Movies Like Love is a Racket

If you liked Love is a Racket (1932), a crime and drama movie directed by William A. Wellman, 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
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.
2
Absence of Malice (1981)
★ 6.6/10Also drama and romance
Megan Carter is a reporter duped into running an untrue story on Michael Gallagher, a suspected racketeer. He has an alibi for the time his crime was allegedly committed—but it involves an innocent party. When he tells…
3
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.
4
Mata Hari (1931)
★ 6.2/10Also crime and drama
A semi-fictionalized account of the life of Mata Hari, an exotic dancer who was accused of spying for Germany during World War I.
5
Fallen Angel (1945)
★ 6.6/10Also crime and drama
An unemployed drifter, Eric Stanton wanders into a small California town and begins hanging around the local diner. While Eric falls for the lovely waitress Stella, he also begins romancing a quiet and well-to-do woman…
6
Party Girl (1958)
★ 6.8/10Also crime and drama
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 than winning trials. Farrell tries to…
7
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?
8
Plunder Road (1957)
★ 6.9/10Also crime and drama
A spectacular heist starts to unravel as the crooks take it on the lam.
9
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…
10
Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950)
★ 7.2/10Also crime and drama
A police detective's violent nature keeps him from being a good cop.
11
The Wild One (1953)
★ 6.5/10Also drama and crime
The Black Rebels Motorcycle Club ride into the small California town of Wrightsville, eager to raise hell. Brooding gang leader Johnny Strabler takes a liking to Kathie, the daughter of the local lawman, as another…
12
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.
13
They Live by Night (1949)
★ 6.8/10Also crime and romance
An escaped convict, injured during a robbery, falls in love with the woman who nurses him back to health, but their relationship seems doomed from the beginning.
14
You Only Live Once (1937)
★ 7.1/10Also crime and drama
Based partially on the story of Bonnie and Clyde, Eddie Taylor is an ex-convict who cannot get a break after being released from prison. When he is framed for murder, Taylor is forced to flee with his wife Joan Graham…
15
Murder in Three Acts (1986)
★ 6/10Also crime and drama
In Acapulco, Hercule Poirot attends a dinner party in which one of the guests clutches his throat and suddenly dies. The causes seem to be natural until another party with most of the same guests produces another corpse.
16
Time Without Pity (1957)
★ 6.5/10Also crime and drama
Alec Graham is sentenced to death for the murder of his girlfriend Jennie, with whom he spent a weekend at the English country home of the parents of his friend Brian Stanford. Alec’s father, David Graham, a…
17
King Creole (1958)
★ 6.4/10Also drama and crime
Delinquent Danny Fisher flunks out of high school, quits his job as a nightclub busboy, and one night gets the chance to perform. Success is imminent and local crime boss Maxie Fields wants to hire him to perform at…
18
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.
19
Carolina Caroline (2026)
★ 6.6/10Also crime and drama
A young woman, desperate to leave her small town, runs away with a charming con man, embarking on a crime and passion-filled journey through the Southeast to find her estranged mother.
20
Strangers on a Train (1951)
★ 7.7/10Also crime and drama
A charming psychopath tries to coerce a tennis star into his theory that two strangers can commit the perfect crime by exchanging murders—each killing the other’s most-hated person.