Short feature films (not to be mixed up with actual short films) can be immensely satisfying to watch. When a film successfully tells a story and works to get viewers interested in its characters in under two hours, it can make for a very good time. After all, time itself is precious, and as such, there'll always be a market for movies that get straight to the point without wasting time.

Such briskly-paced movies are satisfying no matter the genre, but those in the crime genre often benefit greatly from brief runtimes. It's one way to keep a crime-related story feeling snappy, explosive, and surprising, and crime films that clocked in at under one-and-a-half hours were particularly common in the early to mid-20th century. The following crime movies are some of the best that come in at under 90 minutes long, and are ranked below from "longest" to shortest.

10 'Massacre Gun' (1967) - 89 minutes

Massacre Gun - 1967

The Japanese film industry pumped out hundreds of compelling crime films during the 1960s and 1970s, many of them revolving around the Yakuza, assassins, or gang warfare. Massacre Gun focuses on the latter two of those, centering on a hitman who fights back against his employers and, in turn, starts a gang war.

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It's an eye-catching movie from its title alone, seeing as "Massacre Gun" might be one of the best titles in the crime genre, and does ultimately fit the movie it's attached to in its own strange way. It delivers exactly what it needs to in just under 90 minutes, and serves as an entertaining crime/thriller/action movie.

9 'Criss Cross' (1949) - 88 minutes

Criss Cross - 1949
Image via Universal Pictures

Criss Cross is one of many classic film noir movies made within the American film industry during the 1940s and 1950s. In fact, it came out right in the middle of the film noir movement, seeing as it's seen as one that kicked off at the beginning of the 1940s, and officially ended in the year 1958 (subsequent film noir-type movies are known as "neo-noir" films).

It has a fairly complex plot, considering its brief length, involving betrayal, doomed romance, and a daring armored-truck robbery all rolled into one narrative. It might not be the very best or most well-known classic film noir, but it's certainly a solid one, and easy to recommend for crime movie fans who are pressed for time.

8 'A Record of Sweet Murder' (2014) - 86 minutes

A Record of Sweet Murder - 2014

Standing as one of the bleakest crime movies released within the last decade, A Record of Sweet Murder is not an easy watch. It's just as much a horror movie as it is a crime movie, and follows a journalist and cameraman getting mixed up with a dangerous serial killer who wants them to follow him and document/report on his actions.

It ends up feeling like a found footage horror movie, and is also notable for being presented to look as though it was all filmed in one take. The combination of horror, violence, and crime makes it a heavy-going and often disturbing watch, but its technical aspects are impressive, and it should prove gripping for viewers with strong stomachs.

7 'A Short Film About Killing' (1988) - 85 minutes

A Short Film About Killing - 1988
Image via Film Polski

Few movies are as open and honest about what they entail as 1988's A Short Film About Killing. This 85-minute-long movie is an extended version of an hour-long short film that appeared in the 1989 Dekalog miniseries, with both following a young man who commits a horrifying murder, and is subsequently put on trial where he has a risk of being given the death penalty.

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Its simplicity is ultimately what makes it so haunting and stomach-churning, as it's all very matter-of-fact in a way that doesn't pull any punches for its viewers. A Short Film About Killing is a tough-to-watch and not at all fun in the way some (less intense) crime movies can be, but it's also undeniably powerful and expertly made.

6 'Shoot the Piano Player' (1960) - 85 minutes

Shoot the Piano Player - 1960
Image via Les Films de la Pléiade

François Truffaut was one of the most well-known French filmmakers of all time, and Shoot the Piano Player stands as one of his best films. It follows a piano player named Charlie who agrees to help his brothers out after they tell him they're in trouble with some local gangsters, but that ultimately lands Charlie in hot water with the same gangsters, leading to dangerous consequences.

Like many of the radical French films made during the 1950s and 1960s, it has an effortless style and coolness to it that's aged surprisingly well all these decades later. It keeps things nice and lean at just 85 minutes long, and would serve as a decent entry point for anyone who wants to begin exploring the films of the French New Wave movement.

5 'The Killing' (1956) - 85 minutes

The Killing

Even though he had a reputation for being a perfectionist, filmmaker Stanley Kubrick's earlier movies do tend to feel a little rougher and less refined, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. 1956's The Killing marks a point where Kubrick was beginning to develop more of a recognizable style, though it doesn't feel like a capital K Kubrick film the same way something like A Clockwork Orange or The Shining might.

The Killing is instead short and simple, but still very well-executed as a straightforward heist movie. It revolves around a robbery at a racetrack, with numerous shady characters getting involved, and their ultimate greed/willingness to double-cross the others ultimately leading to things going wrong fast, which funnily enough has the result of making things more engaging for viewers.

4 'The Public Enemy' (1931) - 83 minutes

James Cagney in The Public Enemy
Image via Warner Bros.

There's no shortage of great gangster movies starring James Cagney, but The Public Enemy is among his best (and also stands as one of his shortest). It's a classic gangster movie story, following two brothers who experience a fast-paced climb up into the Chicago underworld, only for such a rise to be inevitably followed by a dramatic fall.

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It's the kind of thing that might feel familiar nowadays, but by the standards of the early 1930s, it packs a real punch. This kind of classic crime movie narrative still proves popular and influential to this day, and as far as pop culture goes, The Public Enemy is also notable for being featured in an episode of The Sopranos.

3 'Rope' (1948) - 81 minutes

rope-philip-brandon-john dall farley granger hitchcock villains

There are so many great Alfred Hitchcock movies that some of them are likely to get buried under his most famous works. For every Vertigo or Psycho, there's a slightly less well-known but still fantastic movie like Rope, which was an ambitious crime/thriller that runs for just over 80 minutes, and is made to look like it consists of one unbroken take.

The premise is also delightfully simple and twisted, with it revolving around a pair of college students who murder one of their peers, and then hide his body in their flat before inviting all his family and friends over, to see if they can get away with a "perfect" murder. It expertly builds tension throughout its entire duration, and stands as one of Hitchcock's most timeless and entertaining movies.

2 'Bad Day at Black Rock' (1955) - 81 minutes

Bad Day At Black Rock - 1955

In a way, Bad Day at Black Rock feels like a unique mix of a crime film with a touch of the Western genre. It follows a mysterious man with one arm who shows up announced in a small town named Black Rock, and begins to look into the dark secrets being kept by its townspeople, including shady criminal activity.

At just 81 minutes long, it wastes little time with setting up its premise and having its main character get tangled up in a dramatic conspiracy, all the while clashing with the people of Black Rock. It's a unique and engaging watch, and surely one of the most distinctive American crime films to be released in the 1950s.

1 'Pickup on South Street' (1953) - 80 minutes

Pickup on South Street - 1953
Image via 20th Century Fox

A film noir that's right on 80 minutes long, Pickup on South Street is something of a cult classic in its genre. It follows a pickpocket who ends up accidentally stealing something very valuable to certain individuals, which gets him wrapped up in a situation with consequences far beyond what he expected.

It's a film that does a great job of starting things out small and intimate, and having each scene gradually progress the story until there's too much going on for the main characters to handle. It's film noir 101 in that regard, but if a formula like this works, there are worse things to do than not attempt to fix it.

NEXT: The Darkest & Grittiest Crime Movies of All Time, Ranked by IMDb Score