Gangster Action

Genre: Action

Gangster films are those which focus on the lives of criminals or gangsters. It can also be based around the Mafia, which has its own sub-genre of Mob Films. Film gangsters are usually materialistic, street-smart, immoral, and self-destructive. A significant plotline is usually a rivalry with other gangsters. Crime plots also include questions such as how the criminal will be apprehended by police, or lawful authorities. There are also often mysteries as to who stole a certain item. They rise to power with a tough cruel exterior while showing an desire for success and recognition, but underneath they can show sensitivity and gentleness.

Gangster

One of the first to mark the start of gangster/crime genre was D. W. Griffith's The Musketeers of Pig Alley in 1912 about organized crime. It wasn’t the first gangster film, however it is the first significant gangster film to have survived. Films that were before this included Biograph’s The Moonshiners in 1904.

Early Gangster Films – The Silent Era

The Musketeers of Pig Alley is credited with being the first gangster movie. It is also credited with being one of the first films to use “follow focus”, later to become a major tool in cinematography.

The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912)

Josef von Sternberg’s Underworld in 1927 is often considered the first modern gangster film. It starred George Bancroft and Clive Brook. It was also one of the first to be shot from the gangster’s point of view. Underworld won the very first Oscar for original screenplay.

Underworld (1927)

It wasn’t until the sound era that gangster movies became a popular source of entertainment for viewers, who were interested in breaking law and violence on screen. The Prohibition Era (when the USA banned alcohol between 1920 and 1933), the St Valentines Day Massacre, real-life gangsters such as Al Capone, and the rise of organised crime and urban violence encouraged this genre.

The introduction of sound to films helped gangster films massively, as the audience can really engage with the film now they can hear machine gun fire and car brakes screeching.

The Sound Era – 1930s

The St. Valentines Day Massacre was an important moment for gangster films. It was the first real gangster incident that was in the public eye, and got the public interested in gang warfare. The St. Valentines Day Massacre was the name given to the 1929 murder of 7 mob associates, during a fight between Al Capone’s Southside Italian gang, and Bugs Moran’s Northside Irish.

The St. Valentines Day Massacre

The Lights of New York was reportedly the first “all-talking” motion picture, and therefore the first sound gangster film. It enhanced the urban crime dramas of the time, crackling dialogue and sound effects of squealing getaway car tires and gunshots. It was directed by Bryan Foy and produced by Warner Bros. It cost $23,000 to make and grossed over $1,000,000. It was also the first film to define the crime genre.

The Lights of New York (1928)

Warner Bros was considered the best gangster film studio. They had three of the most established gangster actors, Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart. They also used Scarface star Paul Muni. All of these actors established and defined their careers in this genre.

Warner Bros

Directed by Howard Hawks and produced by Howard Hughes, the film centres on gang warfare and police intervention when rival gangs fight over control of a city. The extremely violent, landmark film in the portrayal of Italian-American immigrant gangsters, included twenty-eight deaths, and the first use of a machine gun by a gangster. This film was the basis for the hugely popular Brian De Palma 1983 remake featuring Al Pacino.

Scarface (1932)

The Hays Production Code was the first form of censorship placed on films. This spelled the end for gangster films glorifying the criminal and approving their ruthless methods. Film studios were forced to show the audience that crime didn’t pay, and to present the criminals as almost psychopaths.

Hays Production Code

In William Keighley’s G-Men, screen tough guy James Cagney starred as a ruthless, revenge-seeking, impulsive, violent FBI agent to infiltrate criminal gangs on a crime spree in the Midwest. Although he was on the side of the law working undercover, he was just as cynical, brutal, and arrogant as he had been in his earliest gangster films.

G-Men was the best example of the new ‘gangster-as-cop’ sub-genre, as film studios tried to get round the Hays Production Code.

G-Men (1935)

The Roaring Twenties is the first film made by Warner Bros three prized employees, director Raoul Walsh, and actors Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney. It was a realistic, documentary-style, historical saga and chronicling of the Prohibition Era. It ended with Cagney’s memorable death scene on the snowy steps of a church.

The Roaring Twenties (1939)

High Sierra was directed by Raoul Walsh and also starred Humphrey Bogart. The screenplay was adapted from a William R. Burnett (also the author of Little Caeser and Scarface). The film is also notable as the breakthrough in Bogart's career, transforming him from supporting player to leading man, and his success in High Sierra would lead to his being cast in many of his iconic roles.

The film was noted for its extensive location shooting, especially in the climactic final scenes, as the authorities pursue Bogart's character, gangster "Mad Dog" Roy Earle, from Lone Pine up to the foot of the mountain.

High Sierra (1941)

During the 1940s, gangster films take on a very “film-noir-ish” theme. This is partly down to the popularity of film-noir in the 1940s, and also down the Hays Production Code.

Film-noir is French for ‘Black film’, and in gangster films it tends to involve a private detective fighting crime, for example The Big Sleep.

Film-Noir

Directed and produced by Howard Hanks, the movie stars Humphrey Bogart as a male detective, and Lauren Bacall as the female lead in a film about the "process of a criminal investigation, not its results.”

