Movies Like Violent Playground

If you liked Violent Playground (1958), a crime and drama movie directed by Basil Dearden, 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
M (1951)
★ 6.5/10Also crime and drama
In the city, someone is murdering children. The police search is so intense, it is disturbing the 'normal' criminals, and the local hoods decide to help find the murderer as quickly as possible.
2
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.
3
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…
4
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…
5
The Young Savages (1961)
★ 6.5/10Also crime and drama
A district attorney investigates the racially charged case of three teenagers accused of the murder of a blind Puerto Rican boy.
6
The United States of Leland (2003)
★ 6.5/10Also crime and drama
A withdrawn young man, Leland Fitzgerald is imprisoned for the murder of a mentally disabled boy, who also happened to be the brother of his girlfriend, Becky. As the community struggles to deal with the killing, Pearl…
7
Plunder Road (1957)
★ 6.9/10Also crime and drama
A spectacular heist starts to unravel as the crooks take it on the lam.
8
The Blue Lamp (1950)
★ 6.6/10Also crime
P.C. George Dixon is a long-serving traditional copper who is due to retire shortly. He takes a new recruit under his aegis and introduces him to the easy-going night beat. Dixon is a classic ordinary hero but also…
9
Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954)
★ 7.1/10Also crime and drama
A prisoner leads his counterparts in a protest for better living conditions which turns violent and ugly.
10
Siberian Education (2013)
★ 6.8/10Also drama and crime
The story of a gang of children growing up in a community of banished criminals, in a forgotten corner of the former Soviet Union. This community rejects the world outside. The only law it obeys… is its own. Against…
11
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…
12
American Skin (2019)
★ 7/10Also crime and drama
A Marine veteran working as a school janitor tries to mend his relationship with his son after a divorce. When his son is killed by a police officer found innocent without standing trial, he takes matters into his own…
13
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…
14
Inside Man (2023)
★ 6.2/10Also crime and drama
Based on true events. A disgraced police detective seeking redemption goes undercover to expose a violent crime syndicate. But as he sinks deeper into the mob, the price for absolution may be higher than he can afford.
15
American Murderer (2022)
★ 5.9/10Also crime and drama
The True story of how charismatic con man Jason Derek Brown bankrolls his extravagant lifestyle through a series of scams. On Brown’s trail: Lance Leising, a dogged FBI special agent determined to put Brown behind…
16
The Blue Gardenia (1953)
★ 6.5/10Also crime
Upon waking up to the news that the man she’d gone on a date with the previous night has been murdered, a young woman with only a faint memory of the night’s events begins to suspect that she murdered him while…
17
The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950)
★ 6.2/10Also crime
A veteran homicide detective who has witnessed his socialite girlfriend kill her husband sees his inexperienced brother assigned to the case.
18
The Enforcer (1951)
★ 7.1/10Also drama
After years of investigation, Assistant District Attorney Martin Ferguson has managed to build a solid case against an elusive gangster whose top lieutenant is about to testify.
19
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.
20
Blackboard Jungle (1955)
★ 6.9/10Also crime and drama
Richard Dadier is a teacher at North Manual High School, an inner-city school where many of the pupils frequently engage in anti-social behavior. Dadier makes various attempts to engage the students' interest in…