Best movies like City for Conquest

A story with all the fire and fury of its two great stars!

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like City for Conquest Starring James Cagney, Ann Sheridan, Frank Craven, Donald Crisp, and more. If you liked City for Conquest then you may also like: You're a Sweetheart, Unmarried, Radio City Revels, Jazz Heaven, Joe and Max 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.

The heartbreaking but hopeful tale of Danny Kenny and Peggy Nash, two sweethearts who meet and struggle through their impoverished lives in New York City. When Peggy, hoping for something better in life for both of them, breaks off her engagement to Danny, he sets out to be a championship boxer, while she becomes a dancer paired with a sleazy partner. Will tragedy reunite the former lovers?

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You're a Sweetheart

A Broadway producer is in a quandary when he discovers that the opening of his newest big production coincides with that of a major charity event. He despairs that the show will close after opening night until an ingenious writer suggests that he simply give the production snob-appeal by making the tickets nearly impossible to get by fabricating a story that they were all purchased by a flamboyant Texas oil baron who is totally besotted by the show's star.

Unmarried

Pals Pat Rogers and Slag Bailey try to collect a debt from Slag's recently deceased boxing promoter but wind up collecting his child, instead, and raising him as their own son.

Radio City Revels

A down-on-his-luck songwriter attempts to peddle musical compositions of a naive Arkansas hillbilly under his own name. Comedy.

Joe and Max

True story of boxers Joe Louis and Max Schmeling and their enduring friendship.

Killer's Kiss

The film revolves around Davey Gordon, a 29 year old welterweight New York boxer in the end of his career, and his relationship with a dancer and her violent employer.

Blue Skies

Jed Potter looks back on a love triangle conducted over the course of years and between musical numbers. Dancer Jed loves showgirl Mary, who loves compulsive nightclub-opener Johnny, who can't stay committed to anything in life for very long.

Carnegie Hall

A young Irishwoman comes to the United States to live and work with her mother as a cleaning lady at Carnegie Hall. She becomes attached to the place as the people she meets there gradually shape her life. The film also includes a variety of performances from some of the foremost musical artists of the times: conductors Bruno Walter & Leopold Stokowski, solists Arthur Rubinstein & Jascha Haifetz, singers Lily Pons & Jan Peerce and bandleader Vaughn Monroe among many others.

The Challenger

A legendary trainer comes out of retirement to help an underdog boxer fight his way to a better life.

The Champion

Walking along with his bulldog, Charlie finds a "good luck" horseshoe just as he passes a training camp advertising for a boxing partner "who can take a beating." After watching others lose, Charlie puts the horseshoe in his glove and wins. The trainer prepares Charlie to fight the world champion. A gambler wants Charlie to throw the fight. He and the trainer's daughter fall in love.

Joe Palooka in the Knockout

The third of the Monogram series based on Ham Fisher's "Joe Palooka" comic strip, opens with Knobby Walsh, the manager of Joe Palooka trying to talk his way out of a traffic citation, and the story leading to that point is told in flashback as narrated by Walsh. Heavyweight champion Joe, after knocking out an opponent who later died in his dressing room, feels responsible and threatens to give up boxing. But the dead fighter's fiance thinks he died as the result of a drug that was given to him by a gang of gamblers, who made a rich haul betting on Palooka. Joe, Knobby and the police unite to run down the gamblers, but not before Joe also is nearly murdered by the same means...a poisoned mouthpiece. Elyse Knox is along as Joe's sweetheart Anne Howe, although Anne and Joe had long been married in the comic strip.

Elvis: That's the Way It Is

On July 31, 1970, in Las Vegas, Nevada, Elvis Presley staged a triumphant return to the concert stage from which he had been absent for almost a decade. His series of concerts broke all box office records and completely reenergized the career of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

The Hammer

Approaching forty, Ferro is unsatisfied with his life as a construction worker and part-time boxing instructor in Los Angeles, CA. After a successful bout with a young pro boxer, Ferro decides to don the gloves one last time. The movie recounts his unlikely quest for Olympic gold.

