Best Crime Movies of 1932

Thief Gaston Monescu and pickpocket Lily are partners in crime and love. Working for perfume company executive Mariette Colet, the two crooks decide to combine their criminal talents to rob their employer. Under the alias of Monsieur Laval, Gaston uses his position as Mariette's personal secretary to become closer to her. However, he takes things too far when he actually falls in love with Mariette, and has to choose between her and Lily.

In 1920s Chicago, Italian immigrant and notorious thug, Antonio "Tony" Camonte, shoots his way to the top of the mobs while trying to protect his sister from the criminal life.

Socially-conscious banker Thomas Dickson faces a crisis when his protégé is wrongly accused of robbing the bank, gossip of the robbery starts a bank run, and evidence suggests Dickson's wife had an affair... all in the same day.

A gentleman thief charms a Viennese baron's wife and also conducts a daring daylight robbery of a jeweller's shop.

Although Vivian Revere is seemingly the most successful of a trio of reunited schoolmates, she throws it away by descending into a life of debauchery and drugs.

A condemned murderer, in the process of being executed, relives the events that led to his being sentenced to die in the electric chair. Told in flashback, we witness a sleazy dancehall girl (Vivienne Osborne) dupe a high rise riveter (Edward G. Robinson) into marriage so she can live off of him. But when he loses his job and his marbles, she ends up supporting him with money from her side man--and misses no opportunity to rub it in Robinson's face that she's now supporting him in his emasculated state. As the animosity grows and things get more and more unbearable for Robinson, he is eventually driven to desperate measures.

Brash hoodlum Tom Connors enters Sing Sing cocksure of himself and disrespectful toward authority, but his tough but compassionate warden changes him.

Police Chief Jim Fitzpatrick is after gangster Sam Belmonte. He uses his corrupt brother Ed to watch over Daisy who was associated with Belmonte.

A wisecracking New York reporter intrudes on a research scientist's quest to unmask The Moon Killer.

A corrupt night court judge tears an innocent young family apart in his efforts to elude a special prosecutor.

A gang of thieves gather at a safe house following a robbery, but a detective is on their trail.

A New York policeman helps a hungry and penniless young woman start life anew by arranging to get her a job in "The Follies".

A man tries to hide aboard a moving train after murdering a jewelry magnate.

Given a second chance after her arrest for prostitution, Mae decides to go straight. Mae is soon befriended by kindly cab driver Jimmy Doyle who gets her work at a diner, where she meets Gert, another former prostitute. Mae and Jimmy fall in love, marry and save to buy a small business. Gert then pleads for money from Mae, which results in her unwitting involvement in a crime. Believing Mae has lied and cheated him, Jimmy threatens to leave her.

When a movie actor is shot and killed during production, the true feelings about the actor begin to surface. As the studio heads worry about negative publicity, one of the writers tags along as the killing is investigated and clues begin to surface.

A prison-camp convict learns that his younger brother will soon be joining him behind bars.

Society matron Mrs. Livingston Baldwin Crane is selected as a juror in the trial of former chorus girl Yvette Gordon, who's accused of murdering her rich older husband. In court and during deliberations, Mrs. Crane proves to be a disruptive and unorthodox juror.

Bank clerk William Marble is desperate for money to pay his family's bills. When his wealthy nephew visits, Marble asks him for a loan, but the young man refuses. Marble decides to kill his nephew. It is a twisted path to justice after Marble is transformed by the crime he committed and the wealth he gains.

Five men have to prove their innocence when a blackmailer is murdered.

A parody of gangland thrillers, with children playing the parts of adults, opens with a heist. Little Geezer, a handsome and self-confident gangster, brings the loot to one of Big Shot's holes in the wall where the instructions are to divide it equally. Little Geezer takes a bigger share. Meanwhile, Big Shot is under pressure from Scarface Macaroni and his East Side gang; they're undercutting Big Shot with cheap beer. They kill one of his guys and wound Little Geezer. Meanwhile, Geezer's fallen under the spell of a siren, Greta Garbage; love leads him to want to leave gang life. But, is there any way out? Will Big Shot let him leave?

A foreword warns against the peril of yellow journalism, and the story illustrates it by following events in the upstate New York town of Cornwall after prominant financier George Ferguson is killed. Two types of New York City journalists descend on Cornwall, one interested in facts, the other in getting sensational "news". Mrs. Ferguson is known to have been friendly with a local banker. The Fergusons quarrel the evening he is killed (by "burglars", his wife tells the police later), and she is arrested, spurred on by the "bad" journalists, who also manage to badger the banker's wife into the hospital. Meanwhile, young Bruce Foster runs the Cornwall Courier, and shows the big city reporters how to dig out real news while they attempt to subvert justice for their own ends.

A gossip columnist helps a Broadway ingenue who's beholden to a penthouse gangster.

A fast-talking reporter befriends a young woman and her male companion who are wanted for a policeman's shooting.

When he's forced to kill his best friend, a Chinese hit man adopts the man's daughter.

A burglar is recruited by the French Surete to help find his kidnapped girlfriend, who has been kidnapped by a deranged White Russian to impersonate the missing Princess Anastasia Romanoff while under his hypnotic spell.

A Secret Service agent nabs a scalpel-happy doctor who runs drugs in caskets.

