With great narrative economy and an immediate sense of fatality Criss Cross begins deep in the noir world and stays there. All the events are tied to that first fatal moment in the nightclub which ultimately bears a similar weight in the narrative to the opening of The Killers (1946). The plot closely resembles that of the earlier film with the character played by Lancaster in both films at the centre of a heist and double-cross. The true nature of his relationship with a femme fatale is gradually revealed through flashbacks.