Matilda

A small-time talent agent discovers an amazing boxing kangaroo and figures to use it as his stepping-stone into the big time.

Seymour: An Introduction

Ethan Hawke directs this intimate documentary portrait of classical pianist, composer, author, teacher and sage Seymour Bernstein.

Stage Door

The ups and downs in the lives and careers of a group of ambitious young actresses and show girls from disparate backgrounds brought together in a theatrical hostel. Centres particularly on the conflict and growing friendship between Terry Randall, a rich girl confident in her talent and ability to make it to the top on the stage, and Jean Maitland, a world weary and cynical trouper who has taken the hard knocks of the ruthless and over-populated world of the Broadway apprentice.

The Ring

A young Mexican/American learns about life both inside and out of the ring when he takes up boxing.

The Big Timer

Loud-mouth hamburger flipper, Cooky, thinks he can box. His big chance comes when everyone else quits the gym when it is inherited by a dame.

Chasing Rainbows

The road-show troupe of a top Broadway show go cross-country while taking the audience along on the on-stage scenes as well as what happens and is happening back stage of the production. The spectacular dancing ensembles and colorful costumes and pulchritude on-stage offers a contrasting background to the drabness of the backstage, where joy, sorrow, tragedies, deception, and romance are intertwined.

Curly Top

Wealthy Edward Morgan becomes charmed with a curly-haired orphan and her pretty older sister Mary and arranges to adopt both under the alias of "Mr. Jones". As he spends more time with them, he soon finds himself falling in love with Mary.

Southpaw

Billy "The Great" Hope, the reigning junior middleweight boxing champion, has an impressive career, a loving wife and daughter, and a lavish lifestyle. However, when tragedy strikes, Billy hits rock bottom, losing his family, his house and his manager. He soon finds an unlikely savior in Tick Willis, a former fighter who trains the city's toughest amateur boxers. With his future on the line, Hope fights to reclaim the trust of those he loves the most.

Lost Angel

Alpha's been raised along scientific principles, and will make Mike Regan a great human interest story for his paper. But when his interview prompts Alpha to run away from the institute and ask him to show her some magic, Mike gets more responsibility than he bargained for. Especially since another story of his, one involving gangsters, has also come home to roost.

Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser

A documentary film about the life of pianist and jazz great Thelonious Monk. Features live performances by Monk and his band, and interviews with friends and family about the offbeat genius.

Keep Punching

Henry Jackson, known as Little Dynamite, is a Golden Gloves champion, who agrees to turn professional when approached by fight manager Ed Watson, despite the opposition raised by his father and Fanny Singleton, his sweetheart.

Fighting Fools

The boys are working at the local boxing arena where their friend, Jimmy Higgins, is boxing. During a crooked match Jimmy is killed. The boys seek out his older brother, Johnny, a former boxer who gave up the sport rather than go crooked, and help train him to get back in the ring. They try to get him a shot at the title, and when they do the same crooked gangsters that were behind Jimmy's death try to get Johnny to take a dive.

Tough Kid

Skipper Murphy is serving as trainer and inspiration for his brother Red Murphy training for a world championship title bout. Trouble comes for the Murphys when Red runs up against a gambling syndicate and is put on the spot to throw the fight.

The Big Fight

Based on the David Belasco stage production of the Max Marcin play in which heavyweight-champion Jack Dempsey played the role of the fighter, Tiger: This "behind-the-scenes look of a heavyweight-championship fight" looks much like all of the other boxing films in which the Champ gets involved in a frame-up and is asked to take a dive.

They Never Come Back

Prizefighter Jimmy Nolan, facing an opportunity to get a championship fight, is knocked out when he sustains what is apparently a permanent injury to his arm. From there, Nolan's path leads downhill. He is drawn into a romance with a nightclub entertainer, then is framed on a theft charge by a jealous suitor. After his prison term, Nolan makes a spectacular comeback in a fight which proves his courage and integrity, while disproving the fallacy about the old sports adage that "they never come back."

Gas House Kids

The Gas House Kids tackle a gang of criminals in the hope of winning the reward and helping a returning war veteran make a life with his girl.

