Pre-Noir (...-1939)
by jorgefsrocha | created - 13 Jul 2018 | updated - 5 months ago | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Not Rated | 67 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Hypnotist Dr. Caligari uses a somnambulist, Cesare, to commit murders.
Director: Robert Wiene | Stars: Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Friedrich Feher, Lil Dagover
Votes: 70,047
2. Underworld (1927)
Not Rated | 80 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Boisterous gangster kingpin Bull Weed rehabilitates his former lawyer from his alcoholic haze, but complications arise when he falls for Weed's girlfriend.
Directors: Josef von Sternberg, Arthur Rosson | Stars: George Bancroft, Clive Brook, Evelyn Brent, Fred Kohler
Votes: 3,477 | Gross: $1.64M
3. The Racket (1928)
Passed | 84 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An honest police captain vows to bring down a powerful bootlegger who is protected by corrupt politicians and judges.
Director: Lewis Milestone | Stars: Thomas Meighan, Louis Wolheim, Marie Prevost, G. Pat Collins
Votes: 1,585
4. Thunderbolt (1929)
Passed | 85 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A criminal known as Thunderbolt is imprisoned and facing execution. Into the next cell is placed Bob Moran, an innocent man who has been framed and who is in love with Thunderbolt's girl. ... See full summary »
Director: Josef von Sternberg | Stars: George Bancroft, Fay Wray, Richard Arlen, Eugenie Besserer
Votes: 882
5. The Big Gamble (1931)
Passed | 65 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
Unable to repay a substantial gambling debt to mob boss North, Alan Beckwith concocts a last-ditch scheme. Allowing North to take out a $100,000 insurance policy on his life, Alan agrees to... See full summary »
Director: Fred Niblo | Stars: William Boyd, James Gleason, Warner Oland, Dorothy Sebastian
Votes: 209
6. 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: 1,873
7. The Maltese Falcon (1931)
Passed | 80 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A lovely dame with dangerous lies employs the services of a private detective, who is quickly caught up in the mystery and intrigue of a statuette known as the Maltese Falcon.
Director: Roy Del Ruth | Stars: Bebe Daniels, Ricardo Cortez, Dudley Digges, Una Merkel
Votes: 3,345
8. 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: 1,049
9. 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: 1,420 | Gross: $0.89M
10. 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: 14,433 | Gross: $1.42M
11. Payment Deferred (1932)
Passed | 81 min | Crime, Drama
A man poisons his nephew out of desperation for money.
Director: Lothar Mendes | Stars: Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Sullivan, Ray Milland, Dorothy Peterson
Votes: 777
12. Two Seconds (1932)
67 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A condemned murderer, in the process of being executed, relives the events that led to his being sentenced to die in the electric chair.
Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Vivienne Osborne, Guy Kibbee, Preston Foster
Votes: 1,300
13. Advice to the Forlorn (1933)
Approved | 62 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Los Angeles newspaper reporter Toby Prentiss is continually in trouble with his editor. He is demoted to running the paper's "Miss Lonelyhearts" advice column because he missed the scoop on... See full summary »
Director: Alfred L. Werker | Stars: Lee Tracy, Sally Blane, Paul Harvey, Sterling Holloway
Votes: 94
14. Blood Money (1933)
Passed | 65 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
Bill Bailey (George Bancroft) is a Los Angeles, California bail bondsman who lives in a world of complete, casual corruption, where all he has to do is pick up the phone to get the charges ... See full summary »
Director: Rowland Brown | Stars: George Bancroft, Judith Anderson, Frances Dee, Chick Chandler
Votes: 416
15. Crime Without Passion (1934)
Approved | 70 min | Crime, Drama
Prominent lawyer shoots unfaithful girlfriend during quarrel, has to establish alibi.
Directors: Lee Garmes, Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur | Stars: Claude Rains, Margo, Whitney Bourne, Stanley Ridges
Votes: 598
16. Midnight (1934)
Passed | 76 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
The foreman of a jury asks questions that send a woman to the electric chair for a murder committed in the heat of passion. On the night of the execution, his actions come back to haunt him.
Director: Chester Erskine | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Sidney Fox, O.P. Heggie, Henry Hull
Votes: 1,242
17. Bordertown (1935)
Approved | 90 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
In Mexico, a former lawyer becomes the invaluable second-in-command to a casino owner, whose wife begins to fall for him.
