Mine might change in five minutes but my five favorite crime drama films that come to mind right now are:

Bullitt
L.A. Confidential
Dirty Harry
The Godfather
The Big Sleep

In no particular order. I think The Big Sleep set the standard for private eye films that followed. Even though it came out after The Maltese Falcon. What's yours? You'll no doubt come up with one that'll make me mad for forgetting it.

Gotta include the Maltese Falcon. And Bonnie and Clyde.
My favorite movie of all time is Casablanca though. Guess when they shot the Major at the airport, that was a crime, so it qualifies.
ANYTHING with Bogie in it is a classic.
Jim

Heat and The Untouchables are my top two with all of the Dirty Harry movies below those. Also enjoyed US Marshals and Dillinger.

The Big Sleep
Mystery Street
The Naked City
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The Usual Suspects

__________________
Compact 9mm Just my $0.02

1. White Heat

"Made it ma..........top of the world!"

2. Dirty Harry
3. The Maltese Falcon
4. Key Largo
5. Scarface

__________________
LIVE FROM THE DAWGHOUSE

HEAT!!!!!!! You did it to me, jbull. That is one of my all time favorite movies of any genre! How could I forget it and what movie should it replace on my list? Sorry Inspector Calahan, but you just got bumped.

The Friends of Eddie Coyle
LA Confidential
Dirty Harry
The French Connection
Bullitt

(not necessarily in that order)

HEAT has the best gun fight scene of all time in it.

Youse guys are all over it but I have to add Goodfellas. The book (Wiseguys) is great too.

Thanks

I knew I forgot an important one

__________________
Compact 9mm Just my $0.02

The Usual Suspects

It makes "The Departed" look like "Beverly Hills Cop".

If you like gun fights or a hell lot of shootings go watch Shoot 'Em Up.

Good for a laugh.

__________________
_It was love at first shot_

The original "Crime" movie:

M

__________________
Dave

This is a pretty big field just to pick five. Tough picks. I know I'll be missing a lot with my first five. Plus, in many cases, the books become conflated with the movies.

Chinatown
Friends of Eddie Coyle
Body Heat
Godfather
Miller's Crossing

(there you go, a Coen Brothers pick. Once you have one, how can you leave out Fargo, Raising Arizona, Blood Simple?)
Or which Bogart? (I'll take Maltese Falcon)
Which based on a raymond Chandler book? (Farewell my Lovely with Mitchum and Charlotte Rampling)
Which ditto Elmore Leonard?
Which ditto Jim Thompson? (I like "After Dark My Sweet", with Jason Patric, Bruce Dern and Rachel Ward, but it's hard to say no to the McQueen and Sally Struthers "Getaway").
Then what do you do about No Country for Old Men?
Snatch? Reservoir Dogs? Pulp Fiction?

If I had to pick again tomorrow, Chinatown would still be at the top of my list, but the rest of my five might be completely different. In fact, I have to go back and stick Winter's Bone in there somewhere.

Wow, tough call
Key Largo
Bullitt
Dirty Harry
Silence of the Lambs
Untouchables

__________________
Always bet on stupidity.

Yea, Silence of the Lambs was good!

i can only think of one right off..................

"in the heat of the night"

as someone said, tough call, i'll add a very tough call, but..
scorsese takes the lead with..
the departed and goodfellas.
i have to pick 3 more..
the godfather epic
heat
ok, there's really too many to just name 5 so i'll just stop at the 4 that quickly popped in my mind.

Am I the only one that enjoyed

"Casino"

The Godfather (I count 1 & 2 as the same long movie)
Goodfellas
L.A. Confidential
Casino
Eastern Promises
I haven't seen "M" in a long time, But it makes the list.
Come to think of it, most of the films I like are crime films.

"A Bronx Tale" added to all above.

Best scene "Motorcycle gang enters Mob bar".

__________________
Doesn't hasta call me Johnson

LA Confidential
The Godfather
Silence of the Lambs
Dinner Rush (Best movie you've never heard of)
Vertigo (crime movie or love story?)
and
Annie Hall

I'm not sure why so many people like Bullitt. Aside from the chase scene it was boring.

__________________
Regards, Ron
USASA 1965/69

I'll add, Angels with Dirty Faces and The Untouchables(KevinCostner).

Jeff

I don't know if I can pick a top 5. But to the list of classics already mentioned, I would add Marathon Man. That and Chinatown are about my two favorite of all time.

