When a petty crook loses his switchblade on the underground the scene is set for an escalating catalogue of chaos, murder and mistaken identity. With a power-crazed policeman on the rampage and a mad killer on the loose, the body count rapidly begins to rise in this wickedly surreal comedy. find out more...

Based on a true story, the film begins in 1932 with the killing of a Chicago cop and the sentencing of two young men for his murder. Fast-forward eleven years, and the boss of the Chicago Times newspaper is intrigued to find an advert by the mother of one of the killers, Frank Wiecek, asking for information about the crime, clearly Wiecek's mother thinks her son is innocent. PJ O'Neal (Stewart), one of the Times' top reporters, is dispatched to find out whether Mrs Wiecek's opinion is clouded by find out more...

Years of police work have taught Detective Finlay that where there's crime there's motive. However he finds no usual motive when investigating a man beaten to death, this man was killed because he was a Jew. "Hate", Finlay says, "is like a gun." A landmark film noir nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Edward Dmytryk directs a taught stylish tale that, certainly for its time, dared to explore a topic rarely covered in Hollywood; anti-Semitism in the US. find out more...

Phyllis Dietrichson is trapped in a loveless marriage to a man who inspires in her nothing but contempt, but rather than leave him Phyllis decides to kill him and collect on the insurance policy she's had set up with the help of her lover, and naive partner in crime, insurance salesman Walter Neff. The only flaws in their plan are the company's reluctance to pay out so much, the diligence of Neff's increasingly suspicious colleague, (and his 'little man'), and the exemplary ruthlessness of Ph find out more...

January 1966: in a Paris flat police discover the body of Georges Figon. A year earlier, tired of dodgy deals and petty scams, ex-con Georges Figon had gone in search of something big and, through his underworld connections, had got himself hired as producer for a documentary on de-colonialisation to be written by Marguerite Duras and directed by Georges Franju. The well-known Moroccan dissident Mehdi Ben Barka was to be the film's 'historical advisor', but the whole film project was an elaborat find out more...

Melville's masterful take on the American crime thriller perfectly combines the Hollywood gangster film with his uniquely French style. Alain Delon as a master thief, Yves Montand as an alcoholic ex-cop and Gian-Maria Volonte as an escaped criminal plot a daring heist of an upmarket Parisian jewellery store against impossible odds. find out more...

One of Melville's own favourite films in which ambiguity is the name of the game as a convicted burglar completes his incarceration only to get himself straight back into trouble... find out more...

Murakami is a young detective who loses his gun to a pickpocket, but, before he can get it back, the weapon is sold to a gangster and, before long, a woman has been robbed and shot. In desperation Murakami turns to his wily older partner, Sato, and, together, the two set out across the humid and seamy streets of Tokyo to track down the gun before more people die. Stray Dogs is one of Kurosawa's earlier works and is a highly stylish film, a gritty slice of noir from somewhere other than the North find out more...

Sinatra yet again shows that he was no mere crooner as he plays the psychopathic gunman who, with colleagues, seizes a suburban house, taking the inmates hostage, as he prepares to assassinate the president of the USA. find out more...

Police Sgt Bannion is taken off investigating the apparent suicide of a corrupt cop, is he likely to uncover too much filth? Driven to further unravel the mystery Bannion continues probing until an explosion meant for him kills his wife. He resigns from the force and soon learns that behind it all is a powerful underworld syndicate led by Mike Lagana and the cold-blooded Vince Stone. The Big Heat is a classic slice of noir; a brooding, dark narrative. find out more...