Best movies like Chain Gang

It was legal murder until a reporter and his girl dared to get the inside story!

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Chain Gang Starring Douglas Kennedy, Emory Parnell, William Phillips, Don C. Harvey, and more. If you liked Chain Gang then you may also like: News Is Made at Night, One Way Ticket, Road to Alcatraz, Road Gang, Roses Are Red and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.

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Crusading newspaperman Cliff Roberts masquerades as a prison guard to document inhuman conditions.

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News Is Made at Night

Newspaper editor (Foster) will do almost anything to increase circulation. He campaigns to free a condemned man while accusing a wealthy ex-criminal of a string of murders.

One Way Ticket

A convict marries the warder's daughter after his escape and she eventually persuades him to finish his sentence.

Road to Alcatraz

The police think a young lawyer (Robert Lowery) killed his partner, but he was drugged when it happened.

Road Gang

A crusading young reporter planning a series of articles about a corrupt politician is framed for a crime and sentenced to serve five years at a prison farm.

Jail House Blues

A prisoner about to be pardoned puts it off until he can put on one last variety show for his fellow inmates.

Jailbreak

A reporter gets himself sent to prison so he can solve a murder behind bars.

Island of Doomed Men

Undercover agent Mark Sheldon gets paroled to a remote tropical island with a diamond mine manned by slave labor run by sadistic Stephen Danel.

Big Town

A newspaper editor goes on an anti-crime crusade, but gets carried away.

It Could Happen to You

A politically charged story about a man who dabbles in crime, with disastrous results, to gain the capital he needs to purchase a school where immigrants are prepared for American citizenship. The school's European teacher dreams of a fascist America. Based on a story by Nathanael West and Samuel Ornitz, who was one of the Hollywood Ten blacklisted during the McCarthy Era.

Speed Demon

A mechanic works for his sweetheart's father, who builds racing boats. He begs for and gets the chance to race a new-design boat, but his rival gets him intoxicated before the race and he wrecks the boat. Now he has to make good and show he has the right stuff.

The Iron Claw

The heirs of Anton Benson are searching Bensonhurst for hidden gold; they are joined by a reporter, a gangster...and a masked fiend known as The Iron Claw.

Hoodlum Empire

It's a deadly play for power when a Mafia chieftain's top gun goes straight and threatens to testify against the big boss and his cruel, nationwide network of crime. The picture, which was shot in a semi-documentary style, was inspired by the Kefauver investigations of 1950-51.

Streets of New York

Jimmy, an idealistic and hard-working young man, has just arrived in New York City with dreams of making his fortune. Along the way he faces numerous obstacles, opportunities and temptations, but through it all, he considers the actions of his hero, Abraham Lincoln, for guidance. Will Jimmy see his dreams come true, or will he be another of the countless hopefuls chewed up and spit out by New York's mean streets?

Big Town Scandal

A crusading editor and his star reporter aid underprivileged youths and crack down on racketeers out to fix basketball.

Man From Headquarters

A police reporter solves a murder case in Chicago, then moves on to St. Louis-but not voluntarily, since he has been kidnapped by the minions of the Windy City gang leader against whom he is scheduled to testify.

I Cover the Underworld

Gunner O'Hara is about to be released from prison after serving a five-year sentence, and receives a visit from his twin brother John, a divinity student soon to be ordained as a priest. Aware that Gunner plans to resume his criminal career, John decides to stop him.

The Final Hour

A down-and-out lawyer gets back on his feet with help from a singer who later retains him to defend her on a murder charge.

Armored Car

Larry Willis and Bill Wane are security guards who ride in the back of Banks Co. armored trucks. When they barely avoid a robbery, they return to headquarters, where their boss John Hale introduces them to detective Tom Sheridan, who will be working with them to uncover a new gang of robbers.

The Crooked Road

A blackmail threat from an old prison buddy compels a man who has gone straight to consider yet another crime.

Smashing the Spy Ring

G-Men in Washington break up a powerful spy ring and capture the ringleaders.

Women in Prison

The superintendent of a women's prison is pressured to pardon a member of a criminal gang. When she refuses, her daughter is framed on a manslaughter charge and sent to prison.

Seven Miles from Alcatraz

After Pearl Harbor, convicts at Alcatraz prison live in fear of bomb attacks, driving Champ Larkin and his pal Jimbo to a desperate escape attempt which lands them on a tiny lighthouse island, where they take over. The five inhabitants are stymied in their efforts to summon aid. But the island also figures in the schemes of a big Nazi spy ring; which will win out, the gangsters' greed or their patriotism?

Gang Bullets

A Capone-like racketeer named Anderson, who after being chased out of one town by the authorities immediately sets up shop in another. Unable to get any tangible evidence against Anderson, DA Wayne orders his assistant Carter to dig up some dirt on the gangster boss. To do this, Carter pretends to turned crooked, joining Anderson's gang in order to accumulate evidence. Alas, Carter's girl friend Patricia knows nothing of her boyfriend's subterfuge, and she suspects the worst.

Star Reporter

An idealistic young newspaper reporter crusades against organized crime.

Heroes of the Hills

In this entry in the long-running series of westerns, the Three Mesquiteers transform their ranch into a prison farm to provide a model for prison reform. They are opposed by a local contractor who wants to build a standard prison.

The Mad Game

Bootlegger Ed Carson is sent to prison. His old gang turns from liquor (now legal) to kidnapping. When they nab the son and daughter-in-law of the judge who sent Carson to prison, he is paroled to help in the capture.