Director: Archie Mayo | Stars: Paul Muni, Bette Davis, Margaret Lindsay, Eugene Pallette
Votes: 2,002
18. The Glass Key (1935)
Passed | 80 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Ed Beaumont is the personal friend, advisor and bodyguard to Paul Madvig, the political boss of a large city. When a mysterious murder is committed---the son of a Madvig political opponent-... See full summary »
Director: Frank Tuttle | Stars: George Raft, Claire Dodd, Edward Arnold, Rosalind Keith
Votes: 521
19. The Scoundrel (1935)
Passed | 76 min | Drama, Fantasy
A ruthless, cynical, hated publisher is killed in a plane crash, doomed to be a "restless" spirit for being unloved. A heavenly power gives him a month on Earth to find one person to shed a tear for him before his fate is sealed.
Directors: Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur | Stars: Noël Coward, Julie Haydon, Stanley Ridges, Martha Sleeper
Votes: 446
20. 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: 3,499
21. 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: 13,726
22. 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: 14,928
23. You Only Live Once (1937)
Passed | 86 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
The public defender's secretary and an ex-convict get married and try to make a life together, but a series of disasters sends their lives spiraling out of control.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Sylvia Sidney, Henry Fonda, Barton MacLane, Jean Dixon
Votes: 7,649
24. You and Me (1938)
Approved | 94 min | Crime, Film-Noir
An altruistic department-store owner hires ex-convicts in order to give them a second chance at life. Unfortunately, one of the convicts he hires recruits two of his fellow ex-convicts in a plan to rob the store.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Sylvia Sidney, George Raft, Barton MacLane, Harry Carey
Votes: 1,631
25. Blind Alley (1939)
Passed | 69 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Gangster Hal Wilson takes psychiatrist Dr. Shelby hostage. While captive, the doctor analyzes Wilson as though he were a patient.
Director: Charles Vidor | Stars: Chester Morris, Ralph Bellamy, Ann Dvorak, Joan Perry
Votes: 816
26. Let Us Live (1939)
Approved | 68 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
Two innocent men are wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to death. The fiancée of one of them convinces a police detective of their innocence, and together they try to find the real killer before the men's execution date.
Director: John Brahm | Stars: Maureen O'Sullivan, Henry Fonda, Ralph Bellamy, Alan Baxter
Votes: 676
27. Rio (1939)
Passed | 77 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A crazed man escapes from prison to kill his wife's lover.
Director: John Brahm | Stars: Basil Rathbone, Victor McLaglen, Sigrid Gurie, Robert Cummings
Votes: 195
28. Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (1922)
Not Rated | 242 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Arch-criminal Dr. Mabuse sets out to make a fortune and run Berlin. Detective Wenk sets out to stop him.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Aud Egede-Nissen, Gertrude Welcker, Alfred Abel
Votes: 9,173
29. Sunrise (1927)
Passed | 94 min | Drama, Romance
A sophisticated city woman seduces a farmer and convinces him to murder his wife and join her in the city, but he ends up rekindling his romance with his wife when he changes his mind at the last moment.
Director: F.W. Murnau | Stars: George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingston, Bodil Rosing
Votes: 53,839 | Gross: $0.54M
30. 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: 168,440 | Gross: $0.03M
31. The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933)
Not Rated | 122 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
A criminal mastermind uses hypnosis to rule the rackets after death.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Otto Wernicke, Thomy Bourdelle, Gustav Diessl
Votes: 13,594
32. La Bête Humaine (1938)
Not Rated | 100 min | Crime, Drama
In this classic adaptation of Emile Zola's novel, a tortured train engineer falls in love with a troubled married woman who has helped her husband commit a murder.
Director: Jean Renoir | Stars: Jean Gabin, Julien Carette, Simone Simon, Fernand Ledoux
Votes: 8,421
33. La Chienne (1931)
Not Rated | 95 min | Crime, Drama
Maurice Legrand, a meek cashier married to a nagging wife, has a secret passion: he's a Sunday painter. He falls in love with Lulu, a young woman dominated by Dédé, the pimp who she works for. Dédé pushes Lulu into a relationship with him.
Director: Jean Renoir | Stars: Michel Simon, Janie Marèse, Georges Flamant, Roger Gaillard
Votes: 4,835
34. The Last Turning (1939)
90 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
Frank, a hobo, ends up in a garage-truck stop in the middle of nowhere. Nick Marino, its older, kind and naive owner, is married to Cora, a sexy and mercenary woman half his age. Frank, ... See full summary »
Director: Pierre Chenal | Stars: Fernand Gravey, Michel Simon, Marcel Vallée, Auguste Bovério
Votes: 301
35. Le Jour Se Leve (1939)
Not Rated | 93 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
After committing a murder, a man locks himself in his apartment and recollects the events that led him to the killing.
