Top 250 Movies Like Madigan

A list of the best movies similar to Madigan. If you liked Madigan then you may also like: Unlawful Entry, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Narc, The New Centurions, The Night of the Following Day and many more great movies featured on this list.

TV show

Madigan is an American crime drama series based on the 1968 film of the same name, starring Richard Widmark as Sgt. Dan Madigan. The show aired on NBC in 1972-73 as part of the NBC Mystery Movie umbrella series.

Unlawful Entry

After a break-in at their house, a couple gets help from one of the cops who answered their call. He helps them install a security system, begins dropping by on short notice and unofficial patrol angling to pry into the couple's problems with the wife. The husband begins wondering if they're getting too much help.

Wanted: Dead or Alive

Nick Randall is a Los Angeles-based bounty hunter and an ex-CIA operative who is asked by a former co-worker to help track down terrorist Malak Al Rahim. However, Malak Al Rahim is also looking for Randall, and Randall's employers tell him where to find him. This results in the death of his best friend, Sgt. Danny Quintz, and his girlfriend, Terry, eventually forcing a showdown on the waterfront.

Narc

When the trail goes cold on a murder investigation of a policeman, an undercover narcotics officer is lured back to the force to help solve the case.

The New Centurions

An idealistic rookie cop joins the LAPD to make ends meet while finishing law school, and is indoctrinated by a seasoned veteran. As time goes on, he loses his ambitions and family as police work becomes his entire life.

The Night of the Following Day

A gang of four professional criminals kidnaps a wealthy teenage girl from an airport in Paris in a meticulous plan to extort money from the girl's wealthy father. Holding her prisoner in an isolated beach house, the gang's scheme runs perfectly until their personal demons surface and lead to a series of betrayals.

Nightcrawler

When Lou Bloom, desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, he blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story. Aiding him in his effort is Nina, a TV-news veteran.

Q & A

A young district attorney seeking to prove a case against a corrupt police detective encounters a former lover and her new protector, a crime boss who refuses to help him.

The Racket

A renegade police captain sets out to catch a sadistic mob boss.

Road House

A night club owner becomes infatuated with a torch singer and frames his best friend/manager for embezzlement when the chanteuse falls in love with him.

Jesse Stone: Night Passage

In this prequel to 'Stone Cold,' LA cop, Jesse Stone relocates to a small town only to find himself immersed in one mystery after the other.

Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye

Ralph Cotter, a ruthless criminal, escapes violently from a farm prison. Then, he seduces a dead inmate’s sister, gets back quickly into the crime business, faces corrupt local cops who run the city’s underworld and meets a powerful tycoon’s whimsical daughter.

Across 110th Street

In a daring robbery, some $300,000 is taken from the Italian mob. Several mafiosi are killed, as are two policemen. Lt. Pope and Capt. Mattelli are two New York City cops trying to break the case. Three small-time criminals are on the run with the money. Will the mafia catch them first, or will the police?

Alex Cross

After Washington DC detective Alex Cross is told that a family member has been murdered, he vows to track down the killer. He soon discovers that she was not his first victim and that things are not what they seem.

Best Seller

Hit man Cleve approaches writer/cop Dennis about a story for his next book: How Cleve made a living, working for one of the most powerful politicians in the country. To get the story right, they travel around the country to gather statements and evidence, while strong forces use any means they can to keep the story untold.

The Black Dahlia

In 1940s Los Angeles, two former boxers-turned-cops must grapple with corruption, narcissism, stag films and family madness as they pursue the killer of an aspiring young actress.

Blood Father

An ex-con reunites with his estranged wayward 16-year old daughter to protect her from drug dealers who are trying to kill her.

Boiling Point

Red is an aging scam-artist who's just been released from prison together with Ronnie, a young and not-so-bright hoodlum who is easily manipulated. Their new business is to organize fake-money sales and then kill the buyer to take his money; but when Ronnie kills an undercover secret service agent, his partner Jimmy Mercer vows revenge and is given one week to catch the killers before being transferred. Written by Giancarlo Cairella

The Bone Collector

Rookie cop, Amelia Donaghy reluctantly teams with Lincoln Rhyme – formerly the department's top homicide detective but now paralyzed as a result of a spinal injury – to catch a grisly serial killer dubbed 'The Bone Collector'. The murderer's special signature is to leave tantalizing clues based on the grim remains of his crimes.

