Subgenre Sampler
Policier: 430 Films to Buy & Rent
Doulos, Le (The Finger Man) (1963)
- Dir. Jean-Pierre Melville
Feat. Jean-Paul Belmondo, Serge Reggiani
- Eschewing the French New Wave movement in favour of homage to the then ‘passe’ genre of film noir, dir. Jean–Pierre Melville adds shades of…
Grim Reaper, The (La Commare Secca) (1962)
- Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci
Feat. Carlotta Barilli, Lorenza Benedetti, Clorinda Celani
- Dir. Bertolucci's first film – with trademark technical virtuosity already in evidence – is a whodunnit about a prostitute murdered in a…
Z Cars (TV Series) (1962-1972)
- Feat. Brian Blessed, Joseph Brady
- 12 episodes of the vintage British police series including the very first story.
FBI Story, The (1959)
- Dir. Mervyn LeRoy
Feat. James Stewart, Vera Miles, Murray Hamilton…
- This official ‘biopic’ of the FBI, seen through the eyes of career agent James Stewart from 1924 to the late 1950s, has sturdy…
Sapphire (1959)
- Dir. Basil Dearden
Feat. Nigel Patrick, Yvonne Mitchell, Michael Craig…
- Scandalous subject–wise for post–war Britain, where a murdered black woman is discovered to have been posing as white. Obviously dated…
77 Sunset Strip (TV Series) (1958- 1964)
- Feat. Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Sammy Jr. Davis, Roger Moore
- Efrem Zimbalist and Roger Smith are dashing young PI's in this slick police TV series from the 60s. Two eps. include guest appearances from Sammy…
Detective Story (1951)
- Dir. William Wyler
Feat. Kirk Douglas, Eleanor Parker, Cathy O'Donnell…
- Kirk Douglas is his grizzled, hard–bitten self as one of several detectives trying to get through the work day at a busy Brooklyn…
Blue Lamp, The (1950)
- Dir. Basil Dearden
Feat. Dirk Bogarde, Patrick Doonan, Jack Warner
- A confident, precisely–judged thriller set in post–war London, with feral petty–crooks Dirk Bogarde and Patrick Doonan being hunted…
Street With No Name, The (1948)
- Dir. William Keighley
Feat. Mark Stevens, Richard Widmark, Lloyd Nolan…
- One of the grittier film noirs of the 1940s, evokes its tale of corruption, mob violence and FBI infiltration with a semi–documentary surface.…
M... Worst Crime of All (1931)
- Dir. Fritz Lang
Feat. Peter Lorre
- A chilling expressionist classic starring Peter Lorre as psychotic child molester. Dir. Lang masterfully fills the screen with understated but…