CRIMEDIES

     What do you call a crime movie that’s also funny? How about “crimedies”? There are several entries in this somewhat off-beat category.
I think one of the very best is Prizzi’s Honor (1985). Jack Nicholson has a fine old time as a slow-witted hitman from a very curious, and notorious, family  He is in over his head when he courts Kathleen Turner, who has talents of her own. Angelica Huston won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, as the Mafia Mom from Hell. Her father, John, directed. The screenplay, from a Richard Condon novel, is superb.
Get Shorty (1995), is based on one of Elmore Leonard’s quirky novels. John Travolta is a minor-league mob enforcer who comes to Los Angeles on “business.” His life-long desire to produce a movie is seized upon by Sleazy Hollywood Guy Gene Hackman. Danny De Vito, Rene Russo, Delroy Lindo and James Gandolfini appear as various low-lifes and movie wannabes. The plot is convoluted but very funny.
In The Whole Nine Yards (2000), Bruce Willis moves into the quiet suburban neighborhood of dentist Matthew Perry. Learning Willis is actually a Mafia hit-man, Perry decides he can get big bucks by telling the right people where the hit-man is hiding out. Bad idea! Amanda Peet and  Rosanna Arquette add to the scenery and the merriment.
Michelle Pfeiffer’s hitman husband dies and she tries to get away from his Mafia connections in Married To The Mob (1988). Then it turns out that the local crime boss, deftly played out-of-character by Dean Stockwell, is much enamored with Ms. Pfeiffer. A stellar cast includes Matthew Modine, Alec Baldwin, Joan Cusak and Mercedes Ruehl.
Alec Guiness is a drab, anonymous bank clerk with a crazy scheme for robbing an armored car in The Lavender Hill Mob (1951). The thugs he recruits to pull this off are somewhat lacking in expertise, but not in humor. The excellent screenplay won the Oscar for T.E.B. Clarke. Audrey Hepburn’s very short screen debut occurs in the first scene. Don’t blink or you’ll miss her.
Tough guy Edward G. Robinson shows his comedy talents in the delightful Larceny, Inc. (1942). He and his chums decide to run a luggage store because it is next door to a bank they want to break into. But the business somehow prospers and that gets in the way of their nefarious plans. Jack Carson, Jane Wyman, Anthony Quinn, and especially Broderick Crawford are included in a fine cast.
All of the films in this article are available on DVD and for streaming. All are fine for 12 and up.
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