Crime

The Fortune (1975) Mike Nichols, Stockard Channing, Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, Comedy, Crime, Romance

The Fortune (1975)
The early 1900’s with its Mann-Act (disallowing women to be transported across State lines for immoral reasons) brings a married man to devise a scheme for taking his upper-class girlfriend away with him… he simply has her marry his unmarried buddy. However, it doesn’t take very long before both men start laying claim to her affection… until, that is, she’s about to be cut out of her parent’s fortune. So, a new scheme is devised, which only adds to their problems, as well as to the sly whimsy of this film.
Read More »

Desert Fury (1947) Lewis Allen, John Hodiak, Lizabeth Scott, Burt Lancaster, Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

Desert Fury (Lewis Allen, 1947)
Fritzi Haller is a powerful casino owner in Chuckawalla, Nevada. Her daughter Paula (having quit school) returns at the same time as racketeer Eddie Bendix, who left under suspicion of murdering his wife. Paula and Eddie become involved; each for their own reasons, Fritzi, Paula’s old beau Tom, and Eddie’s pal Johnny try to break up the relationship. Then Eddie’s past catches up with him in an unexpected way.
Read More »

Great St. Louis Bank Robbery (1959) Charles Guggenheim, John Stix, Steve McQueen, Crahan Denton, David Clarke, Crime, Drama, Thriller

Great St. Louis Bank Robbery (Charles Guggenheim & John Stix, 1959)
George Fowler is drawn into a gang planning to rob a bank in St. Louis that they expect will have a $100,000 on hand on an upcoming Friday. George is drawn into the plan as the gang’s driver by Gino, an old girlfriend’s older brother. As the gang goes about its planning, George and Gino have to find a way to live for the next two weeks and they turn to Gino’s sister, Ann, for help. George is hoping to go back to college and the money he would make would go a long way to helping him do that. Not trusting George to keep his nerve, the gang’s leader John Egan moves him to the inside, but the robbery doesn’t go off as planned.
Read More »

Serial Killers: The Real Life Hannibal Lecters (2001) Sean Buckley, Richard Morgan, Melanie Porter, Jennifer Franks, Documentary, Crime

0032b14f
In the 2001 documentary Serial Killers: Real Life Hannibal Lecters, director Sean Buckley profiles five of the most infamous and deadly serial killers of the 20th century, each of whom has inspired a number of big-screen fictional murderers. Featuring interviews with experts as well as the monsters themselves, the film attempts to offer insight into the minds and lives of John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, Andrei Chikatilo, and Albert Fish.
Read More »

The Psycho Lover / The Lovely Touch (1970) Robert Vincent O’Neill, Lawrence Montaigne, Jo Anne Meredith, Elizabeth Plumb, Crime, Horror

0031bc8f
The only thing worse than being a homicidal maniac is being treated by a doctor who’s just as crazy! Marco, a Psycho Lover who strangles women that “threaten his maleness,” becomes a patient of lizard-like Dr. Kenneth Alden, who uses wacky nightmares to brainwash Marco into killing the doc’s nasty wife who won’t give him a divorce. A gaudy mix of sex, violence, pop-psych, and even some quick necrophilia, this drive-in shocker is a fun descent into B-movie psychosis.
Read More »

Malevolent (2002) John Terlesky, Lou Diamond Phillips, Edoardo Ballerini, Kari Wuhrer, Crime, Drama, Thriller

002d2c44
Detective Jack Lucas is racing to clear his name, when he’s framed for a series of murders. A maverick cop under routine investigation for a job-related shooting, Jack finds himself being set up as the prime suspect in an escalating killing spree. Sliding deeper into trouble and with few clues to go on, Jack desperately teams with exotic dancer Jessica, who may hold the key to the motive behind the mystery. With time running out, he must do whatever it takes to put all the pieces together and prove his innocence before the real killer pulls off the perfect crime.
Read More »

Villain (1971) Michael Tuchner, Richard Burton, Ian McShane, Nigel Davenport, Crime, Drama, Thriller

Villain (1971)
Murderous, sadistic London gang leader Vic Dakin, a mother-obsessed homosexual modeled on real-life gangster Ronnie Kray, is worried about potential stool pigeons that may bring down his criminal empire. The brutal Vic cuts the throat of one bloke who has been a little too loose-lipped, afraid that his gossiping may turn into a grand operatic performance for the coppers. Vic, who enjoys playing at rough trade with his sidekick Wolfe, plans a payroll robbery and directs the blackmailing of Members of Parliament with a taste for unorthodox sex. Scotland Yard Police Inspector Matthews, playing Javert to Vic’s Jean Valjean, is moving in on him and the gang. Gang-member Edgar is hospitalized for an ulcer, and Inspector Matthews might be able to make him sing. Will Edgar spill the beans to the coppers before Vic can silence him?
Read More »

Deadly Force (1983) Paul Aaron, Wings Hauser, Joyce Ingalls, Paul Shenar, Action, Crime, Drama

deadly_force
Stoney Cooper, a former Los Angeles police officer, is at a low point in his life. Kicked off the force because of his anti-authority attitude, he now ekes out a living as a freelancer in New York. All this changes when the daughter of an old friend is killed by a serial killer terrorizing L.A. Although almost nobody in his old home town is happy to see him back, Cooper pledges to bring the killer to justice before any more innocent people die.
Read More »

12 O’Clock Boys (2013) Lotfy Nathan, Coco, Pug, Steven, Documentary, Biography, Crime

002e95fb
Pug, a wisecracking 13 year old living on a dangerous Westside block, has one goal in mind: to join The Twelve O’Clock Boys; the notorious urban dirt-bike gang of Baltimore. Converging from all parts of the inner city, they invade the streets and clash with police, who are forbidden to chase the bikes for fear of endangering the public. When Pug’s older brother dies suddenly, he looks to the pack for mentorship, spurred by their dangerous lifestyle. Pug’s story is coupled with unprecedented, action-packed coverage of the riders in their element. The film presents the pivotal years of change in a boy’s life growing up in one of the most dangerous and economically depressed cities in the US.
Read More »

Yasha / Demon (1985) Yasuo Furuhata, Ken Takakura, Ayumi Ishida, Hisamitsu Nakamura, Drama, Crime

Yasha (1985)
Retired yakuza gangster Shuji (Ken Takakura) moves back from Osaka to a remote coastal village to start a new life as a fisherman with his family, his arrival from the city coinciding with that of the beautiful bar hostess Keiko (Yuko Tanaka, who provided the voice of Lady Eboshi in Princess Mononoke). Keiko’s new bar, as its name Hotaru (‘firefly’) suggests is soon acting as a magnet for all the local fishermen, much to the chagrin of their wives. Not soon after the arrival of Keiko’s roguish lover Yajima (Kitano), also an ex-mobster, the locals are drawn into a host of collective vices including gambling and all-night drinking sessions. After a truly stand-out scene in which Yajima runs rampage through the village on a heroin-induced spree with a carving knife, he is run out of town by Shuji, but not before slashing Shuji’s shirt open during the fracas to reveal the tattoo of a woman’s face upon his back. With Shuji’s gangster past now revealed he finds himself ostracised by the local community and drawn towards the sympathetic character of the bar hostess with whom he shares a common past. When Yajima rears his ugly head one more time in order to borrow money from Keiko to pay off a debt to the yakuza, it is to Shuji that she turns for help, threatening to upset his domestic apple cart and pitch him back towards his old life.
Read More »