Roadhouse Nights (1930)

Director
Hobart Henley

Main cast
Helen Morgan; Charles Ruggles; Fred Kohler; Jimmy Durante; Louis Clayton

Genres
Drama

Description
Based on the Hammett novel, this ultra-rare film—is nominally taken from the author's classic gang-war novel Red Harvest, which proved too brutal and cynical even for pre-Code Hollywood.


Similar movies

The story of the rise and fall of the infamous Chicago gangster Al Capone and the control he exhibited over the city during the prohibition years. Unusually, briefly covering the years after Capone was imprisoned.
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.
Lora Hart manages to land a job in a hospital as a trainee nurse. Upon completion of her training she goes to work as a night nurse for two small children who seem to be very sick, but something much more sinister is going on.
After the WWI Armistice Lloyd Hart goes back to practice law, former saloon keeper George Hally turns to bootlegging, and out-of-work Eddie Bartlett becomes a cab driver. Eddie builds a fleet of cabs through delivery of bootleg liquor and hires Lloyd as his lawyer. George becomes Eddie's partner and the rackets flourish until love and rivalry interfere.
At the end of the 1920-s the Finnish government proclaimed dry law which lasted 12 years. Estonian bootleggers living on the neighboring coast of the Gulf of Finland profited from prohibition......
A teenager (Junior Durkin) lands in a brutal reform school for refusing to squeal on his bootlegger boss (Pat O'Brien).
John Smith is a mysterious stranger who is drawn into a vicious war between two Prohibition-era gangs. In a dangerous game, he switches allegiances from one to another, offering his services to the highest bidder. As the death toll mounts, Smith takes the law into his own hands in a deadly race to stay alive.
Set during Prohibition, the movie centers on Touhy's rise from small time thug to the city's most powerful bootlegger whose empire is rivaled only by that of Al Capone (who is referred to, but never named in the story). It is his rival who frames Touhy for kidnapping and arranges for him to serve a life-long term in Stateville prison. Determined to be free again, the desperate Touhy and his cellmate Basil "the Owl" Banghart, begin plotting a violent break out.
"Happy" MacDonald and his unfaithful wife own a Prohibition era night club. On this eventful night, he is threatened by bootleggers, and the club's star dancer falls in love with a young socialite who drinks to forget a personal tragedy, among other incidents.
A night club singer falls for a gangster.
In 1932, a cop is killed and Frank Wiecek sentenced to life. Eleven years later, a newspaper ad by Frank's mother leads Chicago reporter P.J. O'Neal to look into the case. For some time, O'Neal continues to believe Frank guilty. But when he starts to change his mind, he meets increased resistance from authorities unwilling to be proved wrong.
Mama and daughters get forced by circumstances into bootlegging and bank robbing, and travel across the country trailed by the law.
A masochistic cop, who hides her predilection from her cop husband, gets involved in pursuing a kidnapper nicknamed Harry for Harry Houdini
An old gangster is advised that Freddie Mays would leave jail after thirty years in prison. His mood changes and he recalls when he was a young punk, who joined Freddie Mays' gang, a man he both envied and ultimately betrayed.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: The Little Kidnappers, billed as The Kidnappers in the UK, is a 1953 British film, directed by Philip Leacock and written by Neil Paterson. It was remade as a TV movie in 1990.
A popular high school valedictorian and star athlete becomes a pariah when it's discovered that his father is a former bootlegger.
Henry Hill is a small time gangster, who takes part in a robbery with Jimmy Conway and Tommy De Vito, two other gangsters who have set their sights a bit higher. His two partners kill off everyone else involved in the robbery, and slowly start to climb up through the hierarchy of the Mob. Henry, however, is badly affected by his partners success, but will he stoop low enough to bring about the downfall of Jimmy and Tommy?
Busan in 1978. Gil-young, a veteran detective got the special request from the parents of a missing child, Eun-joo to investigate her case. As the clever kidnapper eludes the police, the case becomes more and more of a mystery. When Joong-san, the fortune-teller foretells Eun-joo’s whereabouts, people get to listen to what he says as the situation goes more despair with no remark on Eun-joo. He also tells that Gil-young is the only one who can save her. With no one to trust, Gil-yong and Joong-san come closing in around the kidnapper using any means possible. This movie is the record of 33 days of two men going through hell to find a missing girl and bring her back home alive.
She’s Dating the Gangster tells the heart-wrenching tale of 17-year-old Athena Dizon and campus bad boy Kenji de los Reyes, two teenagers who begin a pretend relationship that ultimately transforms into something deeper.
