Edward Dmytryk’s Crossfire is a distinctive, one-of-a-kind film.

It was the first Hollywood B-movie to be nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award. And it was the first feature film to deal directly with the issue of antisemitism in the United States, edging out the more famous Gentleman’s Agreement by a few months.

Premiered in New York City on July 22, 1947, Crossfire was released across the country in August 1947, a little more than two years after the end of World War I and the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp by the Red Army.

Both films hit the jackpot at the box office and were nominated for Oscars.

Crossfire, which was recently screened on the Turner Classic Movies channel, won five nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Screenplay. Gentleman’s Agreement, directed by Elia Kazan and starring Gregory Peck, garnered eight nominations and picked up three Oscars in the categories of Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actress. Crossfire failed to win an  award.

Gentleman’s Agreement, in terms of its impact on generations of movie fans, has outlasted Crossfire. Almost eight decades on, it is far better remembered as the film that fearlessly and courageously addressed this sensitive........

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