In 1997, the U.S. Library of Congress deemed this film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant,"

The Big Sleep (1946)

As stated earlier, as the decade of the 40s and the post-war period emerged, crime films became darker, more brutal, violent, and cynical. Many crime/gangster films were actually film noirs. After World War II, gangsters were often businessmen who represented large and corrupt corporations (often anonymous). The first film to illustrate changes in the character of gangsters after WWII was Byron Haskin's I Walk Alone (1948). Burt Lancaster took the role of Frankie Madison, an ex-con who faced a changed world and a double-cross by his partner after his release from 14 years in prison.

Post-War Films

Also known as Deadly Is the Female, Gun Crazy was selected for the National Film Registry. It is a film noir feature film starring Peggy Cummins and John Dall in a story about the crime-spree of a gun-toting husband and wife. It was directed by Joseph H. Lewis.

Gun Crazy (1949)

Crime dramas of gun-crazed killers, daring or troubled protagonists, or real-life criminals were commonplace, often with charismatic characters that evoked the earlier, 30s style gangster films. There was an increased link between original gangster films and the more modern film-noirs.

Changing Styles

Machine-Gun Kelly is a film directed by Roger Corman, chronicling the criminal activities of the real-life George "Machine Gun" Kelly. The film was considered low budget, but received good critical reviews. The film was the first lead role for actor Charles Bronson.

Machine-Gun Kelly (1958)

The St. Valentine's Day Massacre is film based on the 1929 Chicago mass murder of seven members of the Northside gang that I mentioned earlier. It was directed by Roger Corman and written by Howard Browne. It had a budget of $2 175 000, making it one of the largest films of its time.

The St. Valentines Day Massacre (1966)

Arthur Penn's landmark film set new screen standards for violence, although it was joined by blue-grass music (a mixture between African-American music and jazz) and slapstick-style robberies. It has a budget of $2 000 000 and grossed over $70m at the box office. Like Gun Crazy, Bonnie and Clyde portrays crime as attractive and intertwined with sex. It is regarded as one of the first films of the New Hollywood Era, and its success made more directors be more forward about presenting sex and violence. The film’s ending also became iconic as one of the “bloodiest death scenes in cinematic history”

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

The Godfather Trilogy are three of the most successful gangland 'Mafia' films ever made. They define the Organised-Crime subgenre.

The Godfather is an American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. It stars Marlon Brando, and is Al Pacino’s first major film. It received Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay, and has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. It had a budget of $6.5m, and grossed over $245m. It is arguably known as the best gangster film of all time.

The Godfather Trilogy

The Godfather, Part II was released in 1974 under the direction of Francis Ford Coppola, from a script co-written by Mario Puzo. The film is both a prequel and sequel to The Godfather, with two parallel storylines. It was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won 6, including Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Supporting Actor. It was also selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry.

The Godfather, Part III was released in 1990. It completes the story of Michael Corleone, a Mafia kingpin who tries to legitimize his criminal empire.

Continued…

It had a budget of $54m, and grossed over $136m. It was nominated for 7 Academy Awards.

Director Francis Ford Coppola states that the Godfather series was in fact two films, and the third film is an epilogue.

Continued…

Scarface is directed by Brian De Palma, written by Oliver Stone, produced by Martin Bregman and starring Al Pacino as Tony Montana. A contemporary remake of the original 1932 film of the same name, the film tells the story of Tony Montana, a Cuban refugee who comes to Miami in 1980 as a result of the Mariel Boatlift, and becomes a drug cartel kingpin during the cocaine boom of the 1980s. The movie chronicles his rise to the top of Miami's cocaine empire. It had a budget of $25m and grossed over $65m.

Scarface (1983)

Recent gangster films have shied away from the Mafia obsession of the 70s and 80s and more towards a violent, yet very clever criminal. For example, Bumpy in American Gangster.

Recent Gangster Films

American Gangster is an American biographical crime film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Steve Zaillian. The film is based on the criminal career of Frank Lucas, a gangster from La Grange, North Carolina who smuggled heroin into the United States on American service planes returning from the Vietnam War. It stars Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. It’s budget was $100m and it returned over $266m. It is the second biggest grossing gangster film of all time.

American Gangster (2007)

The Departed is a 2006 American crime thriller film, fashioned as a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. The film was directed by Martin Scorsese and written by William Monahan. Like Infernal Affairs before, The Departed is noted for its star-studded cast, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, Vera Farmiga, Anthony Anderson and Alec Baldwin. It had a budget of $90m, and grossed a record-breaking $289m, making it the highest grossing gangster film of all time.

The Departed (2009)

In conclusion, the development of gangster films has come a long way since the ultra-violent days of the 20s and 30s. Some of that change has been forced due to the implementation of Hays Production Code, but taste has changed as well. There was an almost obsession with the Mafia and mob films in the 80s, which followed the dip into film-noirs in the 50s. More recent gangster films have been heist films, about intelligent gangsters who defy technology and high security measures to get what they want.

Conclusion