Martin Scorsese, the legendary director of legendary films has become associated with great gangster films as much as John Ford has been associated with great western films. He’s also a well-renowned film enthusiast so the combination of those two factors makes for the invetiable list of his all-time favorite gangster films. It was recently unvieled this week in an online British periodical that was called from an interview Scorsese did in 2010 (The British article can be read here). The obvious question, stated with tongue firmly in cheek, becomes what took so long?
The list is whittled down to a mere fifteen films, which is surprisingly short considering the breadth of Scorsese’s film knowledge and passion. I had known of his appreciation of Lee Marvin’s film work as I wrote about it in the last chapter of Lee Marvin Point Blank, citing Harvey Keitel’s great speech in Martin Scorsese’s first film, Who’s That Knocking At My Door (1968). I had also blogged about it previously.
The poster for an upcoming film on the right as shown in Scorsese’s MEAN STREETS.
I was naturally glad to see Marvin’s Point Blank on the list despite the rather strange definition Scorsese gives the film: “Lee Marvin is Walker, the man who may or may not be dreaming, but who is looking for vengeance on his old partner and his former wife. Like Burt Lancaster in the 1948 I Walk Alone, another favourite, he can’t get his money when he comes out of jail and enters a brave new corporate world.” Not quite accurate to say Walker ‘Comes out of jail,’ as if he was paroled the way Lancaster was in I Walk Alone. Just saying.
I was also pleasantly surprised to see Pete Kelly’s Blues (1955) on his list, another film in which Lee Marvin contributed. Not included was The Big Heat (1953) which was equally surprising. Not in a bad way, however, as it has been heralded by others quite a bit but Pete Kelly’s Blues is worthy of some new and more positive reconsideration.
Jack Webb (left) and Lee Marvin (right) blow some hot jazz in PETE KELLY’S BLUES,Webb’s tribute to the Roaring 20s.
So, there you have it. The great Martin Scorsese gives his thoughts on his favorite gangster films, with Lee Marvin making the count not once, but twice. By the way, to be fair, he made the list based on chronology and not in order of importance. If you can’t see it, the list is below and the choices are impressive. Thank you, Martin Scorsese.
- The Public Enemy (1931)
- Scarface (1932)
- Blood Money (1933)
- The Roaring Twenties (1939)
- Force of Evil (1948)
- White Heat (1949)
- Night and the City (1950)
- Touchez pas au Grisbi (1954)
- The Phenix City Story (1955)
- Pete Kelly’s Blues (1955)
- Murder by Contract (1958)
- Al Capone (1959)
- Le Doulos (1962)
- Mafioso (1962)
- Point Blank (1967)
- Dwayne Epstein
