Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Some Like It Hot (1959), The Roaring Twenties (1939), The Untouchables (1987), Miller's Crossing (1990), Scarface (1932), Elmer Gantry (1960), The Public Enemy (1931) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Prohibition movies.
Storyline: In mid-20s New York, Newt Scamander, the British young activist wizard, arrives in town, holding a mysterious leather suitcase which shelters a wide array of diverse and magical creatures that exist among us. Amid an already fragile equilibrium of secrecy, and the increasing disasters ascribed to the dark wizard, Gellert Grindelwald, Newt's precious suitcase will be lost--and to make matters worse--several creatures will manage to escape. Before long, this situation will catch Senior Auror Percival Graves' attention who will target Newt, in the background of an invisible, devastating, and utterly unpredictable menace that still wreaks havoc on 5th Avenue. In the end, is there a hidden agenda behind Graves' intentions; moreover, what will happen to the remaining fantastic beasts still loose in the streets?
Plot Keywords: suitcase, magic, new york city, based on novel, wizard, spin off, portal ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Carl Denham needs to finish his movie and has the perfect location; Skull Island. But he still needs to find a leading lady. This 'soon-to-be-unfortunate' soul is Ann Darrow. No one knows what they will encounter on this island and why it is so mysterious, but once they reach it, they will soon find out. Living on this hidden island is a giant gorilla and this beast now has Ann is its grasps. Carl and Ann's new love, Jack Driscoll must travel through the jungle looking for Kong and Ann, whilst avoiding all sorts of creatures and beasts. But Carl has another plan in mind.
Plot Keywords: island, gorilla, new york city, animal name in title, monster, giant insect, broadway manhattan new york city ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Mary Keaton, Vivian Kirkwood (née Revere), and Ruth Westcott have just run into each other having not seen each other in ten years since they graduated from Public School 62 together, and become friends of sorts in their re-acquaintance. Their intervening lives went much as probably would have been predicted when they were in public school: Mary, the troublemaker who almost didn't graduate with her class, spent some time in a reformatory but went straight and became a showgirl; Vivian, the popular beauty with a charmed life, married wealthy and renowned lawyer Robert Kirkwood, the two with an adolescent son, Robert Jr.; and Ruth, the quiet, hard-working, smart one, who became a stenographer. While Mary's life took a positive turn since her reformatory years, Vivian has come to the realization that she is unhappy with her life, its path a little too easy in its predetermination. She realizes she probably never loved Robert. Her quest for pleasure, with a blessing of sorts from Robert who doesn't want his wife, whom he still loves, to be as distant as she seems, will affect Mary, as well. Their collective destinies may be foreshadowed by an old wives' tale about three sharing a single match, from which the film takes its name.—Huggo (updated by R.M. Sieger)
Plot Keywords: pre code film, childhood friend, drug addiction, suicide, kidnapping, divorce, gangster ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: In this roman-a-clef for the infamous Lucky Luciano Trial, Mary Dwight and four roommates work as hostesses at the Club Intime, a "clip joint" that offers gambling, liquor, and female companionship to the "big spender" clientèle. When ruthless thug and pimp Johnny Vanning takes over all the clubs in town, the girls are forced to follow Vanning's rules and kick back on their "tips" in exchange for protection. Although she is not a hardened old hand like Gabby and Estella, Mary knows enough to sidestep Vanning's amorous advances. Unfortunately the more naive Mary Lou is impressed by Vanning's oily veneer of materialism and accepts invitations to "entertain" at the gangster's private parties. Mary's naive younger sister Betty arrives from college just when Mary and her roommates are arrested as material witnesses in the murder of one of the casino's non-paying customers. Vanning's corrupt lawyer frees the others but pressures Mary to commit perjury in order to discredit crusading District Attorney David Graham. Disillusioned by her sister's lifestyle. Betty consents to accompany Emmy Lou to one of Vanning's private parties where the gangster ends up killing her for not submitting to the advances of one of the party's guests. Mary decides to tell the truth to the D.A., and is beaten to disfigurement by one of Vanning's hoods. Even so, Mary agrees to testify - and at her bedside, all the other hostesses decide to follow her example in the coming hearing. (original by duke1029)—duke1029
Plot Keywords: prostitution, craps, manhattan new york city, times square manhattan new york city, newspaper headline, sister sister relationship, woman in jeopardy ...
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: screwball comedy, party, orphanage, murder, money, gunshot wound, gunfire ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: The difficult 1930s is a time of robbers who knock over banks and other rich targets with alarming frequency. Of them, none is more notorious than John Dillinger, whose gang plies its trade with cunning efficiency against big businesses while leaving ordinary citizens alone. As Dillinger becomes a folk hero, FBI head J. Edger Hoover is determined to stop his ilk by assigning ace agent Melvin Purvis to hunt down Dillinger. As Purvis struggles with the manhunt's realities, Dillinger himself faces an ominous future with the loss of friends, dwindling options and a changing world of organized crime with no room for him.
