What's in a Title? Crime Films Volume I Quiz

Answer: The Black Hand

The letter is signed Black Hand. The note reads "Bewar (sic)! We are desparut (sic)! Mister Angelo we must have $1,000. Give it to us or we will take your Maria and blow up your shop. Black Hand."

"The Black Hand" is thought to be the first ever gangster film still existent. It's just over ten minutes long, which is probably longer than the screenplay took to write. There are no acting credits, although research has revealed that the two main gangsters were played by Anthony O'Sullivan and Robert G. Vignola.

The gangsters' hideout is obviously a stage set, as is Angelo's butcher's shop. However, the real gem of the film is the street scene when Maria is abducted. It was shot on location on New York's Seventh Avenue, possibly with hidden cameras. As a document to New York's history this scene is priceless, although it does jar with the staginess of the rest of the film.

Answer: The Public Enemy

At the end of the picture we get this explanation on the screen: "The Public Enemy is not a man, nor is it a character - it is a problem that sooner or later we, the public, must solve." I beg to differ; the public enemy is a man and his name is James Cagney, but they weren't to know that yet.

James Cagney played the lead, Tom Powers, and Edward Woods played his sidekick, Matt Doyle. Apparently, those roles were set to be the other way around until the last minute. According to film scholar Robert Sklar, the switch was possible because sound recording equipment had improved so much that Cagney's rough-and-ready diction would be comprehensible, whereas with the more primitive equipment, actors needed much clearer diction, like Edward Woods'. The film shot Cagney to stardom, whereas Woods did a few more flicks, tried his hand at directing, and disappeared into obscurity.

Answer: Pépé le Moko

The master thief is Pépé. Apparently "le Moko" indicates that he is from Toulon in French slang. Pépé is played by the world class French actor Jean Gabin.

There is no doubt that "Pépé le Moko" is a hugely influential crime film, the question is how influential. In his essay on the film, critic Michael Atkinson gets a bit carried away and claims, "Without its iconic precedent there would have been no Humphrey Bogart, no John Garfield, no Steve McQueen, no Bruce Willis, no movie-star heritage of weathered cool, vulnerable nihilism, bruised masculinity-as-cultural syndrome. Most vitally, there would have been no film noir."

Atkinson might be going a bit far, but nevertheless it's a fantastic film. The setting is perfect, as are the performances. The plot is actually fairly jejune, but it is so nuanced you hardly even notice.

Answer: Two Way Stretch

I think the title "Two Way Stretch", which comes from a type of fabric by the way, must be because the three cellmates are due to be released the day after the job, so they go one way (out), then the other (in), then out again. The film has also been known as "Nothing Barred".

The three splendidly-named inmates are Dodger Lane (Peter Sellers), Lennie Price (Bernard Cribbins) and Jelly Knight (David Lodge). The plan is actually thought up by one of their cronies on the outside, Soapy Stevens (played by the wonderful Wilfrid Hyde-White). Life is pretty good at Huntleigh Prison and they reckon it'll be a doddle getting out and in again until hardnut Prison Officer Sidney "Sour" Crout (played brilliantly by Lionel Jeffries) is transferred there.

The comedy of "Two Way Stretch" lies in the mockery of the bleeding-heart Prison Governor and his progressive policies. Cell doors aren't always locked and the most strenuous activity is basket weaving. The inmates know exactly how to play the Governor and abuse their privileges at every opportunity. The more draconian Crout brings back hard labour in the quarry and military-style gymnastics, but he is ultimately hampered and foiled by the wily inmates who manage to make him look foolish. The military is transporting the diamonds and it isn't spared the mockery in what is essentially a very irreverent, very British comedy caper.

Answer: Shaft

The private detective is John Shaft, hence the title of the film. Shaft is played by Richard Roundtree in what became his defining role, and an iconic figure of African-American culture. Isaac Hayes's fabulous soundtrack is equally as seminal.

"Shaft" is based on a 1970 novel of the same name by Ernest Tidyman. Tidyman also worked on the screenplay, and later wrote the screenplay for "Shaft"'s sequel, "Shaft's Big Score", as well as "The French Connection" and "High Plains Drifter".

The jury is still out on whether "Shaft" or "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song" was the first Blaxploitation film and it doesn't really matter. What does matter is the huge influence both films had on American cinema. Actually, the only real flaw in "Shaft" is its uncertainty over whether it wants to go OTT with the Blaxploitation stuff, be a political/social commentary, or a classy crime drama. Whatever it ends up being, it's highly entertaining and the footage of Harlem in the early 1970s is also a treasure.

