Rod Steiger offers one of the best portrayals of the legendary “Scarface” in this straightforward account of the life of perhaps the most fascinating underworld figure in American history.

This article is filed under 100 Greatest Gangster Films, Movies, The Fourth Wall.

Christopher Walken plays—as only Walken can—Frank White, a drug dealer whose release from prison sets the film and the violence in motion. It would be a stretch to say that White has returned from prison a changed man, but he has returned as a man with a mission.

This article is filed under 100 Greatest Gangster Films, Movies, The Fourth Wall.

Few filmgoers noticed Charley Varrick when it came out in 1973. After all, The Godfather, that ultimate game-changing gangster film, had been released a year earlier. So who was going to fuss over this nugget about a small-time bank robber fleeing with the mob’s money?

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Writer-director Michael Corrente took the title and setting for his first movie from the Italian-American section of Providence, Rhode Island. Corrente grew up nearby, and he clearly knows his territory.

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“The Sicilians,” the agent said, “are very serious about what they do.” We see a lot of that in Mafioso, director Alberto Lattuada’s dark comedy that says so much about both the criminal organization and the fascinating island of Sicily that gave birth to it. In a 2010 article in the Daily Beast, Martin Scorsese listed the film as one of the 15 gangster movies that had the most profound effect on him as a writer and director. He cited Mafioso as “one of the best films ever made about Sicily.”

This article is filed under 100 Greatest Gangster Films, Italy, Movies, The Fourth Wall.

Walker just wants his money back. And he’ll go to anywhere and confront anyone to get it. That’s the premise, based on a pulp fiction novel called The Hunter by Donald E. Westlake, for this stylized drama—a movie with 1960s sensibilities that doesn’t always hold up that well.

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As the men wait it out at the secluded beach house, they play Frisbee, dress up as geishas, practice sumo wrestling and engage in a bizarre version of rock-paper-scissors in which the winner gets to shoot a beer can off the loser’s head. The point, as far as we can see it, is to show the banality of passing time. But Kitano’s directing style—which verges on slapstick at times—becomes campy and occasionally downright silly. As Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly wrote, “The picture ricochets from random urban mob hits to horseplay in the sand that wouldn’t have looked out of place on The Monkees.”

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Dillinger is a B-movie and doesn’t attempt to be more than that. There is not a lot of back story, and not much motivation beyond the character’s oft-repeated line of, “I like to steal people’s money.” But the 107-minute string of robberies, escapes and gun fights works because of an excellent cast and because Director John Milius (Red Dawn, Conan the Barbarian) knows how to shoot a violent action film.

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Tim Roth in Little Odessa (1994-R) This was James Gray’s first foray into the world of Russian organized crime. Less commercial and more personal than We Own the Night, Little Odessa is more about relationships than underworld mayhem. It’s a bleak and troubling character study built around a young Russian-Jewish hit man, the younger brother [...]

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At Close Range bombed when it came out in the spring of 1986. Despite a stellar cast (which looks even better in hindsight), a No. 1 hit song by Madonna on its soundtrack and a taut, gritty story, it garnered less than $2.5 million in box-office receipts. Maybe the story was too taut and gritty. This is a downcast look at blue-collar crime and teenage tedium. It’s punctuated by a nasty rape scene and an attempted filicide.

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He’s a hit man with a sense of honor, working for a crime family that doesn’t have one anymore. He lives in a shack on a roof next to a pigeon coop. His best friend is a Haitian who sells ice cream in the park and only speaks French, a language Ghost Dog doesn’t understand.

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Mack realizes that leaving the mob speakeasy might not be the healthiest career move. But Lewis is undaunted. In his first verbal confrontation with the owner of the speakeasy he says, “This is America. I’ve got a right to work anywhere I want.” To which the mobbed-up club owner replies, “What you got is a right to be buried anywhere you want.”

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The pacing is energizing and the dialogue at times is superb, even when it has little to do with the storyline. This is, in many ways, a cartoon. And it works best when viewed on that level.

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It makes our Top 100 because of its cast. But of all the movies portraying Italian-American gangsters in this book, we have to say that we’d rank this one as the most offensive to Italian-Americans.

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To some fans, The Killer represents the apex of his career—before he went too commercial. It’s got a solid storyline and strong acting. But it’s mostly a lavishly staged ballet of bullets and blood. Guns blaze in slow motion. Bodies fly through the air. This is high-octane violence in a way that makes your typical Sly Stallone or Steven Seagal fare look like Mary Poppins.

This article is filed under 100 Greatest Gangster Films, China, Movies, The Fourth Wall.