Plot Keywords: manhunt, great depression, impersonating a police officer, indiana, thrown from a car, tucson arizona, interrogation ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A white-collar worker from a blue-collar family, Kitty Foyle has spent her so far short adult life in her hometown of Philadelphia or New York City. She has had two serious relationships, one associated with each city and each man with who she falls in love but in vastly different ways. "Philadelphia" is blue blooded Wyn Strafford VI. Wyn hires Kitty to be his secretary, he the editor for his pet project, a magazine, which is funded by family money. Kitty's now deceased father, despite liking Wyn as a person, warned Kitty against falling in love with him, regardless of his outward intentions, as his type always returned to his own kind. If she believes her father, Kitty may come to the realization that if a union with Wyn were to ever happen, it would not only be to him but to his family and their traditions, they who may have some say in the matter. After the magazine folds, it not making any money, Kitty is forced to look for another job, she feeling she would have more opportunities in New York City. Working as a sales associate at upscale Delphine Detaille parfumerie and cosmetics, Kitty meets "New York City" Mark Eisen. Mark is a public-health doctor who makes little money and thus who is cognizant about how he spends that money, most specifically when he will splurge on the luxuries in life, including on women. Simultaneous, each of the men proposes a future together with her, those futures which would take divergent paths and have different outlooks. Mark, specifically, is aware of there being a "Philadelphia" when he asks her to marry him. Kitty has to decide what kind of future she wants for herself in choosing which of the two proposals she will accept.—Huggo
Plot Keywords: philadelphia pennsylvania, snowglobe, single mother, salesclerk, speakeasy, high society, love triangle ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Bumper (Al Jolson) is a vagabond leader of a strange group of tatterdemalions and eccentrics who hang around New York's Central Park. Among his followers are Egghead (Harry Langdon), Sunday (Chester Conklin), Acorn (Edgar Conner) , The General (Victor Potel), Orlando (Tammany Young) and Apple Mary (Louise Carver). Bumper's idol is Mayor Hastings (Frank Morgan), whose life he once saved and frequently has lunch at the Park Casino. Bumper is always on hand to open the door of the Mayor's Rolls Royce, and the Mayor makes it a point to linger a moment at the entrance and listen to the whimsical Bumper's philosophy and ideas abut life. Through his contact with the Mayor, Bumper is able to "fix" things when the other vagabonds get in trouble. The Mayor cannot fathom why Bumper, an unusually bright fellow, is content to spend his life in the park, doing nothing. The Mayor, for all his power and popularity, is unhappy. He's in love ----and madly jealous. He believes his sweetheart June Marcher (Madge Bellamy) is "two-timing" him. At lunch he slips a $1,000 in her purse. She loses it and the Mayor accuses her of giving it to another man. Bumper find the purse and takes it to the address in the purse and is met there by the exiting Mayor. He does not see nor know June. Later,The grief-stricken June attempts suicide by jumping from a bridge and is rescued by Bumper, but has lost her memory. He takes her to the tenement home of the Sundays, and asks the Mayor to get him a job, as he has a new interest, known to him as Angel, in his life. He spends his money making Angel happy and she falls in love with him. Meanwhile, the Mayor, despondent over not being able to locate the missing June, goes on a drinking binge and is found asleep in the park by Bumper's friends, who take him hoe and notify Bumper. While Bumper is trying to sober him up, Hastings begins talking to a photograph. Bumper discovers the woman in the photograph is that of Angel, and that the girl of his dreams is the Mayor's sweetheart. Bumper takes his friend to the Sunday family tenement and the sight of the Mayor and his voice as he clasps her in his arms restores June's memory. She pleads to be taken away from "this awful place". All she remembers is walking in the park at night. Bumper is a stranger to her. The Mayor takes her away, out of Bumper's life. Bumper returns to the park and his former life.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
Plot Keywords: suicide attempt, amnesia, poverty, great depression, central park, mayor, sadness ...
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: prohibition, prison escape, plantation, contraband, riot, blackface, prison riot ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Frisco Jenny was orphaned by the 1906 earthquake and fire and has become the madame of a prosperous bawdy house. She puts her son up for adoption and he rises to prominence as district attorney dedicated to closing down such houses. When her underling Dutton proposes telling the DA that Frisco Jenny is his birth mother, she kills the underling not to cause trouble for her son now the successful DA, she must face execution.—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>
Plot Keywords: character name as title, prohibition, election, detention, accidental death, prostitution, building collapse ...
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: character name as title, kite, police corruption, corruption, truck, statue, eyeglasses ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: In this unusually accurate biography, small-time hood Al Capone comes to Chicago at the dawn of Prohibition to be the bodyguard of racketeer Johnny Torrio. Capone's rise in Chicago gangdom is followed through murder, extortion, and political fraud. He becomes head of Chicago's biggest "business," but moves inexorably toward his downfall and ignominious end.—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>
Plot Keywords: prohibition, based on true story, gangster, neo noir, chicago illinois, true crime, judge ...
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: gangster, crime boss, murder, cold blooded killer, drive by shooting, gang violence, mobster ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Robin Hoodish gangster in 1929 Chicago is an object of affection, kind to New York hood and bad to a bad crook.—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>
Plot Keywords: christmas, prohibition, bootlegger, damsel in distress, deception, boarding house, military academy ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Robert Tyre Jones, Jr., aka "Bobby Jones" rises from complete obscurity to become a golfing legend. Jones overcomes his own fierce temper, intense passion, and perfectionist tendencies to master the game and win the Grand Slam, the U.S., British, and Amateur Opens in golf, a feat unequaled even today. But it is Jones's style, personality, and character that separate him from the other professionals in his field. When Jones realizes that his unparalleled success may be destroying those he loves he's presented with an astounding proposition, one that shocks the world.—IMDb Editors
Plot Keywords: character name in title, alcohol, atlanta georgia, champion, coca cola, doctor, dog ...
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