I don't know that all of these would be under the radar for the board membership but a few of them might be. I think the author limits himself by stopping at the early seventies though..

John Farr
Classic "Under the Radar" gangster movies.
Crime has not just been good to the criminals; it's been awfully good to Hollywood as well.

It so happens I just finished watching Josef Von Sternberg's "Underworld" (1927), the first in a compilation of three silent classics from famed director Josef Von Sternberg, now out via the esteemed Criterion Collection. For those unfamiliar with Von Sternberg, he would become best known later as the director who launched Marlene Dietrich's career in "The Blue Angel" (1930) and "Morocco" (1930).

Basically a love triangle involving a crime boss (George Bancroft), the alcoholic former lawyer he saves from the gutter (Clive Brook), and the girl torn between the two men (Evelyn Brent), the movie also features lots of rat-tat-tat action as the mobster rids himself of a key criminal rival.

When the film debuted in 1927, at a moment when gangsters were still riding high off the spoils of Prohibition, the movie was not only daring but timely, and fueled by strong word-of-mouth, soon audiences were overwhelming theatres to such an extent that show times had to be added to satisfy demand.

The burgeoning film industry, then as now, knew a good (and profitable) thing when they saw it, and since then, the gangster film has been pretty much an ongoing staple of Hollywood.

Re-examining the phenomenon of the gangster picture made me realize all over again its influence, staying power, and sheer vastness.

Just think of all the permutations: the pioneering sound pictures at Warner Brothers that made stars of Robinson and Cagney; the advent of film noir post World War Two; the heist film, the private eye film, the prison drama, and later, the ethnic gangster films, portraying the Mafia or organized criminal elements tied to other races and nationalities. And of course, this doesn't even count the rich store of excellent gangster films made overseas. ("Rififi", anyone?)

Perusing the AFI list of top American gangster pictures, I noted that practically every film is thoroughly engrained in the national consciousness: the first two "Godfather" pictures appear (1972/1974), as well as both iterations of "Scarface" (1932/1983), Arthur Penn's "Bonnie and Clyde"(1967), Scorsese's "Goodfellas" (1990), and Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" (1994). Glaringly, the list omits the seminal Bogart/Robinson outing, "Key Largo" (1948) and Kazan's racketeering classic "On The Waterfront" (1954), but redeems itself somewhat by including Cagney's late career masterpiece, "White Heat" (1949).

While it's hard to argue with the AFI's choices, the overwhelming familiarity of most of their picks made me want to compile a list of ten quintessential American gangster pictures that could fall under the radar of curious movie fans wanting to dig further into this incredibly rich, varied and enduring movie genre.

Note: I've limited myself to American films made from the dawn of sound up to roughly the time of "The Godfather." Not one of these titles made the AFI list, but in my opinion, all rival the quality of the classics that did...

List of ten under the radar mob movies