Criss Cross (film) - Background - Locations

Locations

Like many films noir, Criss Cross was shot around downtown Los Angeles, beginning with the opening panorama from a helicopter that ends at a nightclub just north of downtown. Lancaster's character lives with his mother at a house on Hill Street, just above the north entrance of the short Hill Street Tunnel (at Temple Street). (Hill Street was actually both the tunnel and the street running above it in what was called the Court Hill section. Court Hill, between First and Temple Streets, was a fork of Bunker Hill that ran east almost to Broadway.) The tunnel and the hill above it (including the house) were razed in 1955 for expansion of the Civic Center and a new Los Angeles County Courthouse on Hill Street, which can often be seen in episodes of Perry Mason. For the planning of the heist, Siodmak used the exterior and interiors of the rambling, rundown Sunshine Apartments on the steep Third Street steps between Hill and Olive, just opposite the funicular Angels Flight, which we see going up and down in the background through the windows of the hotel room. This area of Bunker Hill was a favorite of noir directors, and unfortunately it was all torn down in the 1960s. There is also an extended scene inside and outside Union Station on Alameda.