The Swellhead

A young fighter, Bill Hickey, achieves success through the help and support of his friends and, once he does, he gets a big case of 'swellhead.' And then he loses his friends, loses his girl-friend, loses his confidence and is all set-up to lose his title.

Winner Take All

Overworked boxer Jim goes to a health ranch in New Mexico to recover where he falls in love with Peggy and her sickly son. Once recovered, Jim leaves to return to the ring. Can their romance survive the distance?

The Irish in Us

A boxer and his policeman brother feud over a police captain's daughter.

The Fighting Heart

This film is the story of a small-town boy and girl. The hero, Denny Bolton, thrashes the town bully only to meet him later in the boxing ring in New York City. Ambition has swept him to Broadway, but the search for love brings him back to the Main Street of his home town.

Winner Take All

When a waiter makes a lucky hit and wins a benefit prizefight, gamblers rig some fights for him; but a reporter arranges for a real boxer to put him in his place.

Joe Louis: America's Hero Betrayed

An American story. Traces the career of Joe Louis (1914-1981) within the context of American racial consciousness: his difficulty getting big fights early in his career, the pride of African-Americans in his prowess, the shift of White sentiment toward Louis as Hitler came to power, Louis's patriotism during World War II, and the hounding of Louis by the IRS for the following 15 years. In his last years, he's a casino greeter, a drug user, and the occasional object of scorn for young Turks like Muhammad Ali. Appreciative comment comes from boxing scholars, Louis's son Joe Jr., friends, and icons like Maya Angelou, Dick Gregory, and Bill Cosby.

Bum Rap

Paul Colson is a New York cabdriver and struggling actor. When he learns that he has about three days left to live due to a rare blood disorder, he goes through all five stages of loss and grief in a darkly comedic way.

Sally in Our Alley

Sally, a girl of the tenements, is being raised by three bachelor foster-fathers, a pawnbroker, an organ-grinder and a peddler, and is very happy preparing their meals and keeping the house, while the old men bask in the attention she gives them. However, this happy home is broken up when Sally wealthy aunt appears on the scene and takes Sally back to her luxurious penthouse in order to give her the advantages of money and social position. But Sally's heart is back across the river with her plumber sweetheart, Jimmie Adams.

Sincerely Yours

He dazzled America for decades with his musical artistry. Now fans as well as those curious about this exciting entertainer’s unique appeal can relive the Liberace magic in his only starring film, Sincerely Yours. In a poignant story scripted by Irving Wallace, Liberace plays a concert pianist threatened by deafness. Plunged into despair, he finds escape from personal sorrow by secretly involving himself in the problems of strangers. Liberace touches the heart and delights the ear with sparkling renditions of 31 selections from Chopin to Chopsticks. Along the way he romances Joanne Dru and Dorothy Malone, trades barbs with old pro William Demarest and in a warmly humorous nightclub scene, pokes fun at his own image as the 1950s matinee idol of the little-old-lady set. From beginning to end, Sincerely Yours perfectly captures the charisma and sheer musicality of the legendary Mr. Showmanship.

Mothers Cry

Having raised four children alone, widow Mary Williams still manages to love her eldest son, vicious and sadistic Danny Williams, who has led a life of crime and now returns to inflict his insane behavior on the family household.

Disc Jockey

National DJs help a promoter make an unknown girl a star, to prove the power of radio over TV.

Two-Fisted Gentleman

Mickey, is a prizefighter whose bright career hits the skids when he comes under the guidance of Ginger, a female fight promoter, when he becomes involved with June Prentice and her high-society crowd.

Sweet and Low-Down

After their annual free concert at Chicago's Dearborn Settlement, Benny Goodman and his band are packing up to go to their next engagement when a kid steals Goodman's clarinet. Goodman and Popsie pursue him to a tenement flat where he has led them to hear his brother play the trombone. Shenanigans ensue following Goodman's offering the brother a job with the band.

Hollywood Stadium Mystery

A boxer is killed in the ring, and the only clue is a tune that a man was whistling.

On the Ropes

The story of three young boxers and their coach who is determined to guide them in a positive direction in and out of the ring.

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