The Boondock Saints

Tired of the crime overrunning the streets of Boston, Irish Catholic twin brothers Conner and Murphy are inspired by their faith to cleanse their hometown of evil with their own brand of zealous vigilante justice. As they hunt down and kill one notorious gangster after another, they become controversial folk heroes in the community. But Paul Smecker, an eccentric FBI agent, is fast closing in on their blood-soaked trail.

Bullitt

Senator Walter Chalmers is aiming to take down mob boss Pete Ross with the help of testimony from the criminal's hothead brother Johnny, who is in protective custody in San Francisco under the watch of police lieutenant Frank Bullitt. When a pair of mob hitmen enter the scene, Bullitt follows their trail through a maze of complications and double-crosses. This thriller includes one of the most famous car chases ever filmed.

Mystic River

The lives of three men who were childhood friends are shattered when one of them suffers a family tragedy.

Cop

An obsessive, insubordinate homicide cop is convinced a serial killer is loose in the Hollywood area and disobeys orders in order to catch him.

Dirty Harry

When a madman dubbed 'Scorpio' terrorizes San Francisco, hard-nosed cop, Harry Callahan – famous for his take-no-prisoners approach to law enforcement – is tasked with hunting down the psychopath. Harry eventually collars Scorpio in the process of rescuing a kidnap victim, only to see him walk on technicalities. Now, the maverick detective is determined to nail the maniac himself.

Last Man Standing

John Smith is a mysterious stranger who is drawn into a vicious war between two Prohibition-era gangs. In a dangerous game, he switches allegiances from one to another, offering his services to the highest bidder. As the death toll mounts, Smith takes the law into his own hands in a deadly race to stay alive.

Hell or High Water

A divorced dad and his ex-con brother resort to a desperate scheme in order to save their family's farm in West Texas.

Spiral: From the Book of Saw

Working in the shadow of an esteemed police veteran, brash Detective Ezekiel “Zeke” Banks and his rookie partner take charge of a grisly investigation into murders that are eerily reminiscent of the city’s gruesome past. Unwittingly entrapped in a deepening mystery, Zeke finds himself at the center of the killer’s morbid game.

Truck Turner

Truck Turner and his partner Jerry, who make their living as bounty hunters in Los Angeles, are hired to hunt down Gator, a pimp who has skipped bail.

Shaft

Cool black private eye John Shaft is hired by a crime lord to find and retrieve his kidnapped daughter.

The Public Enemy

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 feels the heat from the cops and rival gangsters both. Despite his ruthless criminal reputation, Tom tries to remain connected to his family, however, gang warfare and the need for revenge eventually pull him away.

Sgt. Bilko

The US army is known for churning out lean mean fighting machines intent on protecting our great nation. Sergeant Ernie Bilko is the leader of a ragtag group of the sorriest soldiers ever to enlist in the armed forces.

Shanghai Surprise

Glendon Wasey is a fortune hunter looking for a fast track out of China. Gloria Tatlock is a missionary nurse seeking the curing powers of opium for her patients. Fate sets them on a hectic, exotic, and even romantic quest for stolen drugs. But they are up against every thug and smuggler in Shangai.

Diary of a Hitman

A veteran hitman, Dekker is ready to call it quits and leave the profession. His final job, however, proves to be trickier than expected when a sadistic man recruits the assassin to kill his wife, Jain, and their baby, but he can’t bring himself to do the job, complicating all of their lives.

Pushover

A police detective falls for the bank robber's girlfriend he is supposed to be tailing.

Madigan

Policemen Bonaro and Madigan lose their guns to fugitive Barney Benesch. As compensation, the two NYC detectives are given a weekend to bring Benesch to justice. While Bonaro and Madigan follow up on various leads, Police Commissioner Russell goes about his duties, including attending functions, meeting with aggrieved relatives, and counseling the spouses of fallen officers.

Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D.

Harry Griswald is a NYPD cop who is possessed with the spirit of a great Kabuki master. This has made him 'the chosen one' to do battle with 'the evil one'. He is also out to do good deeds and fight crime in the name of the law. The only problem is that a number of corrupt people in the community and their henchmen want him dead so that they can gain power when 'the evil one' come to take over the world. Sgt. Kabukiman must use his special superpowers to outsmart and out-fight the bad guys.

Air Patrol

L.A. detective Sgt. Castle and his two partners investigate the theft of a valuable Fragonard painting by a thief who pilots a helicopter.

