Collider Ranks 10 Crime Thrillers That Critics Say Have No Flaws

A ranking of ten crime thrillers, titled “10 Crime Thrillers Without a Single Flaw,” has been assembled by Collider. The list moves from classic noirs of the 1940s to true-crime masterpieces of the 2000s, and it brings together heist films, conspiracy thrillers and serial killer stories. Each entry was judged on dialogue, structure and timing, with critics believing none of them suffer from any flaws.

Each of the ten entries gets its own name in the ranking, with the list judging every film by the same standards: razor-sharp dialogue, bulletproof structure and crackerjack timing.

Double Indemnity and The Asphalt Jungle

The film noir subgenre gets its opening example from Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity. He adapted the script alongside crime novelist Raymond Chandler, who drew it from the novel by James M. Cain. The story follows insurance salesman Walter Neff, played by Fred MacMurray, who encounters the scheming Phyllis Dietrichson, played by Barbara Stanwyck. She draws him into a scheme to kill her husband so they can claim the insurance money.

Instead of spelling out sex, the movie relies on suggestive images to work around the Hays Code, which raises the stakes between the two stars. The chemistry between MacMurray and Stanwyck gets described as electric by Collider, while the plot stays in motion thanks to twists, turns and double crosses. Wilder’s film stands among his best, and it holds its own in any discussion of the finest film noir ever made.

John Huston’s The Asphalt Jungle follows, another classic noir from 1950. Huston’s heist film set the diamond standard template that many later films were molded on. It is a foundational heist film that has not been surpassed by the many films it influenced.

A Midwestern city is where an ex-con, played by Sam Jaffe, gathers a team for a jewel heist, with Sterling Hayden as a brooding tough guy among them. The plan falls apart, and the consequences take most of the crew down. Though the same production code that kept Double Indemnity from showing too much still applies here, The Asphalt Jungle carries a much harder edge. Its heist may not match the complexity of later films, but its blunt force approach makes it no less effective.

Le Samouraï and The French Connection

The third entry is Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samouraï, a film that shaped many crime thrillers that followed. Alain Delon stars as Jef, a contract killer working in Paris, whose life falls apart after he sees a killing and gets turned against by his employers. The police and other killers close in on him from all sides, and he works to tie up every loose end while keeping hold of his own control.

The movie is reduced to its most essential genre parts, presented in a quiet, simplified way that makes it cool without effort. It is the grandfather of the laconic cinematic assassin, and it still holds up well.

Next up is William Friedkin’s The French Connection, a 1971 cop thriller drawn from real events. Gene Hackman stars as Popeye Doyle, a virulent racist who ignores every rule while chasing a ring of drug dealers. The role was inspired by real-life officer Eddie Egan, and the film centers on Doyle and his partner, Buddy, played by Roy Scheider, as they attempt to take down a French drug smuggler.

The pursuit forms the heart of the film, a concentrated expression of its lead’s consuming fixation. It is a frantic, ruinous and violent chase that ends without resolution.

Pelham One Two Three and the 1970s New York Crime Wave

Morton Freedgood’s novel formed the foundation for The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, a 1974 hijacking caper that gains texture from its setting and characters. Walter Matthau stars as transit police lieutenant Zachary Garber, whose already bad day grows far worse when a gang of hijackers, led by Robert Shaw, takes a subway train full of passengers hostage.

Its people and its surroundings feel used and worn, much like The French Connection, though this picture carries a brighter wit layered with working-class cynicism. That particular atmosphere is not something all the money in the world could ever reproduce.

A number of films from the 1980s and 1990s make up the rest of the list, among them The Usual Suspects, The Silence of the Lambs and The Long Good Friday.

Key Films in the Ranking

• Double Indemnity (1944) — Billy Wilder’s classic film noir
• The Asphalt Jungle (1950) — John Huston’s foundational heist film
• Le Samouraï (1967) — Jean-Pierre Melville’s stripped-down assassin tale
• The French Connection (1971) — William Friedkin’s gritty cop thriller
• The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) — a hijacking caper set in New York

The judging standards apply equally to every entry, with each one measured by its dialogue’s precision, its structure’s dependability, and its delivery’s timing.

The ranking is available online.

Source material: “10 Crime Thrillers Without a Single Flaw,” Collider.

classic cinema · crime thriller · Film Noir · heist film · movie review