Best movies like Chinatown Nights

A white woman lost among Chinamen

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Chinatown Nights Starring Wallace Beery, Florence Vidor, Warner Oland, Jack McHugh, and more. If you liked Chinatown Nights then you may also like: Whirlpool, Alibi, Undersea Girl, Framed, Bulldog Edition 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.

Joan Fry, a society woman, falls in love with Chuck Riley, the white-leader of a powerful gang in Chinatown, and he quickly drags her down into the depths with him. But seeing her so much in love with him causes him to realize he isl in love with her, and he determines to lift her up again. "Boston" Charley, the rival gang-leader, has other plans.

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Know any good movies to watch like Chinatown Nights 1929. With a similar plot or stoyline. Suggest it.

Whirlpool

An ex-convict tries to connect with the daughter who doesn't even know he exists.

Alibi

Chick Williams, a prohibition gangster, rejoins his mob soon after being released from prison. When a policeman is murdered during a robbery, he falls under suspicion. The gangster took Joan, a policeman's daughter, to the theater, sneaked out during the intermission to commit the crime, then used her to support his alibi. The detective squad employs its most sophisticated and barbaric techniques, including planting an undercover agent in the gang, to bring him to justice.

Undersea Girl

A woman reporter, a navy investigator, and a heavyset police detective come across a gang which scuttled a ship in order to loot her later, underwater, for a Navy money consignment.

Framed

Rose Manning swears revenge for the unjust slaying of her father by Inspector McArthur. Five years later, as a nightclub hostess, she is sought by Chuck Gaines, secretly a bootlegger, but she centers her attentions on young Jimmy Carter, who, she learns, is the son of McArthur.

Bulldog Edition

Two rival newspapers are engaged in a circulation battle, complicated by the fact that a vicious gangster inserts himself into the middle of it. Also complicating matters is that one newspaper's editor and circulation director are competing for the affections of a pretty blonde reporter.

Fancy Baggage

In order to get back some very important papers from her father's business rival, a young woman pretends to be the rival's new secretary. Complications ensue.

Girls Can Play

The Hollywood Post's sports writer, Jimmy Jones (Charles Quigley), yearns to be a crime reporter, and thus looks for foul play on even the most routine assignments. In writing a piece about a girl's softball team, Jimmy discovers that their sponsor, Foy Harris (John Gallaudet), is a notorious racketeer who has supposedly gone straight. Jimmy suspects Foy is still up to no good. He begins hanging around the team to do a bit of snooping, and also to be near the cute new pitcher, Ann Casey (Jacqueline Wells).

Lights of New York

Eddie is conned into fronting a speakeasy for a local gangster who intends to frame him for the murder of a cop.

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 Stork Pays Off

Gangster Deak Foster and his three henchmen, Brains Moran, Ears-to-the-Ground Hinkle and Photofinish Farris, take over what they think is a night club run by a rival, Stud Rocco, only to discover it is a nursery run by Irene Perry. All fall under the benign influence to the point where the three henchmen go to night school to be educated and Deak falls in love with Julie.

The Trespasser

Stevie Carson, a newspaper reporter, and Danny Butler, the "morgue" manager on the same newspaper, set out to track down the killer of a colleague, a book-reviewer who was involved with a group of rare book forgers and whose sister has been convinced her editor-fiance, Bill Monroe, killed him.

Born Reckless

In order to use the publicity to get re-elected, a judge sentences a notorious gangster to fight in the war.

The Guilty Generation

The children of feuding gangsters fall in love and fight to escape their parents' notoriety.

Hot Pepper

In this comedy, a pair of ex-Marines team up and get involved in a nightclub. Trouble ensues when they both fall in love with a feisty woman and begin fighting over her.

Gang War

Saxophone player Clyde meets a woman named Flowers, and teaches her to dance. He later discovers that gangster boss "Blackjack" is also in love with her. "Blackjack" is also battling gang boss Mike Luego in a violent turf war.

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.

Partners in Crime

After being dismissed for imitating his boss's voice on radio, former Assistant District Attorney Richard Deming witnesses a store robbery and is taken captive by the criminals. Suspected of the crime, he is sought by the police, but his sweetheart, Marie, convinced of his innocence, enlists the help of two friends, a newspaper reporter and a half-witted detective. Hoping to win the girl's favor, the two go to the gangsters' hideout, encounter a violent gang war, and accidently set off a case of police tear bombs. The police, summoned by Marie, arrive just in time to save the kidnaped attorney.

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.

