Best Crime Movies of 1978

The Driver specializes in driving getaway cars for robberies. His exceptional talent has prevented him from being caught yet. After another successful flight from the police a self-assured detective makes it his primary goal to catch the Driver. He promises pardons to a gang if they help to convict him in a set-up robbery. The Driver seeks help from The Player to mislead the detective.

In Victorian England, a master criminal makes elaborate plans to steal a shipment of gold from a moving train.

Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau is dead. At least that is what the world—and Charles Dreyfus—believe when a dead body is discovered in Clouseau's car after being shot off the road. Naturally, Clouseau knows differently and, taking advantage of not being alive, sets out to discover why an attempt was made on his life.

Fed up with mistreatment at the hands of both management and union brass, and coupled with financial hardships on each man's end, three auto assembly line workers hatch a plan to rob a safe at union headquarters.

After being released on parole, a burglar attempts to go straight, get a regular job, and just go by the rules. He soon finds himself back in jail at the hands of a power-hungry parole officer.

Columbo (Peter Falk) investigates a famous restaurant critic for murder.

Toronto, Canada. A few days before Christmas, Miles Cullen, a bored teller working at a bank branch located in a shopping mall, accidentally learns that the place is about to be robbed when he finds a disconcerting note on one of the counters.

The true story of a part aboriginal man who finds the pressure of adapting to white culture intolerable, and as a result snaps in a violent and horrific manner.

John, a disillusioned Vietnam War journalist, turns to heroin smuggling. He cons Ray, an equally burnt out veteran into delivering the drugs stateside to his wife. Everything soon falls apart and Ray ends up on the run with John's wife trying to evade crooked narcotics agents.

A spoof of the entire 1940s detective genre. San Francisco private detective, Lou Pekinpaugh is accused of murdering his partner at the instigation of his mistress—his partner's wife.

In 1950, a group of unlikely criminal masterminds commits the robbery of the century. Led by Tony Pino (Peter Falk), a petty thief fresh out of prison, and Joe McGinnis (Peter Boyle), who specializes in planning lucrative capers, the gang robs Brink's main office in Boston of more than $2 million. However, things begin to go awry when the FBI gets involved, the cops start cracking down on the gang and McGinnis refuses to hand over the loot...

Private eye Philip Marlowe (Robert Mitchum) investigates a case of blackmail involving the two wild daughters of a rich general, a pornographer and a gangster. This neo-noir remake of the iconic 1946 Bogart film transfers the setting of Raymond Chandler's novel from 1940s California to 1970s London.

During a spaghetti western screening a man is shot dead, the doors are locked and the police is called in to investigate.

Story of a group of drag races and the young boy and girl who join them.

The plot is set on a group of bank robbers, who are both violent and successful, strangely getting away each time with an amount around the £60,000 mark, and often leaving behind cash in excess of this sum. The robbers are willing to kill their own team, to get away. As Jack Regan himself puts it after the first raid in the film: "I've never seen so many dead people". Armed with gold-plated Purdey shotguns, they evaded Regan and the Flying Squad for quite some time, before Regan finds encouragement from his Detective Chief Superintendent who was sent down for corruption because Jack wouldn't testify in court for him.

Masked intruders take the family of a bank manager hostage in order to rob his bank.

Officer Jim Wade is a loose cannon on the force with a reputation for roughing up suspects, informants, witnesses, and just about everybody else who rubs him the wrong way. When women start being killed by a mysterious serial murderer called The Slasher, Wade vows to put a stop to the killing spree, regardless of whether through legal means or not.

A group of crooks plan a heist to steal twenty million dollars from a Security Firm counting house.

A young director is a struggling filmmaker making hardcore features for the mob. His latest feature, he hopes, will be his big break into the world of "mainstream" film-making, but will the mafia allow him to realize his dream?

Teenagers at a correctional facility devise a plan to rob an armored van.