Director: Marcel Carné | Stars: Jean Gabin, Jacqueline Laurent, Arletty, Jules Berry
Votes: 8,270 | Gross: $0.03M
36. Pépé le Moko (1937)
Not Rated | 94 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A wanted gangster is both king and prisoner of the Casbah. He is protected from arrest by his friends, but is torn by his desire for freedom outside. A visiting Parisian beauty may just tempt his fate.
Director: Julien Duvivier | Stars: Jean Gabin, Gabriel Gabrio, Saturnin Fabre, Fernand Charpin
Votes: 8,071 | Gross: $0.15M
37. Personal Column (1939)
106 min | Musical, Romance, Thriller
After one of her fellow taxi dancers is murdered by an unknown man who she met through a personal column advert, Adrienne Charpentier is recruited by the police to answer a series of similar adverts to try to track down the killer.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Maurice Chevalier, Pierre Renoir, Marie Déa, Erich von Stroheim
Votes: 412
38. Port of Shadows (1938)
Not Rated | 91 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A military deserter finds love and trouble (and a small dog) in a foggy, French port city.
Director: Marcel Carné | Stars: Jean Gabin, Michel Simon, Michèle Morgan, Pierre Brasseur
Votes: 9,960 | Gross: $0.03M
39. The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927)
Not Rated | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A landlady suspects that her new lodger is the madman killing women in London.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: June Tripp, Ivor Novello, Marie Ault, Arthur Chesney
Votes: 13,386
40. Blackmail (1929)
Not Rated | 85 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
After killing a man in self-defense, a young woman is blackmailed by a witness to the killing.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Anny Ondra, John Longden, Sara Allgood, Charles Paton
Votes: 11,955
41. 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
42. I Met a Murderer (1939)
Approved | 63 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
Farmer Mark Warrow lives an unhappy existence with his shrewish wife Martha. His only happiness comes from his dog. When his wife loses her temper and kills his beloved pet, Warrow snaps ... See full summary »
Director: Roy Kellino | Stars: James Mason, Sylvia Coleridge, William Devlin, Pamela Mason
Votes: 204
43. There Ain't No Justice (1939)
83 min | Drama
A young boxer falls in with a crooked fight promoter.
Director: Pen Tennyson | Stars: Jimmy Hanley, Edward Rigby, Mary Clare, Edward Chapman
Votes: 63
44. The Docks of New York (1928)
Not Rated | 76 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A blue-collar worker on New York's depressed waterfront finds his life changed after he saves a woman attempting suicide.
Director: Josef von Sternberg | Stars: George Bancroft, Betty Compson, Olga Baclanova, Clyde Cook
Votes: 5,029
45. Paid (1930)
Passed | 86 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
Mary Turner goes up for three years on a crime she didn't commit. Once out she and former prison mates plan a scam in which old men can be sued for breach of promise - the "heart balm" ... See full summary »
Director: Sam Wood | Stars: Joan Crawford, Robert Armstrong, Marie Prevost, Douglass Montgomery
Votes: 805
46. Blonde Crazy (1931)
TV-G | 79 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
The adventures of an egoistic con man and his glamorous accomplice.
Director: Roy Del Ruth | Stars: James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Louis Calhern, Noel Francis
Votes: 2,325
47. Five Star Final (1931)
Not Rated | 89 min | Crime, Drama
The City Editor of a sleazy tabloid goes against his own journalistic ethics to resurrect a twenty year old murder case... with tragic results.
Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Marian Marsh, H.B. Warner, Anthony Bushell
Votes: 2,532
48. Grief Street (1931)
Passed | 64 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
Alvin Merle, a womanizing Broadway matinée idol, is found strangled in his dressing room. The door is locked from the inside and there is no possible other way into the room. Merle is ... See full summary »
Director: Richard Thorpe | Stars: Barbara Kent, John Holland, Dorothy Christy, Crauford Kent
Votes: 166
49. 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: 14,524
50. 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: 23,015 | Gross: $1.01M
51. Quick Millions (1931)
72 min | Crime, Drama
Truck driver Bugs Raymond organizes the trucking associations and takes protection money. Now rich, he decides to marry socialite Dorothy Stone. She rejects him for another, so he plots to kidnap her on her wedding day.
