Crime Films

Today I’m looking at the final genre of films, which I term “Crime Films”, and listed below are some of the crime films I have. Some of these I’ve already dealt with under the “Classic Films”, “Westerns”, “War Films”, “Drama Films”, “Action Films”, “Thriller Films”, “Comedy Films”, “Musical Films” and “Horror Films” so I won’t go into any detail on those, however some of the “Crime Films” I have not dealt with I will look at in a bit more detail.

All the films listed below have Crime listed as one of their categories.

Some of the “Crime Films” I possess and enjoy include


The Big Sleep 3*
Brighton Rock 4*
Buster
Chicago
Clockwork Orange 3*
Cul De Sac
Dead Souls (Inspector Rebus)
Dick Tracy's Dilemma
Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome
Dick Tracy v Cueball
Dirty Harry 3*
Dirty Harry: Magnum Force
Dirty Harry: The Enforcer
Dirty Harry: Sudden Impact
Dirty Harry: The Dead Pool
The Falls (An Ian Rankin Thriller)
Fear in the Night (The Hammer Collection)
The French Connection 3*
The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery
Hang 'Em High (Clint Eastwood Set)
The House of Fear/The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
The Italian Job
Jamaica Inn (Hitchcock)
The Ladykillers 3*
Little Caesar
The Lodger (Hitchcock) 3*
The Long Good Friday
Moby Dick
Number Seventeen (Hitchcock)
Oliver 3*
On the Waterfront
Red Dragon
Sherlock Holmes - Dressed to Kill
Sherlock Holmes - Pursuit to Algiers
Sherlock Holmes & the Secret Weapon
Sherlock Holmes - A Study in Scarlet
Sherlock Holmes - Terror by Night
Sherlock Holmes - The Woman in Green
Shaft
Starsky & Hutch - The Original TV Movie
Strangers on a Train 3*
Terror By Night (Sherlock Holmes)
Tiger Bay
Wilt


So for our final round up of films we’ll look at

Clockwork Orange 3*
Dirty Harry 3*
The Lodger 3* and
Strangers on a Train 3*






A Clockwork Orange is a 1971 satirical futuristic film adaptation of Anthony Burgess's 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange. The film concerns Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell), a charismatic, psychopathic delinquent whose pleasures are classical music (especially Beethoven), rape, and ultra-violence. He leads a small gang of thugs (Pete, Georgie, and Dim), whom he calls his droogs (from the Russian друг, “friend”, “buddy”). Alex narrates most of the film in Nadsat, a fractured, contemporary adolescent argot comprising Slavic (especially Russian), English, and Cockney rhyming slang.





This cinematic adaptation was produced, directed, and co-written by Stanley Kubrick. It features disturbing, violent images, to facilitate social commentary about psychiatry, youth gangs, and other contemporary social, political, and economic subjects in a dystopian, future Britain. A Clockwork Orange features a soundtrack comprising mostly classical music selections and Moog synthesizer compositions by Wendy (then Walter) Carlos. A notable exception is “Singin’ in the Rain”, chosen because it was a song whose lyrics actor Malcolm McDowell knew. The now-iconic poster of A Clockwork Orange, and its images, was created by designer Bill Gold. The film also holds the record in the Guinness World Records for being the first movie in media history using the Dolby Sound system

Narrated by Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell), the film opens on Alex and his droogs partaking of narcotic-spiked milk at the Korova Milk Bar prior to an evening of "the old ultra-violence". They proceed to beat up an elderly vagrant under a motorway and interrupt an attempted gang rape of a woman by a rival gang led by Billyboy (Richard Connaught). They subsequently get in a brawl with their rivals. Upon hearing the sounds of police sirens, the gang flees, stealing a car and driving into the countryside. They then gain entry to the home of Mr. Alexander, a writer, under false pretenses and assault him while violently raping his wife (Adrienne Corri), all while Alex sings "Singing' in the Rain." When they return to the milk bar, Alex chides Dim (Warren Clarke), one of his droogs, when he interrupts a female patron while she sings a selection of Beethoven, a composer Alex admires.