Destroyer

When Erin Bell was a young cop, she was given an undercover assignment that ended badly and destroyed her life. Years later, she must face her demons in order to make peace with her past.

The Spirit

Down these mean streets a man must come. A hero born, murdered, and born again. A Rookie cop named Denny Colt returns from the beyond as The Spirit, a hero whose mission is to fight against the bad forces from the shadows of Central City. The Octopus, who kills anyone unfortunate enough to see his face, has other plans; he is going to wipe out the entire city.

Gone Baby Gone

When 4 year old Amanda McCready disappears from her home and the police make little headway in solving the case, the girl's aunt, Beatrice McCready hires two private detectives, Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro. The detectives freely admit that they have little experience with this type of case, but the family wants them for two reasons—they're not cops and they know the tough neighborhood in which they all live.

The Weekend Away

When her best friend vanishes during a girls' trip to Croatia, Beth races to figure out what happened. But each clue yields another unsettling deception.

Lady in Cement

While diving for sunken treasure, street-smart gumshoe Tony Rome finds the body of a gorgeous blonde, her feet stuck in a block of cement. Soon after, tough guy Waldo Gronski hires him to find a missing woman named Sandra Lomax, and Rome wonders if there's a connection. He sets about trying to locate the woman, and in no time finds himself mixed up with a beautiful party girl and a slippery racketeer.

Training Day

On his first day on the job as a narcotics officer, a rookie cop works with a rogue detective who isn't what he appears.

Insomnia

Two Los Angeles homicide detectives are dispatched to a northern town where the sun doesn't set to investigate the methodical murder of a local teen.

Gorky Park

Police Inspector Renko tries to solve the case of three bodies found in Moscow's Gorky Park but finds his attempts to solve the crime impeded by his superiors. Working on his own, Renko seeks out more information and stumbles across a conspiracy involving the highest levels of the government.

The Friends of Eddie Coyle

An aging hood is about to go back to prison. Hoping to escape his fate, he supplies information on stolen guns to the feds, while simultaneously supplying arms to his bank robbing chums.

Extreme Prejudice

A Texas Ranger and a ruthless narcotics kingpin - they were childhood friends, now they are adversaries...

Down to the Sea in Ships

During a whaling expedition in the late 1800's, the aging Captain Bering Joy (Lionel Barrymore) and his new first mate, Dan Lunceford (Richard Widmark) engage in a battle of wills concerning the education of the captain's struggling grandson.

The Little Things

Deputy Sheriff Joe "Deke" Deacon joins forces with Sgt. Jim Baxter to search for a serial killer who's terrorizing Los Angeles. As they track the culprit, Baxter is unaware that the investigation is dredging up echoes of Deke's past, uncovering disturbing secrets that could threaten more than his case.

Shadows in an Empty Room

An Ottawa police captain searches for the person who poisoned his sister, who was attending the university in Montreal. So desperate is he for revenge that he begin to use his own brutal methods to find the killer. Soon he discovers that not everything is what he thought it was.

The Lost Man

A gang of black militants plots to rob a factory to finance their "revolutionary struggle."

One Man Force

In this action packed film, an L.A. cop speeds off to get revenge upon the dirty drug-dealing dogs who killed his partner

Internal Affairs

Keen young Raymold Avila joins the Internal Affairs Department of the Los Angeles police. He and partner Amy Wallace are soon looking closely at the activities of cop Dennis Peck whose financial holdings start to suggest something shady. Indeed Peck is involved in any number of dubious or downright criminal activities. He is also devious, a womaniser, and a clever manipulator, and he starts to turn his attention on Avila.

Tightrope

Wes Block is a detective who's put on the case of a serial killer. His victims are young and pretty women, which he rapes and murders. The murders are getting personal when the killer chooses victims who are acquaintances of Block. Even his daughters are threatened.

True Blue

Rembrandt Macy (Tom Berenger) is a maverick cop assigned to a case where the primary evidence is a woman's hand found in a pond. Investigators identify the dead, and Macy is lead into a young woman's past. Macy's primary path to understanding the victim is through one of her roommates, Nikki. Through Nikki and others, Macy learns of the victim's shady contacts at City Hall, the involvement of a gang of Asian drug runners, and the sordid affairs of one of the city's bigwigs. As Macy begins to understand how all these crimes fit together, he learns that his new friend Nikki is not an innocent bystander.

