1930s Gangster Movies
by lucymooody | created - 25 Jun 2020 | updated - 04 Aug 2020 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Little Caesar (1931)
Not Rated | 79 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A small-time criminal moves to a big city to seek bigger fortune.
Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Glenda Farrell, William Collier Jr.
Votes: 14,530
2. The Public Enemy (1931)
Passed | 83 min | Crime, Drama
An Irish-American street punk tries to make it big in the world of organized crime.
Director: William A. Wellman | Stars: James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Edward Woods, Joan Blondell
Votes: 23,022 | Gross: $1.01M
3. Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
Passed | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A priest tries to stop a gangster from corrupting a group of street kids.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan
Votes: 23,202
4. The Petrified Forest (1936)
Passed | 82 min | Drama, Thriller
A waitress, a hobo and a bank robber get mixed up at a lonely diner in the desert.
Director: Archie Mayo | Stars: Leslie Howard, Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, Genevieve Tobin
Votes: 14,933
5. Monkey Business (1931)
Not Rated | 77 min | Comedy, Family, Musical
On a transatlantic crossing, The Marx Brothers get up to their usual antics and manage to annoy just about everyone on board the ship.
Director: Norman Z. McLeod | Stars: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, The Marx Brothers, Chico Marx
Votes: 14,279
6. Dead End (1937)
Approved | 93 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
The lives of a young man, a young woman, an notorious gangster, and a group of street kids converge one day in a volatile New York City slum.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Sylvia Sidney, Joel McCrea, Humphrey Bogart, Wendy Barrie
Votes: 8,586
7. Lady for a Day (1933)
Passed | 96 min | Comedy, Drama
A gangster tries to make Apple Annie, the Times Square apple seller, a lady for a day.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Warren William, May Robson, Guy Kibbee, Glenda Farrell
Votes: 4,655
8. Manhattan Melodrama (1934)
Passed | 93 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
The friendship between two orphans endures even though they grow up on opposite sides of the law and fall in love with the same woman.
Directors: W.S. Van Dyke, Jack Conway, George Cukor | Stars: Clark Gable, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Leo Carrillo
Votes: 4,805
9. 'G' Men (1935)
Approved | 85 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
James Cagney helped jump-start the gangster genre as The Public Enemy. Outcries against movies that glorified underworld criminals put Cagney on the side of the law in 'G' Men.
Director: William Keighley | Stars: James Cagney, Margaret Lindsay, Ann Dvorak, Robert Armstrong
Votes: 4,363
10. Marked Woman (1937)
Approved | 96 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller
A crusading district attorney persuades a clip joint hostess to testify against her mobster boss after her innocent sister is accidentally murdered during one of his unsavory parties.
Directors: Lloyd Bacon, Michael Curtiz | Stars: Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Lola Lane, Isabel Jewell
Votes: 4,834
11. Bullets or Ballots (1936)
Passed | 82 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
When a crusader against rackets is murdered, a grand jury battles the rackets by promoting McLaren to be in charge of the cleanup. He fires NYPD Detective Blake, who punches him and joins the racket.
Director: William Keighley | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Joan Blondell, Barton MacLane, Humphrey Bogart
Votes: 3,502
12. The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938)
Approved | 87 min | Crime, Drama
A brilliant Park Avenue doctor becomes a criminal in order to do research into the criminal mind.
Director: Anatole Litvak | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, Claire Trevor, Allen Jenkins
Votes: 2,982
13. A Slight Case of Murder (1938)
Approved | 85 min | Comedy, Crime
Former bootlegger Remy Marco has a slight problem with forclosing bankers, a prospective son-in-law, and four hard-to-explain corpses.
Director: Lloyd Bacon | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Jane Bryan, Allen Jenkins, Ruth Donnelly
Votes: 2,568
14. Smart Money (1931)
Passed | 81 min | Crime, Drama
A Greek barber has uncommon skills in playing poker and soon rises in the seedy world of illegal gambling, but pretty blondes remain his Achilles' heel.
Director: Alfred E. Green | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney, Evalyn Knapp, Ralf Harolde
Votes: 2,236
15. Lady Killer (1933)
Passed | 76 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
A former gangster makes it big in Hollywood, but his old life catches up with him.
Director: Roy Del Ruth | Stars: James Cagney, Mae Clarke, Margaret Lindsay, Leslie Fenton
Votes: 1,885
16. The Mayor of Hell (1933)
Passed | 90 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
Five members of a teen-age gang, including leader Jimmy Smith, are sent to the state reformatory, presided over by the melodramatically callous Thompson. Soon, Patsy Gargan, a former ... See full summary »
Directors: Archie Mayo, Michael Curtiz | Stars: James Cagney, Madge Evans, Arthur Byron, Allen Jenkins
Votes: 1,841
17. Picture Snatcher (1933)
Not Rated | 77 min | Crime, Drama
Ex-convict Danny Kean decides to become honest as a photographer for a paper. He falls in love with Patricia, the daughter of the policeman who arrested him. Mr Nolan, her father, doesn't ... See full summary »
Director: Lloyd Bacon | Stars: James Cagney, Ralph Bellamy, Patricia Ellis, Alice White
Votes: 1,746
18. The Last Gangster (1937)
Passed | 81 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A gangster is jailed for ten years after his wife becomes pregnant. He becomes bitter when she divorces him and remarries.
Director: Edward Ludwig | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, James Stewart, Rose Stradner, Lionel Stander
Votes: 1,748
19. City Streets (1931)
Passed | 83 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Man joins a gang to free his girlfriend from prison.
Director: Rouben Mamoulian | Stars: Gary Cooper, Sylvia Sidney, Paul Lukas, William 'Stage' Boyd
Votes: 1,872
20. Little Miss Marker (1934)
Passed | 80 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
Bookie Sorrowful Jones receives a little girl as an IOU.
