1. Crime

2. History of the Crime film (1912-)
One of the first films to officially mark the start of the gangster/crime genre was D. W. Griffith's The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) about organized crime. It wasn't the first gangster movie ever made, but it was the first significant gangster film that has survived. Outdoor scenes were shot in the gangland territory of NYC's Lower East Side with its slum tenements, and cast members included possible gang members. The story was about a poor, virtuous, and vulnerable Little Lady (Lillian Gish) who was threatened, victimized and terrorized by Snapper Kid (Elmer Booth) - the gangster leader of a gang known as the Musketeers.
After this, the next main major crime film was Scarface which came out in This film was about an initial murder by Johnny – Johnny however, is afraid of the Irish gang leader and therefore his murdering sprees increase and result in him being out of control. Many crime films or this era use the gangster style.
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. He learned that Noll 'Dink' Turner (Kirk Douglas) was now a pseudo-legitimate and respectable, high-flying Manhattan night-club owner/racketeer, unwilling to share in bootlegging profits from an earlier promise (Turner: "This is big business. We deal with banks, lawyers, and a Dunn and Bradstreet rating. The world's spun right past you, Frank.")
In the decade of the 1950s, gangsters were portrayed with organised crime organisations (the Mob) taking over, accompanied by tense action, realistic settings, rich characterisations, and a view of society as sick, immoral and corrupt. Abraham Polonsky's lyrical debut film Force of Evil (1948) demonstrated the doomed and needless fate of the older brother of slick, corrupted Wall Street mob lawyer Joe Morse (John Garfield) who had sold out to the mob and became indebted to the criminal syndicate for life. In Fritz Lang's classic crime film noir The Big Heat (1953), Glenn Ford played a vengeful homicide detective (after his wife was killed in a car bombing) in pursuit of a big crime operation and its crime lord to clean up the corruption with the aid of a gangster's moll (Gloria Grahame). Its most violent scene included the face scalding and disfigurement of the heavy's (Lee Marvin) girlfriend with a pot of coffee.
In the 1970s, Death Wish in 1974 was the first of many controversial vigilante films which starred Charles Bronson as Paul Kersey, an obsessive, vengeful, grieving crusading killer seeking justice. There were a total of five Death Wish films from 1974 to 1994 about the vigilante's search for revenge following the death of loved ones.
Recently, the latest Crime film is ‘End of Watch’ which was released in This has been the most recent popular Crime film as this genre has moved away from the gangster crime and more towards psychological crime.

3. Sub-Genres of the Crime film
Cops & Robber (Blues Brothers) Detectives/Mysteries/Private Eyes (Sherlock Holmes) Femme Fatales (Gone Girl) Film Noir Hard-Boiled Detectives Law and Order Lovers on the run Mysteries Neo-Noir Outlaw Biker Films Procedurals Trial Films Vice Films Victims

4. Iconography of the Crime film
The mise-en-scene within crime films can normally be recognised from every day objects. For example, magnifying glasses tend to be linked to crime films such as ‘Sherlock Holmes’ where there are investigators and solve crimes through solving mystery's. Within typical crime films people also associate things such as: Dead body outlines in chalk; blood splatters; tommy guns; knives; police characters or investigators.
However, there are non typical types of crime films, such as ‘Gone Girl’ and ‘Dark Places’, where the things you may commonly associate with crime films aren’t necessarily found due to how the film is set more in the modern day. Therefore you get objects such as common household items. This would most likely be because they are set around the house focusing on the crime being within a relationship, whether it’s romantically (Gone Girl) or family based (Dark Places).

5. Examples of Crime Films
Blues brothers- 1980
Scarface- 1983
Reservoir Dogs- 1992
Goodfellas- 1990
Sin City- 2005
Layer Cake- 2004
Memories of murder – 2003
Millers crossing – 1990
Heat

6. Actors/Directors Associated with Crime films
John Belushi – Blues Brothers
Dan Aykroyd – Blues Brothers
Al Pacino – Scarface
Quentin Tarantino – Reservoir Dogs
Robert De Niro – Goodfellas
Bruce Willis – Sin City
Daniel Craig – Layer Cake
Jon Polito – Miller’s Crossing
Song Kang-Ho – Memories of murder