Patterns in the Frame: Blanks and Bars in CROSSFIRE

Much of Crossfire‘s first act involves Captain Finlay (Robert Young) questioning Sgt. Peter Keeley (Robert Mitchum) about a murder; they’re soon joined by belligerent Sgt. “Monty” Montgomery (Robert Ryan).

It’s significant when the background is a near-blank canvas, versus when it adds a little pattern, versus when it surrounds characters with ‘jail bar’ imagery and much light and shadows. Clearly, a lot of thought and choreography went into when characters move, where they sit or stand or lean forward into the light or tip their chair back into shadows, etc.

The scene accomplishes this blank/shades/bars through blocking, framing, lighting, changing camera angles, and a combination of these techniques.

It’s worth watching the whole thing, and seeing how the backgrounds ‘match’ what’s being said by whom to whom . . . but it’s several minutes long, and you may as well watch the whole film!

We’ve taken several snaps to demonstrate the techniques through the scene.

Blanks

A plain frame with character(s) situated within it. Sure there are shadows, and a bit of detail in clothing, wood grain of the door, or crown molding, but that’s about it.

‘Blanks’ are mostly used in establishing each character, or beginning a ‘new section’ of the conversation, eg. switching topics from deployment to murder.

Patterns

This has a little more going on than the ‘blanks,’ but slight enough or confined just to one part of the frame that it’s not the predominant thing you notice.

Using the chairback to cast a ‘mini-bar’ pattern in the background is my particular favorite.

Bars

This is your stereotypical “oh riiiiiiight, we are talking about a life in jail!” kind of imagery, with stark lines running all through and over the frame.

It makes us feel the stakes looming, whether in a wide or closeup.

Takeaway

Director Edward Dmytryk was especially proficient in film noir, and cinematographer J. Roy Hunt worked across many genres with dramatic lighting, so they were perfectly suited to the sort of stark, chiaroscuro lighting this picture uses.

But in this scene it’s not just the technical prowess, but the creative choreography; the room never changes, but the imagery does. As the conversation flows and whether they’re lying or coming clean, sometimes the characters seem in the clear, and sometimes seem as though they’re in a spider’s web.

A marvelous use of a simple set.