Category: Crime

Is This a Photo of the Alcatraz Prison Escapees?

Posted on by

The photo above is purported to be Clarence Anglin and John Anglin, two of the three convicts who escaped from Alcatraz prison in 1962.  This picture was reportedly taken in 1975 on a farm where they allegedly lived in Brazil.

The Alcatraz prison break is probably the most famous prison escape ever since it was thought to be impossible and the three convicts were never caught.  Of course the Clint Eastwood movie, Escape from Alcatraz, probably helped with public awareness a bit.

At any rate, if you’re interested you can see vintage photos of the convicts, their cells, escape route and more at  Could the Alcatraz Escapees Still Be Alive? Here Are Some of Historical Photos of The Great Escape from Alcatraz in 1962 at Vintage Everyday.

O.J.: Made in America (2016) / Z-View

Posted on by

O.J.: Made in America (2016)

Director: Ezra Edelman

The Pitch: “The make a documentary like ‘Making a Murderer’ but with the most famous murder trial in American history!”

No Tagline.

The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…

An amazing documentary that explores in detail the trial of OJ Simpson for the murders of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman as well as the history of the years leading up to the murders. And not just the history of OJ and Nicole, but also the United States – the evolution of civil liberties, the reputation of the LA police, the rise of O.J. Simpson’s celebrity as a sports and movie star and how these different factors came together to create a climate that gave us the OJ Simpson murder trial.

The documentary takes us past the criminal trial to the civil trial, OJ’s life following it and the subsequent activities and trial that cost OJ Simpson his freedom.

Rating:

The Night Stalker (2016) / Z-View

Posted on by

The Night Stalker (2016)

Director: Megan Griffiths
Screenplay: Megan Griffiths
Stars: Bellamy Young, Lou Diamond Phillips and Louis Herthum.

The Pitch: “Let’s make a movie about the real life serial killer known as ‘The Night Stalker’.”

No Tagline.

The Plot…

A young woman [Young] is given the job to get to know Richard Ramirez aka “The Night Stalker” in an effort to find out if he is responsible for a murder attributed to another man who is sentenced to die for it.

Thoughts…

Phillips is convincing as The Night Stalker.

The drawings that are seen in Richard Ramirez’s cell are actual drawings done by Ramirez.

Rating:

David Morrell’s Ruler of the Night

Posted on by

Word on a new David [First Blood] Morrell novel is always welcome here!

On November 15, 2016, we’ll get the third part of Morrell’s Victorian mystery trilogy featuring Thomas De Quincey with Ruler of the Night.

Like David Morrell’s previous De Quincey novels, Ruler of the Night blends fact and fiction to an exceptional degree, this time focusing on a real-life Victorian murder so startling that it changed the culture-in this case, the first murder on an English train. The brutality of the crime stoked the fears of a generation who believed that the newly invented railway would “annihilate time and space.”

In Ruler of the Night, readers feel they’re actually on the harrowing fogbound streets of 1855 London as the brilliant Opium-Eater, Thomas De Quincey, and his irrepressible daughter, Emily, confront their most ruthless adversary. The stakes couldn’t be greater: both the heart of Victorian society and De Quincey’s tormented soul.

 

 

The fast-paced narrative matches the speed with which the railway changed Victorian life. It brings back Scotland Yard detectives Ryan and Becker, along with Lord Palmerston, Queen Victoria, and Prince Albert, and introduces a host of new characters from this fascinating era. Master storyteller David Morrell transports readers back in time, away from the modern world and into the dangerous shadows of the past.

I Died a Thousand Times (1955) / Z-View

Posted on by

I Died a Thousand Times (1955)

Director: Stuart Heisler
Screenplay: W.R. Burnett
Stars: Jack Palance, Shelley Winters, Lori Nelson, Lee Marvin, Lon Chaney, Jr., Earl Holliman and Dennis Hopper.

The Pitch: “Let’s remake ‘High Sierra.’”

Tagline: “The Story Behind The Terrifying 60-Day Hunt For Desperado ‘Mad-Dog’ Earle!”

