Best Crime Movies of 1972

A mystery novelist devises an insurance scam with his wife's lover – but things aren't exactly as they seem.

After a serial killer strangles several women with a necktie, London police identify a suspect—but he claims vehemently to be the wrong man.

A recently released ex-convict and his loyal wife go on the run after a heist goes wrong.

Arthur Bishop is a veteran hit man who, owing to his penchant for making his targets' deaths seem like accidents, thinks himself an artist. It's made him very rich, but as he hits middle age, he's so depressed and lonely that he takes on one of his victim's sons, Steve McKenna, as his apprentice. Arthur puts him through a rigorous training period and brings him on several hits. As Steven improves, Arthur worries that he'll discover who killed his father.

Notorious Baltimore criminal and underground figure Divine goes up against Connie & Raymond Marble, a sleazy married couple who make a passionate attempt to humiliate her and seize her tabloid-given title as "The Filthiest Person Alive".

Priest, a suave top-rung New York City drug dealer, decides that he wants to get out of his dangerous trade. Working with his reluctant friend, Eddie, Priest devises a scheme that will allow him to make a big deal and then retire. When a desperate street dealer informs the police of Priest's activities, Priest is forced into an uncomfortable arrangement with corrupt narcotics officers. Setting his plan in motion, he aims to both leave the business and stick it to the man.

A brilliant tort attorney gets rid of her boring husband by faking his kidnapping and keeping the ransom. The FBI may be fooled, but not Columbo.

"Boxcar" Bertha Thompson, a transient woman in Arkansas during the violence-filled Depression of the early '30s, meets up with rabble-rousing union man "Big" Bill Shelly and the two team up to fight the corrupt railroad establishment.

A group of Chicago mob ruthless enforcers are sent to Kansas City to settle things with the owner of a slaughterhouse who has taken money that is not his to keep.

In a daring robbery, some $300,000 is taken from the Italian mob. Several mafiosi are killed, as are two policemen. Lt. Pope and Capt. Mattelli are two New York City cops trying to break the case. Three small-time criminals are on the run with the money. Will the mafia catch them first, or will the police?

An idealistic rookie cop joins the LAPD to make ends meet while finishing law school, and is indoctrinated by a seasoned veteran. As time goes on, he loses his ambitions and family as police work becomes his entire life.

Ivanhoe Martin arrives in Kingston, Jamaica, looking for work and, after some initial struggles, lands a recording contract as a reggae singer. He records his first song, "The Harder They Come," but after a bitter dispute with a manipulative producer named Hilton, soon finds himself resorting to petty crime in order to pay the bills. He deals marijuana, kills some abusive cops and earns local folk hero status. Meanwhile, his record is topping the charts.

Dortmunder and his pals plan to steal a huge diamond from a museum. But this turns out to be only the first time they have to steal it...

After a failed bank robbery, an ex-con, an ex-waitress and a few of their friends train a pack of doberman dogs to rob a bank for them.

It seems that masked men are knocking over the floating crap games of Chalky and Pete. Chalky and Pete hire the cool, loose, elegant Mr. T to fix things. Then, the masked manipulators set up the death of a collector for a rival gang lord. It looks like it's up to T to hold a gang war from breaking out, keep the police off his back, and earn his fee from Chalky and Pete.

When Joe Valachi has a price put on his head by Don Vito Genovese, he must take desperate steps to protect himself while in prison. An unsuccessful attempt to slit his throat puts him over the edge to break the sacred code of silence.

Imprisoned Harry Lomart is a vicious, brute of a man and yet he is prepared to do his long jail term as he is confident that on his release his beautiful wife Pat will be waiting for him, but a visit from Pat brings him his worst nightmare.

John Shaft is back as the lady-loved black detective cop on the search for the murderer of a client.

Bill, Martha and their little child Hal are spending a quiet winter Sunday in their cosy house when they get an unexpected visit from Mike Nickerson and Tony Rodriguez. Mike and Tony are old acquaintances of Bill; a few years back, in Vietnam, they were in the same platoon. They also became opposed parties in a court martial - for a reason that Bill never explained to Martha. What happened in Vietnam, and what is the reason for the presence of Mike and Tony ?

Based on the Alan Sillitoe short story. Tony, a worker at a cheese factory, is also a petty thief. He moves from robbery after robbery until he meets Doris, the daughter of the local ragman. Slowly, he falls in love with her and must decide whether he will stay a thief or start a new life with Doris.

A man becomes a criminal in Louisiana after a plane crash. During a fight with local police, he escapes custody and kidnaps the daughter of a local millionaire.

A down on his luck former drug dealer is forced by a corrupt LAPD policeman to sell 100 kilos of confiscated marijuana in one weekend.

