70s Crime Movies

I often get hooked on a genre and then keep going back to the well. I'm just starting to jump into the 2nd-tier of 70s crime films (stuff beyond The Godfather, Dirty Harry, The French Connection, Chinatown, Mean Streets and the like) so I'd love some recommendations from anyone else who has seen a lot from this era. These aren't the kind of films that get much mention nowadays so I'm sure there's plenty of obscure gems.

Here's some of what I've seen to narrow it down and give a better idea of what I'm looking for:

Straw Dogs
Get Carter
Frenzy
Super Fly
The Getaway
Badlands
Serpico
Coffy
Night Moves
Foxy Brown
Death Wish
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
Dog Day Afternoon
Assault on Precinct 13

I'm happy to see you've got GET CARTER listed...that's an incredible film that gets overlooked way too much.

Looks like you've definitely hit the highlights for the most part...I would definitely add:

BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA- an incredible Peckinpah film, I like it better than either STRAW DOGS or THE GETAWAY. Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino have made careers ripping off this picture. Warren Oates is fuckin' great in it. Pure grit.

LONG GOOD FRIDAY- I saw this film for the first time recently and it blew me away. It's up there with GET CARTER for the "best British crime film" prize. Bob Hoskins is absolutely sensastional in it as British mobster Harry Shand. Helen Mirren gives a great performance as well that really bucks the "boy's club" tone of most crime films. I think it's a masterpiece...it's from 1980, so it's like right at the end of the crime film's glory days.

SEVEN UPS- This is a terribly overlooked 1973 crime picture from Philip D'Antoni, better known as the producer of the FRENCH CONNECTION films. It's not as good as those (well, nowhere near as good as the first one at least) but Roy Scheider pretty much plays exactly the same character with a different name- I believe the story was actually written by the guy that Cloudy was based on. Grit, action, and a bad ass car chase make this a cool 70s crime film underdog. And it reminds us that Roy Scheider was a pretty great tough guy.

BULLITT- I noticed you didn't have it on there, and yeah, it's '67 but it was one of the films that really set the tone for some of these films. And it's a great one- McQueen's understated balance between "good cop" and "anti-authoritarian" make for an interesting picture, and of course the car chase is one of the best. And that unbelievablely beautiful green mustang...

SHAFT- It's another one I didn't see on there, but if you haven't seen it, it is a must-see. I like some of the junkier blaxploitation films just like anybody, but this is one of the more high-minded ones and it's a great cop picture and one of the 1970s' best. SUPERFLY is also recommended along these lines as well- it isn't as campy and silly as its reputation suggestions, it's actually a fairly serious film- and oh man, that Curtis Mayfield soundtrack.

POINT BLANK- going back to '67 again, but it's a critical film in tracking the influence of French New Wave on crime cinema in the late 60s and 1970s. Some of the impact of it is out of context now, but at the time some of the elements in it were very, very avant garde and totally unconventional. It was in some as radical as a David Lynch film is now. Lee Marvin is a ghostly (???) killer trying to get revenge for a heist gone wrong. Some interesting subtleties and great filmmaking make this a must-see- and it's John Boorman's first film, maybe you remember him from EXCALIBUR and DELIVERANCE? I'm almost 100% certain that a large part of the comic book 100 BULLETS came from this film.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head...but I'd definitely recommend (if you want to go off an a tangent) some of the Jean Pierre-Melville crime films...RED CIRCLE in particular is an amazing film from 1970 and LE SAMOURAI is pretty much the blueprint for the "cool killer" archetype. Some of the 1980s Hong Kong stuff has a definite feel similar to the 1970s Hollywood stuff- A BETTER TOMMORROW in particular.

But really...after THE FRENCH CONNECTION, GET CARTER, and DOG DAY AFTERNOON all these pictures are second fiddle to me.

I have watched some of those (Shaft, Bullitt, Le Samurai). That reminds me... I also was going to watch more Steve McQueen movies.

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia was on TV about two weeks ago. I watched the first few minutes (up to the *CRACK!*) but I turned it off since I didn't want to ruin the experience with constant commercial interruptions. It looked like it would be right up my alley.

I'll definitely keep my eye out for Point Blank. My library has a pretty good selection of these sorts of titles.

