Crime

Old Men in New Cars / Gamle mænd i nye biler (2002) Lasse Spang Olsen, Kim Bodnia, Torkel Petersson, Tomas Villum Jensen, Action, Comedy, Crime

Old Men in New Cars (2002)
The last wish of the dying “Monk” is for his foster child, Harald, to find his real son, Ludvig. But the latter is currently in a Swedish prison cell. Peter and Martin – the two chefs – want to get him out and soon father and son meet for the first time in their lives. They get on from the word go, but now dad needs a liver transplant and Ludvig and Harald set about raising the wherewithal. Everything goes wrong when they try to rob a bank, though they meet Mille, who puts them onto a new trail, and Peter and Martin also make a contribution. However, soon they have the cops and the anti-terror corps on their tails.
Read More »

After the Fox / Caccia alla volpe (1966) Vittorio De Sica, Peter Sellers, Victor Mature, Britt Ekland, Comedy, Crime

After the Fox (1966)
Peter Sellers plays Aldo Vanucci (aka the Fox), one of the greatest criminals of the world, and master of disguise. After Aldo escapes from the Italian prison he was held in, he meets again with his friends, and plans to retrieve the “gold of Cairo” a large shipment of gold, that waits to be unloaded somewhere in Italy. Aldo devices the perfect plan. Posing as a famous director, he finds the ideal coastal village to unload the shipment, and persuades the entire population that he has chosen their village as the set for his new movie. Everybody, including the idiot chief of the local police is so excited, that they can’t even imagine that in fact they are helping the Fox to get the “gold of Cairo”…
Read More »

The Cut Runs Deep (1999) John H. Lee, Alexandre Manning, David Lee McInnis, Gio Park, Crime, Drama

The Cut Runs Deep (1999)
A young half-Korean waiter, bored with his life, joins a local gang led by a thoughtful and protective, yet vicious boss. He soon rises in the ranks of the group and is assigned more dangerous jobs. During this time he falls in love with a beautiful young prostitute who services rich Wall Street types in the back of their limos. All his life he has wanted to be something, and as he gets closer to that dream, he begins to walk the thin line between life and death.
Read More »

The Organization (1971) Don Medford, Sidney Poitier, Barbara McNair, Gerald S. O’Loughlin, Action, Crime, Drama

The Organization (1971)
After a group of young revolutionaries break into a corporation’s headquarters and steal $5,000,000 worth of heroin to keep it off the street, they call on San Francisco Police Lieutenant Virgil Tibbs for assistance. Though sympathetic to their cause, the straight-arrow Tibbs refuses to consider it because they broke the law, but when the group is then accused of a murder it didn’t commit, Tibbs finally joins them in order to ferret out the identity of the real killer, while keeping his now rogue undercover investigation a secret from his SFPD superiors.
Read More »

The Net (1995) Irwin Winkler, Sandra Bullock, Jeremy Northam, Dennis Miller, Action, Crime, Drama

The Net (1995)
Computer programmer Angela Bennett (Sandra Bullock) starts a new freelance gig and, strangely, all her colleagues start dying. Does it have something to do with the mysterious disc she was given? Her suspicions are raised when, during a trip to Mexico, she’s seduced by a handsome stranger (Jeremy Northam) intent on locating the same disc. Soon Angela is tangled up in a far-reaching conspiracy that leads to her identity being erased. Can she stop the same thing from happening to her life?
Read More »

Man in the Shadow (1957) Jack Arnold, Jeff Chandler, Orson Welles, Colleen Miller, Crime, Drama, Thriller

Man in the Shadow (1957)
In effect, modern cow town Spurline is run by Virgil Renchler, owner of the Golden Empire Ranch. One night, two of Virgil’s henchmen go a little too far and beat a “bracero” ranch hand to death. Faced with an obvious cover-up and opposition on every hand, sheriff Ben Sadler is goaded into investigating. His unlikely ally: Renchler’s lovely, self-willed and overprotected daughter. Will Ben survive Renchler’s wrath?
Read More »

Checkpoint (1956) Ralph Thomas, Anthony Steel, Odile Versois, Stanley Baker, Crime, Drama, Thriller

Checkpoint (1956)
Stanley Baker’s character is sent to steal the plans from another company of their racing car designs, to ensure his employers win the competition. However when opening a safe containing the plans, he triggers an alarm leading to a gun battle where he kills a number of people. James Robertson Justice alarmed by the scandal surrounding the killings orders his agent be killed surreptitiously to hide his involvement with the plot.
Read More »

Dasso yugi / Jail Breakers (1976) Kôsaku Yamashita, Shin’ichi Chiba, Haruko Wanibuchi, Eitarô Ozawa, Action, Crime

Dasso yugi AKA Jail Breakers (1976)
The film is packed with nice stunts throughout, but the screenplay could be better. After escaping the prison Chiba teams up with a bunch of thugs, who design prison escapes for money. Unfortunately trust and loyalty are unknown concepts to these men who take turns deceiving each other. The endless “who’s-cheating-who” game has been done better in other films, and sometimes the writing is downright sloppy: when a carefully planned escape operation fails, Chiba simply steals a fire engine and drives away without anyone noticing! It also feels that director Kosaku Yamashita, who made his name with yakuza films, was a bit out of his element here. However, even with these weaknesses it’s an entertaining action comedy which compares favourably against some of the later, similar Yasaku Matsuda films like Execution Game (1978) and No Grave for Us (1979). The focus is on stunts and comedy.
Read More »

Having Wonderful Crime (1945) A. Edward Sutherland, Pat O’Brien, George Murphy, Carole Landis, Comedy, Crime, Mystery

Having Wonderful Crime (1945)
Having Wonderful Crime spotlights Michael J. Malone, the murder-solving attorney created by author Craig Rice. The film is also ostensibly based on a novel by Rice, though precious little of the original actually made it to the screen. The story begins as Malone (Pat O’Brien) brusquely informs his newlywed friends Jake and Helene Justus (George Murphy and Carole Landis) that he’s not going to allow them to suck him into another murder mystery. Unfortunately for the attorney, Jake and Helene shortly afterward attend a stage magic show wherein the star magician (George Zucco) disappears for real! Their investigation leads to a resort hotel literally packed with murder suspects. When the newlyweds learn too much for their own good, it’s up to Malone to come to the rescue and nab the killer. One of the suspects is played by an actress named Anje Berens, who as “Gloria Holden” previously starred in Dracula’s Daughter (1936).
Read More »