Once Upon a Time in America (1984), The Roaring Twenties (1939), Miller's Crossing (1990), The Public Enemy (1931), Baby Face (1933), Lawless (2012), A Slight Case of Murder (1938), Night Nurse (1931) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Prohibition movies.
Storyline: Epic tale of a group of Jewish gangsters in New York, from childhood, through their glory years during prohibition, and their meeting again 35 years later.
Plot Keywords: mafia boss, bootlegger, gang member, police chief, girlfriend, mobster, bleak ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: After the WWI Armistice Lloyd Hart goes back to practice law, former saloon keeper George Hally turns to bootlegging, and out-of-work Eddie Bartlett becomes a cab driver. Eddie builds a fleet of cabs through delivery of bootleg liquor and hires Lloyd as his lawyer. George becomes Eddie's partner and the rackets flourish until love and rivalry interfere.
Plot Keywords: bootlegger, soldier, attorney, friend, singer, cab driver, gritty ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Tom Reagan (played by Gabriel Byrne) is the right-hand man, and chief adviser, to a mob boss, Leo (Albert Finney). Trouble is brewing between Leo and another mob boss, Johnny Caspar (Jon Polito), over the activities of a bookie, Bernie Bernbaum (John Turturro) and Leo and Tom are at odds on how to deal with it. Meanwhile, Tom is in a secret relationship with Leo's girlfriend, Verna (Marcia Gay Harden), who happens to be the sister of Bernie. In trying to resolve the issue, Tom is cast out from Leo's camp and ultimately finds himself stuck in the middle between several deadly, unforgiving parties.
Plot Keywords: gangster, moll, bookie, political boss, tense, confident, cool ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Tom Powers and Matt Doyle are best friends and fellow gangsters, their lives frowned upon by Tom's straight laced brother, Mike, and Matt's straight laced sister, Molly. From their teen-aged years into young adulthood, Tom and Matt have an increasingly lucrative life, bootlegging during the Prohibition era. But Tom in particular becomes more and more brazen in what he is willing to do, and becomes more obstinate and violent against those who either disagree with him or cross him. When one of their colleagues dies in a freak accident, a rival bootlegging faction senses weakness among Tom and Matt's gang, which is led by Paddy Ryan. A gang war ensues, resulting in Paddy suggesting that Tom and Matt lay low. But because of Tom's basic nature, he decides instead to take matters into his own hands.
Plot Keywords: gangster, bootlegger, police officer, veteran, friend, melodramatic, brash ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Lilly (Baby Face) sleeps her way from basement speakeasy bartender, literally floor by floor, to the top floor of a New York office building. Bank sub-manager Jimmy McCoy finds her a job in the bank only to be cast aside as she hooks up with the bank's president. When he complains of not seeing her she says: "I'm working so hard I have to go to bed early every night."—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>
Plot Keywords: beautiful woman, businessman, father, friend, banker, sultry, unrestrained ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: In 1931, in Franklin County, Virginia, Forrest Bondurant is a legend as immortal after surviving the war. Together with his brothers Howard and the coward Jack, the Bondurant family has a distillery and bootlegging business. When the corrupt District Attorney Mason Wardell arrives in Franklin with the unscrupulous Special Deputy Charles Rakes, the Bondurant family refuses to pay the required bribe to the authorities. Rakes pursues the brothers and unsuccessfully tries to find their distillery. Meanwhile Forrest hires the waitress Maggie, a woman with a hidden past in Chicago, and they fall in love with each other. Jack courts the preacher's daughter Bertha Minnix and deals a great load of alcoholic liquor with the powerful gangster Floyd Banner. Jack shows off in Franklin attracting the attention of Rakes that finds the location of their distillery. When he kills the crippled Cricket Pete, the locals join forces to face the corrupt authorities.