The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…

Roy Earl [Palance] an infamous bank robber [think Dillinger] is sprung from prison by an old crime boss who wants Earl for a big robbery. Obligated for his freedom, Earl drives west to check out the set up.

Once he meets up with his old boss, Earl discovers the robbery plan is good and the money is right, but his partners are young, inexperienced thugs [Marvin & Holliman] looking to make a name for themselves… plus they have a woman [Winters] with them and everyone knows women and crime plans don’t work out.

Before it is over there will be a robbery, people killed, double-crosses and a manhunt for the “Mad Dog Killer” Roy Earl.

Rating:

Sinner Man by Lawrence Block

Posted on by

A lot of folks are going to love Sinner Man.  It’s Lawrence Block’s first crime novel that had been lost for nearly 50 years!

To escape punishment for a murder he didn’t mean to commit, insurance man Don Barshter has to take on a new identity: Nathaniel Crowley, ferocious up-and-comer in the New York mob. But can he find safety in the skin of another man…a worse man…a sinner man…?

It’d be a sin to miss this one.

Standoff (2016) / Z-View

Posted on by

Standoff (2016)
Director: Adam Alleca
Screenplay: Adam Alleca
Stars: Thomas Jane, Laurence Fishburne and Ella Ballentine.

The Pitch: “A hitman, a little girl who witnessed the murder and the only man who can save her are trapped in a remote house…”

Tagline: “A Deadly Game Only One Can Survive”

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

A hitman (Zishburne) tracks a little girl (Bird) who witnessed a murder to a rural house owned by a grieving vet (Jane).  A psychological battle punctuated by high power weapons ensues.

Fishburne is outstanding as the hitman determined to leave no witnesses.

Rating:

The Cotton Club (1984) / Z-View

Posted on by

The Cotton Club (1984)

Director:  Francis Ford Coppola

Screenplay: William Kennedy & Francis Ford Coppola

Stars:  Richard Gere, Gregory Hines, Diane Lane, Bob Hoskins, James Remar, Nicholas Cage, Fred Gwynne, Lawrence Fishburne, John P. Ryan, Tom Waits, Jennifer Grey, Ed O’Ross, Woody Strode and James Russo.

The Pitch: “Let’s make an event movie based on famous gangsters with dancing!”

Tagline: “Welcome to The Cotton Club. Where Crime Lords rub elbows with the rich and famous. Where deals are made, lives are traded. And the legends of jazz light up the night.”

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

It is still hard for me to believe I don’t like this movie better than I do.  Look at the director (Coppola!), the cast (too many to list) and the subject matter.  How can this not rate higher?  Perhaps the narrative is too all over the place…

There’s the young musician [Gere] who inadvertently saves a gangster [Remar] and ends up in a romantic triangle with the gangster’s girl [Lane].

There’s the African-American brothers who want to make it as a dance team but end up feuding and split up.

There’s the two gangs which are almost ready to go to war.

There’s the Cotton Club – the place owned by whites, but the talent is black and where a lot of the action happens.

There’s the… well, I could go on, but I think you get the idea.  The music is fine.  The dance numbers [especially by the Hines brothers] are fun.  It’s also a kick to identify the real historical figures portrayed in the film.  Still, the movie itself falls short.

Rating:

Miami Blues (1990) / Z-View

Posted on by

Miami Blues (1990)

Director:  George Armitage

Screenplay:  George Armitage from a novel by  Charles Willeford

Stars:   Fred Ward, Alec Baldwin, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Charles Napier and Paul Gleason.

The Pitch: “How about a crime movie based in Miami?”

Tagline: “Real badge. Real gun. Fake cop.”

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Ex-con, Frederick J. Frenger Jr. [Baldwin] heads to Miami for a fresh start.  A fresh start means stealing and conning.  When Frenger ends up with a cop’s gun and badge, he finds that it makes stealing and conning easier.  The cop [Ward] makes it his life’s mission to track down the thief using his identity.  Oh, and there’s a sweet prostitute [Leigh], too.

