crimeonfilm.com
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Their Mileage May Vary: Thundering Down ‘Plunder Road’
I took James Ellroy’s advice — it didn’t come directly from him, you understand — and checked out “Plunder Road,” one of his all-time favorite crime films that was included in Monday’s post. It’s a great-looking, pared-down gritty drama made in 1957, obviously on a small budget. The cast includes the great Elisha Cook Jr.,…
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High School Noir: Crime is an Extracurricular Activity
Brendan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) makes a secret phone call in ‘Brick’ (2005). It’s remarkable how well life at a typical suburban high school can resemble the plot of a classic film noir. That’s the conceit behind “Brick,” the 2005 Rian Johnson feature he wrote and directed. High school outsider Brendan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) searches for his missing…
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‘Snatch’: A Well Oiled Machine About … What?
Turkish (Jason Statham), Mickey O;Neil (Brad Pitt) and Tommy (Stephen Graham) in ‘Snatch.’ The problem with “Snatch,” Guy Ritchie’s crime drama/comedy that looks at life through the eyes of Turkish (Jason Statham), a London promoter of unlicensed boxing matches, is that the film’s not really about anything. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty that happens plot-wise.…
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All Aboard Guy Ritchie’s Quick-Cut, Malevolent Joy Ride
Normally I write here about movies and TV shows I’ve seen. But two Netflix discs have been sitting unwatched on my coffee table for nearly three weeks. It’s been my cuckoo writing schedule that prevents me from hunkering down and watching stuff I’d like to see. The two on-deck films are both Guy Ritchie-directed movies,…
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The Bad, The Horrible And The Unbalanced
They say good villains make good drama. Here are my Top 5 favorite crime film villains. These five are particularly memorable as some of the screen’s finest psychopaths. They look and sound normal at first. But if you cross them, things quickly become unpleasant. 1.) Max Cady (Robert Mitchum) “Cape Fear” Max turns the crazy…
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The Humanity of a ‘Mad Dog’ in ‘High Sierra’
In “High Sierra” (1941), Humphrey Bogart is Roy “Mad Dog” Earle, an ex-con who is full of contradictions. Earle, apparently a hardened criminal, gets sprung from prison, and the first place he wants to go is to a park, where the grass is growing underfoot and he can breathe the fresh air. He may be…
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Tabloid Photog Had Eye For Public Drama
“He will take his camera and ride off in search of new evidence that his city, even in her most drunken and disorderly and pathetic moments, is beautiful.” – William McCleery in ‘Naked City’ New York shutterbug Arthur Fellig, AKA “Weegee” (June 12, 1899 – Dec. 26, 1968) didn’t invent tabloid photography, but he turned…
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Gangsters And Grifters: Know Your Favorite Betes Noire
I’ve seen lots of stories online these days about film noir, and that may mean that there’s an uptick in noir interest among movie fans. The question is: What exactly is a film noir, and how do you know if the movie you’re watching is one? Here are a few of my own guidelines to…
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Get ‘Ruthless’ Via Online Streaming, Or Get Gone
The New York Times will report in its Sunday edition that Edgar G. Ulmer’s “Ruthless”(1948), is available to stream from Netflix in its full 105 minute version, rather than the 88-minute public domain cut that’s been the only version available for years. Ulmer is also known for classic noirs “Detour” (1945) and “The Black Cat”…
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Wacky Neighbor Whitey Coming To A Sitcom Near You?
Everybody Loves Whitey Twentieth Century Fox has made a deal with writer-producer Peter Mehlman for a new comedy pilot about a young couple who get a new neighbor: notorious mobster Whitey Bulger. That makes a great deal of sense because Whitey was a million laughs. Just ask the people he extorted money from and terrorized.…