Plot Keywords: bootlegger, moonshiner, brother, girlfriend, police officer, special agent, fiery ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Remy Marco, Prohibition beer baron, figures he'll do even better after repeal. Only trouble is, his beer tastes terrible. (He drinks no beer himself and nobody dares tell him). Four years later, when he's about bankrupt, he visits his summer home in Saratoga, complete with: 1) a dead-end-kid orphan; 2) his daughter's fiance...a state trooper!, 3) the bodies of four gangsters who planned to ambush Remy but had a shootout; 4) half a million in loot they hid in the house...just the amount Remy needs to get out of hock. The comic confusion mounts...—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>
Plot Keywords: police officer, bootlegger, bar owner, gangster, orphan, wife, lighthearted ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Lora Hart manages to land a job in a hospital as a trainee nurse. Upon completion of her training she goes to work as a night nurse for two small children who seem to be very sick, but something much more sinister is going on.—Col Needham <col@imdb.com>
Plot Keywords: nurse, best friend, criminal, chauffeur, doctor, child, suspenseful ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: It's Prohibition, and the boys wind up behind bars after Stan sells some of their home-brew beer to a policeman. In prison, Stan's loose tooth "buzzes" when he talks and keeps getting him in trouble, because it sounds like he's giving everybody a rasp- berry. But it earns him the respect of The Tiger, a rough prisoner, and the boys manage to slip away during The Tiger's escape attempt. They disguise themselves in blackface and hide on a cotton plantation, but are recaptured when the warden happens by and here's Stan's buzzing tooth which causes to realize who the pair are. Back in the big house, they find themselves in a hail of bullets, caught between the state militia and gun-toting prisoners, when The Tiger tries another escape. Eventually the boys are pardoned by the senior warden, who erroneously believes that they intentionally warned the prison guards of the impending firestorm by firing the first shots.—Paul Penna <tterrace@wco.com>
Plot Keywords: bootlegger, partner, warden, daughter, cellmate, prisoner, playful ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Allen claims he his being executed for the wrong murder. Flashbacks show him working with Clark as a riveter. When he makes a killing on the horses he meets Shirley and gets married. When Clark tells him Shirley is unfaithful they fight and Clark falls to his death. Later he finds that Clark was telling the truth.—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>
Plot Keywords: murderer, warden, best friend, wife, judge, doctor, bleak ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A gangster movie where all the gangsters are played by children. Instead of real bullets they use "splurge guns" that cover the victim in cream. The story tells of the rise of "Bugsy Malone" and the battle for power between "Fat Sam" and "Dandy Dan".
Plot Keywords: boy, girl, gangster, amusing, fiery, madcap, rousing ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: The film is set in the early 80's and 90's in Gujarat. The fictitious story of a man who builds an empire in the state of Gujarat, the only state that still follows prohibition. It's a story about his rise and his relationships, which help him become the single most powerful man in the state.
Plot Keywords: crime boss, gangster, smuggler, police officer, rival, religious person, brooding ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A close-knit group of young kids in Nazi Germany listen to banned swing music from the U.S. Soon, dancing and fun lead to more difficult choices, as the Nazis begin tightening their grip on Germany. Each member of the group is forced to face some tough choices about right, wrong, and survival.
Plot Keywords: friend, nazi, musician, jew, soldier, intense, brooding ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Chicago February 14th 1929. Al Capone finally establishes himself as the city's boss of organised crime. In a north-side garage his hoods, dressed as policemen, surprise and mow down with machine-guns the key members of Bugs Moran's rival gang. The film traces the history of the incident, and the lives affected and in some cases ended by it.—Jeremy Perkins {J-26}
Plot Keywords: crime boss, gangster, fbi agent, lieutenant, cool, gritty, thrilling ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Police Chief Jim Fitzpatrick is fighting gangster Sam Belmonte. He asks his dishonest brother Ed to keep an eye on Daisy who was connected with Belmonte.—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>
Plot Keywords: police chief, detective, mobster, femme fatale, wife, district attorney, brutal ...
Movie Details Click Here!