30's Gangster movies
by sabislayers | created - 29 Nov 2019 | updated - 29 Nov 2019 | PublicPre Hays Production code
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1. The Secret 6 (1931)
Passed | 83 min | Crime, Drama
After rising bootlegger Slaughterhouse Scorpio eliminates his gangland competition, two reporters and a cabal of six businessmen work to expose him.
Director: George W. Hill | Stars: Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone, Johnny Mack Brown, Jean Harlow
Votes: 1,050
2. The Kid from Arizona (1931)
Passed | 52 min | Western
Marshal Jack is sent, undercover, into the bad lands to clean up a gang of Indians who have been terrorizing the local ranchers. Horses belonging to a ranch owner are stolen and the horse ... See full summary »
Director: Robert J. Horner | Stars: Jack Perrin, Josephine Hill, Robert Walker, Henry Roquemore
Votes: 28
3. 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: 23,028 | Gross: $1.01M
4. The Good Bad Girl (1931)
Passed | 67 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
Gangster's moll Marcia Cameron (Mae Clark) quits her racketeering boyfriend Dapper Dan Tyler (Robert Ellis) for a respectable rich man, Bob Henderson (James Hall), but after giving birth to... See full summary »
Director: Roy William Neill | Stars: Mae Clarke, James Hall, Marie Prevost, Robert Ellis
Votes: 125
5. Defenders of the Law (1931)
Passed | 64 min | Action, Adventure, Crime
A gang of racketeers, with the aid of a high-ranking city official has control of a big-city, and the police plant an undercover cop to gather evidence against the hoodlums - except the ... See full summary »
Director: Joseph Levering | Stars: Catherine Dale Owen, John Holland, Robert Gleckler, Edmund Breese
Votes: 47
6. Homicide Squad (1931)
70 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
The police use a gangster's son to get to him.
Directors: Edward L. Cahn, George Melford | Stars: Leo Carrillo, Noah Beery, Mary Brian, Russell Gleason
Votes: 29
7. Sidewalks of New York (1931)
Passed | 74 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
A dim-witted slumlord tries to reform a gang of urban boys (and impress an attractive young woman) by transforming their rough neighborhood into a more decent place.
Directors: Zion Myers, Jules White | Stars: Buster Keaton, Anita Page, Cliff Edwards, Frank Rowan
Votes: 560
8. Chinatown After Dark (1931)
59 min | Crime, Drama
The female head of a criminal gang in Chinatown is after a valuable jewel, and lets nothing stand in her way of finding it.
Director: Stuart Paton | Stars: Carmel Myers, Rex Lease, Barbara Kent, Edmund Breese
Votes: 169
9. The Tip-Off (1931)
71 min | Comedy, Crime
Eddie Quillan falls in love with a gangster's girlfriend but avoids trouble when he becomes friends with Robert Armstrong and his girlfriend
Director: Albert S. Rogell | Stars: Eddie Quillan, Robert Armstrong, Ginger Rogers, Joan Peers
Votes: 301
10. The False Madonna (1931)
Passed | 70 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A woman who is a member of a gang of con artists impersonates the mother of a wealthy blind man; she comes to feel a true motherly love for the young man, and refuses to try to cheat him.
Director: Stuart Walker | Stars: Kay Francis, William 'Stage' Boyd, Conway Tearle, John Breeden
Votes: 150
11. Dragnet Patrol (1931)
Passed | 59 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A sailor falls for a gangster's moll, leaves his wife and finds himself caught up in a life of crime.
Director: Frank R. Strayer | Stars: Glenn Tryon, Vera Reynolds, Marjorie Beebe, Vernon Dent
Votes: 65
12. Night Beat (1931)
61 min | Crime, Drama
A young couple finds themselves mixed up with mobsters planning to rob a warehouse.
Director: George B. Seitz | Stars: Jack Mulhall, Patsy Ruth Miller, Walter McGrail, Harry Cording
Votes: 70
13. Docks of San Francisco (1932)
Passed | 64 min | Crime, Drama
Belle (Mary Nolan), cafe waitress on the San Francisco docks, becomes the moll of small-time racketeer Vance (Jon Davidson), but a slumming novelist John Banning (Jason Robards Sr.), decides to rescue her from chosen seedy life.
Director: George B. Seitz | Stars: Mary Nolan, John Davidson, Marjorie Beebe, Jason Robards Sr.
Votes: 69
14. Hotel Splendide (1932)
53 min | Crime, Drama
Jerry Mason inherits a seaside hotel but discovers that a gang of robbers have buried their loot on the site where the hotel now stands.
Director: Michael Powell | Stars: Jerry Verno, Anthony Holles, Edgar Norfolk, Philip Morant
Votes: 53
15. Scarface (1932)
PG | 93 min | Action, Crime, Drama
An ambitious and nearly insane violent gangster climbs the ladder of success in the mob, but his weaknesses prove to be his downfall.
Directors: Howard Hawks, Richard Rosson | Stars: Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak, Karen Morley, Osgood Perkins
Votes: 30,327
16. High Speed (1932)
Passed | 62 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A policeman, working on a case against a local mobster and his gang, slips on some race-car-driver overalls and goggles and , in addition to stopping the mobsters in their tracks, wins a ... See full summary »
Director: D. Ross Lederman | Stars: Buck Jones, Loretta Sayers, Wallace MacDonald, Pat O'Malley
Votes: 36
17. Night at the Crossroads (1932)
75 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Inspector Maigret investigates the mysterious murder of a Dutch diamond dealer, found dead in a stolen car. The car belongs to an insurance agent, Michonnet, and has been abandoned in the garage belonging to Carl Andersen.
