20 best movies like The Shanghai Gesture (1941)

List of the best movies like The Shanghai Gesture (1941): The Postman Always Rings Twice, Uncle John, Mildred Pierce, I Wake Up Screaming, A Bronx Tale, Palmetto, The Letter, Boomerang!, In a Lonely Place, Hollywoodland.

Tags: movies similar to The Shanghai Gesture (1941) - full list

Markimdb: 7.4
Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, crime, detective, film noir
CountryUSA
Duration01:53

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

Markimdb: 6.2
Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, crime, detective
CountryUSA
Duration02:03

Uncle John revolves around the struggle to keep a mysterious disappearance unsolved

Markimdb: 8
Genremelodrama, drama, crime, detective, film noir
CountryUSA
Duration01:51

After her unfaithful husband leaves her, Mildred Pierce proves she can become independent and successful. However winning the approval of her spoiled daughter proves a greater challenge.

Markimdb: 7.2
Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, crime, detective, film noir
CountryUSA
Duration01:22

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.

Markimdb: 7.8
Genremelodrama, drama, crime
CountryUSA
Duration02:01

Set in the Bronx during the tumultuous 1960s, an adolescent boy is torn between his honest, working-class father and a violent yet charismatic crime boss. Complicating matters is the youngster's growing attraction - forbidden in his neighborhood - for a beautiful black girl.

Markimdb: 6.1
Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, crime, detective
CountryGermany, USA
Duration02:02

A recently released ex-con gets involved in a fake kidnapping scheme that turns very real.

Markimdb: 7.6
Genremelodrama, drama, crime, detective, film noir
CountryUSA
Duration01:35

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

Markimdb: 7.2
Genremelodrama, drama, crime, film noir
CountryUSA
Duration01:28

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.

Markimdb: 7.9
Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, detective, film noir
CountryUSA
Duration01:34

An aspiring actress begins to suspect that her temperamental boyfriend is a murderer.

Markimdb: 6.5
Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, crime, detective, biography, history
CountryUSA, Canada
Duration02:06

The complicated life and controversial suicide of George Reeves is investigated by a fictional private detective who finds that there are reasons to suspect that Reeves may not have killed himself after all. The detective also finds that there is a little of George Reeves in himself, and maybe, each of us.

Markimdb: 7.5
Genredrama, crime, film noir, biography
CountryUSA
Duration02:00

Barbara Graham is a woman with dubious moral standards, often a guest in seedy bars. She has been sentenced for some petty crimes. Two men she knows murder an older woman. When they get caught they start to think that Barbara has helped the police arresting them. As a revenge they tell the police that Barbara is the murderer.

Markimdb: 7.4
Genremelodrama, drama, crime, history
CountryUnited Kingdom, Germany, USA
Duration02:14

Jean Valjean, a Frenchman imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a police officer named Javert. The pursuit consumes both men's lives, and soon Valjean finds himself in the midst of the student revolutions in France.

Markimdb: 7.6
Genrethriller, drama, crime, detective, film noir
CountryUSA
Duration01:35

Stroud, a crime magazine's crusading editor has to post-pone a vacation with his wife, again, when a glamorous blonde is murdered and he is assigned by his publishing boss Janoth to find the killer. As the investigation proceeds to its conclusion, Stroud must try to disrupt his ordinarily brilliant investigative team as they increasingly build evidence (albeit wrong) that he is the killer.

Markimdb: 7
Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, crime, film noir, music
CountryUSA
Duration01:55

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.

Markimdb: 6.8
Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, detective
CountryUSA
Duration02:07

In the 1950s, a Japanese-American fisherman is suspected of killing his neighbour at sea—and race is a factor in the trial. So is reporter, Ishmael.

Markimdb: 6.7
Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, crime
CountryUSA, United Kingdom, France
Duration01:48

The tale of two brothers with serious financial woes. When a third party proposes they turn to crime, things go bad and the two become enemies.

Markimdb: 6.8
Genredrama, crime, biography
CountryUSA
Duration02:29

New York gangster Ben 'Bugsy' Siegel takes a brief business trip to Los Angeles. A sharp-dressing womanizer with a foul temper, Siegel doesn't hesitate to kill or maim anyone crossing him. In L.A. the life, the movies, and most of all strong-willed Virginia Hill detain him while his family wait back home. Then a trip to a run-down gambling joint at a spot in the desert known as Las Vegas gives him his big idea.

Markimdb: 7.8
Genremelodrama, drama, crime, biography
CountryUSA, Canada
Duration01:52

The true story of Soldier’s Girl, which takes place in Fort Campbell, KY, tells the heart-wrenching story of the life and tragic death of soldier Barry Winchell. His love for Calpernia Addams, a beautiful transgendered nightclub performer was misunderstood by fellow soldiers and eventually leads to his brutal death.

