Last week, in our Summertime Crime Movies series, we spotlighted urban summer crime films: movies where the heat is so hot, your ice cream cone won’t stand a chance. But this week, we’re spotlighting summer crime movies set in small towns, where things may not be as bustling, but the atmosphere will be just as tense.
The thing about crime movies set in small towns is that so many of them are set in the wintertime. Fargo! Winter’s Bone! The Burned Barns! Wind River! A Simple Plan! Blow the Man Down! Alas. ALAS. I wish we could include them, but who wants to watch a film about the cold, right now? Maybe me, actually, because it’s really hot in New York.
Okay, here we go: crime movies set in small towns, where the season/vibe is “summer.”
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Sidney Poitier, suave as ever, plays Virgil Tibbs, a Black detective from Philadelphia who becomes involved in a murder investigation in a small Mississippi town, which is unsurprisingly very racist (ahem, he winds up involved IN the murder investigation after he’s wrongfully arrested FOR the murder, without cause, because he’s Black and a stranger). Rod Steiger won an Oscar for playing the town’s racist police chief with whom Tibbs must work to solve the crime.
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
I will never, never stop praising Charles Laughton’s only film, a masterpiece about a psychopathic serial-killer and self-appointed preacher (Robert Mitchum, always great, never better), who, when he gets out of jail, becomes obsessed with finding the money hidden by his lately-executed bank robber former-cellmate—a secret which is kept by the robber’s two young children. TELL ME this is not the most eye-widening plot you’ve ever heard. And now believe me when I say that it is shot gorgeously, too. The cinematography will make you scream. SWOOPING shadows. Ghostly UNDERWATER shots. Insane stuff.
Hell or High Water (2016)
Hell or High Water doesn’t get talked about enough, but it’s great. Two brothers (Chris Pine, the measured one, and Ben Foster, the crazed one) wind up robbing bank branches in tiny Texas towns in order to try to save their family’s farm, while two nearly-retired sheriffs (Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham) are on their trail.
Hot Fuzz (2007)
Edgar Wright’s classic (the second in his Cornetto/Three Flavours Cornetto/Blood and Ice Cream trilogy) features Simon Pegg as a tough London detective who winds up transferred to a quaint English village where nothing seems to happen, but also nothing is as it seems. (This is excellent further proof that quaint English villages are hotbeds of violent crime.)
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
My high school AP US History teacher Mr. O’Neill heartily recommended that I watch this earlyish-career Hitchcock movie, about a teenage girl (Teresa Wright) who becomes suspicious that her beloved Uncle Charley (Joseph Cotten) is a murderer, after he visits her family in their idyllic California town. It’s really excellent—Mr. O’Neill was correct.
BlacKkKlansman (2018)
Spike Lee’s recent Oscar-winning film is based on a true story, about Ron Stallworth, a Black police officer from tiny Colorado Springs, CO, who manages to infiltrate the local branch of the KKK and bring it down.
The Hot Spot (1990)
Of course Dennis Hopper directed this film about a drifter who gets into a tough jam after he robs a bank in a small Texas town.
Badlands (1973)
Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek star in this classic from director Terrence Malick (at the start of his career), about a teenage girl and her older boyfriend who go on a killing spree in South Dakota. And then they go on the run, so it’s also on our Road Trips list.
Cop Car (2017)
Small-town sheriff Kevin Bacon hunts two ten-year-olds who have stumbled upon his abandoned police cruiser and decide to take it out for a spin.
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
Lana Turner and John Garfield star in this classic noir, about a drifter and a waitress who conspire to murder her husband, the proprietor of a roadside diner in the California sticks.
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981)
Kind of the same thing, only very different, because it was made in an era devoid of “a Hollywood production code that prevented this story from being the explosive erotic thriller we knew it really was.”
Blood Simple (1984)
The Coen Bros.’ first major film, Blood Simple is a perfect, twisted tale of lust and revenge, set in a hot Texas town. The crackerjack character actor M. Emmett Walsh wins the award for the world’s sweatiest performance. Also, I love this movie.
