Here’s a treat – on November 26, Turner Classic Movies is celebrating Cops and Robbers with a feast of crime movies. I especially recommend:
- The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974): A criminal mastermind (Robert Shaw) and his gang of commandos capture a NYC subway train and ransom the passengers; the transit authority police commander (Walter Matthau) must match wits. Excellent cast includes Hector Elizondo and Martin Balsam. I prefer this original to the 2009 remake.
- Every police procedural from 1948 through today’s Law and Order and CSI owes something to the prototypical The Naked City (1948). Tenacious New York City cops solve a murder amid gritty streets and shady characters. Unusual for the time, it was shot on location. Directed by noir great Jules Dassin, The Naked City won Oscars for black and white cinematography and film editing.
- Bullitt (1968) features Steve McQueen and one of cinema’s most iconic and influential chase scenes. McQueen’s 1968 Ford Mustang Fastback and the bad guy’s 1968 Dodge Charger careen through San Francisco, taking almost 11 minutes to race from Fisherman’s Wharf to Brisbane. Classic.
- The French make really good crime dramas, and Rififi (1955) is a standard-setting heist film. After the team is assembled and the job is plotted, the actual crime unfolds in real-time – over thirty minutes of nerve wracking silence.
- In The Asphalt Jungle (1950), the crooks assemble a team and pull off the big heist…and then things begin to go wrong. There aren’t many noirs with better casting – the crooks include Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Sam Jaffe and James Whitmore. The 23-year-old Marilyn Monroe plays Calhern’s companion in her first real speaking part. How noir is it? Even the cop who breaks the case goes to jail. Directed by the great John Huston.
- If you like your film noir tawdry, then Gun Crazy (1950) is for you. Peggy Cummins plays a prototypical Bad Girl who takes her newlywed hubby on a crime spree.