Oh, and The Postman Always Rings Twice (w/ Jessica Lange)

__________________
Regards,
Brian.

These are great. I liked The Silence of the Lambs, Body Heat, Dirty Harry. Add LA Confidential and Basic Instinct.

The original and remake of The Getaway are also good.

I'll play...
The Departed
Godfather (I & II)
Usual Suspects
Fargo
No Country for Old Men

Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

I watched this last Sunday. Bogart did a great job of acting. So did Tim Holt and old man Huston.


Training Day is another I'd put on the list.

Ronin is a good thriller with a good bit of crime in it.

__________________
God spelled backwards is dog.

[QUOTE=RonJ;136372234]Dinner Rush (Best movie you've never heard of)

Also maybe the best movie you have heard of.

Another of my all time favorites.

In no particular order...

The Thin Man (OK, this one would be top as it's my favorite)
The Big Sleep
Laura
Double Indemnity
Appointment with Danger

- Three Days Of The Condor
- No Country For Old Men
- The Italian Job
- The Taking Of Pelham 123
- Death Hunt

The Green Mile
Shawshank Redeption
Cool Hand Luke
Scarface
Untouchables

Honorable Mention: Good Fellas , Heat, Big Lebowski.

Didn't anyone else like Basic Instinct? I thought it was a little overacted in places. Michael Douglas was too intense and there's no way that I believe that Sharon Stone didn't know that the camera was aimed where it was when a certain scene made her a major star. It's a pity that this came on the basis of her controversial scene rather than on the basis of her overall acting ability, which is considerable.

There was too much raw emotion at times, even in view of the characters' natures. I'm thinking here primarily of Roxie, and of Gus's getting drunk in public and all the shouting. They tried to run too much on tension. There is acting, then there is overacting, and we saw some of the latter.

But in the main, I liiked it, and it was pretty quirky. I wasn't sure until the final scene that Sharon Stone was what we suspected as the movie ran. There was always the chance that the shrink (Jeanne Tripplehorn) or someone else was the killer.

As a writer, I liked Stone's character's comment that an author must achieve "suspension of disbelief."

Basic Instinct also had a very eerie and effective soundtrack.
I've heard it used several times as promotional music for other projects.

__________________
Regards, Ron
USASA 1965/69

The Thin Man (This is such a great movie because it's both a crime mystery and a comedy)
The Maltese Falcon
The Treasure of Sierra Madre
Strangers On a Train
Usual Suspects

CW

__________________
μολὼν λαβέ

The Grinch that stole Christmas.......

__________________
Go big or stay home

Since "The Grinch that stole Christmas" has already
been mentioned I'll add, the original, "In Cold Blood."

__________________
Ogy

My Top 5, in no particular order:

Pulp Fiction
Reservior Dogs
Dirty Harry
Goodfellas
Raising Arizona

Godfather I & II, Casino, Goodfellas, Heat and Chinatown

Lot of good ones are already listed. One of my all time favorites is "Tha Asphalt Jungle".

Psycho - with Janet Leigh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WtDmbr9xyY

My favorite dramatic crime movies are:

Key Largo
The Maltese Falcon
The Big Sleep
Desperate Journey
In A Lonely Place

Of course there are others. But these never grow old. They are timeless.

__________________
<><

Key Largo
The Maltese Falcon
The Big Sleep
Usual Suspects
High Sierra

Yes, I'm a Bogey fan.

You've all come up with great ones that tempt me to modify my original post but I'll just call these very honerable mentions:
Fargo
No Country For Old Men
White Heat
Kiss of Death just because of Richard Widmark
...and the one I forgot but you didn't and would bump Dirty Harry to 6th place, HEAT. I had a dog once I named Cody Jarrett. "Maa deadd??!!!!"
Thief with James Caan was great, too.

An honorable mention to Kind Hearts and Coronets

__________________
and what his trumpet saith

Leon/The Professional (Everyone!)

Dirty Harry (Make my day)

Pulp Fiction (Bring out the gimp)

The Godfather (An offer you can't refuse)

Boondock Saints ( Charles Bronson's always got rope.)

__________________
Hold my beer and watch this!

Here are a couple of good Robert Mitchum crime movies that I have watched more than once.
Out of the Past and His Kind of Woman

Out of the past is a classic 40's crime movie. The remake was Against All Odds with Jeff Bridges. Here's Gena Rowlands in "Gloria" packing two guns, including a 4" Model 29. We just watched Sharon Stone in the remake. No .44 Mag in that one. Pretty good but I like the original more.