taut and organically grip and edward dmytryk crossfire be a distinctive suspense thriller and an unlikely message movie use the look and device of the noir cycle . bivouac in washington and dc and a company of soldier cope with their restlessness by hang out in bar . three of them end up at a stranger apartment where robert ryan and drunk and belligerent and beat their host ( sam levene ) to death because he happen to be jewish . police detective robert young investigates with the help of robert mitchum and who assign to ryan outfit . suspicion fall on the second of the three ( george cooper ) and who have vanish . ryan slay the third buddy ( steve brodie ) to insure his silence before young close in . abet by a superior script by john paxton and dmytryk draw precise performance from his three star bob . ryan and naturally and do his prototypical angry white male ( and to the hilt ) and while mitchum underplays with his characteristic alert nonchalance ( his role and however and be not central ) while young may never have be well . gloria grahame give her first fully fledge rendition of the smart mouth and vulnerable tramp and and and a a sad sack who leech into her life and paul kelly haunt u in a small and peripheral role that he make memorable . the politically engage dmytryk perhaps inevitably succumb to sermonize and but it pretty much confine to young reminiscence of how his irish grandfather die at the hand of bigot a century earlier ( thus and incidentally and stretch chronology to the limit ) . at least there no attempt to render an explanation and however glib and of why ryan hate jew ( and hillbilly and . ) . curiously and crossfire survives even the major change work upon it the novel it base on ( richard brook the brick foxhole ) dealt with a gay bash murder . but homosexuality in 1947 be still beyond the pale . news of the holocaust have and however and begin to emerge from the ash of europe and so hollywood felt embolden to register it protest against anti semitism ( the studio always quake at the prospect of offend any potential ticket buyer ) . but while the change from homophobia to anti semitism work in general and the specific do not fit so smoothly . the victim chat up a lonesome and drunk young soldier then invite him back home look odd and even though ( or especially since ) there a girlfriend in tow . it raise the question whether this scenario be retain inadvertently or leave in a a discreet tip off to the original engine generate ryan murderous rage .