Smashing the Spy Ring

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

Secrets of a Nurse

This Universal programmer was based on a Collier's Magazine story by journalist Quentin Reynolds. This story in turn was ostensibly based on a true incident, in which a gangster "returned from the dead" to save an innocent young man from the electric chair. The nurse of the film's title is Katharine McDonald, who falls in love with her prizefighter-patient Lee Burke as he recovers from a beating received in a fixed prizefight. Katharine must fend off the advances of criminal attorney John Dodge, another patient who also loves her and becomes jealous of Lee. But when Lee is framed for the murder of his disgruntled manager, Slice, by a henchman of the fight-fix leader, Joe Largo, Dodge takes on his defense and works with Katherine to discover the real killer. Convicted and sentenced to death, Burke is about to walk the "last mile", as Katharine encourages mortally wounded Largo to a deathbed confession.

The Squealer

A gangster's wife, fearful that he is about to be murdered by his rivals, tips off the police to his whereabouts in order to save his life. Her husband, however, believes her reason was that she wanted him out of the way so she could have his best friend.

Dark Manhattan

A low-level gangster determines to let nothing stand in the way of his gaining control of the numbers rackets in Harlem.

Man Trouble

A hard-boiled nightclub owner saves a beautiful young girl from drowning. He promptly falls in love with her, but she prefers a younger, more-genteel lover.

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.

Down Three Dark Streets

An FBI Agent takes on the three unrelated cases of a dead agent to track down his killer.

The Master Key

Before the outbreak of WWII, Nazi sympathizers plot to undermine America.

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.

So You Won't Talk?

A shy book reviewer is confused with a notorious gangster who has just been release from prison.

Noose

Set in post Second World War Britain, Noose is the story of black market racketeers who face attempts to bring them to justice by an American fashion journalist, her ex-army fiancée and a gang of honest toughs from a local gym. When a corpse turns up at black market front The Blue Moon Club, Yank reporter Carole Landis starts snooping, much to gang boss Joseph Calleia’s annoyance. And soon there’s a hit man on the way...

I Was Framed

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

The Bride Wore Crutches

A cub reporter goes after his story in a big way when he single-handedly exposes a crime ring.

Headline Hunters

A rookie reporter in pursuit of an expose gets tangled up with big-time mobsters.

Girl on the Spot

Eleven Gilbert & Sullivan numbers are melded within the murder-mystery plot of "Girl on the Spot", with a result that either G&S and/or the plot are always seemingly on stage-wait or in the wings awaiting a cue. Lois Collier is the girl-on-the-spot of the title because she was on the scene of a murder. The police conclude she didn't do it and they use her to set a trap for the real killer, a G&S addict, by financing a Broadway production starring Collier.

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.

Midnight Morals

A rookie cop falls for a "taxi dancer" in a dance hall, but his father has strong objections to the relationship.

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 System

A gambling boss is pressured by the law and press when a crusade is started against him after one of his collectors becomes a killer.

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.

Bullet Scars

Dr. Steven Bishop is taken to the hideout of Frank Dillon and his gang to treat the wounded Joe Madison. Joe's nurse sister Nora Madison is also taken. Dillon tells Bishop that if Joe dies, he will be killed, but Bishop knows he will be either way. Joe dies, but Nora and Steve conceal it from Dillon and send a plea for help in a prescription that Bishop writes in Latin.

The Last Parade

During the war two friends love the same nurse. After the war one becomes a detective, the other a racketeer.

The Mind Reader

Chandler, a con-man, and his helper Frank decide to create a clairvoyant act for the carny circuit, as a little research reveals Ameicans spent $125 million on mind-readers and astrology. The carny, renamed Chandra, falls for one of his marks, Sylvia, but their love is tested when he brings tragedy to other peoples' lives and she asks him to go straight.

The Headline Woman

When the daughter of a newspaper publisher is falsely charged with murder, a reporter on her father's paper goes into hiding with her. At first hoping to get an exclusive story, the reporter eventually finds himself falling in love and trying to find the real killer.

I Cheated the Law

An attorney (Tom Conway) learns he was duped into being his gangster murder client's (Steve Brodie) alibi.

Good Intentions

When love came the way of this gentleman crook he turned to the right---only to be caught in the swirling eddy of his criminal past! (original ad)

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.

This Day and Age

A modern-day tale of gangsterism and revenge. After a notorious mobster murders a Jewish tailor and is let off for the crime, a band of outraged high-school students turns into vigilante crusaders hell-bent on punishing the wrongdoers. Memorable pre-Code moment: the students torturing a gangster by dangling him over a pit filled with rats.

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