The next day, after skipping school, picking up and having sex with two girls from a record shop, and ignoring the concerns of Mr. Deltoid (Aubrey Morris) (a social worker who may have sexual feelings for him and touches him inappropriately) Alex regroups with his droogs who challenge his authority: insisting the gang be run in a "new way" that entails less power for Alex and more ambitious crimes. As they walk along a canal, Alex attacks his droogs in order to re-establish his leadership.

That night, the gang attempts to invade the home of a woman (Miriam Karlin) who lives alone with her cats and runs a health farm. In the process, she gets into a fight with Alex, and Alex mortally bludgeons her with a phallus-shaped statue. As they flee the scene, the droogs smash a glass bottle across Alex' face and leave him, wounded, to be arrested by the police. During his interrogation, Alex is told by Mr. Deltoid that he is now a murderer as the woman died from her injuries.

In prison, Alex becomes friends with the chaplain and takes a keen interest in the Bible, but primarily in the more violent characters. When the Minister of the Interior (Anthony Sharp) arrives at the prison looking for volunteers for the Ludovico technique, an experimental aversion therapy for rehabilitating criminals, Alex eagerly steps forward, much to the disgust of Chief Officer Barnes (Michael Bates). At the Ludovico facility, Alex is placed in a straitjacket and forced to watch films containing scenes of extreme violence while being given drugs to induce reactions of revulsion. The films include one of real scenes in Nazi Germany, which includes a soundtrack of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Alex realizes this will likely condition him against Beethoven's music and makes an agonized though unsuccessful attempt to have the treatment end prematurely before the conditioning sets in. After the treatment is finished, Alex's reformed behavior is demonstrated for the audience. He is unable to respond back to an actor (John Clive) shouting insults and picking a fight with him, and a feeling of sickness attacks him when he is presented with a young naked woman who sexually arouses him. The Minister declares Alex to be cured, but the chaplain asserts that Alex no longer has any free will.

Alex is let free from prison two years after his sentencing. He finds his parents have rented out his room to a lodger named Joe (Clive Francis), leaving him on his own. Alex comes across the vagrant he had assaulted before the treatment, who calls in his friends and they attack Alex. Two policemen arrive to break up the fight, but Alex discovers the policemen to be his former droogs, Dim and Georgie (James Marcus). They drag Alex out to the countryside, where they beat him up and half-drown him.

Battered and bruised, Alex wanders to the home of Mr. Alexander, who does not recognize him from two years prior, due to Alex’ wearing a mask at the time. He takes Alex in, aware that he had undergone the Ludovico treatment. Mr. Alexander tends to Alex's wounds, but the memories of his assault return when Alex sings "Singin' in the Rain" while taking a bath. Mr. Alexander drugs Alex, locks him in the upper floor of his home and plays Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at full volume through a powerful stereo on the floor below, knowing that the Ludovico treatment will cause immense pain to Alex. In order to escape the torture, Alex becomes suicidal throws himself out of the room's window.





Alex recovers consciousness to find himself in traction, with dreams about doctors messing around inside his head. Through a series of psychological tests, Alex finds that he no longer has a revulsion to violence. The Minister of the Interior comes to Alex and apologizes for subjecting him to the treatment, and informs him that Mr. Alexander has been " put away." The Minister then offers Alex an important government job and, as a show of goodwill, has a stereo wheeled to his bedside playing Beethoven's Ninth. Alex then realizes that instead of an adverse reaction to the music, he sees images of sexual pleasure. He then states in the voice-over narration "I was cured all right!"