The Secret Seven

Scientists assembled to prove their methods are effective in criminal investigation try to solve a series of murders.

I Was Framed

A reporter runs from charges by a corrupt politician only to face them years later.

My Marriage

When gangster's bullets put an end to the career of H.J. Barton, underworld gambling czar who masquerades as a respectable member of high society, his daughter Carol is left to bear the brunt of social stigma.

Legion of Terror

Two newly-appointed postal inspectors, Frank Marshall and 'Slim" Hewitt, set out to track down the sender of a time-bomb to a U. S. Senator and, during their investigation, run across a hooded organization that is terrorizing an American city. They also meet Don Foster, who is loud in his condemnation of the terrorists, and his sister, Nancy, who fears for her brother's life.

Criminal Investigator

A reporter investigates the murder of a showgirl, who was the widow of a millionaire. While digging in to the mysterious murder of a showgirl (Vivian Wilcox), intrepid reporter Bob Martin (Robert Lowery) uncovers a connection between that case and another one he's been working on. An inmate (Lawrence Creighton) holds the key to the crime, but there's one problem: He's deaf and mute. Meanwhile, the murderers (Jan Wiley and Charlie Hall) appear to be working for a very powerful person.

Sealed Lips

There's something very odd about Romano, a notorious gangster serving time in the federal pen. For one thing, Romano doesn't sound much like himself. For another, he always seems to be hiding something. Detective Lee suspects that something's amiss, and he's probably right!

Sing Sing Nights

A respected war correspondent is found murdered, with three bullets--from three different guns--in him. Three different men are arrested, convicted and sentenced to death for the murder, but only one can be the actual killer. A criminologist sets out to find who is really guilty.

Tough to Handle

A young reporter's grandfather wins a sweepstakes, but it turns out that his ticket is phony. The reporter finds out that the police are looking for the criminal ring responsible for the phony-sweepstakes racket, so he and his young brother set out to track down the gang responsible and expose them.

Forced Landing

In this high-flying mystery set aboard a cross-country flight to New York, some of the passengers are kidnappers who are trying to locate a hidden cache of loot. Unfortunately, something goes wrong during the trip and the pilots must land the plane in the Arizona desert during a terrible storm. There all of the passengers and crew find cramped accommodations in a lonely farmhouse where murder, mystery and mayhem occur.

Trouble in Morocco

A newspaperman Paul Cluett (Jack Holt) gets rival reporter Linda Lawrence (Mae Clark) to admit that she is investigating a story in Morocco that guns are being smuggled illegally.

Parole Racket

Following a long investigation, Police Detective-Lieutenant Anthony "Tony" Roberts becomes convinced that there is some powerful unknown-master-mind leader behind the gangs of crooks who are terrorizing the city, and it has something to do with paroled convicts. He sets up a scheme with his supervisor to have himself shamed by being demoted to a patrolman and then caught in the act of receiving bribe-money from a racketeer. He is convicted and sent to prison, and the manner in which his parole is arranged leads him, dangerously, to the secret-head of the gang.

Hell's Highway

A prison-camp convict learns that his younger brother will soon be joining him behind bars.

Return to Warbow

Three escaped prisoners return to the site of a robbery to find the stolen money that was never recovered. Western.

The Mystery Man

Hard-boiled newspaper reporter Larry Doyle (Robert Armstrong) goes a bit too far in celebrating a work bonus and wakes up on a train bound for St. Louis with only a buck on his person. To remedy the problem, Doyle pawns the revolver he's carrying. When the gun is subsequently used in a murder, Doyle's problems only multiply. In the meantime, he's also fallen in love with a comely stranger (Maxine Doyle) he convinced to impersonate his wife.

The Girl on the Front Page

The heiress to a powerful newspaper owner gets a job at the paper under an assumed name and helps break up a blackmail racket.

Behind Prison Gates

An agent for the state attorney general poses as a convict to learn about bank loot.

Girls of the Big House

A women's prison provides the setting for this drama that centers around a naive small-town woman framed by a man whom she met in a nightclub in the big city. She is not welcomed by the inmates and immediately the prisoners are divided.

The Gambling Sex

A wealthy young socialite gets the gambling bug, and soon it goes from being just a fun pastime to an addiction, and she begins to lose more and more of her fortune.

Roger Touhy, Gangster

Set during Prohibition, the movie centers on Touhy's rise from small time thug to the city's most powerful bootlegger whose empire is rivaled only by that of Al Capone (who is referred to, but never named in the story). It is his rival who frames Touhy for kidnapping and arranges for him to serve a life-long term in Stateville prison. Determined to be free again, the desperate Touhy and his cellmate Basil "the Owl" Banghart, begin plotting a violent break out.

Prison Nurse

A state prison is threatened by approaching floods, an epidemic of typhoid fever breaks out among the inmates, the prison's only doctor falls sick, there are only three nurses to administer vaccines and take care of stricken patients--and a group of prisoners is planning to use the chaos as a cover for a mass escape.

Shadows of Sing Sing

Muriel Rossi (Mary Brian), the sister of a racketeer, Al Rossi (Harry Woods), falls in love with Bob Martel (Bruce Cabot), the son of a police detective, Joe Martel (Grant Mitchell). Their love affair causes bot families problems when Bob is framed, but saved as a result of his father's access to police department films.

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