Best Crime Movies of 1933

Prohibition is ending so bootlegger Bugs Ahearn decides to crack California society. He leases a house from down-on-her-luck Ruth and hires her as social secretary. He rescues Polly Cass from a horsefall and goes home to meet her dad who sells him some phony stock certificates. When he learns about this he sends to Chicago for mob help.

Members of a teenage gang are sent to the State Reformatory, presided over by the callous Thompson. Soon Patsy Gargan, a former gangster appointed Deputy Commissioner, arrives and takes over the administration to run the place on radical principles. Thompson needs a quick way to discredit him.

An ex-gangster tries to resist his old cohorts' criminal activities after he accidentally becomes a movie star.

A young woman is on trial for murder. In flashback, we learn of her struggles to overcome poverty as a teenager -- a mistaken arrest and prison term for shoplifting and lack of employment lead to involvement with gangsters. In a brothel, she meets a young lawyer, scion of a wealthy and prestigious family, who falls for her and helps her turn around her life. But her past catches up with her, and she must face the music rather than cause him scandal.

The coquettish granddaughter of a respected small-town judge is stranded at a bootleggers’ hide-out, subjected to an act of nightmarish sexual violence, and plunged into a criminal underworld that threatens to swallow her up completely.

Gertie Waxted knows how notorious gangster Jim Crelliman runs his rackets, because she's long been under the hoodlum's thumb. She's secretly helping lawyer Jackson Durant in a snoop job aimed at pinning a murder on the thug. Her life will be in peril when that secret gets out.

Philo Vance, accompanied by his prize-losing Scottish terrier, investigates the locked-room murder of a prominent and much-hated collector whose broken Chinese vase provides an important clue.

New York singer and nightclub owner Lady Lou has more men friends than you can imagine. One of them is a vicious criminal who’s escaped and is on the way to see “his” girl, not realising she hasn’t exactly been faithful in his absence. Help is at hand in the form of young Captain Cummings, a local temperance league leader.

A moll, imprisoned after participating in a bank robbery, helps with a breakout plot.

Dr. Gorman is a millionaire adventurer, traveling the world in search of dangerous game. His bored, beautiful, much younger wife entertains herself in the arms of other men. In turn, Gorman uses his animals to kill these men. When a New York City zoo suggests a fundraising gala, Gorman sees a prime opportunity to dispatch the dashing Roger and anyone else who might cross him.

Butch Saunders has been transferred to Missing Persons because he was too brutal in other police work...

The title refers to the business of affable, ambitious bail bondsman (and politically-connected grifter) Bill Bailey, who, in the course of his work, crosses paths with every kind of offender there is, from first-time defendants to career criminals.

A prizefighter is convicted of a murder that was actually committed by his sister.

In London, a secret society led by lawyer Thaddeus Merrydew collects the assets of any of its deceased members and divides them among the remaining members. Society members start dropping like flies. Sherlock Holmes is approached by member James Murphy's widow, who is miffed at being left penniless by her husband. When Captain Pyke is shot, Holmes keys in on his mysterious Chinese widow as well as the shady Merrydew. Other members keep dying: Malcom Dearing first, then Mr. Baker. There is also an attempt on the life of young Eileen Forrester, who became a reluctant society member upon the death of her father. Holmes' uncanny observations and insights are put to the test.

An almost-retired jewel thief plans to marry Helen, his partner in crime. Their plans are shattered when Bascom, a gang member, arrives with a stolen necklace, putting their whole gang at risk.

Santa Fe Stuart, leading a relief train bringing food to the peasants, gets caught up in the Commandante and his brother the Mayor's effort to starve out the peasants. Thrown in jail and about to be hung, he escapes and joins the peasants in their fight against the brothers and their troops...

In this murder mystery, Vicar Casson looks into the poisoning of a wealthy man. He soon finds that the man they convicted, the fiance of the rich man's niece, was innocent.

A Depression-downtrodden waif uses her brains instead of her body to rise from tyro con artist to crime boss.

A former government agent in France, who has failed at an assignment and been disavowed, is deported back to the USA, where he can only find work at a low-rent detective agency. He soon gets involved with a woman with ties to a crooked gambling club owner, who is a client of his agency.

Kay and June, two showgirls, are hurt when they seek financial help from Daisy. On Daisy's wedding night when she is rendered missing, Kay and June decide to look for her to claim the reward.

A man is convicted of killing his boss, whom he suspected of having an affair with his wife. On board the train taking him to prison for his execution are a reporter, who is dying of lung cancer and wants to interview the condemned man--and who also has some inside knowledge of the circumstances of the man's case. Also aboard is the prisoner's wife, who doesn't believe her husband is a killer and desperately wants to talk to him about it but he refuses to speak to her.