Michael Barnes wrote:

BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA- an incredible Peckinpah film, I like it better than either STRAW DOGS or THE GETAWAY. Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino have made careers ripping off this picture. Warren Oates is fuckin' great in it. Pure grit.

This one's in my queue. Peckinpah made some manly fucking movies. It's like watching a Marlboro ad. It's not genre per se, but you should see THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN too. Ernest Borgnine is a goddamn champion.

LONG GOOD FRIDAY- I saw this film for the first time recently and it blew me away. It's up there with GET CARTER for the "best British crime film" prize. Bob Hoskins is absolutely sensastional in it as British mobster Harry Shand. Helen Mirren gives a great performance as well that really bucks the "boy's club" tone of most crime films. I think it's a masterpiece...it's from 1980, so it's like right at the end of the crime film's glory days.

Meeeeeeyahhhhghghgllbmle, no. You could do without this one. I'm going to say the same thing about POINT BLANK, which makes Barnes shit, so take that as you will. I thought this film lacked energy compared to the American 70's crime thrillers. In the wake of THE FRENCH CONNECTION, it's tough to look awesome, but there are better choices.

SEVEN UPS- This is a terribly overlooked 1973 crime picture from Philip D'Antoni, better known as the producer of the FRENCH CONNECTION films. It's not as good as those (well, nowhere near as good as the first one at least) but Roy Scheider pretty much plays exactly the same character with a different name- I believe the story was actually written by the guy that Cloudy was based on. Grit, action, and a bad ass car chase make this a cool 70s crime film underdog. And it reminds us that Roy Scheider was a pretty great tough guy.

Also in my queue. THE FRENCH CONNECTION is so good I'll see them remake it nine times.

BULLITT- I noticed you didn't have it on there, and yeah, it's '67 but it was one of the films that really set the tone for some of these films. And it's a great one- McQueen's understated balance between "good cop" and "anti-authoritarian" make for an interesting picture, and of course the car chase is one of the best. And that unbelievablely beautiful green mustang...

Agreed. Watch BULLITT. It practically invented the genre and completely revolutionized the car chase. What's the "bad guy"'s car... a Charger? That thing's fucking awesome too. Steve McQueen is made of man.

SHAFT- It's another one I didn't see on there, but if you haven't seen it, it is a must-see. I like some of the junkier blaxploitation films just like anybody, but this is one of the more high-minded ones and it's a great cop picture and one of the 1970s' best. SUPERFLY is also recommended along these lines as well- it isn't as campy and silly as its reputation suggestions, it's actually a fairly serious film- and oh man, that Curtis Mayfield soundtrack.

Nah, SHAFT is forgettable when compared to the greats on this thread. It's not "avoid", but don't knock yourself out trying to find a good transfer. SUPERFLY is better than SHAFT.

POINT BLANK- going back to '67 again, but it's a critical film in tracking the influence of French New Wave on crime cinema in the late 60s and 1970s. Some of the impact of it is out of context now, but at the time some of the elements in it were very, very avant garde and totally unconventional. It was in some as radical as a David Lynch film is now. Lee Marvin is a ghostly (???) killer trying to get revenge for a heist gone wrong. Some interesting subtleties and great filmmaking make this a must-see- and it's John Boorman's first film, maybe you remember him from EXCALIBUR and DELIVERANCE? I'm almost 100% certain that a large part of the comic book 100 BULLETS came from this film.

Ugh, do not want. I didn't like this film--too much new wave for me. France was making awesome crime movies about 15 years before the US, and moved on to JULES ET JIM and other cinematic artistry. Boorman decided to merge those two streams and got a poorly paced existential mess. It's pretty cool to see Angie Dickinson beat the shit out of Lee Marvin, but that can only carry me so far.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head...but I'd definitely recommend (if you want to go off an a tangent) some of the Jean Pierre-Melville crime films...RED CIRCLE in particular is an amazing film from 1970 and LE SAMOURAI is pretty much the blueprint for the "cool killer" archetype. Some of the 1980s Hong Kong stuff has a definite feel similar to the 1970s Hollywood stuff- A BETTER TOMMORROW in particular.

But really...after THE FRENCH CONNECTION, GET CARTER, and DOG DAY AFTERNOON all these pictures are second fiddle to me.

I'm agreed on all recommendations there, and I'll toss in some more.

