The crime genre in film began in 1900 with the first ever Sherlock Holmes film, this was a thirty second clip of Sherlock discovering an intruder and the mysterious disappearance of a sack of his belongings. Even from this very early, brief film, conventions of crime which we are so familiar with these days are introduced, such as in The Italian Job, with a strong theme of robbery.
The inspector or detective genre became popular with the release of The Maltese Falcon in 1941. The plot entails a detective trying to stop a jewel theft, this again set the trend for this sub-genre of crime film. The introduction of a famous leading actor into the genre began with Humphrey Bogart being cast in the leading role. At a time when films such as The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Maltese Falcon brought crime films into mainstream cinema.
Crime films can vary from following a character who is trying to stop a crime from happening or finding justice, such as Se7en with main characters such as policemen. However most crime films centre around the main character and their pursuit such as The Next Three Days, in this example his actions are not law-abiding, however his intentions are sincere and heroic, making the audience root for him.
Another popular crime sub-genre are mob films, the most famous being The Godfather. The reference to real life crime proved popular and led to sequels such as The Godfather Part II and Part III, these also incorporated actual events, the death of Pope John Paul I and the Papal banking scandal. This theme is continued into modern day films like Catch Me If You Can and I Love You Phillip Morris.
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