Markimdb: 7.1
Genrethriller, drama, crime, detective, film noir
CountryUSA
Duration01:25

A sister and her disturbed twin are implicated in a murder and a police detective must figure out which one's the killer.

Markimdb: 6.4
Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, crime, film noir
CountryUSA
Duration01:29

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.

Markimdb: 6.5
Genreaction, thriller, melodrama, drama, adventure, crime, detective
CountryUSA
Duration01:45

When a plot against a prominent Middle Eastern politician is uncovered, David Pollock, a professor of ancient hieroglyphics at Oxford University, is recruited to help expose the scheme. Pollock must find information believed to be in hieroglyphic code and must also contend with a mysterious man called Beshraavi. Meanwhile, Beshraavi's lover, Yasmin Azir, seems willing to aid Pollock -- but is she really on his side?

Markimdb: 7.3
Genremelodrama, drama, crime
CountryFrance, Canada
Duration01:44

In a corrupt city, a small-time gangster and the estranged wife of a pot dealer find themselves thrown together in an escapade of love, money, drugs and danger.

Markimdb: 7.8
Genredrama, crime, detective, film noir
CountryUSA
Duration01:37

Two hit men walk into a diner asking for a man called "the Swede". When the killers find the Swede, he's expecting them and doesn't put up a fight. Since the Swede had a life insurance policy, an investigator, on a hunch, decides to look into the murder. As the Swede's past is laid bare, it comes to light that he was in love with a beautiful woman who may have lured him into pulling off a bank robbery overseen by another man.

Markimdb: 5.4
Genremelodrama, drama, crime, detective, film noir
CountryUSA

An orphan girl lives with apparently kind uncle who turns out to be a murderer.

Markimdb: 7.3
Genrethriller, drama, crime, detective, film noir
CountryUSA
Duration01:35

A man working for the War Crimes Commission suspects that an important Nazi official has folded himself into a quaint Connecticut town.

Markimdb: 6.9
Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, crime, detective, film noir
CountryUSA
Duration01:37

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

Markimdb: 7.5
Genrethriller, drama, crime, detective, film noir
CountryUSA
Duration01:27

A romantic drifter gets caught between a corrupt tycoon and his voluptuous wife.

Markimdb: 6.9
Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, crime, detective
CountryUSA
Duration01:22

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

Markimdb: 7.9
Genrethriller, comedy, drama, crime, detective
CountryUnited Kingdom, France, USA

Detective Inspector Richard Poole is transferred to Sainte Marie, an island in the Caribbean. Totally unsuited to the Caribbean way of life, Richard hates the sun, sea and sand and isn't used to the Sainte Marie style of policing. Working with the exotic Camille each week Richard investigates intricate and intriguing murders.

Markimdb: 6.4
Genrefantasy, melodrama, drama, crime, detective
CountryItaly, France, Luxembourg

In a little Sicilian village at the edge of a forest, Giuseppe, a boy of 13, vanishes. Luna, his classmate who loves him, refuses to accept his mysterious disappearance. She rebels against the silence and complicity that surround her, and to find him she descends into the dark world which has swallowed him up and which has a lake as its mysterious entrance.

Markimdb: 6
Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, crime, detective
CountryUSA

"Everlasting" is an award-winning thriller about a High School student who travels from Colorado to L.A. to find the truth behind the murder of his girlfriend.

Markimdb: 6.2
Genremelodrama, drama, crime, detective, history
CountryHungary

A murder mystery set in 1936 Budapest, just as Hungary was preparing to align itself with Hitler. A beautiful young girl is found dead and nobody wants to investigate—except Gordon, a crime reporter who has a gut feeling that things are not what they seem.

Markimdb: 6.3
Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, crime, detective
CountryUnited Kingdom, Kenya
Duration01:47

A millionaire past his prime and his young wife arrive in Kenya circa 1940 to find that the other affluent British expatriates are living large as the homefront gears up for war. They are busy swapping partners, doing drugs, and attending lavish parties and horse races. She begins a torrid affair with one of the bon vivants, and her husband finds out and confronts them. The husband and wife decide to break up peacefully, but the bon vivant is murdered and all the evidence points to the husband.

Markimdb: 8
Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, crime, film noir
CountryUSA
Duration01:37

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.

Markimdb: 6.7
Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, crime, detective, film noir
CountryUSA

A mystery writer becomes the prime suspect in a murder investigation when a publisher he last saw is found dead.

