Synopsis
Where women wait to seal your fate!
A French diplomat who's recovered from amnesia is blackmailed over crimes he can't remember.
Crossroads
Cast
Director
Producer
Writer
Story
Editor
Cinematography
Composer
Studio
Country
Language
Alternative Titles
La banda Pellettier, Encrucijada, Перехрестя, 十字路口, Carrefours, Sua Excia. O Réu, Okänt område
Releases by Date
Theatrical
-
USANR
Releases by Country
USA
23 Jul 1942
- TheatricalNR New York City, New York
Popular reviews
More-
Whole half star for the fact that the way William Powell parts his hair ends up playing an integral role
-
-
“I love that old man.”
I’ll see you at the. More William Powell amnesia, but this time with a slight noir edge, and a case of courtroom-itis. Powell is a French foreign diplomat who…may actually be a different man. Look, it’s a whole thing. I like how confused and uneasy Powell’s character appears throughout the film, but boy is this one a meandering mistaken identity mystery. It’s a little Hitchcockian in its premise, but the execution has none of Alfred’s distinct humor or clever set pieces. For Powell die-hards or Hedy Lamarr simps only.
-
In the age of Classic Hollywood, being a fast and efficient director meant a lot for producers concerned with ensuring their employees could get a film out without any snags like budget or time getting in the way. Jack Conway was one of these directors, he followed MGM's budgetary and creative guidelines like a boy scout, and would often pump out multiple films per year over the two decades he remained with the studio. Conway embodied the "for-hire" contract director most self-respecting critics tend to deride, yet the man was still able to release plenty of well-regarded films that can stand a test of time depending on who you ask, with works like Libeled Lady, A Tale of Two Cities,…
-
Not the best William Powell as recovering amnesiac movie I’ve seen*, but it’s a nifty enough mystery that will keep you at least curious whether his newlywed diplomat has a heinous crime lurking in his past. Hedy Lamarr, as the diplomat’s wife, isn’t given much to do but be delicate and beautiful, though she excels at both. Basil Rathbone is a terrific foil as the blackmailer who just won’t go away. Not really a noir per se, though it masquerades as such for a few key scenes. Powell and Rathbone cast some impressively long shadows.
*See I Love You Again. Seriously, go watch it, it’s great. -
can definitely see why Hedy was keeping her mind busy at night doing science since she was stuck in these lackluster films that waste her talent
-
Jack Conway’s film-noir in which an amnesiac French envoy is extorted for crimes that he did before he ends up not remembering anything. Starring William Powell and Hedy Lamarr.
The story concerns an amnesiac French diplomat who is blackmailed for corruptions that he done before he lost his reminiscence.
William Powell gives a good performance in his role as David Talbot, the French noble who is accused of doing something awful, while Hedy Lamarr is decent as David’s wife Lucienne.
Elsewhere, there is a fine performance to be had from Claire Trevor in her part as Michelle Allaine, the nightclub singer who entertains with the one song she performs, while Basil Rathbone is respectable as the witness Henri Sarrou.
The…
-
Crossroads is slow going at first, but it picks up. Plots that have to do with memory loss are always a little ridiculous, but I would happily let William Powell convince me that the moon is square and the tooth fairy is real, so an amnesia story is small potatoes.
Bumped up the rating a little for Basil Rathbone in general but especially for the way he said, "He told me his name and the story of his life. It was a pathetic story."
-
With production as slick as it's stars William Powell & Hedy Lamarr, it's a wonder Crossroads (1942) didn't become as great as it promised. Still unique approach to the Noir ideology, which definitely intrigues.
-
An early MGM attempt at film noir, Crossroads is directed by Jack Conway with two premier stars in William Powell and Hedy Lamarr backing him up. None, as with the studio, were known for their noir work (though Lamarr would have a few more under her belt by the end of the decade) and, as with many MGM noirs, it does lack the same seedy spark as its B-movie counterparts. Fortunately, it does have a rock solid story behind it with Powell starring as French diplomat David Talbot. It is 1935 and he is in line to become the French ambassador to Brazil and has recently wed the beautiful Lucienne (Lamarr). However, he receives a mysterious letter…
-
Crossroads was an early Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film noir released in 1942, but the first half primarily recalls a 1930s film, both in terms of style and content. The narrative focuses on French diplomat David Talbot and his wife, Lucienne, whose lives suddenly drift into scandal. David is twice blackmailed for alleged crimes that he has no memory of, which can be explained by the fact that he suffers from amnesia, which has cleansed his mind of any memories at least thirteen years in the past. Court cases, newspaper articles and controversy now surround his once comfortable life, disrupting his career and blemishing his reputation. The first section of the narrative deals with flatly-lit court cases and the lives of an upper…
-
This reminds me somewhat of Libel (1959), another movie that plays with questions of memory and is able to provide a good sense of depth and layers to the characters, and in making it so that there's uncertainty about not just what has happened from an audience perspective, but also uncertainty about how much characters really do or do not know.
The pacing of it does feel a bit inconsistent, partially because it his a few very slow spots, and partially because a significant amount of this takes place in a fairly complete darkness and that really makes this hard to follow just what's going on. It does make this a bit of a chore to keep invested in at…