Academy Awards
nominated Best Director - Stanley Kubrick
nominated Best Film Editing - Bill Butler
nominated Best Picture
nominated Best Adapted Screenplay - Stanley Kubrick





BAFTA Awards
BAFTA Film Award Best Art Direction - John Barry
Best Cinematography - John Alcott
Best Direction - Stanley Kubrick
Best Film
Best Film Editing - William Butler
Best Screenplay - Stanley Kubrick
Best Sound Track - Brian Blamey, John Jordan, Bill Rowe

Directors Guild of America
1972 Nominated DGA Award Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures - Stanley Kubrick

Golden Globes
1972 Nominated Golden Globe Best Director: Motion Picture - Stanley Kubrick
Best Motion Picture - Drama Best Motion Picture Actor: Drama - Malcolm McDowell

Hugo Awards
1972 Won Hugo Best Dramatic Presentation

New York Film Critics Circle Awards
1971 Won NYFCC Award Best Director - Stanley Kubrick
Best Film

Writers Guild of America, USA
1972 Nominated WGA Award (Screen) Best Drama Adapted from Another Medium - Stanley Kubrick

American Film Institute recognition
1998 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies #46
2001 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills #21
2003 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains:
Alex DeLarge, villain #12
2007 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) #70
2008 AFI's 10 Top 10 #4 Sci-Fi film

This is a sombre, moody, hard hitting film, with a fair anount of violence. NOT FOR THE FAINT HEARTED! After its original release Stanley Kubrick withdrew it from the UK cinema and for many years it was unobtainable. Just before its withdrawal, a defence counsel told a trial “the link between this crime and sensational films, particularly A Clockwork Orange, is established beyond reasonable doubt”. The press also blamed the film for a rape in which the attackers sang “Singin' in the Rain”. Subsequently, Kubrick asked Warner Brothers to withdraw the film from UK distribution.

Popular belief was that those copycat attacks led Kubrick to withdraw the film from distribution in the UK, however, in a television documentary, made after his death, widow Christiane confirmed rumours that he withdrew A Clockwork Orange on police advice, after threats against him and family (the source of the threats is undiscussed). That Warner Bros. acceded to his withdrawal request indicates the good business relations the director had with the studio, especially the executive Terry Semel.

The ban was vigorously pursued in Kubrick’s lifetime. One art house cinema that defied the ban in 1993, and was sued and lost, is the Scala cinema at Kings Cross, London; the same premises of present-day Scala nightclub. Unable to meet the cost of the defence, the cinema club was forced into receivership.

Whatever the reason for the film's withdrawal, for some 27 years, it was difficult to see in the UK. It reappeared in cinemas, and the first VHS and DVD releases followed soon after Kubrick’s death. On 4 July 2001, the uncut A Clockwork Orange, had its premiere broadcast on Sky TV’s Sky Box Office; the run was until mid-September 2001.

Dirty Harry is a 1971 crime thriller film produced and directed by Don Siegel, the first in the Dirty Harry series. Clint Eastwood plays the title role, in his first outing as San Francisco Police Department Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan.
Dirty Harry is also the name of a series of films and novels starring fictional San Francisco Police Department Homicide Division Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan, portrayed by Clint Eastwood. Eastwood's character also helped popularize the .44 Magnum, as Harry Callahan is famously shown wielding his Smith & Wesson Model 29 revolver.
Dirty Harry was followed by four sequels: Magnum Force in 1973, The Enforcer in 1976, Sudden Impact in 1983 directed by Eastwood himself, and The Dead Pool in 1988.

A serial killer who calls himself "Scorpio" (Andy Robinson) murders a young woman in a San

Francisco high-rise rooftop swimming pool using a high-powered rifle from the top of the 555 California Street skyscraper. When SFPD Inspector Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) investigates, he finds a spent shell casing and a ransom message from the Scorpio Killer, promising more deaths if the city does not pay him $100,000. The chief of police, with the agreement of the Mayor (John Vernon), assigns Harry to the case and arranges for extra support.

Later, Harry waits for his lunch in a local café, but notices a robbery taking place at a nearby bank and tells the café owner to call the police and report an armed robbery in progress. While he waits for reinforcements, the robbers emerge from the bank, forcing Harry to confront them alone. During the confrontation, Harry utters his famous line:

“I know what you're thinking — "Did he fire six shots or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I've kinda lost track myself. But, being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do ya, punk?”

The next day, Harry is assigned a rookie partner, Chico Gonzalez (Reni Santoni). Harry notes that his partners always get injured (or worse), and that he needs someone experienced, but the Chief gives him no choice.

