Criss Cross

Armored car guard Steve Thompson (Burt Lancaster) should know better than to make whoopee with his no-good ex-wife Anna (Yvonne De Carlo) -- especially since she's now married to gangster Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea). Caught by Slim in a compromising position with Anna, Steve alibis that he's merely planning an armored car heist. Slim doesn't completely buy this, but he decides to go through with the robbery, sending along several henchmen to make sure that Steve doesn't pull a double-cross. But he hasn't reckoned with Anna, who convinces the wounded Steve to steal the loot and skip town with her. No one ever wins in a set-up like this; the audience knows this, but follows along just the same. Based on a novel by Don Tracy, Criss Cross is a terse, doom-drenched film noir from a master of the game, director Robert Siodmak. And yes, that handsome hunk dancing with Yvonne De Carlo in the opening scene is an unbilled Tony Curtis.