Step into the cool world of British noir

In honor of Matthew Vaughn’s “Layer Cake,” which closes out its one-week run at Spokane’s AMC 20 Theatres on Thursday, I offer up this list of must-see British gangster films. It isn’t a complete list. There are several others that I haven’t yet seen. But for anyone interested in film, it’s a start:

“The Italian Job” (1969), directed by Peter Collinson. Michael Caine leads a gang of hoods on a classic heist in Torino, Italy . What’s believable: The crooks plan on getting away by causing, and then taking advantage of, a traffic jam. Hey, I’ve driven in Torino and believe me, you don’t have to try to cause problems there. They come naturally. Warning: Beware the 2003 remake. Mark Walberg is no substitute for Caine.

“Get Carter” (1971), directed by Mike Hodges. Caine again, this time as a hood just out of jail who goes looking for those who killed his brother. He kills, ruthlessly, all along the way. Warning No. 2: Beware the 2000 remake. Sylvester Stallone is even less Caine than Walberg is.

“The Long Good Friday” (1980), directed by John McKenzie. The great Bob Hoskins stars as a London hood whose ambition gets derailed by his own weaknesses combined with mysterious forces that, he discovers too late, are far greater and even more deadly than he could ever be.

“Mona Lisa” (1986), directed by Neil Jordan. Hoskins again, this time as a guy just out of prison who goes to work for a prostitute named Simons (Cathy Tyson) only to find that he’s in over his head, both in terms of his affections for Simone and in his abilities to handle the local mob boss (Caine even again) who has a thing for Simone, too.

“The Krays” (1990), directed by Peter Medak. Twins Gary and Martin Kemp portray the Kray brothers , Ronald and Reggie, who for a time in the 1960s were forces in the London underworld. Noted for their brutal methods of providing “protection,” the Krays were also celebrities, making appearances at city night spots dressed like, in the words of Roger Ebert , “proper gentlemen.”