Rating:

Walter Hill and Matz Team for Triggerman!

Posted on by

That’s a cover detail from Triggerman, a new crime comic coming from Hard Case Crime and Titan Comics.

Triggerman will be written by Walter (“The Warriors”) Hill with art by Matz.

In the mean streets of Chicago, a convict is thrown headfirst into a life of bloodshed and bullets to save the girl he left behind…

I love the sound and look.  I’ll definitely be pulling the trigger on Triggerman.

Sources: Flickering Myth and Down the Tubes.

Jason Latour Talks to EW at Con-X

Posted on by

Jason Latour is the subject of a piece at Entertainment Weekly.  When asked about the tv adaptation of Southern Bastards, Latour responded…

“We’re hopeful that it will move forward… It’s a slow, slow process, but there’s really good people behind it and excited by it. At some point now, to do the comic everyday, you have to forget that there might be a TV show.”

A tv series would be icing but as long as Jason Aaron and Jason Latour keep the comic coming, that’s the cake, baby.

The Killers (1946) / Z-View

Posted on by

The Killers (1946)

Director:  Robert Siodmak

Screenplay:  Anthony Veiller from a story by Ernest Hemingway

Stars:  Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O’Brien and William Conrad.

The Pitch: “Let’s make a movie based on Hemingway’s The Killers.”

Tagline: “One Moment with Her…And He Gambled His LUCK…LOVE…and His LIFE!”

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Two hit men show up in a small town to kill a gas station attendant known as “Swede” [Lancaster].  When warned the hitmen are in town, Swede thanks the man but refuses to run.  He lays back down and waits for their arrival, a totally defeated man.

The hit men arrive.  Kill him and leave.

Insurance investigator Reardon [O’Brien] gets the case and slowly begins to unravel the mystery of why hit men were sent to kill a small town nobody.  What follows is a story of mobsters, big time robberies, double-crosses and in the middle of it all a beautiful woman.

The opening scene – of the hitmen at the diner is a favorite and sets the tone for a classic movie!

Rating: 4 of 5 stars.

15 Not-So-Simple Facts About “Blood Simple”

Posted on by

Garin Pirnia and Mental_Floss present 15 Not-So-Simple Facts About Blood Simple.  Here are three of my favorites…

1. ITS TITLE WAS INSPIRED BY DASHIELL HAMMETT’S RED HARVEST.
“It’s an expression he used to describe what happens to somebody psychologically once they’ve committed murder,” Joel Coen told Time Out. “They go ‘blood simple’ in the slang sense of ‘simple,’ meaning crazy. But it’s left up to the audience to ponder the implications; they’re never spelled out in the film itself.”

3. THE COENS—AND MANY OF THE CAST AND CREW—HAD NEVER BEEN ON A FILM SET BEFORE.
Joel Coen admitted in My First Movie, “The first day of shooting on Blood Simple was the first time I’d ever been on a feature movie set in any capacity, even as a visitor.” Coen had previously worked as an assistant editor on horror films, including 1981’s The Evil Dead. Coen mentioned how Sonnenfeld would throw up after looking at the dailies, because he was so nervous working on the film. “Everyone was in the same boat,” Joel said. “The gaffer had never gaffered a feature. The sound guy, the mixer on the set, had never mixed a feature.”

4. THE COENS CHOSE TO MAKE A FILM NOIR BECAUSE OF THE GENRE’S PRACTICALITY.
The Coens liked hard-boiled fiction authors James M. Cain, Dashiell Hammett, and Raymond Chandler, and used them to their advantage in writing the script. “It’s certainly a genre that is entertaining, and we also picked it for very practical reasons,” Ethan said. “We knew we weren’t going to have a big budget. The financing would not allow it. We could build something on the genre and the appeal it has.”

“It’s also a genre that allows you to get by rather modestly in some ways,” Joel added. “You can limit the number of characters, put them into a confined set. There’s no need to go for large-scale effects or scatter them through the film, and those cost a lot of money. So it was a pragmatic decision that determined what film we would make.”