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Crossfire (1947)
Swell Guy (1946)

Crossfire (1947)
April 2, 2011 - 7:30 pm
Billy Wilder Theater


Crossfire (1947)

Directed by Edward Dmytryk

Brook’s source novel The Brick Foxhole, about stateside servicemen in wartime waiting to be deployed (he had been one), underwent changes in John Paxton’s screen adaptation which replaced the novel’s homophobic violence with anti-Semitism, as a detective and an officer ferret out a bad-apple enlisted man. The change softens Brooks’ astute observation of masculinity straining without a proper proving ground, but the result is still a terrific thriller. Bad girl Gloria Grahame shines in a supporting role as a key witness who helps get an innocent man off the hook.

RKO. Based on the novel The Brick Foxhole by Richard Brooks. Producer: Adrian Scott. Screenwriter: John Paxton. Cinematographer: J. Roy Hunt. Editor: Harry Gerstad. Cast: Robert Young, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Gloria Grahame, Sam Levene. 35mm, Black and White, 86 min.

Swell Guy (1946)

Directed by Frank Tuttle

Returning war correspondent Jim Duncan is revered by all the folks in his small hometown. His mother knows he’s actually a liar and a swindler whose worst traits are intractable…as does Jim himself, forever making and breaking promises. The uncommon story, which dispenses with the redemptive power of “love,” was actually ahead of its time, featuring a fractured antihero better suited to the disaffected 1970s. The same template was finally given magnificent expression in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977).

Universal Pictures. Producer: Mark Hellinger. Screenwriter: Richard Brooks. Cinematographer: Tony Gaudio. Editor: Edward Curtiss. Cast: Sonny Tufts, Ann Blyth, Ruth Warrick, William Gargan, Mary Nash. 16mm, Black and White, 86 min.

Part of: 
Looking for Richard Brooks: An Appreciation