Director: Alexander Hall | Stars: Adolphe Menjou, Dorothy Dell, Charles Bickford, Shirley Temple
Votes: 1,393
21. The Story of Temple Drake (1933)
Not Rated | 70 min | Drama
A wealthy but neurotic Southern belle finds herself trapped in the hideout of a gang of vicious bootleggers. The gang's leader lusts after her, and is determined not to let anything stand in the way of his having her.
Director: Stephen Roberts | Stars: Miriam Hopkins, William Gargan, Jack La Rue, Florence Eldridge
Votes: 1,840
22. Taxi (1931)
Passed | 69 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
Independent cabbie Matt Nolan is primed to let his fists and handgun deliver payback after a big taxi firm uses intimidation and violence to squeeze out small-timers.
Director: Roy Del Ruth | Stars: James Cagney, Loretta Young, George E. Stone, Guy Kibbee
Votes: 1,553
23. The Beast of the City (1932)
Passed | 86 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Police Chief Jim Fitzpatrick ruthlessly goes after organized crime and is prepared to use brutal and violent methods to fight it.
Director: Charles Brabin | Stars: Walter Huston, Jean Harlow, Wallace Ford, Jean Hersholt
Votes: 1,419 | Gross: $0.89M
24. King of the Underworld (1939)
Passed | 67 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
After the killing of her husband by friendly fire during a police raid, Dr. Carole Nelson tries to find gangster Joe Gurney to clear her name with the medical board.
Director: Lewis Seiler | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Kay Francis, James Stephenson, John Eldredge
Votes: 1,595
25. The Doorway to Hell (1930)
Passed | 78 min | Crime, Drama
Despite his efforts to go straight, a young gangster keeps falling back into crime.
Director: Archie Mayo | Stars: Lew Ayres, James Cagney, Dorothy Mathews, Leon Janney
Votes: 1,322
26. Frisco Jenny (1932)
Passed | 73 min | Crime, Drama, Music
The San Francisco earthquake shakes up the life of Jenny, a madam who gives birth to an illegitimate son and gives him up to protect him.
Director: William A. Wellman | Stars: Ruth Chatterton, Louis Calhern, Helen Jerome Eddy, Donald Cook
Votes: 1,188
27. The Saint Strikes Back (1939)
Passed | 64 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Simon Templar, the Saint, travels to San Francisco to solve crime mysteries within the police department.
Director: John Farrow | Stars: George Sanders, Wendy Barrie, Jonathan Hale, Jerome Cowan
Votes: 1,084
28. Parachute Jumper (1933)
Passed | 72 min | Drama
To share expenses, unemployed Alabama moves in with also unemployed Bill and Toodles. Bill is hired by a gangster's mistress and ultimately becomes the gangster's bodyguard. Alabama ... See full summary »
Director: Alfred E. Green | Stars: Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Bette Davis, Frank McHugh, Claire Dodd
Votes: 1,306
29. Me and My Gal (1932)
Passed | 79 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Young New York cop Dan falls in love with waterfront waitress Helen. Helen's sister Kate falls for gangster Duke. Dan must do in Duke.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, Marion Burns, George Walsh
Votes: 1,392
30. A Woman's Face (1938)
Unrated | 100 min | Drama
An embittered woman, leader of a criminal gang, has a change of heart.
Director: Gustaf Molander | Stars: Ingrid Bergman, Tore Svennberg, Anders Henrikson, Georg Rydeberg
Votes: 1,161
31. Special Agent (1935)
Passed | 76 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
Newspaperman Bill Bradford becomes a special agent for the tax service trying to end the career of racketeer Alexander Carston. Julie Gardner is Carston's bookkeeper. Bradford enters ... See full summary »
Director: William Keighley | Stars: Bette Davis, George Brent, Ricardo Cortez, Jack La Rue
Votes: 1,206
32. The Whole Town's Talking (1935)
Approved | 93 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A meek milquetoast clerk is mistaken for public enemy N° 1, and the notorious killer takes advantage of the situation.
Director: John Ford | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Jean Arthur, Arthur Hohl, James Donlan
Votes: 3,209
33. Risky Business (1939)
Approved | 65 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Radio commentator Dan Clifford takes desperate chances to save the life of a young girl who has been kidnapped.
Director: Arthur Lubin | Stars: George Murphy, Dorothea Kent, Eduardo Ciannelli, Leon Ames
Votes: 35
34. Trouble at Midnight (1937)
Approved | 69 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Mystery about the theft of dairy cows.
Director: Ford Beebe | Stars: Noah Beery Jr., Kay Hughes, Larry J. Blake, Bernadene Hayes
Votes: 39
35. Night Nurse (1931)
Passed | 72 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A nurse enlists the help of a petty criminal to foil a sinister plot to murder two children.
Director: William A. Wellman | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Ben Lyon, Joan Blondell, Clark Gable
Votes: 4,491
36. Princess O'Hara (1935)
Approved | 79 min | Comedy, Drama
King, the driver of a horse-drawn hansom cab, is killed in a turf war between Vic Toledo's cab company and his competitors. Vic sends his goons to get King's daughter Princess a new horse but they steal a prized racing horse.
Director: David Burton | Stars: Jean Parker, Chester Morris, Leon Errol, Vince Barnett
Votes: 37
37. Broadway Thru a Keyhole (1933)
90 min | Drama, Musical
Racketeer Frank Rocci is smitten with Joan Whelan, a dancer at Texas Guinan's famous Broadway night spot. He uses his influence to help her get a starring role in the show, hoping that it ... See full summary »
Director: Lowell Sherman | Stars: Constance Cummings, Russ Columbo, Paul Kelly, Blossom Seeley
Votes: 241
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