My Top 25 Gangster Movies of All Time
by The_BDC | created - 4 weeks ago | updated - 4 weeks ago | PublicThese are my Top 25 Gangster Movies of All Time in no particular order
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1. White Heat (1949)
Not Rated | 114 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A psychopathic criminal with a mother complex makes a daring break from prison and leads his old gang in a chemical plant payroll heist.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien, Margaret Wycherly
Votes: 35,739
2. Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
Passed | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A priest tries to stop a gangster from corrupting a group of street kids.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan
Votes: 23,198
3. The Big Sleep (1946)
Passed | 114 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by a wealthy family. Before the complex case is over, he's seen murder, blackmail and what might be love.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely, Martha Vickers
Votes: 90,506 | Gross: $6.54M
4. Kiss of Death (1947)
Approved | 99 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A crook arrested for a jewelry heist initially refuses to give up his accomplices, but he changes his mind once his wife dies under worrying circumstances.
Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: Victor Mature, Brian Donlevy, Coleen Gray, Richard Widmark
Votes: 9,567
5. They Made Me a Criminal (1939)
Approved | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A champion boxer on the lamb, believed to have committed murder while drunk, takes refuge and finds redemption at a farm for delinquent youths.
Director: Busby Berkeley | Stars: John Garfield, Claude Rains, The Dead End Kids, Ann Sheridan
Votes: 2,590
6. East of the River (1940)
Passed | 74 min | Crime, Drama
Two troublesome boys grow into very different men, one becoming a hoodlum and the other embracing college, but both are in love with the same girl.
Director: Alfred E. Green | Stars: John Garfield, Brenda Marshall, Marjorie Rambeau, George Tobias
Votes: 473
7. Out of the Fog (1941)
Passed | 85 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A Brooklyn pier racketeer bullies boat-owners into paying protection money but two fed-up fishermen decide to eliminate the gangster themselves rather than complain to the police.
Director: Anatole Litvak | Stars: Ida Lupino, John Garfield, Thomas Mitchell, Eddie Albert
Votes: 2,263
8. The Public Enemy (1931)
Passed | 83 min | Crime, Drama
An Irish-American street punk tries to make it big in the world of organized crime.
Director: William A. Wellman | Stars: James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Edward Woods, Joan Blondell
Votes: 23,015 | Gross: $1.01M
9. The Mayor of Hell (1933)
Passed | 90 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
Five members of a teen-age gang, including leader Jimmy Smith, are sent to the state reformatory, presided over by the melodramatically callous Thompson. Soon, Patsy Gargan, a former ... See full summary »
Directors: Archie Mayo, Michael Curtiz | Stars: James Cagney, Madge Evans, Arthur Byron, Allen Jenkins
Votes: 1,842
10. The Roaring Twenties (1939)
Passed | 106 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Three men attempt to make a living in Prohibitionist America after returning home from fighting together in World War I.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Priscilla Lane, Gladys George
Votes: 15,517
11. East of the River (1940)
Passed | 74 min | Crime, Drama
Two troublesome boys grow into very different men, one becoming a hoodlum and the other embracing college, but both are in love with the same girl.
Director: Alfred E. Green | Stars: John Garfield, Brenda Marshall, Marjorie Rambeau, George Tobias
Votes: 473
12. The Godfather (1972)
R | 175 min | Crime, Drama
The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Diane Keaton
Votes: 2,011,791 | Gross: $134.97M
13. The Godfather Part II (1974)
R | 202 min | Crime, Drama
The early life and career of Vito Corleone in 1920s New York City is portrayed, while his son, Michael, expands and tightens his grip on the family crime syndicate.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton
Votes: 1,363,837 | Gross: $57.30M
14. The Godfather Part III (1990)
R | 162 min | Crime, Drama
Follows Michael Corleone, now in his 60s, as he seeks to free his family from crime and find a suitable successor to his empire.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Andy Garcia, Talia Shire
Votes: 423,997 | Gross: $66.67M
15. Goodfellas (1990)
R | 145 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
The story of Henry Hill and his life in the mafia, covering his relationship with his wife Karen and his mob partners Jimmy Conway and Tommy DeVito.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco
Votes: 1,256,991 | Gross: $46.84M
16. A Bronx Tale (1993)
R | 121 min | Crime, Drama
An intense drama about a boy torn between his tough, hard-working father and a violent yet charismatic crime boss.
Director: Robert De Niro | Stars: Robert De Niro, Chazz Palminteri, Lillo Brancato, Francis Capra
Votes: 161,065 | Gross: $17.27M
17. Scarface (1983)
R | 170 min | Crime, Drama
In 1980 Miami, a determined Cuban immigrant takes over a drug cartel and succumbs to greed.
Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer, Steven Bauer, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Votes: 916,223 | Gross: $45.60M
18. Pay or Die! (1960)
Approved | 111 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Between 1906-1909, NYPD Lieutenant Joe Petrosino heads the 'Italian Squad' and tries to stamp out organized crime from the city, often times amid assassination attempts by the Mafia.
Director: Richard Wilson | Stars: Ernest Borgnine, Zohra Lampert, Alan Austin, Renata Vanni
Votes: 670
19. The Mob (1951)
Approved | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Johnny Damico botches a murder case and is suspended from the force. In reality, he is put undercover to identify the mysterious boss of the NY waterfront who has murdered everyone in his way. Will Johnny be next in line?
Director: Robert Parrish | Stars: Broderick Crawford, Betty Buehler, Richard Kiley, Otto Hulett
Votes: 2,630
20. Kill the Irishman (2011)
R | 106 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
The true story of Danny Greene, a tough Irish thug working for mobsters in Cleveland during the 1970's.
Director: Jonathan Hensleigh | Stars: Ray Stevenson, Christopher Walken, Vincent D'Onofrio, Val Kilmer
Votes: 51,334 | Gross: $1.19M
21. Mean Streets (1973)
R | 112 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
In New York City's Little Italy, a devoutly Catholic mobster must reconcile his desire for power, his feelings for his epileptic lover, and his devotion to his troublesome friend.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, David Proval, Amy Robinson
Votes: 119,607 | Gross: $3.13M
22. The French Connection (1971)
R | 104 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A pair of NYPD detectives in the Narcotics Bureau stumble onto a heroin smuggling ring based in Marseilles, but stopping them and capturing their leaders proves an elusive goal.
Director: William Friedkin | Stars: Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Fernando Rey, Tony Lo Bianco
Votes: 135,641 | Gross: $15.63M
23. Touch of Evil (1958)
PG-13 | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping and police corruption in a Mexican border town.
Director: Orson Welles | Stars: Charlton Heston, Orson Welles, Janet Leigh, Joseph Calleia
Votes: 109,791 | Gross: $2.24M
24. The Untouchables (1987)
R | 119 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
During Prohibition, Treasury agent Eliot Ness sets out to stop ruthless Chicago gangster Al Capone, and assembles a small, incorruptible team to help him.
Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Robert De Niro, Charles Martin Smith
Votes: 330,743 | Gross: $76.27M
25. Donnie Brasco (1997)
R | 127 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
An FBI undercover agent infiltrates the mob and finds himself identifying more with the Mafia life--at the expense of his regular one.
Director: Mike Newell | Stars: Al Pacino, Johnny Depp, Michael Madsen, Bruno Kirby
Votes: 332,159 | Gross: $41.91M
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