A middle-aged houseguest causes romantic turmoil when he falls in love with his host's teenage daughter. Director Harry Beaumont's pre-code comedy stars Lionel Barrymore, Alice Brady, Godfrey Tearle, Mary Carlisle, William Janney, Katharine Alexander and Halliwell Hobbes.
Simran drowns her misery in booze. Her one friend in Seoul, is Aakash, a singer in an Indian restaurant. One night, Simran tells Aakash of her past and the reasons for her loneliness. Originally a bar dancer in Mumbai, Simran is the girlfriend of a notorious gangster, Daya, who is a headhunter for hire. After hearing her story Aakash is determined to save Simran from the gangster's world.
James Cagney star's as Tom Powers, a trouble-ridden individual who rises from the position of cheap thug to that of a powerful Prohibition gangster. When his best friend is murdered, Powers self-destructively seeks deadly retaliation.
Han Kyung Bae (Sol Kyung Gu) is a successful news anchor with a beautiful wife (Kim Nam Joo) and a nine-year-old son, but his quiet life comes crashing down when his son gets kidnapped. In the next 44 days, they continuously receive calls from the kidnapper in his chillingly cold and emotionless voice with instructions and requests for ransom. The police are determined to find the kidnapper, but he effortlessly eludes capture; not only is he a step ahead at every turn, he seems to enjoy toying with the police in this cat-and-mouse chase. As the kidnapper keeps walking free, Kyung Bae becomes increasingly desperate and frustrated with the police, as he knows time is running out for his child.
Director Tony Richardson's 1961 film adaptation of the William Faulkner tales "Sanctuary" and "Requiem For A Nun", set in the American South, stars Lee Remick as a governor's daughter who is raped by a bootlegger.
The Krays is a film based on the lives and crimes of the British gangsters Ronald and Reginald Kray, twins who are often referred to as The Krays and were active in London in the 1960s.
Three New York Irish brothers cross paths as policeman, doctor, and bootlegger.
Following the death of his employer and mentor, Bumpy Johnson, Frank Lucas establishes himself as the number one importer of heroin in the Harlem district of Manhattan. He does so by buying heroin directly from the source in South East Asia and he comes up with a unique way of importing the drugs into the United States. Based on a true story.
An early pre-code '30s tale of juvenile delinquency, about a high-school student neglecting his studies, partying hard, falling in with the wrong crowd and finally finding himself on trial for murder committed during a robbery.
Former bootlegger Nick Barnes pressures neighborhood druggist Jimmy Morrell into making cut-rate drugs. The money makes it possible for Jimmy to marry Norma Frank, a pharmacy clerk. Expecting a baby, she wants Jimmy to quit the racket. Beaten by the mob, Jimmy works on, diluting the medications still further. Norma is rushed to the hospital for a premature delivery and given bogus medication. .
Melodrama about a woman who marries a bigamist, then a drunk, and falls in love with another man, all while working at a carnival. Based on the 1932 play of the same name by Phillip Dunning and George Abbott. Lilly Turner is a very precode character in a very precode film. She starts out with all the best intentions and does nothing wrong, only to find herself in a highly unfortunate situation that society of the time couldn't approve of: an unmarried mother to be. She then gets out of it through the kindness of another, becoming half of an open marriage, very progressive for the times. Lilly Turner would have needed to be completely rewritten to have been made during the code years.
Young Treasury Agent Elliot Ness arrives in Chicago and is determined to take down Al Capone but it's not going to be easy, because Capone has the police in his pocket. Ness meets Jimmy Malone a veteran patrolman and probably the most honorable one in the force. He asks Malone to help him get Capone but Malone warns him that if he goes after Capone, he is going to war.
A Chicago bootlegger (Robert Montgomery) goes to England with his lawyer (Edward Arnold) to claim his estate as the Earl of Gorley.
When Karthik is given a task by his producer to come up with a gripping gangster flick infested with a heavy dosage of violence, he focuses on Sethu, a ruthless gangster surrounded by quirky yet scary henchmen. Karthik discreetly tries his best to find out about Sethu to develop a film script, but fails miserably in all his attempts. However when he finally gets the chance to gain an insight into Sethu's life, disaster strikes as he gets caught in the mêlée following the discovery of a mole within Sethu's gang.
A young woman uses her body and her sexuality to help her climb the social ladder, but soon begins to wonder if her new status will ever bring her happiness.
Harold, a prosperous English gangster, is about to close a lucrative new deal when bombs start showing up in very inconvenient places. A mysterious syndicate is trying to muscle in on his action, and Harold wants to know who they are. He finds out soon enough, and bloody mayhem ensues.
