Favorite Films (lists up to participating site members)

[Mayerling]

I'm waiting to see what Jeff chooses first for a film set in Northern Ireland.

Hi Robert,

I feel a little ashamed of myself here. The only film I can think of is the following for "Northern Ireland" specifically - but it is a great movie.

Northern Ireland:

01. Odd Man Out (James Mason, Robert Newton - director, Carol Reed).

It remains the only film I know of set in Belfast.

Jef

[Robert]

Jeff, I thought you might have mentioned "Oh Mr Porter" and Buggleskelly.

[Mayerling]

Jeff, I thought you might have mentioned "Oh Mr Porter" and Buggleskelly.

Alas I forgot that classic. Ah yes, "Buggleskelly" and the train engine, "Gladstone" - "Good for another 100 years!!!"

Jeff

[RockySullivan]

Can anyone recommend some older less known gangster movies. Some that I like a lot are "show them no mercy" w Cesar Romero,
The rise and fall of legs diamond 1960
Lucky Luciano 1973
Al capone 1959 with rod steiger


Anyone know some good precode gangster movies that aren't talked about much or anything from the 30s through the 70s

[DJA]

Anyone know some good precode gangster movies that aren't talked about much or anything from the 30s through the 70s

Scarface 1932

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:1930s_crime_drama_films

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:1940s_crime_drama_films

[Rosella]

Have you seen 'I am a Fugitive from a Chain gang' with Paul Muni? Not exactly a gangster movie but very good. 'City Streets' with a very young Gary Cooper was released in 1931. I like all the early James Cagney gangster movies, including 'The Public Enemy'.

[RockySullivan]

Of course scarface is of the three greatest films ever made and yes I've seen all the early cagney movies many many many times. I'm looking for the more rare forgotten stuff, and thanks DJa I do frequently reference those wiki pages when looking for films they are helpful

[RockySullivan]

Also I love love love fugitive it's amazing and one if the best. Muni should've done more gangster roles. Bordertown is great along w angel on my shoulder. I will have to watch city street although I don't care for cooper much. I've wanted to see the finger points for sometime but can't track it down (gable). Underworld (1927) is really great silent gang pic

[Mayerling]

Unfairly Obscure movies about gangsters or gangster warfare:

01. The Earl of Chicago (Robert Montgomery, Edward Arnold) - interesting take on the idea of a mob boss from the states turning out to be the heir for an English Earldom. The film, by the way, borrows an actual 18th Century criminal case for it's resolution.

02. Ride the Pink Horse (Montgomery, Thomas Gomez, Wanda Hendrix, Fred Clark) - small time punk crook tries to blackmail big time crime boss. One of the films Montgomery starred in and directed. Gomez is a good guy in this.

03. Brighton Rock - (Richard Attenborough, William Hartnell). Excellent film (based on a terrific Graham Greene novel) about a teenage hood with big ideas in taking over the criminal underworld in Brighton, England. The novel is a little different in the conclusion, but this still packs a terrific wallop.

04. A Slight Case of Murder (Edward G. Robinson, Harold Huber, Allan Jenkins). One of three or four comedies about gangsters (especially those trying to turn legitimate) Robinson did in the 1930s and 1940s. As Remy Marko he is trying to save his crumbling illegal prohibition empire with the coming of repeal! In the process he has to deal with his only child (a daughter) falling for a blue blood in the state police, a juvenile delinquent he is taking to his home for the weekend to experience the better life that could be his if he reformed (catch his phrase, "When you see a man in woe, go to him and say "Hello!"."), and four corpses deposited on his house grounds that he has to hide from his prospective son-in-law's dubious father (Paul Harvey, in a very funny performance).

05. The Whole Town Is Talking (Robinson, Jean Arthur, Ed Brophy, Donald Meek) - the first film Robinson ever made with John Ford (he would not make another one with Ford until the 1960s with "Cheyenne Autumn"). This too is a comedy, wherein Robinson is "public enemy number 1" looking to get out of the limelight and retire with his ill-gotten gains, and a milquetoast clerk (who works with Arthur) that the crime boss discovers is a twin, and a potential dead substitute for the cops. The movie did not do well at the box office (it was sort of off Robinson's usual tough guys and Ford's work in westerns and Irish based films) but it is good. Meek, as a greedy third party out for the reward for the crime boss is very good.

06. Crisscross (Burt Lancaster, Dan Duryea, Yvonne DeCarlo). I was watching this last night and it still stands up. DeCarlo has been married to Lancaster, but their temperments clashed and the marriage ended. Now she is hooked up to Duryea, a gang leader. Lancaster has started seeing DeCarlo again, but tells Duryea he has a plan for a major armor car robbery heist (Lancaster works for the armor car company). The tensions between the three leads keep the film hopping, and the robbery itself is well done, including a gun battle in an atmosphere of tear gas. Directed by Jules Daissin, who would now start looking at films of clever robberies that are ruined by personality clashes (think of "Rififi" and "Topkapi"). Note the retired brain hired to plan the robbery - we know him as "Alfred Pennyworth", Bruce Wayne's butler in the 1960s show "Batman (Alan Napier).

07. Breakout (William Bendix, William Talmadge, Arthur Kennedy) - a bunch of hardened criminals, prison lifers, break out of a maximum security prison to get their freedom. Bendix, the meanest of the bunch, planned and led the escape, but has been wounded in the escape. Still alive, he insists the group stick together (he realizes if it splits he's doomed). We watch as the gangsters are wiped out one by one due to this impossible situation. In a way, this film is a prison - crime version of the old World War II film, "49th Parallel" with the prisoners replacing the survivors of the U-boot crew killed at the beginning. They too are picked off one by one, with their arrogant leader insisting on discipline (including executing one man who tried to leave the group to join a bunch of pacifists). Same idea here.