Laura

A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he’s investigating.

Madigan's Millions

When a deported gangster dies in Italy, the U.S. Treasury Department is very interested in the one million dollars Madigan owed the government, but managed to take to Italy with him. They send Agent Jason Phister over to Italy to nose out the million. His criteria for the job is that no one would ever guess he's an agent of the United States government.

The Mean Season

A routine investigation of a shocking murder takes a bizarre twist when the killer contacts the reporter and appoints him his personal spokesman. As the killer's calls and clues increase, the reporter is lured into a deadly trap.

Pinocchio

Pinocchio is a musical version of the story that aired in the United States on NBC, with pop star Peter Noone playing the puppet.

Pretty Poison

A young man gets in over his head when he convinces a small-town girl he's a secret agent.

Side Street

Three New York Irish brothers cross paths as policeman, doctor and bootlegger.

Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2

After being traumatized by his brother Billy's murderous rampage years earlier, Ricky Caldwell has become a serial killer himself and is now living in a mental hospital. Relating his story to a psychiatrist, Ricky recounts the details of their murder sprees and vows to avenge his brother's death.

The Super Cops

The true story of two New York City cops. Greenberg & Hantz fought the system, became detectives and were known on the streets as "Batman & Robin".

True Confessions

A cop clashes with his priest brother while investigating the brutal murder of a young prostitute.

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.

The Outsider

Darren McGavin is David Ross, a private investigator playing a game of follow the money. A simple case of embezzling turns bad quickly when bodies start dropping and the savvy P.I. is the primary suspect in an attractive woman's death. This NBC TV movie served as a pilot for the later series.

The Sell Out

This action drama centers on a former CIA operative who grudgingly rejoins the spy game due to the machinations of his one-time student - a screw up who goes to work for the Soviets. As his job drags him deeper into a dangerous and under-handed world, the student wants out of the agency and oout of the U.S.S.R. But the man's choices have made him a target and now both the United States and Russia want him dead, sending their mos able hit men to do it.

Charly

An experiment on a simpleton turns him into a genius. When he discovers what has been done to him he struggles with whether or not what was done to him was right.

The Mystery of Mr. X

A sophisticated jewel thief tries to prove himself innocent of a string of cop murders.

Irish and Proud of It

An Irish-born businessman based in London is kidnapped by colleagues as a joke and flown back to the small village of his birth. There he finds that American gangsters are forcing the local publicans to buy illegally-produced raw spirit with which to adulterate branded products.

The Trap

Lawyer Ralph Anderson arrives in Tula, an amazingly remote town in the desert, as reluctant emissary of mob chief Victor Massonetti, who wants the airstrip clear for his unofficial exit from the country. Ralph's arrival has a profound effect on his estranged father, the sheriff; his brother Tip, an alcoholic deputy; and his ex-sweetheart Linda, now married to Tip. Tension builds as a small army of gangsters takes over the town. Then the situation abruptly changes...

Hit List

A family man and a mob witness hunt for a hit-man who has mistakenly kidnapped the family man's son.

Lady in Waiting

A divorced cop investigating the sadistic murders of high-class prostitutes discovers that the prime suspect is his ex-wife's new boyfriend...

Fissure

Still reeling from a personal tragedy, Detective Paul Grunning is sent on a routine call to a local professor's home. When things turn deadly, he must navigate a fractured reality to solve the mystery before it's too late.

In Broad Daylight

A newly blind actor discovers his wife is cheating on him with his best friend and hatches a plot to murder her and frame his friend for it.

The Rosary Murders

A killer of Detroit clergy confesses to a priest, who turns sleuth because he cannot tell the police.

Payne & Redemption

The story of "Payne & Redemption" surrounds the psychological trauma endured by the film's main character, a weathered New York Detective, and his journey to seek redemption, after having to deal with a long line of traumatic incidents that have occurred in his recent life.

Impulse

Regularly working alone undercover with a vice squad boss she dislikes as much as he dislikes her, Lottie Mason is living pretty much on the edge. An assignment helping out the Assistant D.A. may be the start of a serious relationship but then, tired and disillusioned after a job one night, she finds herself accepting a proposition in a bar that leads rapidly into a web of murder and deceit.

Prescription: Murder

In Columbo's first outing, a psychiatrist uses a patient he is having an affair with to help him kill his wife, but his perfect alibi may come apart at the hands of a seemingly befuddled LAPD lieutenant.