In this unusually accurate biography, small-time hood Al Capone comes to Chicago at the dawn of Prohibition to be the bodyguard of racketeer Johnny Torrio. Capone's rise in Chicago gangdom is followed through murder, extortion, and political fraud. He becomes head of Chicago's biggest "business," but moves inexorably toward his downfall and ignominious end.
Bootlegger Ed Carson is sent to prison. His old gang turns from liquor (now legal) to kidnapping. When they nab the son and daughter-in-law of the judge who sent Carson to prison, he is paroled to help in the capture.
Los Angeles, 1949. Ruthless, Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) runs the show in this town, reaping the ill-gotten gains from the drugs, the guns, the prostitutes and — if he has his way — every wire bet placed west of Chicago. And he does it all with the protection of not only his own paid goons, but also the police and the politicians who are under his control. It’s enough to intimidate even the bravest, street-hardened cop… except, perhaps, for the small, secret crew of LAPD outsiders led by Sgt. John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) and Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), who come together to try to tear Cohen’s world apart.
Although Vivian Revere is seemingly the most successful of a trio of reunited schoolmates, she throws it away by descending into a life of debauchery and drugs.
Police catch a break when suspected kidnappers are spotted on a train heading towards Union Station. Police, train station security and a witness try to piece together the crime and get back the blind daughter of a rich business man.
The Royal Scandal, the war for power and fight for money continues with the return of Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster. Aditya Pratap Singh (Jimmy Sheirgill) is crippled and is trying to recover from the physical disability and his wifes betrayal. The lover cum seductress Madhavi Devi (Mahie Gill) is now an MLA, her relationship with Aditya may have broken to shambles but her relation with alcohol is deep, dark and daunting. Indarjeet Singh, a ragged prince who has lost everything but his pride, pledges to get back his familys respect which was once destroyed by Adityas ancestors. Ranjana is a modern ambitious girl who is madly in love with Indarjeet Singh (Irrfan Khan). The story takes a new turn when Aditya falls in love with Ranjana and forces Birendra (Raj Babbar) her father, for their marriage. In this game of live chess between Saheb, Biwi and Gangster, the winner, the survivor takes it all.
Actor Walter Matthau directed his first and only feature film with the black-and-white crime drama Gangster Story. In an unusual noncomedic role, Matthau plays Jack Martin, a local gangster who wants to run his own crime syndicate in the neighborhood run by Earl Dawson (Bruce McFarlan). They eventually team up and plan a heist. Carol Grace plays the reform-minded girlfriend.
A priest relates the tale of his friend, a WWI veteran, to the Post-War Planning Committee. Unable to get a job upon his return from the war, he puts off his marriage and works for a bootlegger. He is forced to take a rap for his boss, goes to prison, and forms a gang.
The evils of alcohol before and during prohibition become evident as we see its effects on the rich Chilcote family and the hard working Tarleton family.
Sexy Texas gal storms her way through life, brawling and boozing until her luck runs out, forcing her to learn the errors of her ways.
A rich industrialist is brutally kidnapped. While he physically and mentally degenerates in imprisonment, the kidnappers, police and the board of the company of which he is director negotiate about the ransom of 50 million euro.
Edward G. Robinson stars as a crime boss who goes searching for his ex-wife and son after a 10 year prison stint. Robinson's old gang has other plans though, and use the child to try and make him disclose the location of the loot he hid before going to the slammer. A young James Stewart, early in his career, plays a sizable role as a newspaper reporter who marries the gangster's wife.
Katharine Hepburn's second film..based on a novel by Gilbert Frankau. CHRISTOPHER STRONG is about the unlikely romance between a stuffy British politician, and an adventurous girl young enough to be his daughter. Both parties are dragged to a High Society 'Treasure Hunt' as examples of "something impossible to find"...ie.a faithful husband, and a young girl who has never had a love affair. How the romance comes to be, and how everything blows up in their faces, make for an interesting pre-code show. The dialog may be dated, but the acting is "spot on". The young Katharine Hepburn is radiant, and the 32 year old Colin Clive does a spendid job of playing Sir Christopher...conveying a 25 year age difference with little more than body language and a mustache.
