Crime Wave The Filmgoers' Guide to the Great Crime Movies

by Hughes, Howard

• ISBN13: 9781845112196
• ISBN10: 1845112199
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-08-22
• Publisher: I. B. Tauris

Summary

One of Hollywood's most triumphant successes is the crime movie. Crime Wave offers an authoritative and entertaining guide to the crime movie genre from its beginnings to the present, charting its history, its sub-genres, and its developments. The book focuses on the most interesting and influential films, from Little Caesar, The Maltese Falcon, Point Blank, and The Godfather trilogy to L.A. Confidential, Ocean's Eleven , and many others. Crime Wave covers gangster and heist movies, blaxploitation, noir, murder mystery, and vigilante and buddy cop movies. Hughes explores each film's sources and influences, its impact on the crime genre and current fashion, including spin-offs, copies and sequels, themes, style, and box office fortunes. Detailed cast lists are provided for each of the main films, as are biographies and filmographies of the key personnel, along with background details of the films' production, locations, and sets.

Author Biography

Howard Hughes is the author of Once Upon a Time in the Italian West (I.B.Tauris, 2005) and The Pocket Essentials Guide to Spaghetti Westerns.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Acknowledgements	ix
Criminal Record: An Introduction to Crime Movies	xi
Crime Wave Top Tens	xxvii
`I ain't so tough'
The Public Enemy (1931)	1	(10)
`Just rushing towards death'
High Sierra (1941)	11	(8)
`The shortest farewells are best'
The Maltese Falcon (1941)	19	(9)
`Made it Ma! Top of the world!'
White Heat (1949)	28	(8)
`If you want fresh air, don't look for it in this town'
The Asphalt Jungle (1950)	36	(10)
`The liar's kiss that says I love you'
Kiss Me Deadly (1955)	46	(8)
`First is first and second is nobody'
The Big Combo (1955)	54	(9)
`Somebody's got to pay'
Point Blank (1967)	63	(10)
`We ain't heading nowhere, we're just running from'
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)	73	(10)
`We have all the time in the world'
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)	83	(10)
`I'm visiting relatives... a death in the family'
Get Carter (1971)	93	(11)
`We're all on the hustle'
Shaft (1971)	104	(9)
`Do I feel lucky?'
Dirty Harry (1971)	113	(11)
`I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse'
The Godfather (1972)	124	(11)
`Forget it, Jake, it's...'
Chinatown (1974)	135	(9)
`Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer'
The Godfather Part II (1974)	144	(11)
`Fat Moe's bone-yard boys'
Once Upon a Time in America (1984)	155	(10)
`There's no more heroes left in the world'
Lethal Weapon (1987)	165	(9)
`I always wanted to be a gangster'
GoodFellas (1990)	174	(10)
`Mon amour...I'aventure commence'
Pulp Fiction (1994)	184	(10)
`Off the record, on the QT and very hush-hush'
L.A. Confidential (1997)	194	(10)
`You're either in or you're out'
Ocean's Eleven (2001)	204	(9)
Crimography: the Crime Wave Filmography	213	(8)
Bibliography and Sources	221	(4)
Index	225