Director: Rowland Brown | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Marguerite Churchill, Sally Eilers, Bob Burns
Votes: 404
52. 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932)
Passed | 78 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Brash hoodlum Tom Connors enters Sing Sing cocksure of himself and disrespectful toward authority, but his tough but compassionate warden changes him.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Bette Davis, Arthur Byron, Lyle Talbot
Votes: 2,960
53. Night Court (1932)
Passed | 92 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Romance
Judge and his mistress are investigated on suspicions of corruption.
Director: W.S. Van Dyke | Stars: Phillips Holmes, Walter Huston, Anita Page, Lewis Stone
Votes: 432
54. 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: 30,309
55. The Burning Secret (1933)
92 min | Drama
A boy and his mother stay in a hotel near a lake where they meet a fascinating man.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Alfred Abel, Hilde Wagener, Hans Joachim Schaufuß, Lucie Höflich
Votes: 130
56. '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: 4,361
57. 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: 8,584
58. 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: 23,197
59. They Made Me a Criminal (1939)
Approved | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A champion boxer on the lamb, believed to have committed murder while drunk, takes refuge and finds redemption at a farm for delinquent youths.
Director: Busby Berkeley | Stars: John Garfield, Claude Rains, The Dead End Kids, Ann Sheridan
Votes: 2,590
60. 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: 3,733
61. 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: 15,519
62. Private Detective 62 (1933)
Passed | 66 min | Drama
A down-and-out private eye falls for a woman he has been hired to frame.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: William Powell, Margaret Lindsay, Ruth Donnelly, Gordon Westcott
Votes: 1,059
63. Crime and Punishment (1935)
Not Rated | 88 min | Crime, Drama
Man is haunted by a murder he's committed.
Director: Josef von Sternberg | Stars: Edward Arnold, Peter Lorre, Marian Marsh, Tala Birell
Votes: 2,234
64. The Florentine Dagger (1935)
Passed | 69 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Juan Cesare, a descendant of the Borgia's of Vienna, thinks he may have a murder streak in him acquired from his long-dead relatives, is is love with Florence Ballau, but her father lodges ... See full summary »
Director: Robert Florey | Stars: Donald Woods, Margaret Lindsay, C. Aubrey Smith, Henry O'Neill
Votes: 214
65. What Price Crime (1935)
Approved | 63 min | Action, Adventure, Crime
Thieves break into a warehouse that stores guns, steal them and kill the night watchman. An undercover agent assigned to the case happens to get into a traffic accident with the sister of ... See full summary »
Director: Albert Herman | Stars: Charles Starrett, Noel Madison, Virginia Cherrill, Charles Delaney
Votes: 129
66. The General Died at Dawn (1936)
Approved | 98 min | Action, Drama, War
Amid the anarchy of China, an American mercenary tangles with a ruthless warlord.
Director: Lewis Milestone | Stars: Gary Cooper, Madeleine Carroll, Akim Tamiroff, Dudley Digges
Votes: 1,350
67. Great Guy (1936)
Passed | 66 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
The adventures of an investigator (Cagney) for the Bureau of Weights and Measures.
Director: John G. Blystone | Stars: James Cagney, Mae Clarke, James Burke, Edward Brophy
Votes: 1,139
68. Muss 'em Up (1936)
Passed | 70 min | Action, Crime, Mystery
A private detective is enlisted to find out who shot a dog and threatened its owner, but before long he's also involved in a kidnapping and murder plot.
Director: Charles Vidor | Stars: Preston Foster, Margaret Callahan, Alan Mowbray, Ralph Morgan
Votes: 217
69. Satan Met a Lady (1936)
Passed | 74 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
A double-crossing woman, the two-timing P.I. she hired, the corpulent "empress of crime", and a gentleman thief are all after a legendary priceless eighth-century ram's horn.
Director: William Dieterle | Stars: Bette Davis, Warren William, Alison Skipworth, Arthur Treacher
Votes: 2,451
70. 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: 3,919
71. 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: 3,931
72. 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: 4,831
73. San Quentin (1937)
Approved | 70 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An army trainer becomes captain of the prison yard and in time, falls for the sister of a hardened inmate.
