Stage Struck (1948)
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With a sparkling script by Leslie Charteris, creator of "The Saint" - the latest crime wave has Scotland Yard baffled. Commissioner Hope (Sir Guy Standing) sends two of his officers (Billy Bevan and Charles McNaughton) to the Midnight Club to check up on a couple of shady characters - Colin Grant (Clive Brook) and Arthur Bradley (Allan Mowbray) and a girl, Iris Witney (Helen Vinson). There have been a number of jewel robberies around town recently, but, unknown to the police, these three have the perfect alibis!!! They have found "doubles", and while they are out committing the robberies, their doubles spend the night at the club, confusing the two officers who are on their tail.
A trucker (George Brent) with a pregnant wife (Gloria Dickson) fights a New York mobster's (Humphrey Bogart) protection racket.
Lawyer Joe Morse wants to consolidate all the small-time numbers racket operators into one big powerful operation. But his elder brother Leo is one of these small-time operators who wants to stay that way, preferring not to deal with the gangsters who dominate the big-time.
After Police Captain Dan McLaren becomes police commissioner former detective Johnny Blake knocks him down convincing rackets boss Al Kruger that Blake is sincere in his effort to join the mob. "Buggs" Fenner thinks Blake is a police agent.
In this gangster movie, a criminal king-pin and his gang hide out in his hometown where they witness a religious revival that inspires the man to begin billing himself as a "born-again" evangelist so he can cash in on the guilty consciences of local businessmen.
Jim 'Socker' Conway, former boxer and FBI hero, is maneuvered for political reasons into a do-nothing job in the district attorney's office. Meanwhile, he meets wild debutante Letty Lane, girlfriend of mob mouthpiece Steve Lawrence; and Letty's much nicer sister Susan. Now the slot machine gang brutally beats Jim's friends Franz and Otto. And Jim finds a way to use his nominal position to go into the racket- busting business. But his success puts Letty in deadly peril...
Terry Malloy dreams about being a prize fighter, while tending his pigeons and running errands at the docks for Johnny Friendly, the corrupt boss of the dockers union. Terry witnesses a murder by two of Johnny's thugs, and later meets the dead man's sister and feels responsible for his death. She introduces him to Father Barry, who tries to force him to provide information for the courts that will smash the dock racketeers.
A racketeer terrorizes a small fishing community until he falls in love with a fisherman"s daughter.
A serial-killer is murdering the ladies of a night club. Detective Gray is seeking for the killer but can only find a lot of gangsters. And the killer is about to act again...
This late-20s gangster movie features Carole Lombard as a young gal who agrees to marry a smooth-talking gangster in exchange for the mob man's pledge to arrange a big-time concert appearance for her violinist boyfriend. The only thing that can save the day for the mis-aligned lovers is a shootout between the cops and the gangland thugs. This film is notable because it is one of the early 'talkies," and uses the newly developing audio technology with abandon. In fact, most of the action takes place off screen and the characters tell the cameras just what's happened. This one's small on sets, big on dialog.
An ace reporter (Richard Dix) with a girlfriend (Lucille Ball) nails a numbers racketeer for murders.
Eddie Kenner (Robert Stack) is given a special assignment by the Army to get the inside story on Sandy Dawson (Robert Ryan), a former GI who has formed a gang of fellow servicemen and Japanese locals. They use their muscle to take over Tokyo's pachinko racket and commit a series of train robberies, targeting deliveries of military ammunition.
A gangster is drafted into the Army. He soon realizes how wrong his previous life was, and decides to help break up a black market ring he has discovered.
Hooligan boss Billy Evans has it all - a successful business, a beautiful family and respect on the terraces. But when he clashes with gangster Mickey over a backstreet proetection racket, Billy soon finds himself out of his depth as they look to finally settle the question - who is Top Dog?
Dan Adams resigns his position as prosecutor on the district attorney's staff and sets out to clean up a gang of fake-accident racketeers. He gets a job with an insurance company, and assures the company president he will get the goods on the gang or die in the attempt. At the company offices, he meets Carol Carter and she, believing he is a shyster (possibly redundant) lawyer in the employ of the racketeers gives him as little help as possible. Dan visits his brother Eddie, who is mixed up with the gang and tries to make him break away. Eddie is belligerent but finally, because of the pressure brought by Dan and his wife Tonia, agrees to go straight. The gang, led by "Duke" Trotti, fears he will squeal and they kill him, plus they make his death look like an accident and plan to collect on it. Dan is closing in on the gang when Carol, who is now his assistant, comes up with some conclusive evidence, but "Duke" has plans to get rid of her before she can give the information to Dan.
Set in post Second World War Britain, Noose is the story of black market racketeers who face attempts to bring them to justice by an American fashion journalist, her ex-army fiancée and a gang of honest toughs from a local gym. When a corpse turns up at black market front The Blue Moon Club, Yank reporter Carole Landis starts snooping, much to gang boss Joseph Calleiaâs annoyance. And soon thereâs a hit man on the way...