Markimdb: 6.7
Genrethriller, melodrama, crime, detective, film noir
CountryUSA
Duration01:34

A college student tries to get rich quick by wooing two wealthy sisters.

Markimdb: 6.1
Genrecomedy, melodrama, drama, musical, crime, detective
CountryUSA
Duration01:48

In 1939, WBN, a fourth radio network, is about to take to America's airwaves. As if the confusion of the premiere night wasn't enough, Penny Henderson, the owner's secretary, must deal with an unhappy sponsor, an overbearing boss and a soon-to-be ex-husband who desperately wants her back. As the broadcast begins, a mysterious voice breaks the broadcast and suddenly members of the cast turn up dead. It's up to her husband Roger, to find out whodunit as the police chase him through the halls of WBN.

Markimdb: 7.5
Genrethriller, drama, crime, detective, film noir
CountryUSA
Duration01:35

Gumshoe Philip Marlowe is hired by the oafish Moose Malloy to track down his former girlfriend. He's also hired to accompany an effeminate playboy buy back some jewels. When the exchange results in the playboy's murder, Marlowe can't leave the case alone, and soon discovers it's related to Malloy's. As he gets drawn deeper into a complex web of intrigue by a mysterious blonde, the detective finds his own life in increasing jeopardy.

Markimdb: 4.7
Genreaction, thriller, melodrama, crime, detective
CountryUSA

Jake is a driver for a seedy escort service operating out of 'The Naked Eye strip club', he's a street thug type who falls for a witty high-class escort named Sandy. Except one night Sandy is found murdered, the only clues left behind are cell phone calls made the night she died. To avenge Sandy's death Jake must risk everything and walk a bloody path to find her killer.

Markimdb: 6.6
Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, crime, film noir
CountryUSA
Duration01:36

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

Markimdb: 7.2
Genredrama, crime, detective, film noir
CountryUSA

A mystery woman is a murder suspect's only alibi for the night of his wife's death.

Markimdb: 7
Genremelodrama, crime, detective, film noir
CountryUSA
Duration01:38

An unemployed drifter, Eric Stanton wanders into a small California town and begins hanging around the local diner. While Eric falls for the lovely waitress Stella, he also begins romancing a quiet and well-to-do woman named June Mills. Since Stella isn't interested in Eric unless he has money, the lovelorn guy comes up with a scheme to win her over, and it involves June. Before long, murder works its way into this passionate love triangle.

Markimdb: 6.9
Genrethriller, drama, crime, detective, film noir
CountryUSA
Duration01:33

Concentration camp survivor Victoria Kowelska finds herself involved in mystery, greed, and murder when she assumes the identity of a dead friend in order to gain passage to America.

Markimdb: 5.8
Genremelodrama, drama, detective
CountryUSA, Canada
Duration01:31

Hoping to leave behind troubled days in the Baltimore city police department, Nate Burns journeys to Alaska, where he takes up a quiet life as a small-town sheriff and begins a romance with spirited bush pilot Meg Galligan). But when Meg's father turns up dead, Burns finds himself thrust into the limelight of a dangerous murder investigation.

Markimdb: 5.1
Genreaction, thriller, melodrama, drama, crime
CountryUSA, Mexico
Duration01:43

After witnessing her lover being murdered by his jealous wife, Angela seeks refuge in a church where she encounters a young priest named Michael, who gives her sanctuary. But the killing was not a simple act of passion, as the victim had ties to organized crime, and, surprisingly, so does Michael, whose father is a powerful don. When the priest finds himself falling in love with Angela, his religious vows and family ties are both severely tested.

Markimdb: 7.1
Genremelodrama, drama, crime
CountryUSA
Duration01:03

Mary, Vivian and Ruth are former schoolmates who do some catching up after a chance meeting. Of the three women, Vivian, who married successful lawyer Robert, seems to have the most glamorous life. Vivian really isn't satisfied though, and soon deserts Robert and her son for Mike, a mobster. Before long, Vivian is hooked on drugs, and Mike needs cash.

Markimdb: 6.6
Genrethriller, drama, crime, detective, film noir
CountryUSA
Duration01:38

A nightclub singer enlists her brother-in-law to track down her husband's killer.

Markimdb: 7.6
Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, film noir
CountryUSA
Duration01:50

A gambler discovers an old flame while in Argentina, but she's married to his new boss.

Markimdb: 6.6
Genredrama, adventure, crime, film noir
CountryUSA
Duration01:21

A man on the run in the Far East is mistaken for an undercover cop.

Markimdb: 8.3
Genremelodrama, drama, crime
CountryTaiwan
Duration03:57

A boy experiences first love, friendships and injustices growing up in 1960s Taiwan.




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