Crossfire is renowned as the brave liberal film of the Forties--the first to suggest the existence of anti-Semitism in the U.S. It is considered superior to the much more generously budgeted Gentleman's Agreement, released the same year, for focusing on the roots of anti-Semitism where the latter film preached its cure, and for holding up over time as a well crafted, finely textured film noir. Robert Ryan gives an excellent performance as a deceptively soft-spoken psychopath who kills a Jewish soldier in a drunken rage. The story--revolving around the search for the killer and, more importantly, for a motive--is made hauntingly compelling by the excellent ensemble acting of the cast--including Robert Mitchum, Robert Young and Gloria Graham--and Dmytryk's taut direction in a milieu of seedy military bars and downtown hotels in the midnight hours. As an indication of the progress of liberalism in Hollywood in 1947, it is interesting to note that in the novel on which the film was based the murder victim is not a Jew but a homosexual. Intended as part of PFA's recent series, Hollywood and the Cold War, Crossfire failed to arrive at that time. Director Edward Dmytryk was fired by RKO in 1947 for alleged communist sympathies. He was jailed as one of the "Hollywood Ten," and became the only one of the ten to recant and cooperate with HUAC. Film historian Georges Sadoul notes that Dmytryk was "one of the best postwar Hollywood directors." His low budget films of the forties have been favored by many critics over his more commercial films made after he returned to filmmaking in 1952.