20 best movies like Crime School (1938)

Los Angeles, 1958: a detective holes up in a downtown hotel awaiting killers to come get him. During the course of one night he will meet various occupants of the hotel and the truth of how he came to be in his present situation will be revealed.

A duped bride joins a bookie in love and crime.

A neglected wife gets mixed up with an hypnotic charmer and murder.

A young promoter is accused of the murder of Vicky Lynn, a young actress he "discovered" as a waitress while out with ex-actor Robin Ray and gossip columnist Larry Evans.

A garage owner marries a much younger woman. Trouble begins when he becomes friends with a man who has his eyes on his former-showgirl wife.

Bart Tare is an ex-Army man who has a lifelong fixation with guns, he meets a kindred spirit in sharpshooter Annie Starr and goes to work at a carnival. After upsetting the carnival owner who lusts after Starr, they both get fired. Soon, on Starr's behest, they embark on a crime spree for cash.

Stigmatized from infancy by the fate of his criminal father, a man is bruised and bullied until one night, in a fit of rage, he kills his most persistent tormentor. As the police close in around him, he makes a desperate bid for the love of the dead man’s fiancée, a schoolteacher who sees the wounded soul behind his aggression.

Tells the story of one day in the lives of the various people who populate a police detective squad. An embittered cop, Det. Jim McLeod, leads a precinct of characters in their grim daily battle with the city's lowlife. The characters who pass through the precinct over the course of the day include a young petty embezzler, a pair of burglars, and a naive shoplifter.

George McAllister (John Carroll), the black sheep of a wealthy family who has squandered his share of the family inheritance, and lives in constant jealousy, hatred and resentment of his half-brother Barry (Robert Paige), who has been supporting him. George gets his girl friend, Carlotta Duval (Vera Ralston), a job as Barry's nurse with the plan of eventually marrying him. She does, but instead of going ahead with the original plan or getting rid of Barry, inheriting his money and marrying George, she finds that she is really in love with Barry.

Clarinettist Stan has a nightmare about killing a man in a mirrored room. But when he wakes up and finds blood marks on himself and a key from the dream, he suspects that it may have truly happened.

Davis and Rains shine in a romantic melodrama set in the world of concert music. Davis is a pianist torn between her wealthy, jealous patron and her cellist husband.

City police surround a building attempting to capture a suspected murder. The suspect knows there is no escape but refuses to give in.

In a quiet Connecticut town, a kindly priest is murdered while waiting at a street corner. The citizens are horrified and demand action from the police. All of the witnesses identify John Waldron, a nervous out-of-towner, as the killer. Although Waldron vehemently denies the crime, no one will believe him. District Attorney Henry Harvey is then put on the case and faces political opposition in his attempt to prove Waldron's innocence. Based on a true story.

Jury foreman Edward Weldon's questioning leads to the death sentence for Ethel Saxon. His daughter Stella claims to have killed her lover, the gangster Garboni, just as Saxon was to sit in the electric chair.

A sailor and his captain fight over a beautiful girl.

After several years of supporting parts, Victor McLaglen once more landed a leading role in Republic's City of Shadows. McLaglen plays Big Tim Channing, an ageing but powerful gangster who raises young newsboy Dan Mason as his own son. Upon reaching adulthood, Mason (John Baer) becomes a law student, with the covert (and illegal) help of Channing. Despite his checkered past, Mason opts for honesty when he falls in love with Fern Fellows (Kathleen Crowley). This decision ultimately spells the doom for Mason's mentor Big Tim.

The daughter of a Nevada casino owner gets involved with a racketeer, despite everyone's efforts to separate them.

Ex con turned private investigator Bradford Galt suspects someone is following him and maybe even trying to kill him. With the assistance of his spunky secretary, Kathleen Stewart, he dives deep into a mystery in search of answers.

Cold War yarn about a US State Department courier who tangles with Soviet agents and seductive women in post WW2 Europe.

Can a couple keep important secrets from Communist spies?

Jeff Bailey seems to be a mundane gas station owner in remote Bridgeport, CA. He is dating local girl Ann Miller and lives a quiet life. But Jeff has a secret past, and when a mysterious stranger arrives in town, Jeff is forced to return to the dark world he had tried to escape.

A man listens to his wife and fakes his own death so that she can get her hands on his insurance policy.

A gambling queen uses blackmail to stop a British financier from closing her Chinese clip joint.

When a businessman who has had a double indemnity policy taken out on him dies mysteriously, his insurance company sends an undercover investigator to town to determine exactly what happened.

A petty crook (Joseph Cotten) moves to an Ohio town and courts a factory owner's disabled daughter (Valli).

A convict is forced to participate in a prison break even though he only has a year left on his sentence.

After a woman shoots a man to death, a damning letter she wrote raises suspicions.

A blue-collar worker on New York's depressed waterfront finds his life changed after he saves a woman attempting suicide.

A married woman and a drifter fall in love, then plot to murder her husband.