Dr. Peter Carey is a pathologist at a Boston hospital. The daughter of the hospital's Chief of Staff dies after an illegal abortion goes wrong, and Carey's friend and colleague Dr. David Tao is accused of performing the abortion. Carey doesn't buy it, and so he digs deeper, angering the girl's father in the process. Questions abound: Who performed the abortion? Was the girl really pregnant? And what does it have to do with stolen morphine, blackmail attempts, and a mysterious and dangerous masseur?

Gruff gumshoe Francis Hogan is hired by a mysterious woman to find her boyfriend who has gone missing. With his perpetually hungry partner in tow, Hogan must untangle a web of intrigue involving the criminal underworld and a dead courier. One double-cross follows another as Hogan investigates the whole sordid affair.

Shiftless dreamer Michael Rogers fantasizes about a lifestyle above his means and marries a wealthy, young girl who just came of age. They hire a famous architect to build their dream home amidst a series of suspicious incidents. The spouse has dark intentions toward his naive, inexperienced bride. Secrets from his past and sinister ties to their house guest Greta lead to a terrible turn of unexpected events.

An ex-schoolteacher is asked by the police to help locate a missing heiress.

Two veteran private eyes trigger a criminal reign of terror with their search for a missing girl.

The life of peaceful rancher John Benedict is torn apart when his family is massacred by a gang of marauding outlaws and his farm is destroyed. He assembles a team of mean, lawless convicts to act as his posse as he pursues the gang responsible for the deaths of his loved ones.

Grier and Haig are thieving mercenaries who engineer a prison break from the outside.

A charming but somewhat larcenous widow attempts to snare a rich bachelor through a lonely hearts club, but her scheme boomerangs into a deadly cat-and-mouse game. This marked the TV-movie debut of both Rosalind Russell and Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and was sadly also Russell's last film role.

A seedy writer of sleazy pulp novels is recruited by a quirky, reclusive ex-actor to help him write his biography at his house in Malta.

Slaughter, a former Green Beret, avenges the killing of loved ones by the Mob, and after being blackmailed by the feds, is forced to head to South America to finish the mobsters off.

A government agent, out to destroy a crime ring, finds himself in the middle of a mob war.

Police in Boston search for a mad bomber trying to extort money from the city.

The name Michael O'Hara has become synonymous with law enforcement. There have been three generations of Michael O'Haras and all have been exemplary policemen. When Michael O'Hara III's child was born he was told that they would not be able to have any more children, and there has always been a Michael O'Hara, so he named his child Michael O'Hara IV despite the fact that she is a girl. Now Mike has a tendency to get involved with police matters and not always with good results, which annoys her father. And despite being told repeatedly to stay out of it, she continues her amateurish detective activities.

Three new officers in a large metropolitan police department adjust to their new jobs and way of life. This is another TV-pilot that was first aired as an ABC Movie of the Week before becoming a TV-series.

A down-on-his-luck photographer determined to capture visual magic and fame. He concocts an intricate plot to blow up the Statue of Liberty and sets his camera to record the exact moment of its destruction.

A French hit man is hired by a crime family to end the life of a rival mobster, but things fall apart when the boss who hired him is killed.

During his childhood, a boy sees four men drown his father; now, the grown young man makes it his business to kill each member of the foursome. His last killing presents him with some challenges, as his victim is only wounded. He kidnaps the man's daughter and goes to a hideout. In the meantime, an ex-cop has been tracking them down.

A trio of runaway slaves evade authorities in the Old West.

A break-in and sabotage attempt occurs at a top secret research institute and the culprit is cornered and captured. The problem is that he's been badly injured and claims to have lost his memory entirely. A cat-and-mouse game ensues between investigator Tuxan, the mystery intruder Welles and the people who sent him on the mission.

A woman is trapped during a storm in a house with no electricity or phone. A killer has murdered her sister, stuffed the body in the basement, and is now after her.

A professional hunter is brought in to track a bank robbery suspect through a Louisiana swamp, and winds up getting romantically involved with the suspect's wife.

Holmes and Dr. Watson tackle the case of a curse on the Baskerville bloodline in this ABC Movie of the Week adaptation.

A Black cop is pushed over the edge when he is passed over for a promotion, leading him on a violent personal crusade against criminals punctuated by feverish psychedelic dream visions.

A young boy runs away from an approved school to meet up with his father in the hope that he can persuade his dad to allow him to travel to Canada with him. He also meets up with two local children and discovers that his father is instead planning a bank heist.

A building superintendent and his wife are held hostage in their apartment by a sadistic would-be bank robber and his spaced-out accomplices.

Two Philadelphia con men try to evade gangsters they have conned and cops who are trying to put them in jail.

In this action movie, a top stock-car driver causes a death on the race track and finds his career in shambles. Desperate for money, he gets a job as a driver for a drug ring.