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Miss Jones is a gorgeous black amazon fighting for truth, justice and the American way - she's a fed. After she burns down a Turkish opium poppy field drug lord Mommy, a leather-clad dyke running downtown gangland, wants her dead. Meanwhile Doodlebug (Huggy from Starsky) wants independence for Afros, flares, platforms et al. High-kick-karate cartoon-style camp fun. find out more...

Returning to themes he had touched upon in his earlier films Polanski develops the idea of Pinter's "two people in a room and then a third enters" with a couple on a remote island invaded by two on-the-run gangsters. Gradually the power positions shift... underlined with great black humour. find out more...

Bogart plays a man, convicted of murdering his wife, who escapes from prison in order to prove his innocence and, in trying to hide from the law, has undergone back-street cosmetic surgery. Even though he does not appear from behind his bandages until half way through the film that famous voice gives him away! Watch out for the superb use of first person camera work. A classic in every sense of the word. find out more...

The moody 28-year-old Mifune is the violent gangster whom boozy doctor Shimura diagnoses as suffering from TB ('a hole in the heart,' says the sour 'angel', ruefully). The movie breathes the polluted air of post-war pessimism, dissipation and poetic fatalism, symbolised in the shots of the oily, malaria-ridden swamp of a Tokyo dockside, but it is dramatically qualified by Mifune's suggested redeemability and Shimura's stoical humanism. Fascinating, highly enjoyable and filled with great scenes - find out more...

A seminal 1940s film noir about two brothers trapped in a world of mob corruption and realising too late their unavoidable doom. Force of Evil is a strikingly original example of the genre, dripping in atmosphere and conveying in every word and image a sense of dread. Both the director and the star were blacklisted by the McCarthyite witch-hunts, a situation that obviously influenced their work during the film. Superb. find out more...

Pam Grier displays the charms that made her a 70s icon of the blaxploitation movie. When Foxy Brown's undercover drug squad boyfriend is murdered after her bad-ass brother reveals his identity, she poses as a hooker to take revenge on The Man. Cue bucketloads of gratuitous sex and violence. Brilliant (say some)! find out more...

Perhaps Caine's defining role as the ruthless London villain in Newcastle to sort out some gang bovver. When he finds out his niece has become embroiled with some very seedy characters, his involvement becomes far deeper. A violent and slick thriller with an excellent feel for both time and location and a comment on the despair of Britain in the 1970s. find out more...

Irish Sicilian Henry Hill always wanted to be a gangster and from running errands as a small boy, he graduates to becoming a trusted member of the "family". A stunning, violent and essential portrait of the Mafia's intimate details. An award winning film, superbly crafted by Scorsese. find out more...

From the writings of Damyon Runyon comes this classic musical about a gambler with a heart of gold, who falls for a Salvation Army girl. Some great songs, including "Fugue for Tinhorns", "Luck Be a Lady" and "Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat". find out more...