Early Gangster/Crime Classics
by J_Frank_Parnell | created - 11 months ago | updated - 8 months ago | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Each Dawn I Die (1939)
Approved | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A corrupt D.A. (Thurston Hall) with political ambitions is angered by news stories implicating him in criminal activity and decides to frame the reporter (James Cagney) for manslaughter in order to silence him.
Director: William Keighley | Stars: James Cagney, George Raft, Jane Bryan, George Bancroft
Votes: 3,734
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: 23,027 | 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: 23,212
4. The Roaring Twenties (1939)
Passed | 106 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Three men attempt to make a living in Prohibitionist America after returning home from fighting together in World War I.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Priscilla Lane, Gladys George
Votes: 15,541
5. 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: 30,325
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: 8,591
7. 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
8. 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: 14,541
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: 4,367
10. 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: 14,939
11. Jimmy the Gent (1934)
Passed | 67 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
An unpolished racketeer, whose racket is finding heirs for unclaimed fortunes, affects ethics and tea-drinking manners to win back the sweetheart who now works for his seemingly upright competitor.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: James Cagney, Bette Davis, Allen Jenkins, Alan Dinehart
Votes: 2,035
12. Fury (1936)
Not Rated | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
When a wrongly-accused prisoner barely survives a lynch-mob attack and is presumed dead, he vindictively decides to fake his death and frame the mob for his supposed murder.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Sylvia Sidney, Spencer Tracy, Walter Abel, Bruce Cabot
Votes: 13,728
13. The Little Giant (1933)
Passed | 76 min | Comedy, Crime, Romance
When Prohibition ends, a beer baron sees the writing on the wall, quits the rackets, and tries to break into California society.
Director: Roy Del Ruth | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Mary Astor, Helen Vinson, Russell Hopton
Votes: 1,441
14. This Gun for Hire (1942)
Passed | 81 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
When assassin Philip Raven shoots a blackmailer and his beautiful female companion dead, he is paid off in marked bills by his treasonous employer who is working with foreign spies.
Director: Frank Tuttle | Stars: Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Robert Preston, Laird Cregar
Votes: 10,624
15. 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
16. Black Legion (1937)
Passed | 83 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A hard-working machinist loses a promotion to a Polish-born worker, he's seduced into joining the secretive Black Legion, which intimidates foreigners through violence.
Directors: Archie Mayo, Michael Curtiz | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, Dick Foran, Erin O'Brien-Moore
Votes: 3,920
17. M (1931)
Passed | 99 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
When the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Peter Lorre, Ellen Widmann, Inge Landgut, Otto Wernicke
Votes: 168,534 | Gross: $0.03M
18. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
R | 111 min | Action, Biography, Crime
Bored waitress Bonnie Parker falls in love with an ex-con named Clyde Barrow and together they start a violent crime spree through the country, stealing cars and robbing banks.
Director: Arthur Penn | Stars: Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Michael J. Pollard, Gene Hackman
Votes: 120,652
19. The Honeymoon Killers (1970)
R | 107 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
An obese, embittered nurse doesn't mind if her toupee-wearing boyfriend romances and fleeces other women, as long as he takes her along on his con jobs.
Directors: Leonard Kastle, Donald Volkman | Stars: Shirley Stoler, Tony Lo Bianco, Mary Jane Higby, Doris Roberts
Votes: 5,832 | Gross: $0.46M
20. Bloody Mama (1970)
R | 90 min | Crime, Drama
A psychologically disturbed matriarch presides over her damaged family of bank-robbing misfits.
Director: Roger Corman | Stars: Shelley Winters, Don Stroud, Pat Hingle, Diane Varsi
Votes: 3,728
21. Larceny, Inc (1942)
Passed | 95 min | Comedy
Three ex-cons buy a luggage shop to tunnel into the bank vault next door. But despite all they can do, the shop prospers...
Director: Lloyd Bacon | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Jane Wyman, Broderick Crawford, Jack Carson
Votes: 3,147
22. Armored Car Robbery (1950)
Passed | 67 min | Action, Adventure, Crime
A well-planned robbery goes awry with tough cop Jim Cordell in pursuit of the thieves.
