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Movies Like Smashing the Rackets

If you liked Smashing the Rackets (1938), a drama and crime movie directed by Lew Landers, here are 20 movies with a similar feel, based on TMDB's recommendations. Each one links to its cast, trailer and where it's streaming.

  1. 1Plunder Road

    Plunder Road (1957)

    ★ 6.9/10Also crime and drama

    A spectacular heist starts to unravel as the crooks take it on the lam.

  2. 2Little Caesar

    Little Caesar (1931)

    ★ 6.9/10Also drama and crime

    A small-time hood shoots his way to the top, but how long can he stay there?

  3. 3The Asphalt Jungle

    The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

    ★ 7.5/10Also crime and drama

    Recently paroled from prison, legendary burglar "Doc" Riedenschneider, with funding from Alonzo Emmerich, a crooked lawyer, gathers a small group of veteran criminals together in the Midwest for a big jewel heist.

  4. 4Each Dawn I Die

    Each Dawn I Die (1939)

    ★ 6.9/10Also crime and drama

    A corrupt D.A. with governatorial ambitions is annoyed by an investigative reporter's criticism of his criminal activities and decides to frame the reporter for manslaughter in order to silence him.

  5. 55 Against the House

    5 Against the House (1955)

    ★ 5.9/10Also crime and drama

    Former war-time Army buddies now students in college decide to rip off a Reno casino.

  6. 6The Public Enemy

    The Public Enemy (1931)

    ★ 7.3/10Also crime and drama

    Two young Chicago hoodlums, Tom Powers and Matt Doyle, rise up from their poverty-stricken slum life to become petty thieves, bootleggers and cold-blooded killers. But with street notoriety and newfound wealth, the duo…

  7. 7'G' Men

    'G' Men (1935)

    ★ 6.6/10Also crime and drama

    James “Brick” Davis, a struggling attorney, owes his education to a mobster, but always has refused to get involved with the underworld. When a friend of his is gunned down by a notorious criminal, Brick decides to…

  8. 8The Roaring Twenties

    The Roaring Twenties (1939)

    ★ 7.5/10Also crime and drama

    After World War I, 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…

  9. 9Kid Galahad

    Kid Galahad (1962)

    ★ 6.2/10Also drama and crime

    After completing military service, Walter Gulick takes a job as a sparring partner at a gym, the owner of which sees potential in Walter as a professional fighter—and takes him under his wing.

  10. 10Force of Evil

    Force of Evil (1950)

    ★ 6.7/10Also crime and drama

    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…

  11. 11House of Bamboo

    House of Bamboo (1955)

    ★ 6.2/10Also crime and drama

    Eddie Kenner is given a special assignment by the Army to get the inside story on Sandy Dawson, a former GI who has formed a gang of fellow servicemen and Japanese locals.

  12. 12The Damned Don't Cry

    The Damned Don't Cry (1950)

    ★ 7/10Also crime and drama

    Fed up with her small-town marriage, a woman goes after the big time and gets mixed up with the mob.

  13. 13Return of the Bad Men

    Return of the Bad Men (1948)

    ★ 6.3/10Also drama

    US Marshall Vance is assigned to rid the Oklahoma Territory of outlaws.

  14. 14Framed

    Framed (1947)

    ★ 6.5/10Also crime and drama

    Truck driver Mike Lambert is a down-and-out mining engineer searching for a job. When his rig breaks down in a small town, he happens upon a venomous seductress. When her boyfriend robs a bank, they intend to frame…

  15. 15The Set-Up

    The Set-Up (1949)

    ★ 7.4/10Also drama and crime

    Expecting the usual loss, a boxing manager takes bribes from a betting gangster without telling his fighter.

  16. 16Angels with Dirty Faces

    Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)

    ★ 7.5/10Also crime and drama

    Childhood chums Rocky Sullivan and Jerry Connelly grow up on opposite sides of the fence: Rocky matures into a prominent gangster, while Jerry becomes a priest, tending to the needs of his old tenement neighborhood.

  17. 17The River

    The River (1984)

    ★ 6.4/10Also drama

    Tom and Mae Garvey are a Tennessee farming couple battling violent floods to save their land. In addition to natural disasters, the Garveys fight to stop a selfish land developer and a local corporation from…

  18. 18The Glass Key

    The Glass Key (1942)

    ★ 6.7/10Also crime

    A crooked politician finds himself being accused of murder by a gangster from whom he refused help during a re-election campaign.

  19. 19Pitfall

    Pitfall (1948)

    ★ 6.8/10Also drama and crime

    An insurance man wishing for a more exciting life becomes wrapped up in the affairs of an imprisoned embezzler, his model girlfriend, and a violent private investigator.

  20. 20The Wrong Man

    The Wrong Man (1956)

    ★ 7.1/10Also crime and drama

    In 1953, an innocent man named Christopher Emmanuel "Manny" Balestrero is arrested after being mistaken for an armed robber.

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