kornboy

I am only 16, but want to expand my horizons a bit.

Can someone recommend me some good/classic Gangster/Crime, and CLASSIC Films?

I know CLASSIC films is a pretty broad term, but I mean ones that are really popular anywhere from the 40's-60's.

I saw 12 Angry Men, loved it. Saw the Original Miracle On 34th Street, loved it.

Can someone help me out here?

Premise

M,Citizen Kane,Casblanca,Notrious,Maltese Falcon,Double Indemnity,Third Man,Sunset Blvd,North By Northwest,Vertigo,Grapes Of Wrath,Touch Of Evil,On The Waterfront,Strangers On A Train,The Big Sleep,Dial M for murder,Suspicion,To catch a thief,The man who knew too much,The wrong man,Rear Window,Rope,to name a few.These should keep you busy for a while.Enjoy!

chipmac

I'll throw in Angels with Dirty Faces, White Heat and The Public Enemy for some Cagney gangster flicks and add The Lady Vanishes to the Hitchcocks listed above.

flixtime

kornboy, you've received some nice recommendations from both Premise and chipmac. As the genre is quite broad, and since you seem open to learning more about the crime/gangster genre may I suggest you have a read through the following link (and the rest of the site too for general recommendations on classic films in any genre):

Filmsite.org's list of Crime/Gangster/Film-Noir/Detective films
(Note: I don't generally like to dissuade discussion by just posting a link to a list of films but in this case I feel it is helpful in providing an overview for a vast topic........but please keep the suggestions coming as I enjoy reading the recommendations from my fellow DVDTalkers).

To sum up, you might consider going back a little further to the early 30's instead of the 40's and work your way up through the American "new wave" of the early 70's, in doing so you will touch upon the works of Cagney/Bogart/Robinson, Hitchcock, film-noir, and stuff like "Serpico", "Dog Day Afternoon", "Bonnie & Clyde", etc. If you have access to the cable channel "TCM" you are in luck as they show quite a lot of the above on a regular basis.

If you want to experiment even more, take a dip into some classic French crime films (via Criterion DVD) such as "Rififi", "Le Cercle Rouge", "Bob Le Flambeur", "Touchez Pas Au Grisbi", etc. (keep in mind the style is quite different from American cinema). Or maybe some Asian crime cinema from the likes of Hong Kong director John Woo, or maybe Japanese director Kinji Fukasaku ("Yakuza Papers" and others available via Home Vision DVD in R1).

If your demand for modern crime/gangster films is not being met by the output from Hollywood alone, then consider some of the worthy crime/gangster films that have come out in International cinema. Examples include: Hong Kong's "Infernal Affairs" trilogy (Part 1 is available in Region 1); Brazil's "City of God" (available in R1); U.K.'s "Layer Cake" (soon to be available in R1); and the Indian crime films "Satya" and "Company" (available in R1 through Indian retailers).

Cameron

dead end-bogart
the warner gangsters set
howard hughes scarface-You have to buy the box set for that one

MEJHarrison

I'd recommend looking into some of the Warner Brothers box sets. They're great bargains (usually about $8 per movie) and extremely good quality. I have the Legends set, Film Noir, Classic Comedies, Gangsters collection, Controversial Classics and the Hitchcock Signature Collection.

dick_grayson

dglaser6

stanley kubrick's 'the killing'