A police helicopter foils Scorpio's second attempt at murder when he's targeting a black man in a park, but Scorpio escapes. The next night, he manages to kill a young boy from another rooftop. Chico proves himself when he saves Harry from a beating while Harry's investigating a briefcase matching the helicopter team's description of Scorpio's rifle case.

Since Scorpio's last victim was a black man, the police believe Scorpio will pursue a Catholic priest as his next victim, feeling "owed" one for the disruption of his earlier attempt. The police set up a sting, with teams on rooftops throughout the city, but leaving the rooftop Scorpio used in his disrupted murder attempt clear, and providing a target of opportunity, a priest at the Sts. Peter and Paul Church. Harry and Chico wait for Scorpio on an adjacent rooftop, Harry with a high-powered rifle and Chico with a spotlight. They initiate a shootout with Scorpio when he appears, but Scorpio escapes, killing a police officer.

Infuriated that his plans have twice been foiled, Scorpio kidnaps a teenage girl, rapes her and buries her alive. He contacts the city and demands twice his previous ransom, giving the city until 3 a.m. the following morning, when the girl's air will run out. The mayor decides to pay, and tells Harry to deliver the money to a location at the docks with no back-up. Without permission, Harry wears a wire, has Chico follow him and tapes a knife to his shin. When Harry reaches the drop point, Scorpio contacts him through a public pay phone, sending Callahan on a journey between various pay phones in the city, in order to separate the inspector from any back-up that he may have. However, Harry's wire allows Chico to follow him.

The chase ends when Harry reaches an enormous cross at Mount Davidson, one of the city's parks. Scorpio instructs Harry to drop his gun and the money, then to face the cross and stand up against it. Scorpio then proceeds to beat Harry before revealing that he has "changed his mind" and is going to let the girl die anyway, and kill Harry as well. Chico, thanks to the wireless microphone, arrives at the scene and ambushes Scorpio, firing at him and saving Harry. Chico is shot in the ensuing shootout. While Scorpio is distracted, Harry stabs him in the leg with his concealed knife. Scorpio screams hysterically and escapes without the money. Chico survives his wound, but tells Harry he will be resigning from the force.

Harry and his new partner, Frank DiGiorgio, question several doctors in the area. They find the doctor who treated Scorpio. The doctor tells them that he has seen Scorpio living and working in nearby Kezar Stadium. Running out of time, Harry and Frank break into the stadium and search Scorpio's room without a warrant. Harry hears Scorpio fleeing and chases him, shooting Scorpio in his previously stabbed leg. When Scorpio is unwilling to reveal the location of the girl, instead asking for a lawyer, Harry tortures Scorpio by standing on his wounded leg. Scorpio finally tells where he has been keeping the girl. A brief scene shows police exhuming the dead girl the following morning from a pit on a hill overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge.

Because Harry broke into his home illegally and tortured him to obtain a confession, Scorpio is released without charge. As Scorpio's rifle was seized improperly, it cannot be used as evidence and the District Attorney decides that he cannot be charged with any of the other murders. After Scorpio's release, Harry follows Scorpio on his own time. Scorpio sees Harry following him, and pays a thug to give him a severe but controlled beating. He then tells the press that the police are harassing him, personally naming Harry as the one responsible for his injuries to the press. The police chief orders Harry to stop following Scorpio, despite Harry's protest that he didn't beat the man, because despite his injuries "he looks too damn good". However, he follows his orders, knowing he cannot stop Scorpio if he is suspended or fired. On the next evening, Scorpio attacks a liquor store owner, takes the store owner's pistol and leaves.

Using the pistol, Scorpio kidnaps a school bus load of children. He demands another ransom and a jet to take him out of the country. The mayor again insists on paying, but Harry refuses to deliver the money this time, instead pursuing Scorpio without authorization. Scorpio spots Callahan standing on the top of a railroad trestle over the road to the airport. When the bus passes underneath him, Callahan jumps onto the top of the vehicle. A panicked Scorpio starts shooting through the roof and drives the bus erratically, trying to shake Harry off. Scorpio stops the bus after crashing through some gates while swerving to avoid a truck. The children escape while Scorpio runs into a nearby rock quarry.

