Movies Like Once a Thief

If you liked Once a Thief (1950), a crime and drama movie directed by W. Lee Wilder, 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 drama
A spectacular heist starts to unravel as the crooks take it on the lam.
2
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.
3
The Grifters (1990)
★ 6.5/10Also crime and drama
A small-time conman has his loyalties torn between his estranged mother and his new girlfriend, both of whom are high-stakes grifters with their own angles to play.
4
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.
5
Panic (2000)
★ 6.2/10Also crime and drama
Alex is going through a midlife crisis and it has become a very difficult time for him. His marriage is struggling, he's worried about his son, and his job of killing people for his family has become the most stressful…
6
Cry of the City (1948)
★ 6.7/10Also crime and drama
Petty crook and cop-killer Martin Rome, in bad shape from wounds in the hospital prison ward, still refuses to help slimy lawyer Niles clear his client by confessing to another crime. Police Lt. Candella must check…
7
Nightfall (1956)
★ 6.9/10Also crime
An innocent man turns fugitive as he reconstructs events that implicate him for a murder and robbery he did not commit.
8
The Big Combo (1955)
★ 7/10Also drama and crime
Police Lt. Leonard Diamond vies to bring a clever, well connected, and sadistic gangster to justice all the while obsessing over the gangster's girlfriend.
9
Belly (1998)
★ 6.3/10Also crime and drama
Tommy Bundy and Sincere are best friends as well as infamous and ruthless criminals and shot-callers in the hood. Respected by many but feared by all. As the police are closing in on them and new players are looking…
10
Pickup on South Street (1953)
★ 7.4/10Also crime
In New York City, an insolent pickpocket, Skip McCoy, inadvertently sets off a chain of events when he targets ex-prostitute Candy and steals her wallet. Unaware that she has been making deliveries of highly classified…
11
Hoodlum (1997)
★ 6.5/10Also crime and drama
In 1934, the second most lucrative business in New York City was running 'the numbers'. When Madam Queen—the powerful woman who runs the scam in Harlem—is arrested, Ellsworth 'Bumpy' Johnson takes over the business and…
12
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956)
★ 6.8/10Also crime and drama
A newspaper publisher, wanting to prove a point about the insufficiency of circumstantial evidence, talks his possible son-in-law Tom into a hoax in an attempt to expose ineptitude of the city's hard-line district…
13
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
★ 7.3/10Also crime and drama
An examination of the machinations behind the scenes at a real estate office. Unscrupulous salesmen try to hawk dubious real estate to suckers.
14
Parker (2013)
★ 6.1/10Also crime
A thief with a unique code of professional ethics is double-crossed by his crew and left for dead. Assuming a new disguise and forming an unlikely alliance with a woman on the inside, he looks to hijack the score of…
15
The Enforcer (2022)
★ 7/10Also crime and drama
A noir thriller set in Miami, the film follows an enforcer who discovers his femme fatale boss has branched out into cyber sex trafficking, putting a young runaway he’s befriended at risk. He sacrifices everything to…
16
Winged Creatures (2009)
★ 5.9/10Also crime and drama
A psychotic man opens fire in a diner, murdering numerous people before killing himself. The survivors struggle in different ways following this horrendous event: a doctor doubts his own instincts and elects to use an…
17
The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)
★ 7.5/10Also crime and drama
A tale of murder, crime and punishment set in the summer of 1949. Ed Crane, a barber in a small California town, is dissatisfied with his life, but his wife Doris' infidelity and a mysterious opportunity presents him…
18
True Believer (1989)
★ 6.2/10Also crime and drama
Eddie Dodd is a burnt out former civil rights lawyer who now specializes in defending drug dealers. Roger Baron, newly graduated from law school, has followed Eddie's great cases and now wants to learn at his feet…
19
In the Blood (2014)
★ 5.8/10Also crime
When her husband goes missing during their Caribbean vacation, a woman sets off on her own to take down the men she thinks are responsible.
20
Play Dirty (2025)
★ 6.6/10Also crime
Expert thief Parker gets a shot at a major heist, but to pull it off he and his team must outsmart a South American dictator, the New York mob, and the world's richest man.