Go back a little earlier and you can see Stanley Kubrick's THE KILLING. It's a RESERVOIR DOGS style tale of a caper in reverse and awesomely well told. From across the sea you can find RIFIFI, an amazing heist movie with an extended job scene that has to be seen. Also QUAI DES ORFEVRES, another French classic.

Back in the US, you have DIRTY HARRY a wishful-thinking retelling of the Zodiac's rampage. Is FRENCH CONNECTION II on your seen list? It should be, it's also excellent. A slower boil can be found in MARATHON MAN. That's another classic that will have you quoting its signature line for years. I have a soft spot in my heart for DAY OF THE JACKAL, but that hasn't aged well, I bet--I haven't seen it in years. THE PARALLAX VIEW and ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN depict crimes of a grander scale than you see in the cop dramas most of these films are.

I love old crime movies. What about foreign films?

My favorite is a 5 film series called "The Yakuza Papers" by Kinji Fukasaku. He's best known now probably for his final film "Battle Royal", but he made this series of films in the 70s. They've been called the Japanese Godfather films, but that really doesn't do them enough justice. His crime movies are gritty, bloody, and real. He also took the wind out of a culture that idolized the "honor" of the gangster...and strove (successfully) in his movies to show that the only people who have any honor in the Yakuza world are the foot soldiers...the bosses are like anyone else in power who will sell you out and leave you for dead to further their interests.

The biggest problem with the movies is their accessiblity...there is a huge lineup of characters each with their own intrigues going on...and everyone in the movie is a japanese guy with sunglasses on which makes things confusing. But the DVD comes with a fold out chart to help you along...and after a couple viewings the plots become very clear. Thats OK though theres plenty of action and cool events to hold you through initial viewings without worrying too much over plot.

After several viewings I can't get enough of these movies, and the DVD set has become one of my most prized DVDs.

So many great films listed. The only others I can think of are borderline stuff like Taxi Driver, The Wicker Man and The Conversation. On the ultra obscure side, there are the films of Fernando Di Leo.

I never got to see these crime movies in the theater when I was a kid, though my parents did let me go see some kung fu movies back then. I'd kinda forgotten what I missed out on, though I did pick up a cheap collection of blaxploitation movies at Best Buy a couple of years ago: Bad Brothas, Mean Muthas. All four movies are pretty bad, but fun in an MST4K sorta way. The movies are: Mean Johnny Barrows, Final Comedown, Lady Cocoa, and Velvet Smooth. The stars include Billy Dee Williams, Elliot Gould, Roddy McDowall, and Mean Joe Greene.

VELVET SMOOTH? Whoa...is it as good as COOL BREEZE?

Glad to see THE CONVERSATION mentioned...that's an _amazing_ picture. Coppola made it between GODFATHER and GODFATHER II and it has a totally different style. Hackman is awesome in it (as a surveillance nerd) and there's some really compelling use of sound.

THE KILLING,that's another great pick.

DAY OF THE JACKAL...man, that movie just doesn't hold up. I still love it, but it's just so dated and kludgy compared to similiar movies that have followed it. I also hate that it has the whole "foreign people speak with British accents" thing going on. I guess the film was kind of on the cusp between an older style of filmmaking and the more gritty, verite style of the 1970s. Maybe if it had come on a little later it would have been more timeless and relevant. I think it could be remade successfully...and not as THE JACKAL.

Jeb, I'm not going to fight you over POINT BLANK ever again. Let's hug each other over RIFIFI, OK?

Michael Barnes wrote:

Jeb, I'm not going to fight you over POINT BLANK ever again. Let's hug each other over RIFIFI, OK?

Mais bien sur.

I want to make sure THE CONVERSATION gets seen by everyone that wanders into this thread. It's fucking dynamite. You could do a nice Gov't-Out-To-Get-Us marathon with THE CONVERSATION, THE PARALLAX VIEW, and ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN.

This thread inspired me to watch Lady Cocoa again this last weekend. And it was terrible. Lady Cocoa herself was pretty annoying, and there is absolutely zero action for the first hour. The only redeeming quality in the whole mess was that Best Buy inserted some random but great instrumental piece on the disc for the menu screen music, but it sounded at least 20 years newer than the movie. And while the movie was a little grainy-looking, the audio track was almost murky at times. If I hadn't been watching it with friends, I would have dozed off into merciful slumber before the end of the first reel.