Director: Lloyd Bacon | Stars: Pat O'Brien, Ann Sheridan, Humphrey Bogart, Barton MacLane
Votes: 2,237
74. The Shadow Strikes (1937)
Approved | 61 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
Lamont Cranston assumes his secret identity as "The Shadow", to break up an attempted robbery at an attorney's office. When the police search the scene, Cranston must assume the identity of the attorney.
Director: Lynn Shores | Stars: Rod La Rocque, Agnes Anderson, James Blakeley, Walter McGrail
Votes: 587
75. They Gave Him a Gun (1937)
Passed | 94 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A World War I veteran who married the girlfriend of his presumed-dead war buddy falls into the racketeering business.
Director: W.S. Van Dyke | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Gladys George, Franchot Tone, Edgar Dearing
Votes: 405
76. Algiers (1938)
Passed | 96 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A wanted jewel thief ensconced in the Casbah meets a beautiful woman who makes him long for an escape.
Director: John Cromwell | Stars: Charles Boyer, Hedy Lamarr, Sigrid Gurie, Joseph Calleia
Votes: 3,248
77. Prison Nurse (1938)
Approved | 67 min | Drama, Film-Noir
A state prison is threatened by approaching floods, an epidemic of typhoid fever breaks out among the inmates, the prison's only doctor falls sick, there are only three nurses to administer... See full summary »
Director: James Cruze | Stars: Henry Wilcoxon, Marian Marsh, Bernadene Hayes, Ben Welden
Votes: 97
78. Code of the Secret Service (1939)
Passed | 58 min | Action, Adventure, Crime
Brass is assigned to uncovering a counterfeiting ring that has stolen bona fide treasury plates and is converting $1 bills to $100 bills through a Mexican casino.
Director: Noel M. Smith | Stars: Ronald Reagan, Rosella Towne, Eddie Foy Jr., Moroni Olsen
Votes: 328
79. Convict's Code (1939)
62 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A man is framed and sent to prison for a crime he didn't commit. When he is let out on limited parole, he sets out to clear his name and find the real criminals.
Director: Lambert Hillyer | Stars: Robert Kent, Anne Nagel, Sidney Blackmer, Victor Kilian
Votes: 285
80. Dust Be My Destiny (1939)
Passed | 88 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Embittered after serving time for a burglary he did not commit, Joe Bell is soon back in jail, on a prison farm. His love for the foreman's daughter leads to a fight between them, resulting... See full summary »
Director: Lewis Seiler | Stars: John Garfield, Priscilla Lane, Alan Hale, Frank McHugh
Votes: 960
81. Invisible Stripes (1939)
Passed | 81 min | Action, Crime, Drama
An ex-con who wants to go straight has difficulties trying to reintegrate into society while on parole.
Director: Lloyd Bacon | Stars: George Raft, Jane Bryan, William Holden, Humphrey Bogart
Votes: 1,921 | Gross: $0.11M
82. I Stole a Million (1939)
Approved | 80 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A grizzled cabbie is scammed out of his life savings by a fake finance company. He tries to no avail to get police assistance.
Director: Frank Tuttle | Stars: George Raft, Claire Trevor, Dick Foran, Henry Armetta
Votes: 125
83. 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: 1,596
84. You Can't Get Away with Murder (1939)
Approved | 79 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Youthful tough Johnnie Stone has fallen under the influence of petty crook Frank Wilson, who involves him and robbery and murder using his sister's boyfriend's stolen gun.
Director: Lewis Seiler | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Gale Page, Billy Halop, John Litel
Votes: 1,287
85. Asphalt (1929)
Not Rated | 94 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
Joe May's sensual drama of life in the Berlin underworld is in many ways the perfect summation of German filmmaking in the silent era: a dazzling visual style, a psychological approach to ... See full summary »
Director: Joe May | Stars: Albert Steinrück, Else Heller, Gustav Fröhlich, Betty Amann
Votes: 1,687
86. La bandera (1935)
Approved | 88 min | Drama, Romance, War
Pierre Gilieth has committed a murder in Paris. He flees to Barcelona, where he runs out of money. So he joins the Spanish Foreign Legion. He meets there two fellow countrymen, Mulot and ... See full summary »
Director: Julien Duvivier | Stars: Annabella, Jean Gabin, Robert Le Vigan, Raymond Aimos
Votes: 734
87. The Green Cockatoo (1937)
Approved | 65 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A young girl is travelling to London to find work. Arriving at the station, she meets a man who has been stabbed by a member of a gang of crooks involved with greyhound racing.
