British Crime Cinema

From early classics like They Made Me A Fugitive , to acclaimed recent films such as Face and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels , British Crime Cinema is the first substantial study of British cinemas most neglected genre. Bringing together original work from some of the leading writers on British popular film, and including interviews with key directors Mike Hodges ( Get Carter ) and Donald Cammel ( Performance ), British Crime Cinema follows the progress of the crime film from its first flourishing during the black market Britain of the 1940s, through the more relaxed whimsy of 50s classics like The Lavender Hill Mob and The Ladykillers , to the resurgence of the gangster cult in the late sixties, and contemporary incarnations in films such as Shallow Grave Shopping, and Face . Embracing both overlooked B movies and acknowledged classics such as Brighton Rock and The Long Good Friday , contributors trace the influence of the Hollywood gangster picture on its British counterpart, discussing the effect of film censors hostility, and assessing the crime films relationship to the British New Wave.
Examining the subversion of feminine stereotypes in the underworld film, British Crime Cinema stresses the importance of the crime film in understanding masculinity in British cinema, and the shifting gender relations of postwar Britain.

Author Biography

Steve Chibnall is Senior Lecturer in Media Studies at de Montfort University, Leicester. Robert Murphy is senior Research Fellow at de Montfort University.