Author(s): Steven Jay Schneider

Film & TV

From the Prohibition-era classics of Mervyn LeRoy and William A. Wellman to the mean streets and Mafiosi of Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese, 101 Gangster Movies You Must See Before You Die explores the rise of the gangster movie to the popular phenomenon it is today. Whether holding up the local liquor store or wheeling and dealing in the spider-web of organised crime, the truth is never far from the fictional world on the big screen. The gangster genre kicked off with actors like James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson. Their tough-guy stances set the tone for the development of the devious, crazy, and charismatic crooks played by Al Pacino and Robert de Niro. One-line quips, sharp suits, a sense of camaraderie and grisly killings define the genre which has given us some of cinema's most memorable moments of society's underbelly in action. With insight from critics, film historians and academics, this book brings passion and knowledge to a wealth of dirty rats, dons, molls, triads, hoods, shoot-outs, hold-ups, heists, gangs, murders, drug deals and car chases.