Devlin

A troubled cop is framed in the murder of his brother-in-law, whose father is a political boss.

Fear No More

Accused of killing a woman on a train, Sharon Carlin runs home to find another corpse there too!

Al Capone

In this unusually accurate biography, small-time hood Al Capone comes to Chicago at the dawn of Prohibition to be the bodyguard of racketeer Johnny Torrio. Capone's rise in Chicago gangdom is followed through murder, extortion, and political fraud. He becomes head of Chicago's biggest "business," but moves inexorably toward his downfall and ignominious end.

The Crimson Kimono

A Los Angeles detective and his Japanese partner woo an artist while solving a stripper's murder.

A Bone to Pick: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery

A librarian with a sharp mind for murder, Aurora Teagarden is known around her small town as a master sleuth. When her friend Jane unexpectedly dies and leaves Aurora everything in her will, she also leaves a troubling murder mystery haunting her neighborhood. It is up to Aurora to piece together the clues—including a skull, its missing skeleton and a suspicious group of neighbors—and solve the murder before she becomes the unlikely killer’s next victim.

Dragnet

Also known as "Dragnet 1966," this TV movie was originally the pilot for the 1967 relaunch of the original 1950s "Dragnet" radio show and TV show (which also had it's own movie in 1954, from the same creative team). However, the pilot wasn't actually aired until 1969. In this feature-length entry, Sgt. Joe Friday is called back from vacation to work with his partner, Officer Bill Gannon, on a missing persons case. Two amateur female models and a young war widow have vanished, having been last seen with one J. Johnson. In the course of tracking down Johnson and the young ladies, the detectives wind up with two different descriptions of the suspect, one of which closely resembles a dead body found in a vacant lot. But the dead man, later identified as Charles LeBorg of France, proves not to be J. Johnson, when a third young model disappears.

Brock's Last Case

A New York City cop who has retired to a small Western town is drawn into the local case of an Indian who is accused of murdering a sheriff.

Swelter

Ten years after their casino heist, four escaped convicts trace their former partner to a desert town, where he is now a lawman with no memory of his criminal past.

Ironside

Citizens of San Francisco are stunned by the news that Robert Ironside, the city's hard-nosed, tough-talking chief of detectives, has been shot and left for dead while vacationing at his friend the Police Commissioner's rural retreat. Ironside survives the murder attempt, but the bullet has damaged nerves in his spine, leaving him a paraplegic. Unable to gain reinstatement as chief of detectives, Ironside gets permission to continue investigating criminal cases as a citizen volunteer. With the assistance of two former protegees, Det. Sgt. Ed Brown and Officer Eve Whitfield, and a newly-hired aide/driver, Mark Sanger, Ironside sets out to solve his first case as a civilian by finding the people responsible for the attempt on his life.

Sol Madrid

Government agent Sol Madrid travels to Mexico with hooker Stacey to bring mobster Villanova and drug kingpin Dietrich to justice.

Law and Order

Story follows three generations of a family in the New York City Police Department.

Prime Target

A homicide detective assigned to investigate the serial killings of New York policewomen begins to suspect that the serial killer might be a fellow police officer.

Aurora Teagarden Mysteries: Something New

Aurora Teagarden’s post-college days when she finds herself back home in Lawrenceton. While her mother, Aida, struggles to keep her newfound real estate business, Aurora supports herself by working as a teacher’s assistant in a crime fiction class, and waitresses at the local diner at night, where she shares her love of researching true crime with her friend Sally and police officer Arthur. When Sally’s fiancé doesn’t show up at their wedding rehearsal, Maid of Honor Aurora gets Arthur to help her search for him. When they discover a body, everyone assumes it is Sally’s tardy groom, but when it turns out to be someone else, Sally’s fiancé becomes the main suspect.

Directed by Alan Smithee

This documentary on the elusive director Alan Smithee was first shown on the American Movie Classics (AMC) cable channel. We learn where the name came from and why the Directors Guild of America (DGA) first allowed his name to be used on Richard Widmark's western Death of a Gunfighter. The film follows the numerous problems that director Tony Kaye had during the production and post-production of the film American History X and why the DGA refused to allow Alan Smithee to be credited for that film.

Travis McGee

Travis McGee is a world-weary private eye trying to help boat skipper friend Van Harder salvage his reputation that sank when his boat ran aground, resulting in a death that might have been faked.

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