Gabby Denton, a hard-drinking, down-on-his-luck drifter, seems to get a chance at redemption when his brother-in-law helps get him a job as a mechanic. Not realizing the garage he works for is actually a front for a stolen car ring, Gabby soon finds himself mixed up in both murder and a liaison with the boss's girl.

Mrs. Doray sits with a Juvenile Court Judge to learn more about problem children and what to do about them. One of the cases involves 13 year old Arthur, "the worst kid in town", who moves cars away from fiire-plugs without the knowledge of the owners. The judge gives Arthur and friend Nutty another chance. However they run into further trouble when they break into Mr. Doray's drugstore to get medicine for Nutty's grandmother. Mr. Doray is not sympathetic and completely against his wife's plan to become Arthur's guardian. More incidents occur with Mr. Doray quick to judge prior to getting all of the facts. Mrs. Doray must choose between her marriage and Arthur.

A reporter gets the best story of her life when she goes under cover to take down the head of a crime syndicate.

WBLA is on the air, presenting the live music, the sudsy dramas and the sell-sell-sell of commercial interludes that keep consumers buying and sponsors smiling. But one sponsor, a producer of plumbing supplies, isn’t happy. So WBLA scriptwriter Bill Grimes is bounced from his job, setting in motion this movie’s turn from comedic to darkly tragic. William Haines, two years removed from being Tinseltown’s top male star, plays Grimes in a melodrama noted for its glimpses of live radio production and for a Depression-era ethos that includes peroxide cuties eager to land a job, a sugar daddy or both.

In their first comedy two-reeler of 1932, vivacious Thelma Todd and fluttery ZaSu Pitts learn that the royal seal of a foreign country has been stolen and promptly set out to catch it -- a sea lion.

A woman finds brief respite from the selfishness of her husband with a young doctor, and their mutual attraction is rekindled by a chance meeting at a concert.

An airliner makes a forced landing at night in the desert. The passengers and crew take refuge in a nearby deserted house. Soon some of the passengers are found murdered, and one of the passengers reveals himself to be a detective who was guarding one of the murdered passengers, who was carrying a bag of diamonds--which is now missing. The detective must find out which of the passengers is the killer.

Poster writes a gossip column for the Morning Gazette. He will write about anyone and everyone as long as he gets the credit. He gets most of his information from showgirl pal his gal, Peggy. Eventually Bill's reckless tattling gets him in deep trouble with friends and enemies, putting his career and life in jeopardy.

An elderly couple's lodger, a British musician (Ivor Novello), becomes the suspect in a series of killings.

The Wrecker wrecks trains on the L & R Railroad. One of his victims is Larry Baker's father. Baker wants to find the evildoer, among a host of suspects, but it will be difficult since the Wrecker can disguise himself to look like almost anyone

Moriarty is sentenced to death, and Sherlock Holmes prepares to retire to the country and marry his girl. But Moriarty has sworn that Holmes, Lt. Col. Gore-King of Scotland Yard, and his trial judge shall all be hanged too. When Moriarty escapes and proceeds to put his threat into operation, Holmes has to postpone his retirement.

When 'Gentleman' Burton boards the Capri his aura of mystery makes the crew curious about his origins and makes him especially attractive to the Captain's daughter. But he little realises the danger that is to unfold when the Captain conceals diamonds on board as a favour...

A group of amateur detectives sets out to expose The Crooked Circle, a secretive group of hooded occultists.

A young woman new to the big city gets a job as a man's companion. What she doesn't know is that the man is a notorious gangster.

A woman married to a defense lawyer leaves him when he refuses to stop defending criminals she believes are guilty.

Bank robbers and killers cause mayhem in a small western town.

A young woman turns to Holmes for protection when she's menaced by an escaped killer seeking missing treasure. However, when the woman is kidnapped, Holmes and Watson must penetrate the city's criminal underworld to find her.

Esther Clay, wife of District Attorney John Clay and mother of attorney Bob Clay, is having an affair with Jack Keene. Scorned by him Esther kills Jack. Bob comes to her defense and confesses to the shooting. The father prosecutes the son who receives a life imprisonment sentence. Jack Keene's butler Druggett knows the truth and blackmails Esther. Bob's girlfriend Peg Harper summons John Clay to the scene...

A motorcycle policeman's partner is deliberately run off the road and killed by a member of a syndicate that controls the gambling--and much of the justice system--in his town. When the killer is freed because of perjured testimony and the corrupt legal system, the dead officer's partner quits the force and vows to bring the killer to justice.

This is the story of a woman who kicks out her no-good second husband after he wastes all her money. Since gambling and drink had taken all her money, she decides to use the money from a windfall to open an illegal after hours night club and gambling parlor, in order to provide her two daughters with a high society education. Eventually she gets caught, and the daughters take over the night club and legitimize it. But the daughters have conflicts, and the no-good husband shows up to complicate matters.

Mad scientist works on a death ray in his mountain hideaway.

An undercover government agent on a case in Mississippi meets and falls in love with a beautiful young woman who's being menaced by a local crime boss.

When the skeleton of a young man is dug up in an alley, a mysterious Chinese merchant and his eccentric upstairs tenants come under suspicion. The team of Inspector Carr and Dr. Crabtree use the skull of the victim to solve the murder.