Director: William Cameron Menzies | Stars: John Mills, Rene Ray, Robert Newton, Charles Oliver
Votes: 314
88. Poison Pen (1939)
66 min | Drama
A small, sedate British village is shocked when its residents begin receiving hate-filled diatribes, known as "poison pen letters".
Director: Paul L. Stein | Stars: Flora Robson, Robert Newton, Ann Todd, Belle Chrystall
Votes: 244
89. Hotel du Nord (1938)
83 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
On the meandering Canal St. Martin, at the Parisian Hôtel du Nord, a nearly fatal gunshot separates a dejected young couple. But, amid a sad but beautiful panorama of lively characters, love has the final say. Can life be a fairy tale?
Director: Marcel Carné | Stars: Annabella, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Louis Jouvet, Arletty
Votes: 3,236
90. Afraid to Talk (1932)
Passed | 69 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Corrupt politicians resort to murder and blackmail when a young boy accidentally witnesses them taking payoffs.
Director: Edward L. Cahn | Stars: Eric Linden, Sidney Fox, Tully Marshall, Louis Calhern
Votes: 135
91. After the Thin Man (1936)
Passed | 112 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
Private detective Nick Charles and his wealthy wife Nora are back home at last and hoping for a quiet New Year when there is a murder. The obvious suspect is his wife, Nora's cousin, Selma.
Director: W.S. Van Dyke | Stars: William Powell, Myrna Loy, James Stewart, Elissa Landi
Votes: 12,117 | Gross: $4.34M
92. A House Divided (1931)
70 min | Drama
In a small Pacific village, a widowed fisherman marries a girl young enough to be his daughter. Complications ensue when the new wife falls in love with her husband's son.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Walter Huston, Douglass Montgomery, Helen Chandler, Mary Foy
Votes: 262
93. The Kiss Before the Mirror (1933)
Passed | 69 min | Drama, Mystery
When a famous doctor kills his adulterous wife, he is defended by his best friend, an attorney who suspects that his own wife is having an affair.
Director: James Whale | Stars: Nancy Carroll, Frank Morgan, Paul Lukas, Gloria Stuart
Votes: 700
94. Laughter in Hell (1933)
Passed | 70 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
In the late 1800s, a man is sentenced to life at hard labor for killing his wife and her lover.
Director: Edward L. Cahn | Stars: Pat O'Brien, Gloria Stuart, Merna Kennedy, Tom Brown
Votes: 68
95. Okay America! (1932)
Passed | 78 min | Drama
A gossip columnist's rise to fame, closely based on the real life of Walter Winchell.
Director: Tay Garnett | Stars: Lew Ayres, Maureen O'Sullivan, Louis Calhern, Edward Arnold
Votes: 99
96. Roadhouse Nights (1930)
Passed | 68 min | Crime, Drama, Musical
A boozing newsman (Charles Ruggles) woos a singer (Helen Morgan) while spying on her bootlegger boyfriend (Fred Kohler).
Director: Hobart Henley | Stars: Helen Morgan, Charles Ruggles, Fred Kohler, Jimmy Durante
Votes: 127
97. The 39 Steps (1935)
Approved | 86 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
A man in London tries to help a counter-espionage agent, but when the agent is killed and the man stands accused, he must go on the run to save himself and stop a spy ring that is trying to steal top-secret information.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, Lucie Mannheim, Godfrey Tearle
Votes: 61,530
98. Dragnet Girl (1933)
100 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A gangster tries to find redemption with the inadvertent help of an innocent shop girl and his jealous girlfriend will do anything to keep him.
Director: Yasujirô Ozu | Stars: Kinuyo Tanaka, Jôji Oka, Sumiko Mizukubo, Kôji Mitsui
Votes: 1,054
99. The Sin of Nora Moran (1933)
Passed | 65 min | Adventure, Crime, Drama
A young woman with a difficult past is sentenced for a murder she didn't commit, but revealing the truth could hurt people she loves.
Director: Phil Goldstone | Stars: Zita Johann, John Miljan, Alan Dinehart, Paul Cavanagh
Votes: 778
100. Voruntersuchung (1931)
95 min | Drama
During an inquest after a woman is killed, the judge suspects his own son.The woman's lover had been friendly with the son and he was also supposed to be married to the judge's daughter.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Albert Bassermann, Gustav Fröhlich, Hans Brausewetter, Charlotte Ander
Votes: 94
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