Best Films - American films - Crime/Thriller

American cinema: Crime/Thriller (Page 1 of 5)

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Stanley Kubrick

Alex DeLarge is a Beethoven-loving juvenile delinquent who spends his evenings indulging in orgies of violence with his droogies. This involves beating up rival gangs, breaking into houses and generally having a good time before heading back to the Korova Milk Bar for some nourishing lactose-based refreshment... [More...]

A Double Life (1947)

George Cukor

Anthony John is a renowned stage actor who, against his better judgement, allows himself to be coaxed into playing the lead role in Shakespeare’s Othello. The part of the jealous husband who ultimately murders his beloved wife turns out to be appropriate for John, for he has a jealous streak and still claims ownership of his ex-wife Brita... [More...]

A Fish Called Wanda (1988)

Charles Crichton

London gangster George Thomason has masterminded the perfect jewel robbery, which he is about to put into action with his henchman Ken Pile, an animal-lover with a crippling stutter, and a pair of Americans - Wanda Gerschwitz and Otto West. The latter pretend to be brother and sister but are in fact lovers who intend to double-cross George and Ken after the robbery... [More...]

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939)

Alfred L. Werker

When Professor Moriarty is acquitted of a murder charge, his arch-nemesis Sherlock Holmes vows to bring him to book. Moriarty rises to this challenge by concocting what he believes will be the crime of the century. Whilst he prepares his master plan, the villainous professor distracts Holmes with another mystery... [More...]

And Then There Were None (1945)

René Clair

Eight men and women, all unknown to each other, accept a mysterious invitation to an island estate. They are welcomed by two domestic servants, Mr and Mrs Rogers, who appear to be as ignorant of the reason for the meeting as the guests are. When they are all assembled together, they hear a strange message from their unknown host on a gramophone record... [More...]

Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)

Michael Curtiz

Jerry Connolly and Rocky Sullivan are two kids growing up in a poor area of New York. Their first attempt at robbery ends in failure – Jerry escapes but Rocky is caught and sent to a reform school. Whilst Jerry becomes a priest, Rocky is lured deeper into a life of crime, and inevitably ends up in jail... [More...]

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

Frank Capra

Mortimer Brewster returns to Brooklyn to visit his elderly aunts Abby and Martha with the news that he has just got married. The last thing he expects to find in his old home is a dead body in the window seat. His aunts casually admit that this is the latest of their mercy killings. Whenever a solitary old man enters their house, they take it upon themselves to put him out of his misery, with a glass of elderberry wine laced with poison... [More...]

The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

John Huston

Within hours of leaving prison, criminal mastermind Doc Riedenschneider is preparing his next robbery. To clean up on a million dollars’ worth of jewels, he recruits a safecracker, Louis Ciavelli, getaway-driver Gus Minissi and hoodlum Dix Handley. A crooked lawyer Alonzo Emmerich agrees to put up the money for the heist, but his attempt at a double cross backfires... [More...]

Beat the Devil (1953)

John Huston

Billy Dannreuther and his wife Maria are on their way to make their fortune in Africa, but are held up in an Italian port whilst their steamboat undergoes some repair work. Here, they meet an eccentric English couple, Harry and Gwendolen Chelm, and a strange foursome led by a man named Peterson. It gradually becomes apparent that they all have one thing in common – to secure the rights to land that is reputed to be rich in uranium ore... [More...]

The Big Combo (1955)

Joseph H. Lewis

Police Lieutenant Leonard Diamond is determined to bring the notorious gangster boss Mr Brown to book. For Diamond, this is no longer work but a personal crusade against evil. The lieutenant’s dedication to the case is strengthened when he falls for the gangster’s mistress, Susan Lowell. In an act of foolhardy bravado, Diamond authorises a round up of Brown’s gang members, but has to release them through lack of evidence... [More...]

The Big Heat (1953)

Fritz Lang

Investigating the apparent suicide of a fellow officer, detective Dave Bannion soon discovers he is about to lift the lid on something that reeks of vice and corruption. The dead man’s mistress Lucy Chapman is brutally murdered immediately after giving Bannion information that contradicts the evidence of his wife... [More...]

The Big Sleep (1946)

Howard Hawks

General Sternwood hires private detective Philip Marlowe to investigate a bookseller named Geiger who appears to be blackmailing his daughter, Carmen. Vivian, the general’s other daughter, suspects that his real motive for engaging Marlowe is to try to find his friend, Sean Regan, who has mysteriously disappeared... [More...]

The Blue Dahlia (1946)

George Marshall

Naval officer Johnny Morrison returns home after serving in the war with two of his colleagues, George Copeland and Buzz Wanchek. On his arrival at the family home he chances upon a party hosted by his wife Helen and her new boyfriend Eddie Harwood, the owner of a swanky nightclub The Blue Dahlia... [More...]

Blue Velvet (1986)

David Lynch

Outwardly, Lumberton appears to be the model American small town – law abiding, tidy, peaceful. But surface impressions can be deceptive, as college student Jeffrey Beaumont discovers one fateful summer. Not long after his return home to help out in the family business when his father has a stroke, Jeff comes across a severed human ear on a patch of waste ground... [More...]

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

Arthur Penn

In the early 1930s, America is in the grip of the Great Depression. Life is hard, but Clyde Barrow, a young man who has recently been released from prison, manages to scrape along by holding up the odd store and gas station. He is about to steal a car when its owner’s daughter, Bonnie Parker, appears and makes a marked impression on him... [More...]

Brute Force (1947)

Jules Dassin

The inmates of Westgate Prison, a United States penitentiary, are growing increasingly fractious as the prison authorities gradually erode their privileges and make life more unbearable. The prisoners are treated worse than animals, systematically abused by the guards and burdened with demeaning chores instead of being taught useful skills... [More...]

Bullets or Ballots (1936)

William Keighley

New York newspaper publisher Ward Bryant embarks on a one-man crusade against the racketeers who are, in his belief, wrecking the moral fabric of his country. One crook who isn’t prepared to tolerate Bryant’s interference in his lucrative activities is trigger-happy mobster Bugs Fenner, who fills him with lead one evening... [More...]

Bullitt (1968)

Peter Yates

What starts out as a routine assignment for San Francisco police lieutenant Frank Bullitt soon turns into something far deadlier. His job is to protect Johnny Ross, a key witness in a trial that will smash a crime syndicate run by his brother, the mobster Pete Ross. The man who stands to gain most from the witness’s testimony is Walter Chalmers, a ruthless career politician with underworld connections... [More...]

Call Northside 777 (1948)

Henry Hathaway

In 1932, in the era of prohibition, the police of Chicago are fighting a losing battle against the mobsters and the bootleggers. When a policeman is shot dead on entering a speakeasy, two Polish men - Frank Wiecek and Tomek Zaleska - are soon arrested on the flimsiest of evidence. Although both men protest their innocence, they are found guilty and sentenced to 99 years’ imprisonment, on the testimony of the speakeasy’s owner... [More...]

Chinatown (1974)

Roman Polanski

Jake Gittes is a Los Angeles private investigator who specialises in adultery cases. He is hired by Mrs Mulwray to provide her with evidence that her husband, who happens to be the head of the city’s water department, is having an affair with a young woman. Not long after Gittes comes up with the goods, Mulwray is found dead and his wife – who bears no resemblance to the woman who originally hired Gittes – threatens to sue the private eye... [More...]

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