Gangster Film Reader, published by Amadeus/Limelight in early 2007. An anthology of critical essays on the genre, including seminal articles from Warshaw, Clarens, Sarris, and Wood:
Part One: Seminal Work
The Gangster as Tragic Hero (1948)
Robert Warshow
Scarface (from Howard Hawks, 1968)
Robin Wood
The Gangster Film (1970)
John Baxter
Iconography of the Gangster Film (from Underworld USA, 1972)
Colin McArthur
Little Caesar and its role in the gangster film genre (1972)
Stuart Kaminsky
Yakuza-eiga: a Primer (1974)
Paul Schrader
Big funerals: the Hollywood Gangster, 1927-1933 (1977)
Andrew Sarris
Post-code Gangster Movies (from Gangsters on the Screen, 1978)
Frank Manchel
All in the Family, the Godfather Saga (from Crime Movies, 1980)
Carlos Clarens
Part Two: Case Studies
A Gangster Unlike the Others: Gordon Wiles' The Gangster
Reynold Humphries
White Heat: I Am Cody Jarrett, Destroyer of Worlds
Glenn Erickson
The Gangster According to Aldrich
Alain Silver
A Study in Ambiguity: The Godfather and the American Gangster Movie Tradition
Geoff Fordham
De Palma's Postmodern Scarface and the Simulacrum of Class
Ronald Bogue
Yoked Together By Violence: Prizzi's Honor as a Generic Hybrid
Tina Welsch
Way of Life: GoodFellas and Casino
Constantine Verevis
Takeshi Kitano: Melancholy Poet of the Yakuza Film
James Ursini,
Part Three: Contemporary Views
The British Gangster Film
Tony Williams
Reforming Hollywood Gangsters: Crime and Morality from Populism to Patriotism
Sheri Chinen Biesen
A New Kind of Girl for a New Kind of World
Dominique Mainon
The Gangster and Film Noir: Themes and Style
Alain Silver
Hits, Whacks, and Smokes: The Celluloid Gangster as Horror Icon
Catherine Don Diego
Fukasaku and Scorsese: Yakuzas and Gangsters
Joaquin da Silva
The Hong Kong Gangster Movie
Tony Williams
Family Values and Feudal Codes: The Social Politics of America's Fin-de-Siecle Gangster
Ingrid Walker
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
![]()