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

Plunder Road (1957)
★ 6.9/10Also crime and dramaA spectacular heist starts to unravel as the crooks take it on the lam.
- 2

Little Caesar (1931)
★ 6.9/10Also drama and crimeA small-time hood shoots his way to the top, but how long can he stay there?
- 3

The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
★ 7.5/10Also crime and dramaRecently 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

Each Dawn I Die (1939)
★ 6.9/10Also crime and dramaA 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

5 Against the House (1955)
★ 5.9/10Also crime and dramaFormer war-time Army buddies now students in college decide to rip off a Reno casino.
- 6

The Public Enemy (1931)
★ 7.3/10Also crime and dramaTwo 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

'G' Men (1935)
★ 6.6/10Also crime and dramaJames “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

The Roaring Twenties (1939)
★ 7.5/10Also crime and dramaAfter 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

Kid Galahad (1962)
★ 6.2/10Also drama and crimeAfter 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

Force of Evil (1950)
★ 6.7/10Also crime and dramaLawyer 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

House of Bamboo (1955)
★ 6.2/10Also crime and dramaEddie 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

The Damned Don't Cry (1950)
★ 7/10Also crime and dramaFed up with her small-town marriage, a woman goes after the big time and gets mixed up with the mob.
- 13

Return of the Bad Men (1948)
★ 6.3/10Also dramaUS Marshall Vance is assigned to rid the Oklahoma Territory of outlaws.
- 14

Framed (1947)
★ 6.5/10Also crime and dramaTruck 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

The Set-Up (1949)
★ 7.4/10Also drama and crimeExpecting the usual loss, a boxing manager takes bribes from a betting gangster without telling his fighter.
- 16

Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
★ 7.5/10Also crime and dramaChildhood 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

The River (1984)
★ 6.4/10Also dramaTom 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

The Glass Key (1942)
★ 6.7/10Also crimeA crooked politician finds himself being accused of murder by a gangster from whom he refused help during a re-election campaign.
- 19

Pitfall (1948)
★ 6.8/10Also drama and crimeAn 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

The Wrong Man (1956)
★ 7.1/10Also crime and dramaIn 1953, an innocent man named Christopher Emmanuel "Manny" Balestrero is arrested after being mistaken for an armed robber.