Trailer
Plot summary
Police Captain Finlay looks into the death of Joseph Samuels, a former soldier whose body was found in a Washington, D.C., hotel room. The night before, Samuels had been at the hotel bar with a group of demobilized servicemen and a woman named Miss Lewis, and some of the men went up to his apartment. Sgt. Montgomery tells Finlay that he and Floyd Bowers found Samuels with Cpl. Arthur "Mitch" Mitchell, who left the room drunk, and that the two of them followed shortly after. Mitch recalls meeting Ginny Tremaine, a working girl from a dance hall, and passing part of the night with her. Sgt. Peter Keeley, who fears the case may settle on Mitch, investigates on his own to clear his friend.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Crossfire (1947)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Richard Brooks' 1945 novel The Brick Foxhole made its murder victim a homosexual, but the Hays Code banned any mention of homosexuality as a sexual perversion, so the film changed the theme from homophobia to racism and antisemitism.
- Crossfire, made by B-movie specialists RKO Pictures, became the first B-movie to receive a Best Picture Oscar nomination, with five nominations including Best Director and Best Supporting Actor for Robert Ryan.
- A few months after Crossfire's premiere, its producer Adrian Scott and director Edward Dmytryk were cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, joining the blacklisted Hollywood Ten.
- The US Department of Defense was hesitant to screen Crossfire because it showed prejudice and crime among service members; the Army showed it only at US bases, and the Navy would not exhibit it at all.
