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Tag Archives: Richard Jordan
The heist always goes wrong, part 1: ten of the best heist movies ever made
I love the genius and intricacy of their plots and the variations they come in, whether it be the all star team assembled for a job or the desperate ex-cons trying for one last score.
But most of all I love them because of the golden rule of all good heist films – for whatever reason, the heist always goes wrong.
What do you need for a good heist?
You need a plan for actual heist itself, the getaway, and moving, storing and fencing whatever it is you’ve stolen. The more complicated the plan, the more likely it is that something will go wrong.
You need a crew of people; one man or woman alone cannot do a heist. This introduces the human element and all the problems that come with it, the greed, suspicions, jealousies and uncertainties.
I’ve been thinking for a while now about what my top ten-heist films would be and the following list, in no particular order, is it.
The robbery itself is almost immaterial to how I rate a good heist film. What I like is the context and atmosphere in which the heist takes place and inevitable problems that arise after it’s been pulled off. And the darker and more broken things get, the better the film is in my book.… Read more
Posted in 1960s American crime films, 1970s American crime films, 1980s American crime films, Angie Dickinson, Charles Durning, Donald Westlake aka Richard Stark, Ernest Borgnine, Film Noir, French cinema, Gene Hackman, Heist films, James Caan, Jim Brown, Peter Boyle, Peter Yates, Robert Mitchum, Sidney Lumet, Stanley Baker, Sterling Hayden, Yaphet Kotto
Tagged A Cop (1972), Across 110th Street (1972), Al Pacino, Alain Delon, Angie Dickinson, Anthony Quinn, Armoured Car Robbery (1950), Basil Dearden, Catherine Deneuve, Charles Durning, Crime Wave (1954), Criss Cross (1949), Diahann Carroll, Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Don Siegel, Donald Westlake aka Richard Stark, Ernest Borgnine, Gene Hackman, Heat (1995), heist films, Jack Klugman, James Booth, James Caan, James Whitmore, Jim Brown, Joanna Pettel, John Cazale, Joseph Loosey, Money Movers (1979), Peter Boyle, Peter Yates, Richard Jordan, Richard Stark, Robbery (1967), Robert De Niro, Robert Mitchum, Robert Prosky, Ronald Reagan, Sexy Beast (2000), Stanley Baker, Sterling Hayden, Sydney Lumet, The Asphalt Jungle (1950), The Bank job (2008), The Criminal (1960), The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), The Killers (1964), The League of Gentlemen (1960), The Red Circle (1970), Tuesday Weld, Warren Oates, Yaphet Kotto
The Friends of Eddie Coyle
Of the crime films coming out of the United States in the early seventies, it’s hard to think of one that’s tougher and grittier than the 1973 neo-noir, The Friends of Eddie Coyle.
Set in Boston’s criminal milieu, The Friends of Eddie Coyle is a no frills depiction of desperate men doing whatever they have to do to stay one step ahead of each other and the law.
And none of them is more desperate than Eddie ‘Fingers’ Coyle (Robert Mitchum). A 51 year-old ex-con, a gun runner and Christ knows what else in his criminal career, Coyle’s got a wife, three kids and the prospect of a three to five-year jail stretch for being caught driving a truckload of stolen whisky.
We first glimpse Coyle getting his coffee and slice of pie in an all night diner before sitting down to talk business with the young Turk, Jackie Brown (Steven Keats), from who he gets his merchandise.
The punk gives him lip and Coyle has to set him straight with the story about how he got his nickname and an extra set of knuckles on one hand, courtesy of a gun deal gone wrong.
“You can’t trace these guns, I guarantee that,” whines Brown.
“You better, or neither of us will be able to shake hands,” deadpans Coyle.… Read more