Crime

  • Sergio Gobbi – Les voraces (1973)

    1971-1980CrimeDramaFranceSergio Gobbi

    imdb wrote:
    Dark, decadent, morbid, passionate – and 34 years later still the strangest memory regarding my very own personal history of watching movies since I was five years old. Despite the fact that this French/Italian production from the early seventies delivers incredibly strong performances by Helmut Berger at the peak of his career, the always excellent Francoise Fabian and the fabulous Paul Meurisse, that it shows you wonderfully filmed locations, and comes up with a solid script including a couple of interesting though perverted characters, the movie itself disappeared totally out of sight. Maybe you need to know Europe or even European or Italian movies to get along with it – I’m not sure about that. But I cannot understand why „Les Voraces” (German title „Die Gefraessigen”) fell into a black hole of total obscurity like hardly any other movie I’ve ever watched before and since.Read More »

  • Peter Patzak – Situation AKA Slaughter Day (1972)

    1971-1980CrimeDramaItalyPeter Patzak

    A young woman begins having an affair with a mysterious man. He takes her to his cabin for a weekend and they fall in love. What she doesn’t know is that this man is orchestrating a huge bank heist with a twist.Read More »

  • Nobuo Nakagawa – Yôen dokufu-den: Hitokiri Okatsu AKA Quick-draw Okatsu (1969)

    1961-1970ActionCrimeJapanNobuo Nakagawa

    An innocent man gets killed for the debt accumulated by his gambler son. This sets Okatsu, a master with the sword and an adopted daughter of the victim, on a path of revenge.Read More »

  • Yves Mirande & Georges Lacombe – Derrière la Façade AKA Behind the Facade (1939)

    1931-1940CrimeFranceGeorges LacombeMysteryYves Mirande

    Synopsis
    Two rival police inspectors, Boucheron and Baumer, investigate the murder of the owner of a well-to-do apartment block. Madame Mathieu has been found stabbed to death in the lift, and there is no shortage of suspects. The murder weapon is a knife which belongs to a resident knife thrower, Picking, and which is found in the room of a kleptomaniac, Corbeau. No sooner have these two suspects been arrested than a young bank clerk, André, confesses – not to the murder but to defrauding his employer. Could the murderer be the sinister Eric, who is revealing his nasty character during a game of cards? Could it be the unscrupulous Alfredo, a classy crook who abuses women? Or could it be the son of the respectable Président Bernier, eager to repay his father for having a mistress? As they delve deeper into the private lives of the dead woman’s tenants, Boucheron and Baumer make more than a few surprising discoveries. But will they solve the crime..?Read More »

  • Bill Persky – Trackdown: Finding the Goodbar Killer (1983)

    1981-1990Bill PerskyCrimeDramaUSA

    This made-for-TV sequel to the 1977 theatrical film “Looking For Mr. Goodbar” follows a New York City detective’s quest to find the murderer of a schoolteacher.Read More »

  • Kôsaku Yamashita – Bakuchiuci: Sôchô Tobaku AKA Big Time Gambling Boss (1968)

    1961-1970CrimeJapanKôsaku YamashitaThriller

    Tokyo, 1934. Gang boss Arakawa is too ill and a successor must be named. The choice falls on Nakai, but being an outsider he refuses and suggests senior clansman Matsuda instead. But Matsuda is in jail and the elders won’t wait for his release, so they appoint the younger and more malleable Ishido to take the reins. Clan honour and loyalties are severely tested when Matsuda is released, resulting in an increasingly violent internal strife. An atmospheric tale of gangland intrigue written by Kazuo Kasahara (Battles Without Honour and Humanity) and starring Tomisaburo Wakayama, (Lone Wolf and Cub, The Bounty Hunter Trilogy) and genre legend Koji Tsuruta, Big Time Gambling Boss is one of the all-time classics of the yakuza genre. Paul Schrader called it the richest and most complex film of its type, while novelist Yukio Mishima hailed it as a masterpiece.Read More »

  • Fred Williamson – Death Journey (1976)

    1971-1980ActionBlaxploitationCrimeFred WilliamsonUSA

    Fearful that their star witness might be murdered, two attorneys hire a protector to bring him from Los Angeles to New York. Jesse Crowder (Fred Williamson) is a no-nonsense tough guy. He buddies up with the witness, an accountant, and they hit the road. Outwitting their foes means taking all manner of conveyance, including automobile, train, and airplane. At every turn, Crowder and the witness face a variety of attacks, including gunfire and knife-wielding villains. At ease with the ladies, Crowder manages the entire journey with shirt unbuttoned and stogie clenched firmly in his teeth.Read More »

  • Rogelio A. González – La sangre enemiga AKA The Enemy Blood (1971)

    Drama1971-1980CrimeMexicoRogelio A. González

    A group of people suffering from mental retardation, blindness and physical malformations work in a traveling circus.

    Quote:
    If there is a controversial Mexican cinema that tried to renew itself, it is undoubtedly that of the seventies. A tough and sad drama that tackles thorny and controversial issues under a trashy layer of violence, sex and exploitation. I give it high marks for the audacity of filming this at that time of censorship, unthinkable that today something like this (so politically incorrect) would be filmed in Mexican cinema.Read More »

  • Willi Forst – Mazurka (1935)

    1931-1940CrimeDramaGermanyThird Reich CinemaWilli Forst

    Quote:
    A female cabaret singer is put on trial for murdering a predatory musician.

    Wikipedia wrote:
    Warner Brothers Studios acquired the U.S. distribution rights but shelved the film in favor of its own scene-by-scene 1937 English language remake, Confession, which starred Kay Francis. Mazurka’s sets were designed by the art director Hermann Warm. It was partly shot on location in Warsaw. The film was made by Cine-Allianz whose Jewish owners Arnold Pressburger and Gregor Rabinovitch were dispossessed during pre-production of the film.Read More »

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