While a houseguest at an upper-class gathering, wealthy Jew Ferdinand de Levis is robbed of £1,000 with evidence pointing towards the guilt of another guest, Captain Dancy. Instead of supporting De Levis, the host attempts to hush the matter up and when this fails, he sides with Dancy and subtly tries to destroy de Levis' reputation. When Dancy is later exposed, and commits suicide, de Levis is blamed for his demise.

Nora Moran, a young woman with a difficult and tragic past, is sentenced to die for a murder that she did not commit. She could easily reveal the truth and save her own life, if only it would not damage the lives, careers and reputations of those whom she loves.

A doctor who is also a “mentalist” confesses to a murder. The only problem is that the murder he’s confessed to hasn’t happened yet – although dead bodies are now starting to turn up all over the place. A reporter sets out to solve the “mystery”.

A mystery writer and his sweetheart are held hostage by a fugitive gangster, who hopes to enlist their help in devising the perfect crime.

People in an old, dark mansion are menaced by a maniac called "The Black Ace.

An ex-sailor turned boxer finds romance and gets a shot at the heavyweight title.

Four survivors of a ship wreck are stranded on a deserted island, including a woman and the man she believes is responsible for the murder which her brother is in prison for.

A young lawyer is elected mayor of the city and promises to rid it of the corruption it's famous for. The problem is that most of the corruption he's vowed to eliminate is caused by the crooked political machine that helped elect him.

A handsome radio singer has it all--fame, money, adoring fans--but what no one knows is that his accompanist, a hunchbacked piano player, is actually the voice behind the arrogant, abusive "singer"'s fame. The two men fall for the same girl, and when the singer turns up dead, suspicion falls upon his assistant and the girl.

Inspector Darrow investigates the death of a wealthy man.

A detective tries to figure out who killed a man who predicted his own death.

The constant battling over the same woman gets two detectives demoted to what's considered the toughest job in the Police Department--the Riot Squad.

A night of love, intrigue, death and blackmail leaves stage-star Elise Manning's fate at stake in a conflict with the unscrupulous Doctor Gruell. A rejected lover dies in Miss Manning's apartment, and Gurell implies that the death was murder and attempts to blackmail the actress. The climax brings the actress, her fiancé and the dead-man's wife face-to-face in an emotional denouement.

A district attorney and a reporter try to find the killer of a D.A. who uncovered a massive stock fraud.

Gangsters try to get a boxer to throw an important fight.

Police Car 17 is one of a handful of non-westerns made for Columbia by cowboy star Tim McCoy. Motor patrolman Tim Conlon (McCoy) and his partner Bumps O'Neill (Ward Bond) vie for the attentions of Helen Regan (Evalyn Knapp), daughter of a fellow cop. Our hero not only wins Helen but also the undying admiration of his fellow lawmen through a series of incredible acts of heroism. All things considered, Police Car 17 is a western in modern dress. All that's missing is the final shootout at High Noon, but this is neatly compensated for by a climactic fistic battle in an abandoned garage.

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.

In the late 1800s, a man is sentenced to life at hard labor for killing his wife and her lover.

An ex-convict working for a wealthy oil baron uncovers trouble while his brother becomes involved with the boss's daughter.

As the opening scroll tells us, Narcotic was "presented in the hope that the public may become aware of the terrific struggle to rid the world of drug addiction." The movie itself is a salacious plunge into a world of sordid pleasures. It tells us the story of Dr. William G. Davies, an infamous snake-oil salesman who started his career as a promising medical student.

This drama centers on the fight for certain post-Prohibitionist groups to gain total control over the liquor industry. Much of the tale is focused upon a family endeavoring to keep their little brewery.

A New York City boarding house for vaudeville performers, none of whom have any steady work....

A compulsive gambler, thought to have been killed in an automobile crash, reappears when his wife remarries.

A freelance stenographer is hired for a job, but when she arrives at the address she was given, she finds that a murder has taken place there--and she is arrested for it.

Money isn't everything. Tycoon races against time to cross the English Channel in order to save a business deal, but along the way his whole value system is thrown into turmoil.

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.

The murders are committed in swift succession on board a liner crossing the Atlantic in a dense fog, and many of the passengers come under suspicion before the actual killer is bought to justice with the aid of a very substantial "ghost."

If it wasn't British, this would be in the Forgotten Horrors book. Hugh (Inspector Holt in HUMAN MONSTER) has some valuable jewels stolen. They're hidden in the back of an old clock in an antique shop. When the thieves return for them, the clock has been sold! They trace it to a creepy country estate. When Hugh and the niece of one of the crooks also show up, things get hairy.