For this month’s issue I will be reviewing some crime films that I have enjoyed in the past month. The films I will be reviewing include Akira Kurosawa’s Stray Dog (1949), Vernon Sewell’s Strongroom (1962), and Peter Collinson’s The Italian Job (1969). All these films are filled with thrill and suspense that’ll put you to the edge of your seat.

First, we have Stray Dog (1949) directed by the legendary Japanese director, Akira Kurosawa. Stray Dog is about a rookie homicide detective, played by the magnificent Toshiro Mifune, whose gun has been stolen. He attempts to find it by scavenging through Tokyo to only get even deeper into the hole than he was in before. I very much enjoy this film from its thrills of following this detective through troubling situations to the interesting and very well-done camerawork by Kurosawa. The elements that stand out the most to me with Stray Dog is how Kurosawa keeps you in suspense with many scenes in this movie and truly gets you invested in what’s happening with the story.

Another film I watched this month was Strongroom (1962) directed by Vernon Sewell. This film is about a bank robbery where robbers successfully get the money out of a bank, but the robbers put the manger and cashier of the bank in the vault, which has a limited air supply. This film goes from a heist film into a story about personal morals, which is a very interesting and unique way to tell a heist story. This film was extremely thrilling and had fantastic scenes of suspense. I had a really great time with this one!

The final film I will be reviewing is The Italian Job (1969) directed by Peter Collinson. The film is about Charlie Croker (played by the iconic Michael Caine) who has just been released from prison and decides to take over a ‘job’ that his friend had planned out before his encounter with the mafia. The group that they plan to steal a fortune of gold from is the very mafia he’d encountered earlier. Charlie Croker and his crew team up to steal this fortune of gold in Italy. This film was a very good time, since it included both humor and action, which were both done very cleverly. It also has very fun, upbeat music by Qunicy Jones, so you can’t go wrong there.