History of Crime Films

A crime film is a film that involves different types of crime. It could fall under many different categories such as thriller, horror, film noir and psychological. Crime Films are more often based on books and there are some books that are more famous than others such as James Bond and Sherlock Holmes.

The arrival of sound in films in 1927 meant that there was a great thirst for escape like entertainment that would entertain the lower class people who immigrated to America. This is when the great gangster films started to come out based on novels. Crime films though didn’t have the reputation they have now until the rise of film noir. These were often novels written by French writers in the mid 20^th century about heroes who were doomed by passion.

After the war crime films took off with many films cultured in America. Examples are Kiss me deadly and The Desperate Hours. Soon after came crime comedies and psychological thrillers which were often directed by Alfred Hitchcock who was a notorious director in his day. International spy hero James Bond took over in the 1960’s with both Dr No and Goldfinger becoming massive successes. Bond films are unique because they have been frequently made over the last 50 years and are still ever popular today even though most of them aren’t published books. Young audiences were then targeted and films such as The Godfather and Bonnie and Clyde were introduced. This was when marketing became a big part of films. Horror films then became available and people were becoming disgusted with the amount of violence shown in horror films but still went and watched. Also throughout the 70’s a lot of war films were being produced, these were based on events that happened in the war and were very popular amongst the public. Some examples would be Memphis Belle and The Wild Geese.

Throughout the eighties films mystery films became popular. These would often be a policeman trying to solve a crime and the story takes and huge twist. Some examples would be The Game and Chaos.

Nowadays crime comedies are the most produced but there are many horror and gangster films around.. Action films such as The Transporter and Batman Returns are very popular and they attract a wide range of audiences.

Crime films are more popular now then they ever have been. They are seen as gender neutral and so they attract a wide range of audiences around the world.