Charles Dobbs is a British secret agent investigating the apparent suicide of Foreign Office official Samuel Fennan. Dobbs suspects that Fennan's wife, Elsa, a survivor of a Nazi Germany extermination camp, might have some clues, but other officials want Dobbs to drop the case. So Dobbs hires a retiring inspector, Mendel, to quietly make inquiries. Dobbs isn't at all sure as there are a number of anomalies that simply can't be explained away. Dobbs is also having trouble at home with his errant wife, whom he very much loves, having frequent affairs. He's also pleased to see an old friend, Dieter Frey, who he recruited after the war. With the assistance of a colleague and a retired policeman, Dobbs tries to piece together just who is the spy and who in fact assassinated Fennan.
A night club singer who is the daughter of a small-town crook is tried and convicted of murder.
The daughter of a Nevada casino owner gets involved with a racketeer, despite everyone's efforts to separate them.
Violene and death stalk the Chinese of a big American city, but one man, Dr. Chang Ling, and his daughter, Dr. Mary Ling, defy the racketeers who are responsible, and, against terrific odds, bring peace to their oppressed neighbors.
Slick lawyer Thomas Farrell has made a career of defending mobsters in trials. It's not until he meets a lovely showgirl at a mob party that he realizes that there's more to life then winning trials. Farrell tries to quit the racket, but mob boss Rico Angelo threatens to hurt the showgirl if Farrell leaves him.
A win on the football pools in postwar Britain changes lives. A happy family is turned into an unhappy argumentative lot until it is discovered the coupon apparently didn't get posted. A mild-mannered clerk worries about how to tell his overbearing boss he is quitting. A double-bass player finds life without the orchestra lacks something. The lure of the big money even turns some people into criminals, as when a coupon checker is tempted by his night-club singer girlfriend to cheat the company. Written by Jeremy Perkins
When retired racket boss John Sarto tries to reclaim his place and former friends try to kill him, he finds solace in a monastery and reinvents himself as a pious monk.
In this silent film, a renegade police captain sets out to catch a sadistic mob boss.
After two gang-related killings in "Center City," a suspect (who was framed) is arrested, released on bail...and murdered. Inspector Briggs of the FBI recruits a young agent, Gene Cordell, to go undercover in the shadowy Skid Row area (alias George Manly) as a potential victim of the same racket. Soon, Gene meets Alec Stiles, neurotic mastermind who's "building an organization along scientific lines." Stiles recruits Cordell, whose job becomes a lot more dangerous
A C-list celebrity gets kidnapped and held hostage after a night-club appearance. When the police interrogate the man she accuses, they question whether she's after justice or a front-page story.
John Cummings, an unsuccessful cosmetics salesman, has his unpaid-for car stolen by one of the hoods in the employ of Lionel Meadows, the sadistic organizer of a London car conversion racket. The auto was not insured, and since the police appear indifferent to his plight, Cummings decides to find it himself -- and gets himself involved in an underworld battle.
Rocky and Dan, war buddies, are prowl car cops on night duty. Dan is a cynic who views all lawbreakers as scum; Rocky feels more lenient. Both are attracted to the radio voice of communicator Kate Mallory; but in person, Kate proves reluctant to get involved with men who just might stop a bullet. By lucky chance, Rocky and Dan cause big trouble for murderous racketeer Ritchie Garris; but when he swears vengeance, Kate's fears may prove justified.
Two bit hood Eddie Condon (Kane Richmond) sells babies under the counter. A highly lucrative racket he soon finds out. But when will the police get wise to this highly immoral scheme of his? And will they be able to pin a rap on him before he goes a little too far? ALL IS TOLD in this EXCITING tale of CRIME and CORRUPTION!
Police commander Simon Weiss, head of the division that supervises Parisâs demi-monde, starts out on his nightly tour of bars, discos and strip clubs, making sure once again that the owners donât bend the rules too far. Weiss knows heâs between a rock and hard place: itâs obvious that criminal gangs run rampant in his special domain, and even more obvious that theyâre protected by higher-ups in the department.
An international drug-smuggling racket plants heroin on unsuspecting American tourists traveling in Asia, so that the dope traffic can pass through customs undetected. Two psychopathic killers (Eli Wallach and Robert Keith) and their driver Richard Jaeckel then collect the contraband.
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.
During a raid on a speakeasy, a cop finds himself attracted to a pretty female employee. Instead of arresting her and taking her to jail, he not only helps her escape but takes her out to dinner. Eventually they marry, but it's not long before the new bride starts to yearn for the excitement of her life back at the speakeasy. Against her husband's wishes, she goes back there and is noticed by the joint's owner, who offers her a job. She decides to take the job, leave her husband and go back to her old life, but things don't turn out quite the way she expected.
A newspaper owner discovers that his girlfriend's father is the head of the biggest racket in New York City.
The Cotton Club was a famous night club in Harlem. The story follows the people that visited the club, those that ran it, and is peppered with the Jazz music that made it so famous
Paola (Lucia Bose) is the beautiful and jealously-guarded younger wife of a shady factory owner, Enrico Fontana (Massimo Girotti). In order to investigate her romantic history he hires a private detective, which ironically brings Paola back into contact with former lover Guido, with whom she resurrects a lost passion. Dogged by the suspicions of their respective mates, they are drawn closer to each other in the face of adversity, and begin to plot Enrico's demise. But when the challenge of being together falls away, will the passion start to wane? A masterpiece of intensity and finely-wrought emotion.
