Crime

Call Girl is set in the late 1970s – a time time of women’s liberation, sexual revolution, Swedish neutrality, nuclear power and social security. The film takes us on a trip from the very bottom of society, along dark back streets, through glitz and glamour, to the corridors of power which are a labyrinth of secrets. The story is inspired by a Swedish political scandal known as Bordellhärvan which linked underage prostitution with powerful customers believed to come from the highest levels of society.Read More »

Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote this :

In his finest work, including this masterful 1938 noir, the remarkable French filmmaker Jean Gremillon (1901-1959), trained as a composer and musician, used mise en scene, script construction, editing, and dialogue delivery to explore the complex relationship between film and music.

Raimu, one of the greatest French actors, plays the “strange” title hero, a respectable Toulon merchant who secretly operates as a fence for local thieves; after he murders a potential blackmailer, an innocent local shoemaker (Pierre Blanchar) is sent to prison for his crime.

Seven years later the fall guy escapes, returns to Toulon to see his son, and, unaware of Victor’s guilt, persuades the merchant to shelter him, then becomes involved with his wife.
Read More »

Quote:
A young man who struggles through life by earning some money with his bicycle-taxi in Saigon establishes contact with a group of criminals. They introduce him to the mafia-world of drugs and crime.Read More »

Quote:
Darezhan Omirbaev (Kairat, Kardiogramma) directed this French-Kazakh film about a young man driven to the precipice in an uncaring world. Marat (Talgat Assetov) works as a chauffeur for a well-known scientist. Driving home from the maternity hospital with his wife Aijan (Roksana Abouova) and their new baby boy, Marat is at fault during a minor traffic accident. The damage payments on both cars put him in debt. Unable to cover costs when the baby gets sick, Marat finds it necessary to follow a gangster’s bidding to murder a journalist. Shown in the Certain Regard Section at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.Read More »

“Red Lips” are two female detectives trying to find missing models and dancers. A pop artist called Klaus Thriller and his werewolf-like assistant, Morpho, are the main suspects for the murderers.

‘Sadisterotica’ (fantastic title!) isn’t really your typical Jess Franco movie. Released in the same year as his classic ‘Succubus’, it doesn’t consist of his usual blend of eroticism and horror, it is instead a campy detective comedy/thriller in the vein of ‘Modesty Blaise’ or Mario Bava’s ‘Diabolik’. Fans of Matt Helm and Austin Powers will dig it.Read More »

Quote:
Boomerang, directed by Elia Kazan, is a chilling film noir, the true story about the murder of a priest, the subsequent arrest and trial of a jobless drifter, and the efforts of young state’s attorney Henry Harvey (Dana Andrews) to uncover the truth. Closely based on the actual 1924 murder of Fr. Hubert Dahme in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the film was directed by the young Elia Kazan in a highly effective, semi-documentary style. Kazan shot most of the film on location, using high-contrast cinematography and an extremely mobile camera to create a palpable sense of urgency. The screenplay, expertly crafted by Richard Murphy received an Academy Award nomination.Read More »

Plot:
A Bank officer discovers a flaw in the U.S. extradition treaty with Brazil and decides to take advantage of it. On Friday, he steals a million dollars from the bank, knowing it won’t be missed until the bank opens on the following Monday.
He and his wife, who doesn’t know what he has done, then take a flight to Brazil. After some difficulties, they get as far as New Orleans, where his wife discovers the reason for their flight and what he has done. She leaves him and returns home. He is now alone with his conscience, and doesn’t know if he can get back and return the money to the bank’s vault before the start of business on Monday. Read More »

Crime reporter Jack Moir is framed by crooked nightclub owner, ‘The Duke’. In prison, Moir
plans his revenge.Read More »

Munich in the late Sixties must have been the coolest place on earth. At least when you look at some of the movies that were made around that time. “Detektive” is Rudolf Thome’s feature debut, one year before he shot “Rote Sonne” (Red Sun) Link , and naturally it was a movie about girls and guns (and two cool dudes, proto slackers). The story is almost forgettable, it’s all about the style. And, of course, Uschi Obermaier, the star of “Rote Sonne”, whom Thome had discovered for “Detektive”. (Consequently, for most of the time, Uschi runs around in her undies) The dialogues are hilarious, super deadpan, the crime plot is ridiculous, the cinemathography (b/w and scope) beautiful. Heavily indebted to the French Novelle Vague and Hollywood’s classic gangster films, “Detektive” is miles away from the German New Wave around Wenders, Kluge and Fassbinder. That’s what makes this little flic, shot with friends on weekends (and between tours through the bars in the Schwabing district), so special.
In the lead, the great Marquard Bohm, something like the German Belmondo (a face like no other) and Uli Lommel, who went on to direct the German serial killer film “Die Zärtlichkeit der Wölfe” and numerous Hollywood b movies. Nuff said. Enjoy this very special gem!Read More »