Kriz wrote:

I love old crime movies. What about foreign films?

My favorite is a 5 film series called "The Yakuza Papers" by Kinji Fukasaku. He's best known now probably for his final film "Battle Royal", but he made this series of films in the 70s. They've been called the Japanese Godfather films, but that really doesn't do them enough justice. His crime movies are gritty, bloody, and real. He also took the wind out of a culture that idolized the "honor" of the gangster...and strove (successfully) in his movies to show that the only people who have any honor in the Yakuza world are the foot soldiers...the bosses are like anyone else in power who will sell you out and leave you for dead to further their interests.

The biggest problem with the movies is their accessiblity...there is a huge lineup of characters each with their own intrigues going on...and everyone in the movie is a japanese guy with sunglasses on which makes things confusing. But the DVD comes with a fold out chart to help you along...and after a couple viewings the plots become very clear. Thats OK though theres plenty of action and cool events to hold you through initial viewings without worrying too much over plot.

After several viewings I can't get enough of these movies, and the DVD set has become one of my most prized DVDs.

God damnit. You beat me to posting this. This is tops on my list [as well as the rest of the Fukasaku Yakuza films]. I would second, however, that (1) you MUST start from the beginning of the first film and pay close attention or else, by film #3 you will be 100% fucked in following the storylines. Fortunately, Bunta Sugawara, who is the at the center of most of the 5 films, is completely unmistakable in a room full of guys in loud shirts, sharkskin suits, punch perms and brush cuts. And I'm pretty sure that even if I spoke Japanese, I'd need the subtitles as, between the weird Hiroshima accent and Sugawara's rumbling mumble, he's nearly unintelligible.

There's a second set of 5 films that hasn't made its way into the english-subtitled DVD pipeline yet. I'm hoping they do them at some point as I've now seen all of Fukasaku's Yakuza films a half-dozen times each.

Others in this genre worth watching for the sheer bizarre factor are Senji Suzuki's gangster films like Tokyo Drifter and Youth of the Beast. The latter is a much more gritty/real crime film; the first is one of the most ridiculously stylized films I've ever seen. It's a Yakuza film set entirely on the back an old 3M bookshelf game (one of the ones with those swingin' pads, like Ploy and Oh Wah Ree).

Regarding Jeb's point about Long Good Friday, I'd have to believe that if you liked Get Carter, you'll like LGF. The french and british crime flicks of that era both had similar pacing and I don't think Get Carter is any exception to that rule--though it's certainly good fun to watch Michael Kaine chewing down Black Beauties (yea, those are the pills you see him popping in every transition scene in that flick) like they're M&Ms [for you young'uns, BBs were unbelievably heavy-duty speed]. It does not, however, move at the pace of something like The French Connection or any of the Blaxploitation flicks (Shaft, Superfly, Coffey, etc.)


Movies that you think would be better but REALLY don't hold up:
Day of the Jackyl [though the original is still better than the remake; you'll need to google "French Foreign Legion and DeGaul Coup" if you want to actually figure out WTF is happening there as it's based on semi-real events];

The Eiger Sanction [remember when mountain climbing first became trendy? Now pair it with a weird Protocols of the Elders of Zion/Illuminati-type intelligance cabal assassination film.]

The Holcroft Covenant [Michael Kaine lacks the gene to Just Say No at critical points in his career; see Jaws 4 also...]


To go way back for one worth watching, A Touch of Evil comes to mind [Chuck Heston as a mexican and Orson Welles as the greatest degenerate cop you'll ever see]

I saw a good 70s crime movie last night called The Yakuza. It had Robert Mitchum starring. Not amazing but worth a watch if you get a chance. It also reminded me that Robert Altman made a Raymond Chandler adaptation in the seventies called The Long Goodbye. It was about ten years ago that I saw it but I think it was good.

Edit: This has got me thinking about another film called Gumshoe, which has Albert Finney in it. My memory of that one is that it was OK but may have been a bit sexist and racist. The idea behind it was good. A bored guy in a dead end job who loves 50s pulp crime fiction puts an add in the paper saying he is a private detective. Sadly it's not really worth the effort and is totally eclipsed by The Singing Detective.