Over at Alex on Film I’ve spent the last few months watching gangster movies. Or crime movies. Or tough-guy movies. Pick your label. I’ve included links below to my notes on all the ones I covered. The dates tell a story. The golden age was the 1930s, and for a couple of decades after that the genre virtually disappeared, only to be revived by the New Wave and the New Hollywood. In later years style would overwhelm substance, turning the gangster into a fashionable form of costume drama (The Untouchables, Public Enemies). I’ve included a lot of the greatest hits, as well as some less well-known gems that are worth searching out (Caliber 9 being perhaps the best of these). Other titles on the list include some that are, in my eyes, wildly overrated (Once Upon a Time in America) or just terrible (Savages). Enjoy!

The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912)
Little Caesar (1931)
The Public Enemy (1931)
Smart Money (1931)
Scarface (1932)
The Petrified Forest (1936)
A Slight Case of Murder (1938)
The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938)
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
High Sierra (1941)
Dillinger (1945)
Key Largo (1948)
White Heat (1949)
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Point Blank (1967)
Get Carter (1971)
Caliber 9 (1972)
The Italian Connection (1972)
The Boss (1973)
The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973)
Mean Streets (1973)
Rulers of the City (1976)
The Long Good Friday (1980)
Scarface (1983)
Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
The Untouchables (1987)
The Killer (1989)
Miller’s Crossing (1990)
Bugsy (1991)
Reservoir Dogs) (1992)
Hard-Boiled (1992)
Killing Zoe (1993)
La Scorta (1993)
Casino (1995)
Jackie Brown (1997)
Donnie Brasco (1997)
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
The Limey (1999)
Sexy Beast (2000)
Get Carter (2000)
Infernal Affairs (2002)
Sin City (2005)
The Departed (2006)
Payback: Straight Up (2006)
American Gangster (2007)
In Bruges (2008)
Public Enemies (2009)
Savages (2012)
Parker (2013)
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014)