A drama about a community of senior citizens who are terrorized by a ruthless neighborhood gang. After learning that the police are stymied because the victims are too scared to testify against the bullying leader, a semi-retired toolmaker decides to take a stand.

Eurocrime/Poliziotteschi movie from 1978

An insurance investigator comes to a small town to investigate the death of a man insured by his company. The local residents believe his death was caused by his being run over by a ghost train. However, the investigator is sure there is a more rational explanation...

Don Salvatore Savastano, a boss involved in the smuggling of contraband cigarettes, is forced to watch four masked robbers kill his wife and his only son in a restaurant where he and his family are celebrating the young boy’s first Holy Communion. From that moment on Don Salvatore has no other purpose in life but to get his revenge on the four assassins. Thanks to Gennarino, an orphan boy he befriends and protects, Don Salvatore manages to unmask his son’s murderers but is subsequently captured. Gennarino rescues him from being torn to pieces by a bomb.......

A woman's husband is murdered and she and her lover must find the killer or stand accused of doing it themselves.

In this obscure 1978 thriller Maurizio Merli is cast somewhat against type as a professional killer. I say somewhat because, as we soon learn, he's not really a bad guy and more a victim of circumstance: a Vietnam veteran who grew tired of the war and deserted, he found himself in Italy where he was forced into working for businessman-cum-criminal Micheli, played by Mel Ferrer.

Director Paul Morrissey applies a hefty dose of humor to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic detective story in this interpretation of The Hound of the Baskervilles. Comedian Peter Cook takes on the role of brilliant detective Sherlock Holmes, who's not so gifted here as he relegates much of the investigation of demonic dogs to his bumbling sidekick, Watson (Dudley Moore), while he spends time with his mother and searches for an assistant.

Coming back from an extended business trip, Frank discovers that his girlfriend Janie is now working at a new resort hotel where the owner has given her a permanent place to stay, as well as other gifts, in exchange for her affections. The two of them get into a fight and things quickly get out of control and the police are called and in turns into a hostage situation...

Dino and Marco are two brothers who live alone with their sick father. Marco is on drugs, and Dino becomes involved with a gang of dangerous criminals and is roped into pulling a bank heist with them.

Home from a date, a couple is brutally attacked in the man's apartment. After the smoke clears, the ashamed woman pleads that the police not be told. A suspicious cop persuades a lady friend to date the same man, and a similar attack ensues. It's revealed that the seemingly innocent man was in on the act, as a clever method to violate women.

After a wave of unsolved car thefts, an insurance company calls in a private investigator to solve the case. While the chief of police isn't thrilled about having an outsider come and show up his men, one of the officers is a former girlfriend who's more than willing to help him out in any way she can.

Jungle Blue tells the story of a group of sinister explorers hunting for fortune in the jungles of South America. Along the way they meet a tree-swinging wild man, his sex-crazed companion gorilla, and hoards of scantily clad natives.

Some ex-convicts who have recently gotten out of prison plan a series of highly organized robberies of some Las Vegas casinos.

Four mental patients - who, due to unauthorized experiments, believe they're living in a dream and have shed all moral imperatives - escape and find their way to the nearest bus-load of stranded schoolgirls.

Leon Isaac Kennedy is Doug Russell, an American who steals a shipment of gold in the Philippines with two Vietnam War buddies, who cut his throat and throw him overboard. Russell washes ashore an island inhabited by two Japanese soldiers stranded there since World War II. They nurse him back to health and he is taught martial arts and the art of the samurai. Back in the States, his treacherous pals, Marelli and Maghee, use their loot and viciousness to muscle their way into Los Angels mafia turf.

A small-time talent agent discovers an amazing boxing kangaroo and figures to use it as his stepping-stone into the big time.

