ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Some Additional Readings:

Bergman, Paul and Michael Asimow; 2006; Reel Justice The Courtroom goes to the Movies; Andrews McMeel, Kansas City Missouri; 361pp

Chase, Anthony; 2003; Movies on Trial; The New Press, NY, 264pp

SOME ELEMENTS TO BE CONSIDERED IN THE CRIME FILMS

The Criminal (type of criminal; is the criminality by nature or by nurture)

Career (gangster)
Accidental (noir)
Momentary through some extraordinary circumstance
Psychopaths and serial killers
Organizations/syndicates

 The Crime (Why committed?)

legal typology: Misdemeanors
Felonies

Kinds of crimes heists/caper
kidnapping
robbery
burglary
homicides (murder, manslauhter)
arson
assault

 The Victim (victimology) (are there vistimless crimes?)

The immediate victim
The family and friends

 The Roles and Statuses (Mostly professionals)

The Forces of Order (professionalism? Good guys or bad guys?

The police department (as an institution and the actual members – sheriffs, marshalls, etc. Sworn officers Military police; internal affairs) Cops vs. bosses
The military (as an institution and the actual members)
The private detectives
Posses
Vigilantes

 The Legal Profession

The lawyers/public defenders/18B cases – assigned council/legal aid
The judges
The jurors
The witnesses
general (know people involved, saw the crime etc.)
expert witnesses (forensics, psychiatrists, medical doctors)
 Court officers and other officials

 Prison or Corrections(Is there a difference?)

Prisoners/inmates
Prison guards/corrections officers/wardens
Probation/Corrections/Parole
Lynch mobs

 Others

Politicians
Religious practitioners (priests ministers, rabbis etc.)
Media (radio, TV, newspapers)

THOUGHTS ABOUT CLASSIFICATION AND GENRE

Crime films constitute a huge genre with many sub-genres (organized by content – gangster films, heist films) and with many crossings into other genres organized by emotional reaction – there are crime dramas (e.g. Detective Story) , crime melodramas (e.g. Sudden Fear), comedies (Without a Clue), science fiction (e.g. I, Robot), supernatural (horror) (Fallen) bio-pics (I Want to Live)and to some degree even musicals (e.g. Guys and Dolls). Crimes films are among the most popular and have never been out of favor. Some of the oldest narrative films are crime stories (Great Train Robbery)

Some crime dramas lack law enforcement aspects (such as police, detectives etc.) and deal strictly with the criminal act itself focusing on either the criminal, the victim (or potential victim Shadow of a Doubt) or both. Some films have focused specifically on the kind of criminal (psychopathic, serial killers, veterans, gangsters/career criminals). Others concentrate on the law enforcement aspects focusing on the police or private detectives. Others tend to focus on the trial or the nature of the punishment and its effect on the people involved.

Organization into types is difficult. Some films like Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 Horror/Crime film Psycho, have started whole new genres of “Slasher” and “Gore” films which may or may not be reasonably considered crime films

By The Major Participants

The Criminal
M (Fritz Lang 1931)
I Want to Live (Robert Wise 1958)
The Public Enemy (William A. Wellman1931)
Little Caesar (Mervyn Leroy 1931)
The Roaring Twenties (Raoul Walsh 1939)
Scarlet Street (Fritz Lang 1945)
Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton 1955)
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (Fritz Lang 1956)
The Bad Seed (Mervyn Leroy1956)
American Psycho (Mary Harron 2000)

 The Pursuers
Detective Story (Wiliam Wyler 1951)
The Detective (Gordon Douglas 1968)
Serpico (Sidney Lumet 1973)

 Victims
Victim (Basil Dearden 1961)
The Mark (Guy Green 1961)
Sorry Wrong Number (Anatole Litvak 1948)
Mysterious Skin (Greg Araki 2004)
Sudden Fear (David Miller 1952)

 By The Crime
The Killing (Stanley Kubrick 1956)
Lady Killers (Alexander Mackendrick 1955)
Sorry Wrong Number (Anatole Litvak1948)
Topkapi (Jules Dassin 1964)
Ocean’s Eleven (Lewis Milestone 1960)
The Warriors (Walter Hill 1979)
Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock 1960)

 By The Pursuit and Capture
Who Dunnits?

Detectives in series
Sherlock Holmes
Rathbone series
Without a Clue (Thom Eberhardt, dir) (1988)
Young Sherlock Holmes (Barry Levinsond dir) (1985)
Miss Marple
Hercule Poirot
Charlie Chan
Mr. Moto
Nick and Nora Charles (The Thin Man)

 In the Heat of the Night (Norman Jewison 1967)
Sea of Love (Harold Becker 1989)
Cruising (William Friedkin 1980)
Call Northside 777 ( Henry Hathaway 1948)
Lady in the Lake (Robert Montgomery 1947)
And Then There Were None (Rene Clair 1945)
Touch of Evil (Orson Welles 1958)

 How do We Catch Whoever Dunnit – If in Fact They Dunnit?
Fargo (Coen 1996)
The Wrong Man (Alfred Hitchcock 1956)
Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme1991)
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (Clint Eastwood 1997 )
Mystic River (Clint Eastwood 2003)

 By The Trial (or lack thereof)
Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger1959)
Witness for the Prosecution (Alfred Hitchcock 1957)
My Cousin Vinnie (Jonathan Lynn 1992)
Oxbow Incident (William Wellman1943)
Inherit the Wind (Stanley Kramer 1960)
Exorcism of Emily Rose (Scott Derrickson 2005)
Primal Fear (Gregory Hoblit 1996)
Chicago (Rob Marshall 2002)
Runaway Jury (Gary Fisher 2003)

 By What Follows
Brute Force (Jules Dassin 1947)
Papillion (Franklin J. Schaffner 1976)
Cool Hand Luke (Stuart Rosenberg 1967)
Green Mile (Frank Darabont 1999)
Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont 1994)
Hoodlum Priest (Irvin Kirschner 1961)
Midnight Express (Alan Parker 1978)
Murder in the First (Mark Rocco 1995)

 "Noir" films
Double indemnity (Billy Wilder 1944)
Criss Cross (Robert Siodmak 1949)