# movies based on the perfect crime **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 16, 2006, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-the-perfect-crime/357014 "2006-05-16T19:03:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-the-perfect-crime/357014/21 "2006-05-17T02:34:32Z")
The League Of Gentlemen - classic British heist movie. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-the-perfect-crime/357014/22 "2006-05-17T02:44:58Z")
How about the Argentinian movie _Nine Queens_\*? Fantastic movie about a lovely crime. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-the-perfect-crime/357014/23 "2006-05-17T03:08:33Z")
I’m partial to **The Usual Suspects** , **The Score** , and **Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels** (for a light twist on “the perfect crime”). ---
**Author:** ![Ender\_Will](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Ender\_Will](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ender_Will)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-the-perfect-crime/357014/24 "2006-05-17T03:30:52Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > I thought “Inside Man” was a good example of this and a decent movie to boot. Seconded. I’m not a big fan of either Clive Owen (strikes me as one-dimensional and emotionless, especially in [King Arthur](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0349683/) or Spike Lee, but I thoroughly enjoyed Inside Man. And it was a perfect crime. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-the-perfect-crime/357014/25 "2006-05-17T04:17:23Z")
> [@Ender\_Will](#): > > Seconded. I’m not a big fan of either Clive Owen (strikes me as one-dimensional and emotionless, especially in [King Arthur](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0349683/) or Spike Lee What was Clive Owen doing in Spike Lee? ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-the-perfect-crime/357014/26 "2006-05-17T06:17:18Z")
Though they are the good guys, the original **Mission: Impossible TV** series was essentially all just perfect heists. Highly recommended if you can find any. ---
**Author:** ![JoeSki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b487fb/32.png) [@JoeSki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoeSki)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-the-perfect-crime/357014/27 "2006-05-17T06:42:39Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > I thought “Inside Man” was a good example of this and a decent movie to boot. Thirded. **Inside Man** with Clive Owen (or as I like to call him after seeing this move, Clive OWNed) is my favorite movie of the year so far. Absolutley loved it, and plan on buying the DVD. Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels…good movie, but can we really say it makes the cut? The main characters got by with luck, and they didn’t really come out with too much more than their necks ---
**Author:** ![Moonchild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@Moonchild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonchild)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-the-perfect-crime/357014/28 "2006-05-17T06:54:08Z")
> [@ExTank](#): > > I’m partial to **The Usual Suspects** , **The Score** , and **Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels** (for a light twist on “the perfect crime”). For a _really_ light twist, check out **Quick Change** , which I would bet is a direct ascendant to Inside Man. Bill Murray is at his wry best. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-the-perfect-crime/357014/29 "2006-05-17T07:11:30Z")
Did I miss it, or has no one mentioned The Sting? There are also three by Alec Guiness: The Lavender Hill Mob, Kind Hearts and Coronets, and The Lady Killers. ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-the-perfect-crime/357014/30 "2006-05-17T11:18:12Z")
I just saw **Match Point** this weekend, and I think it fits nicely in this catagory. I would’ve never pegged it as a Woody Allen movie, though… ---
**Author:** ![blinkingblinking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@blinkingblinking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinkingblinking)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-the-perfect-crime/357014/31 "2006-05-17T11:24:28Z")
> [@Greg Charles](#): > > Did I miss it, or has no one mentioned The Sting? There are also three by Alec Guiness: The Lavender Hill Mob, Kind Hearts and Coronets, and The Lady Killers. I was also surprised noone mentioning Alec Guiness until you ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-the-perfect-crime/357014/32 "2006-05-17T11:56:44Z")
**greg Charles** writes: > [@](#): > > Did I miss it, or has no one mentioned The Sting? You missed it. Look at my post #4 **jsc1953** writes: > [@](#): > > (Day of the Jackal) was one of the first movies I can recall to use a scene that’s now standard in any heist film: the scene where the plotter acquires some obscure piece of gadgetry, documentation, or other foofraw that will be essential to the execution of the scheme. The viewer sez “huh? what’s that for?” and then an hour later you get the payoff…“oooohhh…cool!”. I’ve got a theory about that item, but it has to go in a spoiler box: The mysterious item is the container for the custom assassin’s rifle. It turns out to be a pair of crutches, made of hollow stainless steel tubes (although they were supposed to be aluminum, but that turned out to be too weak). This allowed the Jackal to smuggle the rifle, undetected, close to his target, President de Gaulle. In the book it was only a single crutch, not a pair. Every Sherlock Holmes fan knows that one of the referred to but unwritten Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was “the Singular Affair of the Aluminum Crutch”. I’ve always fet that Frederick Forsyth was a Sherlock Holmes fan who must have ruminated about that adventure referred to in an offhand way by Watson, and who came up with this ingenious way it was used, and made it an essential plot point of his first fictional work. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-the-perfect-crime/357014/33 "2006-05-17T12:42:26Z")
**Matchstick Men**. ---
**Author:** ![cactus\_waltz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@cactus\_waltz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cactus_waltz)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-the-perfect-crime/357014/34 "2006-05-17T13:54:58Z")
> [@singular1](#): > > I just saw **Match Point** this weekend, and I think it fits nicely in this catagory. I would’ve never pegged it as a Woody Allen movie, though… Actually… ```php That crime was very flawed and was a result of desperation, even if it was tactical. What made tha plan work was that the main character fails to throw out the landlady's ring into the water, in a scene which mimicks the tennis monologue in the opening shot of the film. If the ring would have gone into the water, he would likely have been caught. ``` ---
**Author:** ![cactus\_waltz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@cactus\_waltz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cactus_waltz)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-the-perfect-crime/357014/35 "2006-05-17T13:56:01Z")
That was supposed to be in a spoiler block! Read at risk! ---
**Author:** ![misterdls](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f4b2a3/32.png) [@misterdls](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/misterdls)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-the-perfect-crime/357014/36 "2006-05-17T14:42:42Z")
“The Hot Rock” (1972 Robert Redford, Zero Mostel, George Segal). Very funny movie about an attempted jewelry robbery. Roller coaster twists, and what a great ending. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-the-perfect-crime/357014/37 "2006-05-17T15:56:02Z")
It is kind of pointless to mention this as very few people will recall it and I don’t believe you will find it anywhere but the 1967 Michael Winner movie _The Jokers_ starring Michael Crawford and Oliver Reed is a terrific example of the perfect crime with a clever twist. They play spoiled rich brothers who plan to steal the crown jewels and then return them - they are only in it for the sport. A really fine forgotten 60s movie. ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-the-perfect-crime/357014/38 "2006-05-17T16:16:36Z")
**Sexy Beast**. **The Talented Mr. Ripley** , if I remember correctly. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-the-perfect-crime/357014/39 "2006-05-17T17:36:02Z")
Off the top of my head… _Deathtrap_ _Evil Under the Sun_ _Minority Report_ Granted, these are “perfect murders” rather than heist films. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-the-perfect-crime/357014/40 "2006-05-17T17:54:51Z")
> [@Greg Charles](#): > > The Lady Killers. The remake isn’t bad, either. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-the-perfect-crime/357014.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-based-on-the-perfect-crime/357014.md?page=3)