Best Crime Movies of 1927

Boisterous gangster kingpin Bull Weed rehabilitates his former lawyer from his alcoholic haze, but complications arise when he falls for Weed's girlfriend.

Mabel plays an out-and-out crook, a "Girl Bandit," no less. And she quickly hooks up with a male partner in crime, in this case a Gentleman Crook played by perpetually grinning Creighton Hale. Mabel seems a little livelier in this film than in some of her other late works. In the very first scene we find her hitch-hiking, and she's forced to make a mad dash for cover when Hale's car nearly hits her. Soon they team up and crash a swanky party in a mansion to steal a jewel from the host's safe.

Can Neil Hamilton, the first flying policeman on the force, save his dad from stop-at-nothing jewel thieves?

Just out of jail and vowing to go straight, former jewel thief Boston Blackie, undertakes the reformation of a pretty blonde who has stolen a necklace from a cabaret dancer. He learns that the jewel belongs to the mother of the blonde girl, and the blonde's philandering father gave it as a gift to the cabaret girl. Now, Blackie must find a way to return the necklace to the owner's safe without arousing the suspicions of the girl's family.

Cock Robin is the swaggering ballyhoo man of a Hungarian sideshow known as the Palace of Illusions. The highlight of the show is a reenactment of Salome's dance of the seven veils, replete with the beheading of Jokanaan. The performer portraying Salome is in love with Cock Robin. Jealous, sinister The Greek is determined to eliminate that competition.

Based on a true story, two-timing boozing wife Roxie Hart kills her lover in cold blood after he leaves her, and finagles her way out being indicted. The basis for Kander/Ebb's 1975 Broadway musical of the same name and its Oscar-winning 2002 film adaptation.

A convict, wrongfully accused and sent a harsh prison colony, attempts to escape.

Hard-boiled underworld melodrama, with gang wars and gunfights, in which criminal lawyer turns prosecutor to avenge a friend's death.

The plot is motivated by a pearl necklace, which has caused the death and/or ruination of all its owners. The second screen appearance of detective Charlie Chan

A gang of inept crooks and even more inept lawmen search for a cache of hidden money.

In Spain, a band of gypsies poach the deer in a neighboring estate. The gypsy chief, Tser (Harold Truesdale), is murdered in cold blood, and the estate owner Winston Graham (Jack Holt) is blamed. The chief's daughter Mona (Dorothy Revier) is an expert knife-thrower and sets out to avenge her father.

Veteran serial director George B. Seitz keeps things perpetually on the move in The Great Mail Robbery. Theodore von Eltz stars as Marine lieutenant Donald Macready, assigned by his commanding officer to squelch a train-robbery gang. Going undercover, Macready infiltrates the gang and monitors their every move.

An undercover agent tracks a gang of drug smugglers to their headquarters in Mexico, a nightclub, where he manages to get a job as a bouncer. There he meets and falls for a pretty young woman, whose father happens to be the man the agent suspects of heading the gang.

Secret Service agent Jerry Blaine is hot on the trail of a gang of jewel thieves, Jerry briefly poses as a crook himself to gain the gang's confidence.

Michael Donovan, a heavy loser at a gambling casino, confronts its owner with evidence of cheating and finds himself accused of murder, on circumstantial evidence, of the owner's murder.

The Girl From Chicago

Helen Wayne and Archie Crossley, two clever pickpockets, rob J. Hamilton Smith, a well-known metropolitan banker, and he is later recognized by one of their gang as a former prisonmate; they demand a price for their silence, and he is forced to accede.

Let-It-Rain Riley (MacLean) is a devil-may-care Marine sergeant who falls in love with a girl (Shirley Mason) who he assumes to be rich. His rival for the girl's affection is his pal, Kelly (Wade Boteler). The guys find out that the object of their affections is but a modest switchboard operator but she proves to be invaluable when she deciphers a code and discovers that a mail train is about to be robbed.

Nan Carey ( Betty Compson ), a shoplifter, is caught by the police but acquitted through the influence of Lazare ( Lucien Littlefield ), a crooked lawyer, who places her with a gang of crooks. Posing as the Brockton family, they move to a seaside home, where they plan to steal the jewel collection of the Palmers, their neighbours. Nan wins the confidence of the family by flirting with Tom ( Kenneth Harlan ), who becomes infatuated and wants to go away with her, but she refuses him. Tom is caught red-handed in the Brockton mansion attempting to steal their jewels while Nan is making a success of the Palmer robbery.