Crossfire (film) - Difference From The Novel

Difference From The Novel

Richard Brooks wrote his novel whilst he was a Sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps making training films at Quantico, Virginia and Camp Pendleton, California. In the novel, the victim was homosexual. As told in the film The Celluloid Closet and in the documentary included on the DVD edition of the Crossfire film, the Hollywood Hays Code prohibited any mention of homosexuality because it was seen as a sexual perversion. Hence, the book's theme of homophobia was changed to one about racism and antisemitism. The book was published whilst Brooks was serving in the Marine Corps. A fellow Marine by the name of Robert Ryan met Brooks and told him he was determined to play in a version of the book on screen.

For a detailed account of adapting The Brick Foxhole for the screen and the producers' battles with the censors, please refer to pages 114-123 in More Than Night: Film Noir in its Context by James Naremore (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1998).