Film

Across 110th Street

A 1972 crime thriller about a heist gone catastrophically wrong: three small-time crooks steal $300,000 from the Italian mob, triggering a violent three-way collision between thieves, police, and organized crime across New York City. Gritty, muscular, steeped in '70s fatalism. For anyone who loves crime procedurals with real teeth and body counts that matter.

TMDb rating3.3

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a gritty 1970s New York procedural where the moral lines blur between cops, crooks and the mob, and the city itself feels like a character.

Skip it if you want brisk, tightly plotted action, since this is talky, slow and often bleak, lingering on street life more than on momentum.

What it asks of you: Settle in for 102 minutes that let scenes breathe, move between cops and fugitives, and treat violence as sudden and unglamorous.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The French Connection1971

Popeish New York City police work, corrupt systems, and a detective obsessed with busting a case that costs him everything. Same era, same moral ambiguity, same urban decay as a character.

But The pacing is deliberate—long stretches of surveillance and legwork before anything explodes. Patience required.

The French Connection poster

Serpico1973

Al Pacino as a cop caught between the mob, his own department, and his conscience in New York. Character-driven crime thriller about institutional corruption with real stakes.

But More focused on one man's internal struggle than the cat-and-mouse game of competing criminals. Heavier on integrity, lighter on action.

Serpico poster

Coffy1973

Pam Grier as a nurse-turned-vigilante moving through exploitation and blaxploitation cinema with the same gritty realism and casual violence. Tough, street-smart, uncompromising.

But The plot is simpler and the tone is campier. It's pulp, not procedural—style over plot mechanics.

Coffy poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Across 110th Street

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Cornbread, Earl and Me1975

Both center the collateral damage of crime and policing in the same American city during the same era. Where 110th Street follows cops and robbers, this follows the kids left behind.

A community drama about Black teenagers in Philadelphia after one of them is killed by police. Anger and sorrow without sentimentality. It approaches crime and justice from the street level looking up—the inverse of the cop procedural.

But It's a quieter, more intimate film than a crime thriller. The focus is on grief and community rather than plot momentum or investigation.

Cornbread, Earl and Me poster
More like this (8)

The Seven-Ups1973

A task force of cops hunting organized crime through New York with Roy Scheider anchoring it. Procedural tension, real locations, corrupt systems feeding the violence.

But Less character depth than you'd want. The plot can feel like a sequence of set pieces rather than an inevitable escalation.

The Seven-Ups poster

Shaft1971

Richard Roundtree as a Black private detective navigating Harlem's underworld with wit and violence. Blaxploitation done right—style, politics, and actual stakes all in gear together.

But The plot is fairly simple and the pacing slackens in the middle. You're here for the vibe and the character, not plot surprises.

Shaft poster

Thief1981

Michael Mann's debut: a professional thief trying to go straight while the mob and the world conspire against him. Gorgeous neon-lit cinematography and a meditation on escape that never quite comes.

But James Caan's flatness works for the character but can feel emotionally distant. The film refuses catharsis in ways that can feel punishing.

Thief poster

Mean Streets1973

Scorsese's street-level New York crime drama about small-time hoods and the moral compromises that eat them alive. Handheld, energetic, angry.

But The narrative is fragmentary and the ending is bleak. If you want resolution or hope, this isn't your film.

Mean Streets poster

Badge 3731973

Robert Duvall as a detective bending the rules against heroin dealers and corrupt systems. Raw, unglamorous cop work with real New York City cynicism baked in.

But It's a lower-budget film with uneven performances and a plot that occasionally feels scattered. The emotional register is thin.

Badge 373 poster

Hustle1975

Burt Reynolds and Catherine Deneuve in a noir-inflected crime drama about a cop and a call girl caught in the machinery of Los Angeles crime. Fatalistic and stylish.

But The script meanders and the tone can feel confused between noir pastiche and genuine drama. It works in moments rather than as a whole.

Hustle poster

Police Story1985

Same skeleton: a cop forced to operate outside the law because the system is corrupt, alone against multiple enemies. But where 110th Street is grim, this is a virtuoso performance.

Jackie Chan as a cop trying to protect a witness while fighting his own department and the mob. Balletic action choreography meets street-level desperation. Pure kinetic joy.

But It's Hong Kong action cinema, not American crime drama. The emotional register is lighter and the plot is simpler. Dubbed versions can feel disconnected.

Police Story poster

The Godfather Part II1974

The flip side of the same story. 110th Street shows street-level crooks and cops; this shows the architecture they're all trapped within. One is microscopic, the other architectural.

The mob perspective on the exact world that crushes the small-time crooks in 110th Street. Coppola's parallel narratives span decades and continents, showing how the machine that steals and kills is built and maintained.

But It's three and a half hours. It's an epic, not a thriller. The scale and slowness can feel self-important if you're not ready for it.

The Godfather Part II poster

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Recommended by

Shaft, Claudine, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, Black Caesar, Sugar Hill, Cotton Comes to Harlem, Melinda, Mean Johnny Barrows, Hickey & Boggs, Hit!, Hammer, Badge 373, Sheba, Baby, Coogan's Bluff, The Guy from Harlem, Detroit 9000, Busting, If He Hollers, Let Him Go!, The New Centurions