Criss Cross (1949) Characters, Setting & Themes Explained

Criss Cross is set in Los Angeles, California, during the late 1940s. The film uses the city's gritty urban landscape as its primary backdrop, contrasting sunlit streets with nightclub glitz and the dangerous underworld of organized crime.

• los angeles
• setting
• 1940s
• city
• location

The story unfolds in the immediate postwar era of the late 1940s. This period was characterized by cities rebuilding while crime networks still thrived, creating a cynical atmosphere where money and love both came with deadly prices.

• 1940s
• postwar
• era
• time period
• 1940s los angeles

The film explores three interconnected themes: Love & Betrayal, Greed & Survival, and Violence & Consequences. These themes weave together through a tense love triangle, a high-stakes heist, and a violent climax that underscores the fatal cost of crime.

• themes
• love
• betrayal
• greed
• survival
• violence
• consequences

Steve Thompson is an armored-truck driver who returns to Los Angeles seeking his ex-wife Anna. He drifts back into crime and finds himself torn between dangerous love for Anna and a sense of loyalty to friends, with his choices blurring the line between bravery and foolish risk-taking.

• steve thompson
• character
• armored truck driver
• burt lancaster

Anna is Steve Thompson's ex-wife who marries mobster Slim Dundee while secretly keeping an eye on her own future. She pursues her own interests throughout the film, using love as a bargaining chip as her loyalties shift with the approaching payoff.

• anna
• character
• yvonne de carlo
• ex-wife
• mobster wife

Slim Dundee is a volatile mobster who becomes a central figure in the heist planning. He is quick to violence and capable of murder when betrayed. His plan centers on the stolen payroll and a personal rivalry with Steve Thompson.

• slim dundee
• character
• mobster
• dan duryea
• violent

Detective Lt. Peter 'Pete' Ramirez is the lawman pursuing the armored-truck caper. He represents the moral order in a world of shifting loyalties, watching the fragile love triangle unfold and dealing with the consequences of the heist.

• detective ramirez
• lawman
• police
• stephen mcnally
• investigation

The Los Angeles setting provides a backdrop of postwar energy and nocturnal danger. Nightclubs, sunlit streets, and volatile underworld elements create a tension between glamour and danger that drives the film's exploration of love, loyalty, and crime.

• los angeles
• noir setting
• nightclubs
• underworld
• atmosphere

The Love & Betrayal theme examines how Steve's longing for Anna collides with her self-serving actions and secret romance with Dundee. This affair fuels mounting tension leading to a fateful double-cross, where trust collapses as loyalty is tested and the relationship becomes a liability.

• love triangle
• betrayal
• trust
• loyalty
• affair

The Greed & Survival theme centers on the stolen payroll driving all characters to seize money at all costs. Anna's refusal to help Steve underscores a survival-first mindset, while Dundee's greed clashes with others' desires, escalating the danger throughout the heist.

• greed
• money
• payroll
• heist
• survival
• money hunger

The Violence & Consequences theme shows how a failed heist and deadly shootout redefine each character's fate. The theme underscores that crime leads to devastating costs, with Anna dying in Thompson's arms as sirens approach, emphasizing the film's cynical worldview.

• violence
• consequences
• death
• heist outcome
• crime cost

The film maintains a consistently dark tone rooted in the characters' moral decay and the inescapable consequences of their choices. The intensity is high due to constant threat of violence, the fatalistic tension of the love triangle, and a bleak ending where passion leads only to destruction.

• tone
• dark
• mood
• fatalistic
• bleak
• noir atmosphere