Contents -- Illustrations -- Contributors -- Acknowledgements -- 1 Parole overdue -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 2 The censors and British gangland, 1913-1990 -- Note -- Bibliography -- 3 Spin a dark web -- Bibliography -- 4 Outrage: No Orchids For Miss Blandish -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 5 Men, women and money -- Men -- Women -- Money-imaginary solutions and dominant resolutions -- Men, women and money -- Conclusion-treading softly and dancing with crime -- Note -- Bibliography -- 6 The higher heel -- The masquerade of feminine crime -- Down at heel -- The higher heel -- The highest heel -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 7 The emergence of the British tough guy -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 8 Ordinary people -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 9 Performance -- Note -- 10 Mike Hodges discusses Get Carter with the NFT audience, 23 September 1997 -- Note -- 11 A revenger's tragedy Get Carter -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 12 Dog eat dog -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 13 Space in the British crime film -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 14 Allegorising the nation -- The gangster film as allegory -- Thatcherite enterprise and gangsterism -- The ethics of violence: The Long Good Friday -- Gangsters as pastiche: A Prayer for the Dying -- Gangsters and tradition: Mona Lisa, Empire State and Stormy Monday -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- 15 From underworld to underclass -- Gender politics and the gangster -- Gender, work and crime: social change and the 1990s British cinema -- Shopping -- Shallow Grave -- Face -- Smalltime -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Filmography, 1939-1997 -- Index.