Crime

  • Herman Yau – Deng hou dong jian hua fa la AKA From the Queen to the Chief Executive (2001)

    2001-2010CrimeDramaHerman YauHong Kong

    Quote:
    Beginning in 1997 with television footage of the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region being sworn into office, we next see an appeal being made to the Chief Executive. The story then swiftly backtracks to 1985. We follow three people whose lives will intersect 12 years later: Yue-ling, Mr. Leung, and Ming. Yue-ling is a teenage girl suffering from loneliness and abuse; Mr. Leung is helping factory workers protest unfair working conditions, and Ming is a teenage boy caught up in a horrific crime. Fast-forward to early 1997, and we discover that Yue-ling has grown into a young woman fascinated by the prose of a young man who turns out to be a prisoner. That prisoner is Ming. Read More »

  • Frederick De Cordova – Her Kind of Man (1946)

    1941-1950CrimeFilm NoirFrederick De CordovaUSA

    Quote:
    Georgia King (Janis Paige) thought she was sitting pretty, Broadway-bound and the chosen gal of bad boy Steve Maddux (Zachary Scott). Things go awry when Steve plugs a mug in self-defense and goes on the lam while Georgia goes solo to the Great White Way. In New York, Georgia captures the attention of straight-and-narrow newsman Don Corwin (Dane Clark). When Steve returns to New York for a romantic reunion with Georgia, he and Don battle for their songbird’s heart, the law and the lawless begin to break apart around the budding triangle. As Steve’s past sins return to cause tragedy in the present, he faces the biggest night of his life as Prohibition comes to an end. Thanks to its crisp direction and pitch-perfect cast, including genre favorites Faye Emerson and George Tobias, this noir rises above the numbers.Read More »

  • Robert Bresson – L’argent AKA Money (1983)

    1981-1990CrimeDramaFranceRobert Bresson

    Quote:
    In his ruthlessly clear-eyed final film, French master Robert Bresson pushed his unique blend of spiritual rumination and formal rigor to a new level of astringency. Transposing a Tolstoy novella to contemporary Paris, L’argent follows a counterfeit bill as it originates as a prop in a schoolboy prank, then circulates like a virus among the corrupt and the virtuous alike before landing with a young truck driver and leading him to incarceration and violence. With brutal economy, Bresson constructs his unforgiving vision of original sin out of starkly perceived details, rooting his characters in a dehumanizing material world that withholds any hope of transcendenceRead More »

  • Alfred Hitchcock – The Trouble with Harry (1955)

    1951-1960Alfred HitchcockComedyCrimeUSA

    Synopsis:
    There is a dead well-dressed man in a meadow clearing in the hills above a small Vermont town. Captain Albert Wiles, who stumbles across the body and finds by the man’s identification that his name is Harry Worp, believes he accidentally shot Harry dead while he was hunting rabbits. Captain Wiles wants to hide the body as he feels it is an easier way to deal with the situation than tell the authorities. While Captain Wiles is in the adjacent forest, he sees other people stumble across Harry, most of whom don’t seem to know him or care or notice that he’s dead. Read More »

  • Fred F. Sears – The Miami Story (1954)

    USA1951-1960CrimeFred F. SearsThriller

    Synopsis:
    When Miami, Florida became national headquarters for a ten billion dollar crime syndicate ruled by crime-czar Tomy Brill (Luther Adler), whose chief henchman is Ted Delacorte (John Baer), a citizen’s committee enlists the aid of a reformed gangster Mick Flakk (Barry Sullivan), a widower with a ten-year-old son, pretends to move in on Brill’s rackets. Brill’s henchmen beat up a woman,Holly Abbott (Beverly Garland), whom Flagg has befriended to get the dope on Flagg’s plans, he orders the police to raid the syndicate’s gambling-club. Brill counters by having Flagg’s son, Gil Flagg (David Kasday), kidnapped.Read More »

  • Kunitoshi Manda – Seppun AKA The Kiss (2007)

    2001-2010CrimeDramaJapanKunitoshi Manda

    Synopsis:
    One day Kyoko watches television and sees a man turning himself in to the police after murdering a family. Something within Kyoko connects with the man, as she recognizes a similar soul. Despite the worries of the killer’s lawyer, she approaches the killer and the two start corresponding…Read More »

  • Giuseppe Ferrara – Cento giorni a Palermo (1984)

    1981-1990CrimeDramaGiuseppe FerraraItaly

    In the late 1970s and early 80s, assassinations in Sicily get the attention of Communist deputy, Pio La Torre, who appeals to General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa to become prefect in Palermo and take on the Mafia. Dalla Chiesa approaches the job with the same focus and methods he used in hunting down the Red Brigade. His sweetheart, the much-younger Setti Carraro (everyone calls her Emanuela), wants to be with him in Palermo, but he sends her away, knowing he is in danger. Then, a few months into office, he asks her to marry him, and he tries to be both husband and investigator. Meanwhile, the Mafia bankers are feeling the heat, and they start with La Torre.
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  • Brian Desmond Hurst – Sensation (1936)

    1931-1940Brian Desmond HurstCrimeDramaUnited Kingdom

    John Lodge plays a reporter who is one of what is known as the Murder Gang.As soon as a murder occurs he and journalists from other papers descend on the town where the homicide occurred and prey like vultures on the surrounding populace in order to feed their editors the scraps of information.Lodge professes to dislike his ocucpation but nevertheless participates in it fully.He goes to the wife of one of the suspects and manages to extort love letters out of her in return for legal assistance.He witholds evidence from the police.Read More »

  • Joseph L. Mankiewicz – The Barefoot Contessa (1954)

    1951-1960CrimeDramaJoseph L. MankiewiczUSA

    Synopsis:
    At Maria Vargas’ funeral, several people recall who she was and the impact she had on them. Harry Dawes was a not very successful writer/director when he and movie producer Kirk Edwards scouted her at a shabby nightclub where she worked as a flamenco dancer. He convinces her to take a chance on acting and her first film is a huge hit. PR man Oscar Muldoon remembers when Maria was in court supporting her father who was accused of murdering her mother. It was Maria’s testimony that got him off and she was a bigger star than ever. Alberto Bravano, one of the richest men in South America, sets his sights on Maria and she goes off with him – as much to make Edwards angry as anything – but he treats her badly. When she meets Count Vincenzo Torlato-Favrini they fall deeply in love. They are married but theirs is not to be a happy life.Read More »

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