DeCarlo) used to hang out and when they meet up again, they rekindle their relationship. This exasperates his mother and his old friend Detective Lieutenant Pete Ramirez (Stephen McNally). They both know that Anna is not to be trusted and Pete is also aware that a local gangster called Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea) is infatuated with her.

Anna is very materialistic and marries Slim because he's wealthy. Steve is very hurt but when he meets her some time later, she tells him that she's unhappy in her marriage and that her new husband beats her. She also says that she married Slim because Pete had threatened to arrest her if she didn't stop seeing Steve. Predictably, the couple then resume their affair.

A little time later, Anna calls at Steve's home to tell him that Slim knows about their affair and almost immediately after, Slim and some of his gang have also entered his house. In a hurried attempt to justify why he and Anna had been alone together, Steve explains that he's planning an armoured car robbery and that he needs Slim's help to carry it out. Steve works as a driver for the armoured car company and suggests that he could be the gang's "inside man".

When arrangements are made for the robbery to go ahead, Steve and Anna plan to double cross Slim but Slim also plans a double cross of his own.

Director Robert Siodmak had collaborated previously with Burt Lancaster in the making of "The Killers" and their work together on "Criss Cross" produced another high quality crime drama in which Siodmak's influence is in strong evidence. The opening sequence which begins with an aerial shot of the city at night and eventually closes in on the guilty looking couple is very impressive as is the staging of the robbery and there's also a spectacularly high overhead shot of the armoured vehicle approaching the scene of the crime which is truly unforgettable.

"Criss Cross" is essentially about a heist, a dangerous love triangle, obsession, betrayal and a number of double crosses. With very good performances from its talented cast, it also has a consistently ominous atmosphere and is profoundly fatalistic.

While driving an armored car in a lonely road, Steve Thompson (Burt Lancaster) recalls his life, after divorcing his beloved wife Anna (Yvonne De Carlo) and working in many places in the United States of America, from the moment he returned home in Los Angeles a few days ago. Although traveling for almost two years trying to forget Anna, he is still obsessed with her. However, when he arrives in town, the sentimentally inconstant Anna gets married with the gangster Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea). Steve plans a heist of the armored car with Slim, expecting to double-cross the criminal and escaping with Anna to another city to begin a new life, but things do not happen as he intended it was. "Criss Cross" is a magnificent film-noir, indeed another masterpiece of master Robert Siodmak. From the initial long scene, with an aerial view of Los Angeles reaching a spot in a parking area where Steve and Anna are having a conversation, to the conclusion of the story, there is no flaw in the script. Burt Lancaster has an outstanding performance in the role of a honest man obsessed with his former wife, who becomes criminal trying to regain the love of his fickle ex-wife. Yvonne De Carlo is also perfect and very beautiful, in the role of a cold and manipulative woman, being a perfect "femme-fatale". The black and white photography with many shadows is awesome in the DVD released in Brazil by the distributor Classicline, and the music score is simply perfect. In 1995, Steven Soderbergh updated this story with the excellent remake "Underneath". My vote is ten.

Title (Brazil): "Baixeza" ("Lowness')