Underrated British Crime/Gangster Films |
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14-11-2012, 10:06
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Underrated British Crime/Gangster Films
I had a natter with mates last night about British crime/gangster films. We were throwing titles around when one said he was bored with hearing same titles over and over.
Films like The Long Good Friday. M. Get Carter. Layer Cake. The Lavender Hill Mob. Brighton Rock. Sexy Beast. The Ladykillers. Gangster No.1. Mona Lisa. The Krays. The Crying Game. All Hitchcock films. The Italian Job. Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. He wants a list of lesser known or forgotten British crime/gangster films that deserve more attention. I can only think of seven: He Who Rides a Tiger Eastern Promises The Criminal (Stanley Baker) The Wrong Arm of the Law The Croupier Bronson The first or second Simon Templar film (saw it on iPlayer a couple of months ago. It's surprising cynical, flippant and darkly funny. Templar doesn't hide the fact that he can torture or kill for money.) Any more suggestions? |
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14-11-2012, 10:55
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Villain from 1971 starring Richard Burton and loads of familiar British character actors is a real gem.
Sleazy, violent and funny- just bloody wonderful really. |
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14-11-2012, 11:05
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Two starring Jack Warner also sprang to mind:
Famously, The Blue Lamp (1950) the film that spawned Dixon of Dock Green. A truly great film. Later, Jigsaw (1962) is certainly worth a view . Both tightly atmospheric with lovely, evocative location work. I was going to mention Villain too. Richard Burton chews the scenery as a gay gangster. As above, some bestow greatness upon it, though I thought it hypnotically awful. But certainly one you have to see for yourself. |
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14-11-2012, 14:19
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Oh dammit! I was going to chime in with the excellent Villain too. Still while I'm here The Squeeze from 1977 starring Stacy Keach, David Hemmings, Edward Fox and everybody's favourite unfunny-man Freddie Starr is well worth 1 hour and 44 minutes of your time.
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14-11-2012, 14:26
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Robbery http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062207/ starring Stanley Baker and directed by Peter Yates. Steve McQueen was so impressed by the car chase that he offered Yates the chance to direct his next movie - Bullitt.
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14-11-2012, 14:34
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The Frightened City http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054898/ featuring a pre-Bond Sean Connery as an enforcer for some crooks.
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14-11-2012, 15:25
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The Boys (1962) - Courtroom drama about a group of teenage boys on trial for murdering a garage worker. Unfolds through a series of Rashomon-style flashbacks, detailing what actually happened.
The Good Die Young (1954) - Four men from different backgrounds attempt to rob a payroll delivery. With Stanley Baker (I'm sensing a theme in this thread...) as a washed up boxer. Tread Softly Stranger (1958) - A man, on the run from some crooks he owes money to, goes back to his old home town and gets caught up in a plan to rob the wages of the local steel mill. Diana Dors is absolutely GORGEOUS in this. |
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17-11-2012, 22:16
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'I'll Sleep When I'm Dead' with Clive Owen.Brillaint,brutal revenge thriller.Only been on the telly once i think.
Still can't understand how he never got the Bond part. 
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17-11-2012, 22:22
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The Crew
http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1071880/ Going Off Big Time http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0241492/ Essex Boys http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0191996/ |
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17-11-2012, 22:29
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Quote:
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17-11-2012, 22:35
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Quote:
Just 48 when he died, |
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18-11-2012, 04:47
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I don't like Eastern Promises. The ending sounds a bit..silly.
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18-11-2012, 08:49
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Hell Drivers. About a racket at a trucking company. Eddie Stobart it aint! You have got to love a film with Stanley Baker, Sid James, David Macallum, Patrick Mcgoohan, Gordon Jackson, Herbert Lom, William Hartnell and Sean Connery. James Bond AND Doctor Who!!!!!!!!
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18-11-2012, 08:57
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Never Let Go - cracking little drama starring Peter Sellers, Richard Todd and Adam Faith,
Todd stars as a struggling cosmetics salesman whose pride and joy is a new card (Ford Anglia), essential for him to do his job. The car is stolen by Adam Faiths tearaway, who works for Peters Sellers, a sort of Mr Big running a car-theft ring. Todd is incredibly tenacious when it comes to retrieving his car, an ordinary working man driven to desperation in order to get back something he has worked years to own. The revelation in the film is Peter Sellers, playing against type as a truly nasty character...there is a fight in a garage involving chains and all sorts of implements that is very violent for the time. |
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18-11-2012, 11:11
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Quote:
Love this film. |
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18-11-2012, 11:12
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Quote:
Plus a Man from Uncle and The Prisoner |
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18-11-2012, 11:14
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Quote:
Thread spurred me to look at Baker related stuff, found an old Guardian article singing his praises and lamenting his loss or reputation. Hell Drivers, that film gets mentions all over the place. Defies all logic why it's loved so much, Charlie Chaplin driving scenes still make me giggle but I'll still watch it repeatedly. I wonder what the viewing figures would be if a terrestrial channel actually advertised they were showing it. |
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18-11-2012, 12:26
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Nobody have any thoughts on more modern stuff
Down Terrace http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_Terrace The Bank Job http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bank_Job |
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18-11-2012, 12:39
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Shifty (Riz Ahmed) is pretty good.
 And of course, Ill Manors. |
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19-11-2012, 02:13
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Quote:
the thought of dudley sutton in the boys stayed with me in every thing else he ever did. |
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19-11-2012, 06:30
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many of The Saint films were shown during morning on bbc2 a few weeks back.
they are american made not british. |
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19-11-2012, 14:41
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I agree with many of the comments on here about the oldie British gangster films.
My favourites are: Hell Drivers Hell Is a City The Frightened City. Stanley Baker starred in the first two. He was a great loss to the British film industry when he died so young. |
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08-12-2012, 23:52
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Quote:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/galle...ty-in-pictures |
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02-01-2013, 22:17
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#24 | |
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Quote:
The reason Owen never got Bond was because he never put himself forward for it in the first place. |
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02-01-2013, 23:14
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whats the stanley baker bank robbery film.
perfect friday? not violent, but slick for its time |
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