Director: Richard Fleischer | Stars: Charles McGraw, Adele Jergens, William Talman, Douglas Fowley
Votes: 2,997
23. A Bucket of Blood (1959)
Approved | 66 min | Comedy, Crime, Horror
A dimwitted busboy at a beatnik cafe passes off a cat he accidentally killed and covered in plaster as a sculpture, prompting a demand for more art that compels him to commit murders.
Director: Roger Corman | Stars: Dick Miller, Barboura Morris, Antony Carbone, Julian Burton
Votes: 7,903
24. Kid Galahad (1937)
Passed | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Fight promoter Nick Donati grooms a bellhop as a future champ, but has second thoughts when the 'kid' falls for his sister.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Wayne Morris
Votes: 3,933
25. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
Approved | 75 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
An ordinary British couple vacationing in Switzerland suddenly find themselves embroiled in a case of international intrigue when their daughter is kidnapped by spies plotting a political assassination.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Leslie Banks, Edna Best, Peter Lorre, Frank Vosper
Votes: 21,170
26. The Defiant Ones (1958)
Approved | 96 min | Crime, Drama
Two chained-together escaped convicts, White and Black, must learn to get along in order to elude capture.
Director: Stanley Kramer | Stars: Tony Curtis, Sidney Poitier, Cara Williams, Theodore Bikel
Votes: 17,858
27. Thunder Road (1958)
Approved | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A veteran comes home from the Korean War to the mountains and takes over the family moonshining business. He has to battle big-city gangsters who are trying to take over the business and the police who are trying to put him in prison.
Director: Arthur Ripley | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Gene Barry, Jacques Aubuchon, Keely Smith
Votes: 4,618
28. 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: 14,441 | Gross: $1.42M
29. Boxcar Bertha (1972)
R | 88 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
During the Great Depression, a union leader and a young woman become criminals to exact revenge on the management of a railroad.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Barbara Hershey, David Carradine, Barry Primus, Bernie Casey
Votes: 10,919
30. The Cool World (1963)
105 min | Crime, Drama
A look at the horrors of Harlem ghetto slum life filled with drugs, violence, human misery, and a sense of despair due to the racial prejudices of American society.
Director: Shirley Clarke | Stars: Rony Clanton, Carl Lee, Yolanda Rodríguez, Clarence Williams III
Votes: 663
31. Machine-Gun Kelly (1958)
Unrated | 80 min | Action, Biography, Crime
The criminal exploits of Public Enemy number 1, George 'Machine-Gun' Kelly, during the 1930s.
Director: Roger Corman | Stars: Charles Bronson, Susan Cabot, Morey Amsterdam, Richard Devon
Votes: 1,984
32. Thieves' Highway (1949)
Passed | 94 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
A war veteran turned truck driver attempts to avenge the crippling and robbing of his father at the hands of an amoral produce scofflaw.
Director: Jules Dassin | Stars: Richard Conte, Valentina Cortese, Lee J. Cobb, Barbara Lawrence
Votes: 6,874
33. Baby Face Nelson (1957)
Approved | 85 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
George "Babyface" Nelson became one of the most important gangsters of 1930's Chicago by making brutal robberies. In order to compete with Al Capone, he allied himself with John Dillinger.
Director: Don Siegel | Stars: Mickey Rooney, Carolyn Jones, Cedric Hardwicke, Leo Gordon
Votes: 781
34. The Mob (1951)
Approved | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Johnny Damico botches a murder case and is suspended from the force. In reality, he is put undercover to identify the mysterious boss of the NY waterfront who has murdered everyone in his way. Will Johnny be next in line?
Director: Robert Parrish | Stars: Broderick Crawford, Betty Buehler, Richard Kiley, Otto Hulett
Votes: 2,632
35. The Young Savages (1961)
Not Rated | 103 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A district attorney investigates three white teenagers accused of murdering a blind Puerto Rican kid.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Dina Merrill, Edward Andrews, Vivian Nathan
Votes: 2,939
36. The Hoodlum (1951)
PG | 61 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Paroled sociopath and career criminal Vincent Lubeck betrays his family's trust when he masterminds a complex armored car robbery.
