Rififi: Criterion Collection

Blacklisted by Hollywood during the 1950s, American director Jules Dassin went to France and made Rififi (1955), considered by critics to be one of the greatest heist films ever made. It also became part of a thriving French film noir movement that included... 

Brute Force

Jules Dassin brought his style of hard-hitting, unflinching realism to the prison melodrama genre as he depicts the harsh world behind bars in Brute Force (1947). The first shot of the prison is a low angle one looking up at a watch tower at night in... 

The Naked City

Producer Mark Hellinger was interested in making a crime movie in the same vein as Robert Siodmak’s The Killers (1946) except that New York City would be the main character. His main writer, Malvin Wald, gave him a screenplay entitled Homicide and Arthur... 

Thieves’ Highway

Based on A.I. Bezzerides’ novel, Thieves’ Market, Jules Dassin’s Thieves’ Highway (1949) offers a glimpse into the world of truck drivers risking their lives on the open road, having to deal with their vehicles breaking down and pushing themselves... 

Night and the City

After being blacklisted in Hollywood during the McCarthy-era witch hunts, director Jules Dassin moved to London and made the classic film noir, Night and the City (1950) for 20th Century Fox. He presents a shadowy underworld where life is cheap and money...