1. Thirst for Evil (1958)
We start with a jewel from the last years of the Golden Age of Hollywood. This is Thirst for Evil, a film starring Orson Welles and Charlton Heston. This cop movie is also a critique of racism, set on the border with Mexico. This scenario serves to exemplify the confrontation between a Mexican police officer and an American one, due to the former's marriage to an Anglo-Saxon woman. And it is that, moved by jealousy and xenophobia, the American will try to incriminate his southern counterpart in a dirty drug case.
Thirst for Evil is one of the best black-and-white movies in history, one of those that every art student has to see at least once in their life. It will be for something, right?
2. The New Case of Inspector Clouseau (1964)
We continue with a comedy, which is also a great police movie, even if it makes fun of the genre. Peter Sellers embodied The new case of Inspector Closeau (A Shot in the Dark) to the peculiar inspector who a short time before already embodied in The Pink Panther.
In this story, the clueless French policeman must investigate a case that is apparently clear. However, his attempts to seduce the main suspect will lead him to reveal a complex network of betrayals and deceit in French high society.
The new case of Inspector Closeau is a comedy classic that we already recommend you see within the classic series of The Pink Panther films.
3. In the heat of the night (1967)
Sidney Poitier stars in this film by Norman Jewison, in the middle of the fight for Civil Rights. Poitier plays the policeman Virgil Tibbs who is accused of murder in a Mississippi town by the local police. When they discover that it is a colleague from the north, they release him, but they will need his help to solve the case. In the heat of the night, he took five Oscars and three Golden Globes, almost nothing.
4. Bullitt (1968)
Steve McQueen, Jacqueline Bisset, Robert Vaughn, Don Gordon, and Robert Duvall are the stars of this classic police movie from the 60s. The plot revolves around Frank Bullitt, a San Francisco police lieutenant, who is tasked with protecting a witness in a case against the Mafia. When the witness is murdered, Bullitt takes it personally and begins to investigate the case on his behalf.
Bullitt is one of the best crime films for multiple reasons. As an anecdote, we also point out that it has one of the most spectacular car chase scenes in the history of cinema.
5. Dirty Harry (1971)
Clint Eastwood's controversial series of police films could not be missing. The first in the saga was Dirty Harry, a very loose adaptation of the San Francisco police's efforts to apprehend the Zodiac Killer. The film narrates how Harry Callahan confronts the self-styled assassin Scorpio, who is spreading death throughout the city.
Although branded as fascistoid, macho, and with an ultra-conservative tone, we will not deny that Harry, Dirty, and all its sequels continue to be classics of the genre.