Harry pursues Scorpio, resulting in a gun battle. Scorpio retreats until he takes as hostage a boy who happens to be fishing at a nearby slough. Harry pretends to be willing to surrender, then shoots Scorpio in the shoulder, knocking him to the ground. The boy escapes, and Scorpio looks up to see Harry standing over him, gun drawn. Scorpio's pistol is inches from his hand. Harry then reprises his now-famous "Do you feel lucky, punk?" speech. Unlike the bank robber in the earlier scene, Scorpio tries his luck and, laughing maniacally, grabs for his gun.

Before he can fire, Harry shoots him in the chest, and Scorpio falls into the water.Harry watches as Scorpio's body floats on the surface. He takes out his inspector's badge, and hurls it into the water, walking away

The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (often just called The Lodger) is a 1927 silent film directed by Alfred Hitchcock It concerns the hunt for a "Jack the Ripper" type serial killer in London. The wrong man is accused of the crime and is forced to try to prove his innocence.
Hitchcock once told François Truffaut that he considered this his first film, although it was the third film directed by Hitchcock.

Hitchcock's assistant director Alma Reville, would become his wife a few months before the film was released.


A serial killer known as "the avenger" is murdering blonde women in London. A new lodger, Jonathan Drew, arrives at Mr. and Mrs. Bounting's in Bloomsbury and rents a room. The man has some strange habits, he goes out during foggy nights and keeps a picture of a blonde girl in his bedroom. The Bounting's daughter, Daisy, is a blonde model and she is engaged to Joe, a detective. When Joe finds out that Bounting suspects Jonathan, he is jealous of the lodger flirting with Daisy and arrests the man accusing him of being the avenger.

Alfred Hitchcock cameo: Alfred Hitchcock appears sitting at a desk in the newsroom with his back to the camera (3 minutes into the film). This is Alfred Hitchcock's first recognizable film cameo and was to become a standard practice for the remainder of his films.

Strangers on a Train (1950) is a psychological thriller novel by Patricia Highsmith. It was adapted as a film in 1951 by director Alfred Hitchcock.

Architect Guy Haines wants to divorce his unfaithful wife, Miriam, in order to marry the woman he loves, Anne Faulkner. While on a train to see his wife, he meets Charles Anthony Bruno, who develops his idea to exchange murders: Bruno will kill Miriam if Guy kills Bruno's father; neither of them will have a motive, and the police will have no reason to suspect either of them. Guy does not take Bruno seriously, but Bruno kills Guy's wife while Guy is away in Mexico.

Bruno informs Guy of his crime, but Guy hesitates to turn him in to the police. He realizes that Bruno could always claim Guy's complicity in the planned exchange murders, and the longer he remains silent, the more he implicates himself. This implicit guilt becomes stronger as in the coming months, Bruno makes appearances demanding that Guy honor his part of the bargain. After Bruno starts writing anonymous letters to Guy's friends and colleagues, the pressure becomes too big, and Guy murders Bruno's father.

Subsequently, Guy is consumed by guilt, whereas Bruno seeks Guy's company as if nothing had happened. He makes an uninvited appearance at Guy's wedding, causing a scene. At the same time, a private detective, who suspects Bruno of having arranged the murder of his father, establishes the connection between Bruno and Guy that began with the train ride, and suspects Bruno of Miriam's murder. Guy also becomes implicated due to his contradictions about the acquaintance with Bruno.

When Bruno falls overboard during a sailing cruise, Guy identifies so strongly with Bruno that he tries to rescue him under threat to his own life. Nevertheless, Bruno drowns, and the murder investigation is closed. Guy, however, is plagued by guilt, and confesses the double murder to Miriam's former lover. This man, however, does not condemn Guy; rather, he considers the killings as appropriate punishment for the unfaithfulness. The detective who had been investigating the murders overhears Guy's confession, however, and arrests him.

I hope that these reviews have brought back some happy film going memories, and that you will be tempted to revisit some of the films I have reviewed, or if you haven't seen some of the films you will be tempted to make the effort to view some of them. They will repay your time with their entertainment value!

Happy Viewing!