Answer: Assault on Precinct 13

The motley crew is stuck in a police station (Precinct 9, Division 13) in Anderson, Los Angeles. It's the last night the police station is manned since it is being shut down. The father of a girl shot dead in a drive-by shooting takes his revenge and shoots a top-ranking gang leader. He then runs to the police station for protection, prompting the gang to lay siege on his haven.

The title "Assault on Precinct 13" is actually a nonsense since in the film the police station is referred to as Precinct 9, Division 13. Apparently, Carpenter had called it "The Anderson Alamo" as homage to the westerns it was inspired by. He then chose "The Siege" (Lieutenant Ethan Bishop describes the assault as a siege in the film), but someone else entirely named it "Assault on Precinct 13".

The first assault of the hoodlums on the police station sits quite honorably alongside the greatest of western film shoot-outs. Carpenter is revered for his painstaking attention to sound, and the symphony of silenced gunshots with accompanying visual garnishing in "Assault on Precinct 13" must be his musical masterpiece.

Answer: Man Bites Dog

The French title for "Man Bites Dog" is "C'Est Arrivé Près de Chez Vous", which translates as, "it happened near your house". I suppose the French title underlines that monstrous things can happen in your own back yard, perpetrated by those amongst you. The English title comes from a journalistic phrase used to express that the usual (i.e. a dog bites a man) is not newsworthy, yet the unusual (a man bites a dog) is, despite the fact that it still isn't real news.

"Man Bites Dog" was written, directed and produced by Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel and Benoît Poelvoorde, who were film students at the outset of the project. Belvaux plays the leader of the film crew making the documentary about the killer, and Bonzel plays the cameraman. The real star of the film is Benoît Poelvoorde as the murderer, Ben, who is disturbingly affable.

"Man Bites Dog" is brutally violent, but also very funny. However, the dark humour also works on our feelings of shame, not just about finding the film in itself funny but our whole involvement in what Guy Debord described in 1967's "The Society of the Spectacle". The film is a clear parody of Reality TV. André Bonzel has said, "The TV show 'Cops' has a camera crew following cops and going to fights. Shoplifters are arrested in front of the camera and it's really a horror film." One of the funniest moments is when Ben and the film crew come across a rival crook who is also being followed around by a documentary film crew.

Answer: Jackie Brown

The flight attendant is called Jackie Brown, hence the film's title. Jackie is played by the inimitable Pam Grier, star of many 1970s genre films and a favourite of Tarantino's. The film is nothing like as much of a homage to Blaxploitation cinema as many have made out. It is essentially a very tightly-scripted crime drama which leaves you guessing right until the end. Inexplicably, "Jackie Brown" is often slightly overlooked when people discuss Tarantino's oeuvre.

"Jackie Brown" also stars Robert De Niro as an ex-con pothead called Louis Gara, Samuel L. Jackson as Ordell Robbie, the gun runner, and Michael Keaton as the Fed agent Jackie deals with. There's also a great performance by Bridget Fonda as Melanie, one of Ordell's girlfriends.

Answer: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

The expression "lock, stock, and barrel" means everything, the whole lot. Barry "The Baptist" (Harry "The Hatchet"'s henchman) commends Eddy's dad for the fact that he has no debts and owns his bar "lock, stock, the lot". Barry is played by the late great Lenny McLean, and Eddy's dad is played by Sting. Furthermore, director Guy Ritchie adapted the idiom in reference to a pair of antique shotguns which are pivotal to the plot.

"Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" was Guy Ritchie's feature film debut and was immediately heralded as a return to form for British crime comedy films. The plot has some wonderful twists and turns, and the comedy works. The characters are larger-than-life caricatures with accompanying idiosyncratic, snappy dialogue. However, at times the delivery of the dialogue is stilted and awkward, I suppose in order to avoid the Cockney argot being impenetrable.

Answer: The Departed

The title "The Departed" is uttered several times during the film in reference to the deceased. One of the themes of the film is that however many "rats" (i.e. traitors) get found out (and killed), there are always more of them. Furthermore, however many die, the gangsters will keep on coming through the ranks, and the mob doesn't die when its main-man does.

Another of the main themes of the film is identity. Billy Costigan begs for his identity back towards the end of the film, just about the same time as the audience (well, this viewer at least) lose track of who the heck is selling out who to whom.

"The Departed" is actually a remake of a Hong Kong film called "Infernal Affairs". It is very different from Scorsese's usual output, not least since it was the "first movie I've done with a plot" as the great man himself admitted!

All the red herrings are also Scorsese films.