Crime / Mystery

Jules Dassin’s Night and the City (1950) stands as one of the bleakest, most relentless noirs of the postwar era—a shadow-drenched tale of ambition, desperation, and doom set in a seedy, nightmarish version of London.

Michael Mann’s Thief (1981) is a masterful debut feature—cool, precise, emotionally complex, and utterly distinctive. Though it’s nominally a crime film about a high-end safecracker and his attempt to escape “the life,” Thief is ultimately less about heists than about identity, masculinity, and the pursuit of control in a chaotic world.

John Mackenzie’s The Long Good Friday (1980) is a searing, stylish, and deeply political British gangster film that not only redefined the genre in its homeland but also offered a startling mirror to the social and economic turmoil of late 1970s Britain.

Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity (1944) is one of the quintessential entries in the film noir canon—a sharp, cynical, and tightly coiled crime thriller that set the standard for visual style, narrative structure, and moral ambiguity.

See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989) is the third in a string of collaborative comedies between two of the most beloved comic actors of the 1970s and 1980s: Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder. Following the massive success of Silver Streak (1976) and the solid reception of Stir Crazy (1980), this film attempted to capitalize on their proven chemistry with a high-concept premise—two men, one blind and the other deaf, unwittingly caught in a murder and jewel-smuggling plot.

Black Rain (1989) is a stylish, noir-inflected action thriller directed by Ridley Scott that stands as a moody cultural artifact of late-1980s cinema. Set against the atmospheric backdrop of Osaka, Japan, the film explores themes of cultural clash, moral ambiguity, and personal redemption through the lens of a gritty crime narrative.

In the golden age of 1970s disaster films—where ordinary people faced extraordinary circumstances—Skyjacked (1972) soared into theatres as one of the earlier examples of aviation thrillers that would culminate in genre landmarks like Airport (1970) and Airport '75.

When Bonnie and Clyde premiered in 1967, it detonated a cultural and cinematic explosion whose shockwaves still reverberate. It wasn’t merely a film about Depression-era outlaws—it was a defiant cry from a generation eager to dismantle Hollywood’s golden-age conventions. Violent, stylish, erotic, and subversively funny, Bonnie and Clyde was both a thrilling crime saga and a radical turning point in American cinema.

Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation is a taut, cerebral thriller that explores the intersection of surveillance, privacy, guilt, and paranoia in post-Watergate America. Released between Coppola’s two Godfather films, this small, character-driven movie is a masterclass in restraint and psychological tension.

There Was a Crooked Man… (1970) is a unique and subversive entry in the Western genre, directed by the veteran filmmaker Joseph L. Mankiewicz in his final directorial effort. Written by Bonnie and Clyde scribes David Newman and Robert Benton, the film straddles the line between traditional Western iconography and the dark, ironic revisionism that defined the genre during the late 1960s and early '70s.

Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s The Barefoot Contessa (1954) is a lush, moody, and ultimately tragic examination of fame, class, and illusion. A film both enchanted by and critical of the Hollywood dream factory, it tells the rise-and-fall story of a fictional movie star—Maria Vargas—through a prism of male narration and personal regret. It is equal parts melodrama and satire, as much about the people who surround a star as about the star herself.

Manhattan Melodrama (1934) is a landmark film that straddles genres—part gangster movie, part courtroom drama, and part romantic triangle—yet rises above the sum of its parts due to sharp direction, strong performances, and a story that explores friendship, fate, and the nature of justice.

Released in 1947 by RKO and directed by Robert Wise, Born to Kill is one of the darkest, most nihilistic examples of classic film noir. With a story centred on psychopathy, obsession, and moral collapse, it pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable in post war Hollywood. The film tells the story of a dangerous man and the even more dangerous woman who finds herself drawn to him, not despite his violence—but perhaps because of it.

Advise & Consent (1962) is a tense, cerebral, and surprisingly daring political drama directed by Otto Preminger, adapted from Allen Drury’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. It offers a razor-sharp look at the inner workings of the United States Senate and the murky interplay of politics, personal secrets, ideology, and power.

Anatomy of a Murder is not only one of the most enduring courtroom dramas ever filmed, but also a prime example of how cinema in the late 1950s was evolving—pushing boundaries, addressing adult themes, and striving for psychological realism. Directed by Otto Preminger and based on a best-selling novel by Michigan Supreme Court Justice John D. Voelker, the film combines taut legal suspense with rich character study, anchored by a career-highlight performance from James Stewart

Laura (1944) is one of the most celebrated films of the film noir genre, a hauntingly elegant blend of romance, mystery, and psychological complexity. Directed by Otto Preminger and adapted from Vera Caspary’s novel, Laura stands as one of the defining examples of mid-20th-century Hollywood's engagement with darker, morally ambiguous storytelling. It is a film that combines exquisite cinematography, striking performances, and a narrative steeped in mystery and intrigue.

Released in 1940, Foreign Correspondent marks a fascinating moment in Alfred Hitchcock’s career, situated between his early British work and his later Hollywood masterpieces. As his first purely American film (though it was still made under British filmmaking conventions), Foreign Correspondent reflects the director’s evolving cinematic style, blending thrilling suspense with sharp political commentary.

The story centres on Thomas "Babe" Levy (Dustin Hoffman), a Columbia graduate student and passionate long-distance runner who is unknowingly drawn into a deadly international conspiracy. His brother Doc Levy (Roy Scheider), a covert government agent, is murdered, and Babe soon finds himself pursued by sinister figures tied to the Nazi past.

When Beverly Hills Cop was released in 1984, it didn’t just cement Eddie Murphy as a major Hollywood star—it helped redefine what an action-comedy could be. Equal parts crime thriller and laugh-out-loud comedy, the film captured the zeitgeist of the 1980s, blending gritty urban realism with the sun-soaked gloss of Beverly Hills, all anchored by Murphy’s dynamic, high-voltage performance.

Silver Streak (1976) is a delightful blend of comedy, action, romance, and mystery—an ambitious cinematic cocktail that helped establish the buddy-action formula that would flourish in the 1980s. Directed by Arthur Hiller and written by Colin Higgins (Harold and Maude, Foul Play), this film stands as a mid-’70s crowd-pleaser that combines Hitchcockian intrigue with slapstick humour and sly social commentary.