Jeff

[DJA]

"Criss Cross" had some dude named James Curtis in it.

He married Janet Leigh.

Better known as Tony Curtis.

"Crashout" is the 1955 Bendix,Talman,Kennedy movie.

[Mayerling]

"Criss Cross" had some dude named James Curtis in it.

He married Janet Leigh.

Better known as Tony Curtis.

"Crashout" is the 1955 Bendix,Talman,Kennedy movie.

Hi DJA,

Curtis has a dance with Yvonne DeCarlo at the beginning of the film.

Sorry I thought the film was "Breakout". It is "Crashout".

Jeff

[DJA]

Curtis has a dance with Yvonne DeCarlo at the beginning of the film.

Jeff

Esy Morales and His Latin American Orchestra playing "Jungle Fantasy".

He was on the flute.

[Joshua Rogan]

Another two : Tunes of Glory (John Mills and Alec Guinness)
The Wicker Man (Christopher Lee)

I'd not heard of Tunes of Glory before, but by a strange coincidence have just caught it on TV. Good call.

[RockySullivan]

Unfairly Obscure movies about gangsters or gangster warfare:

01. The Earl of Chicago (Robert Montgomery, Edward Arnold) - interesting take on the idea of a mob boss from the states turning out to be the heir for an English Earldom. The film, by the way, borrows an actual 18th Century criminal case for it's resolution.

02. Ride the Pink Horse (Montgomery, Thomas Gomez, Wanda Hendrix, Fred Clark) - small time punk crook tries to blackmail big time crime boss. One of the films Montgomery starred in and directed. Gomez is a good guy in this.

03. Brighton Rock - (Richard Attenborough, William Hartnell). Excellent film (based on a terrific Graham Greene novel) about a teenage hood with big ideas in taking over the criminal underworld in Brighton, England. The novel is a little different in the conclusion, but this still packs a terrific wallop.

04. A Slight Case of Murder (Edward G. Robinson, Harold Huber, Allan Jenkins). One of three or four comedies about gangsters (especially those trying to turn legitimate) Robinson did in the 1930s and 1940s. As Remy Marko he is trying to save his crumbling illegal prohibition empire with the coming of repeal! In the process he has to deal with his only child (a daughter) falling for a blue blood in the state police, a juvenile delinquent he is taking to his home for the weekend to experience the better life that could be his if he reformed (catch his phrase, "When you see a man in woe, go to him and say "Hello!"."), and four corpses deposited on his house grounds that he has to hide from his prospective son-in-law's dubious father (Paul Harvey, in a very funny performance).

05. The Whole Town Is Talking (Robinson, Jean Arthur, Ed Brophy, Donald Meek) - the first film Robinson ever made with John Ford (he would not make another one with Ford until the 1960s with "Cheyenne Autumn"). This too is a comedy, wherein Robinson is "public enemy number 1" looking to get out of the limelight and retire with his ill-gotten gains, and a milquetoast clerk (who works with Arthur) that the crime boss discovers is a twin, and a potential dead substitute for the cops. The movie did not do well at the box office (it was sort of off Robinson's usual tough guys and Ford's work in westerns and Irish based films) but it is good. Meek, as a greedy third party out for the reward for the crime boss is very good.

06. Crisscross (Burt Lancaster, Dan Duryea, Yvonne DeCarlo). I was watching this last night and it still stands up. DeCarlo has been married to Lancaster, but their temperments clashed and the marriage ended. Now she is hooked up to Duryea, a gang leader. Lancaster has started seeing DeCarlo again, but tells Duryea he has a plan for a major armor car robbery heist (Lancaster works for the armor car company). The tensions between the three leads keep the film hopping, and the robbery itself is well done, including a gun battle in an atmosphere of tear gas. Directed by Jules Daissin, who would now start looking at films of clever robberies that are ruined by personality clashes (think of "Rififi" and "Topkapi"). Note the retired brain hired to plan the robbery - we know him as "Alfred Pennyworth", Bruce Wayne's butler in the 1960s show "Batman (Alan Napier).

07. Breakout (William Bendix, William Talmadge, Arthur Kennedy) - a bunch of hardened criminals, prison lifers, break out of a maximum security prison to get their freedom. Bendix, the meanest of the bunch, planned and led the escape, but has been wounded in the escape. Still alive, he insists the group stick together (he realizes if it splits he's doomed). We watch as the gangsters are wiped out one by one due to this impossible situation. In a way, this film is a prison - crime version of the old World War II film, "49th Parallel" with the prisoners replacing the survivors of the U-boot crew killed at the beginning. They too are picked off one by one, with their arrogant leader insisting on discipline (including executing one man who tried to leave the group to join a bunch of pacifists). Same idea here.

Jeff

Thanks those are great suggestions. I will check them out. Love those two EGRs ( I've seen all his gang pics think). Whole towns talking is such a classic movie. Have you seen hell on frisco bay? That's a great one. What about dark hazard? I love that one. Have you seen the karloff movie night world? It's real good about a nightclub he's the owner. Raft in night after night is similar and maybe my fav of his starring roles. The pick up is great too and you and me I love real good fritz lang gangster pic. The way the dame works out how crime doesn't pay is such a great scene

[GUT]

I don't think I've seen anything by Edward G that i didn't like.