Capital Celluloid 2013 - Day 341: Fri Dec 6

The Criminal (Losey, 1961) + The Lineup (Siegel, 1958):
Horse Hospital, Bloomsbury, 7.30pm


Here's a great double-bill in the Iain Sinclair 70x70 film season.

Time Out review of The Criminal:
Terrific performance from Stanley Baker as the criminal, an existential loner whose violence is essentially self-destructive as, literally trapped within the bars of a prison, he finds himself metaphorically caught between two complementary systems: one represented by the sadistic chief warder (Patrick Magee), who feeds his sense of power by fomenting a dog-eat-dog code in the cells, the other by the underworld kingpin (Wanamaker) waiting outside to kill Baker and hijack his stashed loot. Jospeh Losey's American eye and expertise make it jaggedly explosive and visually brilliant, a million miles beyond other British crime movies.
Tom Milne

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Chicago Reader review of The Lineup:
Two passionately dedicated San Francisco cops chase two insanely dedicated professional killers in Don Siegel's gritty 1958 study in pathological relativism. The film moves in a pattern of tension and release, culminating in a brilliantly executed car chase over an unfinished freeway. A major B movie by one of Hollywood's most accomplished craftsmen.
Dave Kehr

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