Best movies like The Pay-Off
The final reward is DEATH!
A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like The Pay-Off Starring Lowell Sherman, Marian Nixon, Hugh Trevor, William Janney, and more. If you liked The Pay-Off then you may also like: The Voice of the City, Nobody's Fool, Risky Business, Roses Are Red, Kick In 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.
A thug robs a young engaged couple of their last few dollars. When the thug's gang boss hears of the robbery, he gives them back their money and takes them under his wing. The thug, resentful of the couple, plans to organize a mutiny against the gang's boss, but when he is killed in a botched robbery, the police focus their attention on the young couple.
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Nobody's Fool
A naive country boy goes to New York City, where he gets mixed up with real estate swindlers.
Risky Business
Radio commentator Dan Clifford takes desperate chances to save the life of a young girl who has been kidnapped.
Kick In
Chick Hewes is released from prison and finds work as an accountant. Two years later, Chick's crooked friend, Benny LaMarr, to whom he is indebted for past kindnesses, steals a diamond necklace from the home safe of the district attorney. When the district attorney threatens to accuse the police of inefficiency in crime fighting, Garvey, who is campaigning for the office of police commissioner, promises to catch the thief in twenty-four hours.
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.
Baby Take a Bow
Eddie Ellison is an ex-con who spent time in Sing-Sing prison. Kay marries him as soon as he serves his time. Five years later, Eddie and his ex-convict buddy Larry, have both gone straight, and Eddie and Kay have a beautiful little girl named Shirley. However, Welch has kept a close eye on them for years. He believes in "once a criminal, always a criminal." Then, when Eddie's employer's wife's pearls go missing, it comes out that Eddie and Larry both spent time in prison, and they're fired. Welch suspects that Eddie and Larry have something to do with the theft of the pearls. Will Welch prove that Eddie and Larry had something to do with the theft, or will the truth prevail?
Undercover Girl
After her father is murdered, a girl joins the police force in an effort to track down the killers.
Secrets of the Lone Wolf
Michael Lanyard's faithful butler Jamison is mistaken for his boss by a gang of jewel robbers.
State Trooper
Mike Rolph quits his job, seemingly, as a highway patrolman and takes the position of the Police Chief of W. J. Brady's oil refinery. He is also romantically involved with Brady's daughter, June. It appears that some highly-placed employee has sold out to the opposition refinery people, and much sabotage and havoc is being caused.
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.
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.
Mississippi Gambler
A journalist finds out, that a plantation owner he meets is a gangster the police is looking for, who has changed his face with plastic surgery.
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.
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.
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?
Code of the Mounted
A thug robs and kills a fur trapper. He is caught and locked up by the Mounties, but is soon broken out by his partner. As the Mounties investigate, they discover that the two are part of a ruthless crime ring run by a female gangster.
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.
Me, Gangster
Told in the form of a diary, the story details the rise and fall of gangster boss Jimmy Williams.
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 Nurse from Brooklyn
A nurse's younger brother is caught in a shootout between a criminal gang and the police, and he is shot and killed. The officer who is accused of shooting the man knows that he didn't do it, and sets out to find the real killer and clear his own name.
The Racket Man
A gangster is drafted into the Army and, soon realizing how wrong his life of crime has been, agrees to help the FBI break up a black market ring by pretending to have been kicked out of service and to have resumed his old life of crime.
One Man Justice
Larry Clarke rides into the town of Mesa, Arizona, from Texas, where he has just sold his ranch. Several people call him "Ted Crockett",who supposedly has been dead for five years, and a bartender advises him to say he is Crockett, as he can aid the law abiding citizens that way. Both Red Grindy, leader of the town's badmen, and Sheriff Ben Adams are fooled by Larry's resemblence to Crockett, as is Crockett's young widow, Mary, until Larry convinces her his isn't. He finds that all of the Crockett cowhands, with the exception of Neal King, are systematically rustling Mary's cattle. Larry takes charge, sends to Texas for his riders and then brings to an end the reign of terror Grindy and his men have over the territory. Creased in the head by a gunshot, Larry is freed of his amnesia and turns out to actually be Ted Crockett.
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.
Silent Witness
District Attorney Holden and his special investigator Betty Higgins are trying to convict brothers Joe and Lou Manson, silk-racket hoods, after they are indicted for murder.
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.
Dark Manhattan
A low-level gangster determines to let nothing stand in the way of his gaining control of the numbers rackets in Harlem.
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.
Woman Trap
In Woman Trap, Hal Skelly is hard-bitten police sergeant Dan Malone, whose mission in life is to rid his community of gangsters. The revelation that Dan's own brother Ray is the secret head of all local criminal activities does not weaken Dan's resolve in the least. The barely relevant title is a reference to "heroine" Kitty Evans, the wife of a minor gang functionary. Screenwriter Joseph L. Mankiewicz, presumably on a dare, makes a brief appearance as a crime reporter.
Down Three Dark Streets
An FBI Agent takes on the three unrelated cases of a dead agent to track down his killer.
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.
No Living Witness
An assistant district attorney tries to stop his girlfriend's father from being swindled out of his money by a crooked lawyer in a racetrack scam.
Midnight Morals
A rookie cop falls for a "taxi dancer" in a dance hall, but his father has strong objections to the relationship.
The Last Ride
A police lieutenant is determined to bust the gang of crooks selling defective automobile tires.
Top Sergeant
An army sergeant recognises a young recruit as the man responsible for his brother's death, while attempting a robbery.
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 Last Parade
During the war two friends love the same nurse. After the war one becomes a detective, the other a racketeer.
The Girl from Chicago
Mary Carlton, who lives with her invalid father on a cotton plantation, receives a letter from Bob, her brother, in New York, stating that he faces death in the electric chair for a crime of which he claims to be innocent. Determined to save him, she goes there, learns of his association with an underworld gang, and begins to suspect Handsome Joe of a connection with the crime.
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.
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.
A thug robs a young engaged couple of their last few dollars. When the thug's gang boss hears of the robbery, he gives them back their money and takes them under his wing. The thug, resentful of the couple, plans to organize a mutiny against the gang's boss, but when he is killed in a botched robbery, the police focus their attention on the young couple.
A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like The Pay-Off Starring Lowell Sherman, Marian Nixon, Hugh Trevor, William Janney, and more. If you liked The Pay-Off then you may also like: The Voice of the City, Nobody's Fool, Risky Business, Roses Are Red, Kick In 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 Voice of the City
An escaped convict and the detective tasked with hunting him down end up working in parallel to clear the convict's name and nab the gangsters that framed him.