Crime

  • John Boulting – Brighton Rock (1948)

    1941-1950CrimeJohn BoultingThrillerUnited Kingdom

    Synopsis:
    Pinkie Brown is a small-town hoodlum whose gang runs a protection racket based at Brighton race course. When Pinkie murders a journalist called Fred Hale whom he believes is responsible for the death of a fellow gang-member, the police believe it to be suicide. This doesn’t convince Ida Arnold, who was with Fred just before he died, and she sets out to find the truth. She comes across naive waitress Rose, who can prove that Fred was murdered. In an attempt to keep Rose quiet Pinkie marries her. But with his gang beginning to doubt his ability, and his rivals taking over his business, Pinkie starts to become more desperate and violent.Read More »

  • Sam Wood & William Wyler – Raffles (1939)

    1931-1940ComedyCrimeSam WoodUSAWilliam Wyler

    Synopsis:
    Man about town and First Class cricketer A.J. Raffles keeps himself solvent with daring robberies. Meeting Gwen from his schooldays and falling in love all over again, he spends the weekend with her parents, Lord and Lady Melrose. A necklace presents an irresistible temptation, but also in attendance is Scotland Yard’s finest, finally on the trail.Read More »

  • Elaine May – Mikey and Nicky (1976) (HD)

    1971-1980CrimeDramaElaine MayThe Female GazeUSA

    Quote:
    In Philadelphia, a small-time bookie who stole mob money is in hiding and he begs a childhood friend to help him evade the hit-man who’s on his trail.Read More »

  • J. Lee Thompson – Tiger Bay (1959)

    1951-1960CrimeDramaJ. Lee ThompsonUnited Kingdom

    Wikipedia wrote:
    Cardiff Bay played a major part in Cardiff’s development by being the means of exporting coal from the South Wales Valleys to the rest of the world, helping to power the industrial age. The coal mining industry helped fund the building of Cardiff into the Capital city of Wales and helped the Third Marquis of Bute, who owned the docks, become the richest man in the world at the time.Read More »

  • Richard Fleischer – Armored Car Robbery (1950)

    1941-1950CrimeFilm NoirRichard FleischerUSA

    by Hans J. Wollstein
    Touching on both the film noir style of the 1940s and the “just the facts, ma’am” approach popular in the early television era, and incorporating both shadowy alleys and bright, almost flat sunlit street scenes, Richard Fleischer’s plebeian, no-nonsense Armored Car Robbery remains the quintessential low-budget heist melodrama. Starring tight-lipped Charles McGraw as the tough, unyielding police detective, the potboiler also benefited from a downright vicious performance by an unredeemable William Talman as the brains behind the ill-fated caper, as well as the presence of luscious B-movie icon Adele Jergens as one of those hardboiled dames seemingly born to destroy gullible dime-store gangsters like Benny McBride (Douglas Fowley).Read More »

  • Václav Vorlícek – Konec agenta W4C prostrednictvím psa pana Foustky AKA The End of Agent W4C (1967)

    1961-1970ComedyCrimeCzech RepublicVáclav Vorlícek

    Synopsis:
    The invincible agent Cyril Juan Borguette alias W4C (Jan Kacer) has been assigned a mission to go to a hotel in Prague, get hold of a saltcellar with a plan for the military exploitation of Venus hidden in it, and hand it over to the beautiful agent Alice (Kveta Fialová). He will have to compete for the saltcellar with other agents working for the world’s various greater and smaller powers. The head of the Prague counter-intelligence unit gets news of agent W4C’s mission. Deficient in personnel, he nominates accountant Foustka (Jirí Sovák) as agent 13B. Mr Foustka takes his dog Pajda with him and the two head for the airport. Pajda helps him track down agent W4C in a classy hotel that becomes the battleground for the interests and plans of the secret agents from different countries, each trying to get hold of the precious saltcellar.Read More »

  • Jack Arnold – High School Confidential! (1958)

    1951-1960CrimeDramaJack ArnoldUSA

    Quote:
    A tough kid comes to a new high school and begins muscling his way into the drug scene. As he moves his way up the ladder, a schoolteacher tries to reform him, his aunt tries to seduce him, and the “weedheads” are eager to use his newly found enterprise, but he has his own agenda. After an altercation involving fast cars, hidden drugs, and police, he’s accepted by the drug kingpin and is off into the big leagues. A typical morality play of the era, filled with a naive view of drugs, nihilistic beat poetry, and some incredible ’50s slang.Read More »

  • Giuseppe Tornatore – Una pura formalità AKA A Pure Formality (1994)

    1991-2000CrimeGiuseppe TornatoreItalyThriller

    Synopsis:
    Onoff is a famous writer who hasn’t published any new books for quite some time and has become a recluse. When he is picked up by the police one stormy night, without any identification, out of breath and running madly, without clear memory of recent events, the Inspector is suspicious. Through interrogatory dialectic, the head of this lonely, isolated, broken-down police station tries to establish what has happened, by delving into the mind of his writer-hero, and clearing up a mysterious killing.Read More »

  • Lew Landers – Man in the Dark AKA The Man Who Lived Twice (1953)

    USA1951-1960CrimeFilm NoirLew Landers

    Synopsis:
    The refurbished storyline drops the plastic surgery angle but retains the now- disturbing idea that doctors might use brain surgery to “cure” lawbreakers of criminal tendencies. Convicted criminal Steve Rawley (Edmond O’Brien) volunteers for the operation half-assuming that he’ll not survive. He awakes with total amnesia and a more cheerful personality, and under a new name, “Blake” actually looks forward to beginning life afresh tending the hospital’s hedges. Steve is instead kidnapped and beaten bloody by his old cronies in crime Lefty, Arnie and Cookie (Ted de Corsia, Horace McMahon & Nick Dennis), who want to know where Steve hid the loot from their last robbery. Steve remembers nothing, and kisses from his old girlfriend Peg Benedict (Audrey Totter) fail to extract the location of the $130,000. But weird dreams provide clues that might lead Steve and Peg to the money everyone is so desperate to possess.Read More »

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