A group of female freedom-fighters led by Karine Levere is caught by the warden of a women's prison, located somwhere in the South American jungle. None of them will reveal the secrets of their organisation or the names of their collaborators in the cities, so they are handed over to Dr. Costa who, after four years inactivity in Europe, is delighted to be able to practice his torture techniques once more. Laverne fails to resist the inhuman treatments and reveals all. The only hope of saving the organization is for the girls to warn the city cell before it's too late. They trick the prison guard into having sex with them, knock him out and break out of prison. The warden and Dr. Costa must prevent them from revealing the practices inside the prison. The hunt is on and it's shoot to kill...

Teenagers' van gets stolen and while the local authorites refuse to help they decidet to take manners to their own hands.

In order to unmask a pathological killer who is targeting the beautiful centrefolds of Playbirds magazine, a sexy policewoman Lucy Sheridan puts her life and reputation on the line by sleeping with millionaire publisher Harry Dougan. The Chief Superintendant and Police Commissioner are keeping a close eye on her, but time is running out fast.

After the death of his parents, millionaire playboy Jack Cole is framed on charges of embezzlement. In prison, Cole learns various tricks of the criminal trade - lockpicking, safecracking, electronic surveillance, etc. Upon his release, Cole uses his wealth and his newly learned talents to help others, leaving his calling card, a "sword of justice", at the scene.

It's Superbowl. And there's a lot of drama, one of the players, Dave Wolecki, has been so preoccupied with the game and if his bum knee will hold out until the game, has been completely ignoring his wife. And McCauley, the team's star quarterback, is being courted by a management firm, and the man the firm has assigned to get him into the firm has been told that if he doesn't get him, he will be out. But that's nothing compared to the real drama. There's a killer running around. It seems that the syndicate doesn't want the highly favored Cougars to win. They tried to get the team's trainer to drug or incapacitate some players, and when he refuses he is killed. So, the team's manager has to try and find out who the killer is, before he does some real damage.

Earl Eischied is a man with his hands full. As the Chief of Detectives in New York City he is trying to break up a group of black militants that are on a crime spree including the killing of a police officer. He is also trying to battle with a mayor and police commissioner that want him out of his job.

Women whose husbands are incarcerated decide to band together to rob a hotel safe.

The story involves a hectic and hilarious chase as Mrs. Leautrec (Juliet Anderson) and her dashing son Paul (Ron Jeremy) stalk three incredibly beautiful diamonds through the ballrooms and bedrooms of Europe, using love and lust as tools of their trade. Hot on the trail of the third and finest diamond, our notorious heroes find themselves at an elegant New York disco where Mrs. Leautrec meets the diamond's owner, Mr. Greenfield, while Paul strikes an unusual sexual bargain with "The Lady in Red" (Samantha Fox). Mr. Greenfield, a multi-millionaire, invites Paul and his mother to his annual masquerade and orgy. As hundreds of masked party-goers publicly pursue their favorite perversions, Paul and his mother are caught in a devious trap, causing them to lose the diamond to another thief (Veronica Hart).

Las Vegas private eye Dan Tanna probes the murder of Marilyn Ochs, a teenage prostitute who ran away from home because she didn't get along well with her mother Loretta's new husband Merle.

Dusty is a runaway teenage girl who gets attacked and gang-raped by a group of savage motorcyclists. She gets taken into the household of a sympathetic artist named Frankie whom she falls in love with, but has problems adjusting to his artistic and social lifestyle.

While working for an oil company in Tunisia, Jean Ballard (Franco Nero) and his team are incensed when a terrorist attack kills one of their members. But as they pursue their attackers across the desert, the team's revenge plan transforms into a heist. Now, the terrorists will become instruments in a clever plot that could score Jean and his cohorts a cool $2 million, and the Sahara becomes a scene of sabotage and suspense in this Italian thriller.

A hold-up man Jon Martin, flees the scene of his crime, only to end up hiding out at the house of the same cop who's chasing him!

A bubble-brained Philadelphia waitress witnesses a murder during the Mardi Gras festivities in New Orleans and finds herself stalked by the killer.