Crime

  • Allan Moyle – Weirdsville (2007)

    2001-2010Allan MoyleCanadaComedyCrime

    Royce and Dexter are two slackers who live in the strange little town of Weedsville. When Royce’s girlfriend Matilda overdose’s on their stash and dies, they decide to bury her in an abandoned Drive-In theater. Things get out of control when they discover Satanists performing a ritual sacrifice right where they were going to bury the body…Read More »

  • John Cromwell – Caged (1950)

    Drama1941-1950CrimeJohn CromwellQueer Cinema(s)USA

    Synopsis:
    Pregnant nineteen-year old Marie Allen (Eleanor Parker) is sentenced to prison as an accessory to robbery. The warden, Ruth Benton (Agnes Moorehead), dedicated to reforming even the most hardened of the prisoners, deals fairly with Marie, even upon learning of her condition. The naïve Marie comes up against tough block matron Evelyn Harper (Hope Emerson) and must decide whether accepting the friendship of the toughest prisoners will rub off on her and affect the future of her unborn child.Read More »

  • Robert Florey – Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932)

    1931-1940CrimeHorrorRobert FloreyUSA

    Synopsis:
    In 19th Century Paris, the maniacal Dr. Mirakle abducts young women and injects them with ape blood in an attempt to prove ape-human kinship. He constantly meets failure as the abducted women die. Medical student Pierre Dupin discovers what Mirakle is doing too late to prevent the abduction of his girlfriend Camille. Now he desperately tries to enlist the help of the police to get her back.Read More »

  • Anthony Mann & Laurence Harvey – A Dandy in Aspic (1968)

    1961-1970Anthony MannCrimeLaurence HarveyThrillerUnited Kingdom

    In West Berlin at the height of the Cold War, British spy Eberlin (Laurence Harvey) is tasked with the dangerous assignment of finding and assassinating the treacherous KGB agent Krasnevin, who has killed many undercover British agents. He’s given a new partner, Gatiss (Tom Courtenay), to help eliminate the deadly Russian. What neither his bosses nor his partner know, however, is that Eberlin himself is Krasnevin, a double agent whose secret identity his Moscow bosses don’t want compromised.Read More »

  • Various – Les plus belles escroqueries du monde AKA The World’s Most Beautiful Swindlers (1964)

    1961-1970ComedyCrimeFranceVarious

    This anthology helmed by four talented filmmakers, Claude Chabrol, Jean-Luc Godard, Hiromichi Horikawa, and Roman Polanski, allows viewers to meet and observe four international con artists. Each story is set within a different city. “Amsterdam” follows the attempts of a seductive Dutch woman to entice an elderly man into buying her an expensive necklace in exchange for sex. He does, and she immediately runs away and uses the bauble, not realizing that it is worth a fortune, to purchase a parrot. In “Paris,” a con man sells a tourist rube the Eiffel Tower.Read More »

  • Henri Decoin – La chatte aka The Cat (1958)

    1951-1960CrimeDramaFranceHenri Decoin

    Synopsis: Paris 1943. After her husband’s death, killed by the Germans, Cora joins the résistance under the pseudonym “La Chatte” (the she-cat). Very skillfully she succeeds in a dangerous mission. The same evening she meets a Swiss journalist, Bernard, and falls in love with him. Bernard is a German officer who now has to decide between his love for Cora and his mission.Read More »

  • John Sturges – The People Against O’Hara (1951)

    USA1951-1960CrimeFilm NoirJohn Sturges

    Synopsis:
    Jim Curtayne, formerly a successful criminal defense attorney and currently a recovering alcoholic, has turned to civil law because of his problems with the bottle, daughter Ginny delays marrying in order to keep her dad on the straight and narrow, but when the son of neighborhood friends is accused of murder, he is lured into returning to criminal law. Complications arise as the initially overconfident Curtayne experiences lapses inn memory and judgment as well as an uncooperative client. He finds himself well over his head as he tries to reclaim his self-confidence and professional standing.Read More »

  • Kwok-Ming Cheung – Dian zhi bing bing aka Cops and Robbers (1979)

    1971-1980AsianCrimeHong KongKwok-Ming Cheung

    Quote:
    Cops and Robbers depicts a city where ordinary citizens hold little trust for the police; far removed from the post-ICAC Hong Kong of today. “Can’t even look after their own guys,” a man grumbles in a roast shop after the bank shooting. The main witness for that crime refuses to speak to the police on principle and even an Old Master Cute comic strip is raised to depict the public opinion. The portrayal of the policemen is decidedly heroic against this background, strengthened by a rousing rock number sung by producer Teddy Robin and coverage of their social lives. The guy they’re up against has to be the creepiest villain I’ve ever seen in film, and his being cross-eyed is only part of the sensation. As he gets more and more screen time, Cops and Robbers builds into a strong and disturbing movie experience.Read More »

  • Don Siegel – Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954)

    1951-1960CrimeDon SiegelDramaUSA

    Geoff Andrew, Time Out wrote:
    A classic of the genre, almost documentary in approach – low budget, no stars, Folsom Prison locations, inmates as extras – and boiling up an explosive violence kept under perfect control. Not looking for cosy answers (in fact, final victory shades ironically into defeat), the script’s prime concern is less to establish the need for reform than to demonstrate the fallibilities that militate against its accomplishment: Neville Brand’s riot leader and Emile Meyer’s warden are men of integrity in essential agreement as to what needs to be done, but each is attended by an evil genius – one psychopathic, the other corrupt – so that simple issues mutate into an entirely different ball game. A riveting movie.Read More »

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