Ex-bank robber and gambler, Bob, plans a heist at the Deauville casino.
A married insurance claims adjuster investigates a gang of accident-fraud racketeers, but they retaliate by targeting his wife.
Spike Lee's take on the "Son of Sam" murders in New York City during the summer of 1977 centering on the residents of an Italian-American South Bronx neighborhood who live in fear and distrust of one another.
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.
Wounded criminal Lucky Wilson (Robert Montgomery) takes refuge in a small Connecticut farm. He falls in love with Maureen O'Sullivan, who at first is unaware of his criminal record. Lucky is fully prepared to shoot his way out when the cops come calling, but he is softened by O'Sullivan's affections. Screenwriters Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett leaven several potentially melodramatic sequences with some first-rate comic dialogue; many of the funniest scenes belong to nightclub owners Henry Armetta and Hermann Bing.
A lawman infiltrates a gang of racketeers.
During a patrol, Julie and Simon, two police constables, injure a wealthy man who pointlessly killed their partner. This wealthy man in question turns out to be the son of a politician. This is why the two police constables are accused of brutality by the brass. Abandoned by their superiors, the two leading characters will lead an investigation on the drug that caused the politician's son to be out of his mind.
Set in the 1930's this intricate caper deals with an ambitious small-time crook and a veteran con man who seek revenge on a vicious crime lord who murdered one of their gang.
Chronicles Jack Harris, one of the pioneers of internet commerce, as he wrestles with his morals and struggles not to drown in a sea of conmen, mobsters, drug addicts, and pornstars.
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.
With three days before his paper folds, a crusading editor tries to expose a vicious gangster.
Over the summer of 1976, thirty-six bombs detonate in the heart of Cleveland while a turf war raged between Irish mobster Danny Greene and the Italian mafia. Based on a true story, kill the Irishman chronicles Greene's heroic rise from a tough Cleveland neighborhood to become an enforcer in the local mob.
Gertie Waxted (Myrna Loy) knows how a notorious gangster Jim Crelliman runs his rackets, because sheâs long been under the hoodlumâs thumb. No more. Sheâs secretly helping lawyer Jackson Durant (Warner Baxter) in a snoop job aimed at pinning a murder on the thug. Her life will be in peril when that secret gets out.
John Gotti, the head of a small New York mafia crew breaks a few of the old family rules. He rises to become the head of the Gambino family and the most well-known mafia boss in America. Life is good, but suspicion creeps in, and greed, rule-breaking and his high public profile all threaten to topple him.
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.
Set in the underworld of Manhattan, Marked Woman tells the story of a woman who dares to stand up to one of the city's most powerful gangsters. The women of the story are "hostesses". What is implied, but not stated clearly is that they are prostitutes, who work in a gambling den in the city.
With her husband perpetually away at work, a mother raises her children virtually alone. Her teenage son is testing the waters of the adult world, and early one morning she wakes to find the dead body of his gay lover on the beach of their rural lakeside home. What would you do? What is rational and what do you do to protect your child? How far do you go and when do you stop?
In the middle of the night, someone brings Ivan's body home to his wife and his sad-faced, jug-eared son. Through flashbacks, the film discloses the relationships among Ivan and his brother Alex, a cop with a cleanliness fetish; siblings Juliette and Jimmy, Ivan's partners in a seedy nightclub; the love triangle of Alex, Juliette, and Marie, a professor of philosophy; and of Alex and his nephew, Ivan's dour, stoic son. Ivan's death changes every relationship.
In turn-of-the-century New York, an Italian seeks vengeance on the mobsters who killed his father.
Gary Cooper is cast as a racketeer known only as The Kid. He has chosen a life of crime out of love for Nan (Sylvia Sidney), the daughter of mob henchman Pop Cooley (Guy Kibbee). Eventually railroaded into prison by her crooked cohorts, Nan implores The Kid to give up the rackets, but he refuses. Things go downhill very rapidly after that, culminating with The Kid and Nan being taken "for a ride"
A gang of racketeers frames down-on-his-luck John Elman for murder. After he's found guilty, evidence is brought forth proving his innocence. But it is too late and he is executed anyway. A doctor sees an opportunity to use an experimental procedure to restore him to life but is that entirely possible? Desirable?
Corky Romano is a bumbling, simpleton, veterinarian and the youngest, outcast son of an aging gangster, named Pops Romano, who calls upon Corky to infiltrate the local FBI and retrieve and destroy evidence being used to incriminate Pops for racketeering charges.
A private eye who's over his head in debt takes on a job snapping photos of his client's rich husband in bed with another woman. But when the husband winds up with three bullet holes that seem to have come from the private eye's own gun, he's got to prove he's not the murderer meanwhile getting tangled deeper in a web of deceit, lies, and steamy night club dancers!
Magazine writer Ann Mason infiltrates the United Defenders, a public service organization which is actually a front for racketeers. But a case of amnesia threatens to blow her cover.
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