It never aspires to the angry, hard-boiled style of earlier gangster dramas, serving instead as an extravagantly handsome latter-day morality play, as well as an exciting action film.
Davis began work on Marked Woman (1937), as a prostitute in a contemporary gangster drama inspired by the case of Lucky Luciano.
Any good gangster drama needs a constant atmosphere of danger, and now we're getting one.
Handmade also bought and released the gangster drama The Long Good Friday (1980), produced by a Lew Grade subsidiary, after its original backers became cautious.
Perhaps these mostly middle-aged men have forgotten that in their childhood they probably enjoyed countless westerns, gangster dramas or war movies.
The 1948 movie, which starred John Garfield, was "largely dismissed as a routine gangster drama," according to the film historian Ephraim Katz.
Morricone's last score for Sergio Leone was for his last film, the gangster drama Once Upon a Time in America (1984).
He doesn't need to point out that the gangster drama as art is the very definition of his own "Mean Streets," "Goodfellas" and "Casino."
Vishal, referencing the crackling gangster dramas of Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie, keeps it gritty and dark.
"The Funeral," a 1930's gangster drama set in New York, is by the bad-boy director Abel Ferrara, whose films include "King of New York" and "Bad Lieutenant."