Director: Jean Renoir | Stars: Pierre Renoir, Georges Térof, Winna Winifried, Georges Koudria
Votes: 953
18. Number 17 (1932)
TV-PG | 66 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
A gang of thieves gather at a safe house following a robbery, but a detective is on their trail.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Leon M. Lion, Anne Grey, John Stuart, Donald Calthrop
Votes: 5,439
19. Broadway to Cheyenne (1932)
Passed | 60 min | Drama, Western
A cowboy detective goes up against a gang of big-city thugs trying to set up a protection racket out west.
Director: Harry L. Fraser | Stars: Rex Bell, Marceline Day, Matthew Betz, Huntley Gordon
Votes: 162
20. Out of Singapore (1932)
Passed | 61 min | Action, Crime, Drama
While a ship's captain is being slowly poisoned, a gang of thugs try to take over the ship.
Director: Charles Hutchison | Stars: Noah Beery, Dorothy Burgess, Miriam Seegar, George Walsh
Votes: 67
21. I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
Passed | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Wrongly convicted James Allen serves in the intolerable conditions of a Southern chain gang, which later comes back to haunt him.
Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: Paul Muni, Glenda Farrell, Helen Vinson, Noel Francis
Votes: 14,442 | Gross: $1.42M
22. Guilty or Not Guilty (1932)
Passed | 70 min | Action, Adventure, Crime
Ruth Payne, innocent to begin with, is trying to extradite herself from the clutches of a gang-mob who obtained her release from prison on a falsified confession because they thought she ... See full summary »
Director: Albert Ray | Stars: Betty Compson, Claudia Dell, Tom Douglas, George Irving
Votes: 28
23. The Girl from Chicago (1932)
70 min | Crime, Drama
An undercover government agent on a case in Mississipi meets and falls in love with a beautiful young woman who's being menaced by a local crime boss. He rescues the girl, and they leave ... See full summary »
Director: Oscar Micheaux | Stars: Carl Mahon, Starr Calloway, Alice B. Russell, Eunice Brooks
Votes: 220
24. Whistling in the Dark (1933)
Passed | 79 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A mystery writer and his sweetheart are held hostage by a fugitive gangster who hopes to get the writer's help in devising the "perfect crime."
Directors: Elliott Nugent, Charles Reisner | Stars: Ernest Truex, Una Merkel, Edward Arnold, John Miljan
Votes: 348
25. Ladies They Talk About (1933)
Approved | 69 min | Drama
Attractive Nan, member of a bank-robbery gang, goes to prison thanks to evangelist Dave Slade...who loves her.
Directors: Howard Bretherton, William Keighley | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Preston Foster, Lyle Talbot, Dorothy Burgess
Votes: 1,827
26. The Whispering Shadow (1933)
Passed | 225 min | Action, Crime, Family
A mysterious criminal known as The Whispering Shadow commits crimes by means of a gang he controls by television and radio rays. Jack Norton, whose brother was murdered by The Whispering ... See full summary »
Directors: Colbert Clark, Albert Herman | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Viva Tattersall, Malcolm McGregor, Henry B. Walthall
Votes: 242
27. 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: 1,842
28. Police Call (1933)
Passed | 63 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A professional fighter decides to quit the sport and go to college, but he finds out that his sister has gotten mixed up with gangsters.
Director: Phil Whitman | Stars: Nick Stuart, Merna Kennedy, Roberta Gale, Mary Carr
Votes: 15
29. Song of the Streets (1933)
Passed | 81 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A gang of poverty-ridden juvenile delinquents progress from petty theft to hard crime, but a kindly judge manages to set most of them on the right path after they are finally apprehended.
Director: Victor Trivas | Stars: Vladimir Sokoloff, Madeleine Ozeray, Marcelle Worms, Jean-Pierre Aumont
Votes: 79
30. Men of America (1932)
Passed | 58 min | Crime, Drama, Western
Gangsters come out West to hide out and the locals, led by a newcomer (William Boyd), fight them in self-defense before the local authorities arrive.
Directors: Ralph Ince, William Boyd | Stars: William Boyd, Charles 'Chic' Sale, Dorothy Wilson, Ralph Ince
Votes: 159
31. This Day and Age (1933)
Passed | 86 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
High school students band together to dispense vigilante justice against a vicious gangland boss.
Director: Cecil B. DeMille | Stars: Charles Bickford, Judith Allen, Richard Cromwell, Harry Green
Votes: 237
32. The Big Chance (1933)
Passed | 62 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
Gangsters try to get a boxer to throw an important fight.
Director: Albert Herman | Stars: John Darrow, Merna Kennedy, Natalie Moorhead, Mickey Rooney
Votes: 204
33. 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
34. Ship of Wanted Men (1933)
Passed | 63 min | Adventure, Crime, Drama
A gang of escaped convicts hijacks a ship and heads for a remote island. On the way they pick up a young woman who's been shipwrecked.
Director: Lewis D. Collins | Stars: Dorothy Sebastian, Fred Kohler, Leon Ames, Gertrude Astor
Votes: 19
35. Hold the Press (1933)
Passed | 65 min | Mystery
When newspaper reporter Tim Collins, of the "Post", is slugged while investigating the shooting of a big-time gambler, he sets out to get his man with such determination that he ends up in ... See full summary »
Director: Phil Rosen | Stars: Tim McCoy, Shirley Grey, Wheeler Oakman, Henry Wadsworth
Votes: 19
36. Letting in the Sunshine (1932)
73 min | Comedy, Crime, Musical
A window cleaner bumps into an old flame, and the pair turn detective in an attempt to foil a gang of burglars.
Director: Lupino Lane | Stars: Albert Burdon, Renee Gadd, Molly Lamont, Henry Mollison
Votes: 29
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