Blue Velvet (1986)
Would a list about small-town crime movies be complete without an entry from David Lynch? No! Kyle MacLachlan is a young college student returning to his hometown for the season when he discovers a severed human ear in a cornfield (I KNOW!), and thus embarks on a strange mystery.
Straw Dogs (1971)
In Sam Peckinpah’s classic thriller, an American scientist and his British wife move leave the states for the English countryside, only to find the locals are increasingly hostile to their presence.
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
In this classic from Otto Preminger, Jimmy Stewart is a small-town lawyer named Paul Biegler who has to defend a man in a murder trial with impossible odds.
Heavenly Creatures (1994)
Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh’s celebrated film tells of the true-life story of two teenage girls—Pauline Parker (Melanie Lynskey) and Juliet Hulme (Kate Winslet)—in New Zealand, who, after forming a passionate and obsessive friendship, killed Pauline’s mother, so that Pauline might join Juliet’s family on their move to South Africa.
Out of the Past (1947)
Jacques Tourneur directed this classic noir about a small town gas station owner who turns out to be a PI from the city, hiding out and concealing his past. Robert Mitchem again, and he’s so great.
The Paperboy (2012)
Lee Daniels co-wrote and directed this film about a Miami journalist (Matthew McConaughey) who heads back to his Florida hometown to investigate the plaintiff in a local murder trial (John Cusack), with the help of his trusted friend (David Oyelowo) and directionless younger brother (Zac Efron).
Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)
I don’t know if this movie technically takes place in the summer, but it seems warm enough (despite being filmed in LA, it’s set in Michigan where it snows 10 months out of the year, right? So no snow = summer). Anyway, I really want to include it because it’s a masterpiece. John Cusack plays a hitman who goes to his hometown of Grosse Pointe, Michigan and winds up attending his high-school reunion. It’s a perfect, perfect film. IN FACT, all three CrimeReads editors adore this movie, and that doesn’t happen too often.
Scotland, Pa. (2001)
This indie neo-noir adaptation of Macbeth set in a small-town burger stand in the 70s takes a lot of dumb liberties, especially with what to call people so that it’s clear which characters everyone is supposed to be (you people expect me to believe the Banquo character’s honest-to-god nickname is “Banko?”), but it’s also still pretty fun. Note the appearance of Christopher Walken as police Lt. McDuff.
Touch of Evil (1958)
You definitely watched its famous opening crane shot in your college film class but the rest of the movie (set back and forth in Tijuana and a small American border town) is just as well-made, and features a very impressive performance by Orson Welles. (Though, let it be said, this film does feature Charlton Heston in brown-face as a Mexican-American narcotics officer named Mike Vargas, and some real old-school homophobia.)
The Stranger (1946)
In this early noir from Orson Welles, Edward G. Robinson plays a war crimes investigator who tracks a high-ranking Nazi officer to a small Connecticut town, where he has assumed a new identity.
Sunday in the Country (1974)
When three criminals who have just held up a bank attempt to hide out in the home of a local farmer, they don’t expect that he’s going to fight back and attempt to capture them until the authorities arrive.
Cape Fear (1991)
In this twisted remake of the Gregory Peck-Robert Mitchum original, Robert de Niro plays a rapist who, newly out of prison, stalks the family of the lawyer who defended him.I had this on the “beach” list in this series for a hot second, but I switched it because there is barely any beach. Know what there IS a lot of? A SMALL TOWN.
Jaws (1975)
Hooper: Mr. Vaughn, what we are dealing with here is a perfect engine, an eating machine. It’s really a miracle of evolution. All this machine does is swim and eat and make little sharks, and that’s all. Now, why don’t you take a long, close look at this sign. Those proportions are correct
Mayor Vaughn: Love to prove that, wouldn’t ya? Get your name into the National Geographic.
Hooper: [sad, wry laughter]
