crossfire be remember not so much for the fact that it three star all have the first name robert but a be one of the first hollywood film to deal with anti semitism . the story open with the murder in silhouette of a man whom we later learn be a jewish man name joseph samuel ( sam levene ) . pipe smoking police captain finlay ( robert young ) be assign to the case . an ex soldier and montgomery ( robert ryan ) come upon the murder scene and we learn through flashback that he have meet samuel in a bar along with other soldier who be in the process of be muster out of the service follow wwii . accord to montgomery and he and pal floyd bower ( steve brodie ) have follow samuel and cpl . arthur mitchell ( george cooper ) to samuels apartment for drink . montgomery tell finlay that mitchell leave the apartment first and that he and floyd follow soon after with samuel still alive and well . unable to locate mitchell and finlay suspect him of the murder . he enlist sgt . peter keeley ( robert mitchum ) to help him locate mitchell . mitchell meanwhile have be wonder the street in a dazed state . he meet prostitute ginny ( gloria grahame ) in a bar and strike up a friendship . she give him a key to her apartment and he go there to rest . unexpectedly a man ( paul kelly ) turn up look for ginny . mitchell and still in a daze and leaf and go back to meet keeley and his pal . keeley manages to keep him from the police and hide him in an all night movie house . from mitchell perspective we learn that montgomery hat jew and be probably the killer . finlay begin to focus his investigation on montgomery try to prove his guilt . he arrangers to have one of the soldier and a kid name leroy ( william phipps ) set a trap for mongomery . crossfire be consider to be one of the best of the film noire genre . in fact it garner several academy award nomination include ryan and grahame for best support actor . it be make on a modest budget in about three week . it have all of the element of classic film noire and the shadow and low key lighting and the story play out mostly at night . the requisite femme fatale of the piece be grahame ginny who play a minor role but be nonetheless your classic femme fatale . the unnamed character play by paul kelly ( in an excellent bit ) have be chew up and spit out by ginny and be she about to do the same to mitchell . robert ryan steal the picture a the brutal montgomery although it would type cast him in similar role for year to come . robert young make a good low key detective but robert mitchum have little to do other than befriend the mitchell character . others in the cast be jacqueline white a mitchell wife and lex barker ( who would go on the following year to play tarzan ) a one of mitchum soldier pal and richard power ( who be previously know a tom keene ) a finlay assistant . director edward dmytryk would shortly run afoul of the house un american committee a have communist affiliation and spend a couple of year in jail .