Director: Max Nosseck | Stars: Lawrence Tierney, Allene Roberts, Marjorie Riordan, Lisa Golm
Votes: 1,164
37. Intruder in the Dust (1949)
Approved | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Family
In 1940s Mississippi, two teenage boys and an elderly woman combine forces to prevent a miscarriage of justice and clear a black man of a murder charge.
Director: Clarence Brown | Stars: David Brian, Claude Jarman Jr., Juano Hernandez, Porter Hall
Votes: 2,657
38. The Lineup (1958)
Approved | 86 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
In San Francisco, a psychopathic gangster and his mentor retrieve heroin packages carried by unsuspecting travelers.
Director: Don Siegel | Stars: Eli Wallach, Robert Keith, Richard Jaeckel, Mary LaRoche
Votes: 4,429
39. Sudden Fear (1952)
Approved | 110 min | Film-Noir, Thriller
After an ambitious actor insinuates himself into the life of a wealthy middle-aged playwright and marries her, he plots with his mistress to murder her.
Director: David Miller | Stars: Joan Crawford, Jack Palance, Gloria Grahame, Bruce Bennett
Votes: 7,351
40. They Drive by Night (1938)
84 min | Crime, Thriller
A convict, just out of prison, is implicated in a murder and goes on the run, hitching a ride with a truck driver.
Director: Arthur B. Woods | Stars: Emlyn Williams, Anna Konstam, Allan Jeayes, Ernest Thesiger
Votes: 365
41. Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison (1951)
Approved | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
At California's Folsom Prison, escape attempts and riots are on the rise due to the old-school sadistic style of management of a brutal warden.
Director: Crane Wilbur | Stars: Steve Cochran, David Brian, Philip Carey, Ted de Corsia
Votes: 417
42. Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954)
Not Rated | 80 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Fed up with the inhumane prison living conditions, a general prison riot breaks out, leading to hostage-taking, a stand-off with the guards and eventual negotiations with the prison administration officials.
Director: Don Siegel | Stars: Neville Brand, Emile Meyer, Frank Faylen, Leo Gordon
Votes: 2,433
43. Kansas City Confidential (1952)
Not Rated | 99 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An ex-con trying to go straight is framed for a million dollar armored car robbery and must go to Mexico in order to unmask the real culprits.
Director: Phil Karlson | Stars: John Payne, Coleen Gray, Preston Foster, Neville Brand
Votes: 8,146
44. Brute Force (1947)
Passed | 98 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
At a tough penitentiary, prisoner Joe Collins plans to rebel against Captain Munsey, the power-mad chief guard.
Director: Jules Dassin | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, Charles Bickford, Yvonne De Carlo
Votes: 11,550
45. Gang War (1940)
Approved | 63 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Two mobs fight for control of the jukebox racket.
Director: Leo C. Popkin | Stars: Ralph Cooper, Gladys Snyder, Reginald Fenderson, Laurence Criner
Votes: 141
46. Vice Squad (1953)
Approved | 88 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Police procedural film following a few cases assigned to LAPD captain of detectives Barnie Barnaby.
Director: Arnold Laven | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Paulette Goddard, K.T. Stevens, Porter Hall
Votes: 821
47. Girl Gang (1954)
Not Rated | 63 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A sleazy gangster has a gang of young girls commit robberies and prostitution for him by getting them hooked on drugs.
Director: Robert C. Dertano | Stars: Gloria Victor, Timothy Farrell, Harry Keaton, Lou Monson
Votes: 352
48. Hot Rod Girl (1956)
Approved | 79 min | Action, Drama, Romance
After his kid brother is killed in a street race, a champion drag-racer quits racing. However, a new kid comes to town determined to force him back into racing so he can take his title--and he's already taken his girlfriend.
Director: Leslie H. Martinson | Stars: Lori Nelson, Chuck Connors, John Smith, Mark Andrews
Votes: 394
49. Hot Rod (1950)
Approved | 61 min | Action, Drama
A young man builds a hot rod despite the disapproval of his father, a Juvenile Court judge. Circumstantial evidence points to the innocent teenager when his car is involved in a hit-and-run accident and he must reconcile with his father.
Director: Lewis D. Collins | Stars: Jimmy Lydon, Art Baker, Gil Stratton, Gloria Winters
Votes: 161
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