"Antapal" is a fact-based tale with documentary segments in which old-timers from the era are interviewed and talk about the young gangsters of 1950s and '60s Thailand, but centres on Dang's friend Jod this time. Jod is a gangster who has been sent to jail as a result of a military coup who brings new order to the streets. In the young gangsters' neighbourhood, it is a uniformed officer named Neung who rules like a dictator and is a frequent thorn in the side of Jod's gang. When he emerges from prison, Jod is a changed man with a determination to set things right. But, knowing no other life, he returns to his old gangster ways with his old crew, which the new kids have joined. Amidst beefing with rival gangs and paranoia over a possible mole within their ranks, Jod's new gang quickly unravels...
Alison Drake, the tough-minded executive of an automobile factory, succeeds in the man's world of business until she meets an independent design engineer.
Yuukai Rhapsody follows a man who is stuck in a rut, no personal life and no cash lead him to the drastic decision of kidnapping a rich boy, unbeknownst to him the boy's father is a yakuza boss! With the yakuza and the police hot on his tail he is forced to take the boy and go on the run, somehow during the journey kidnapper and kidnappee begin to develop a friendship with one another.
A sequel to Kwak Kyeong-taek's "Friend" in 2001, "Friends 2" is about three men who are gangsters based in the background of the year 1963 and 2010.
A story set in the Prohibition Era and centered around a group of individuals and their dealings in the world of organized crime.
One day, Hye Lin, the five-year old daughter of a devoted pastor, Joo Young Soo, is kidnapped. Pastor Joo, who has a rock solid faith in God at this time, prays wholeheartedly for her safe comeback, but she does not return. Eight years later, Joo Young Soo, who now does not believe in God and leads a completely secular life, receives a call. Hye Lin is still alive and is with the kidnapper. Joo Young Soo’s resolute attempt to rescue his daughter begins...
In 1954 after two years in a home for boys, Snit Mandolin, 15, returns home to his seemingly unhinged and reclusive aunt Matilda. Defeated by a community that still shuns him, confronted by the impossibility of surviving on his aunt's farm, Snit falls in with Johnny Swift, 16, another outcast. Johnny makes moonshine and sells it through a local bootlegger. The boys work together and become fast friends. And Snit finds first love with a free-spirited local girl, Robin, 16. Their adventure is interrupted by the enigmatic and unpredictable Roy Kane, the district's private cop, who took Snit away two years ago and will now use the boys to get to the bootlegger. Dogged by Kane, betrayed by a bootlegger and plagued by the ghosts of the past, the boys' partnership ends - their friendship broken. Alone once more in the community that rejected him, Snit comes to a violent crossroads.
After killing an ex-boyfriend in New Orleans, a prostitute flees to a Caribbean island. There the vicious local police chief sets his sights on her, unaware that she is a fugitive.
Gang-pae is #2 gangster in his organization who longs to become an actor. Su-ta is a superstar actor who takes on the role of a gangster in an action movie called Rough Cut. When another actor leaves the set due to Su-tas violent ways, the production is on the verge of shutting down. Su-ta asks Gang-pae, whom he met by chance, to play alongside him in the movie in order to save the production.
Skyscraper Souls is a Pre-Code 1932 drama film starring Warren William and Maureen O'Sullivan. The film was directed by Edgar Selwyn and is based upon the novel Skycraper by Faith Baldwin. The film depicts the aspirations and lives of several people in the Seacoast National Bank Building. Among them is David Dwight, the womanizing bank owner who keeps his estranged wife happy by paying her bills. His secretary Sarah wants him to get a divorce so they can marry.
Nonzee recreates the life of a notorious late-1950s gangster. Dang Bireley's (nicknamed after his favorite soda-pop) had Elvis and James Dean fixations and lived predictably fast and died predictably young. He first killed a man at the age of 13, and became famous in Phra Nakorn as a Chinese protection racketeer from the age of 18. Everything swung his way until one of Thailand's many coups d'etat imposed martial law and drove the city's gangsters up-country. Dang and his loyal cohort Piak had little trouble facing down the local hicks, but bristled when forced to operate a long side their arch-enemy Pu, known as Bottle-Bomb.
Salma Zidane, a widow, lives simply from her grove of lemon trees in the West Bank's occupied territory. The Israeli defense minister and his wife move next door; the Secret Service orders the trees removed for security. The stoic Salma seeks assistance from the Palestinian Authority (useless), Israeli army (dismissive), and a young attorney, Ziad Daud, who takes the case; this older client attracts him. While the courts deliberate, the Israelis fence her trees and prohibit her from entering the grove. As the trees wither, the defense minister's wife and, separately, an Israeli journalist, look on Salma with sympathy. In this allegory, does David stand a chance against Goliath?

© Valossa 2015–2024