Some Like It Hot (1959), The Untouchables (1987), Miller's Crossing (1990), One Way Passage (1932), Heroes for Sale (1933), Three on a Match (1932), Bombshell (1933), Boom Town (1940) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Prohibition Era movies.
Storyline: When two Chicago musicians, Joe and Jerry, witness the the St. Valentine's Day massacre, they want to get out of town and get away from the gangster responsible, Spats Colombo. They're desperate to get a gig out of town but the only job they know of is in an all-girl band heading to Florida. They show up at the train station as Josephine and Daphne, the replacement saxophone and bass players. They certainly enjoy being around the girls, especially Sugar Kane Kowalczyk who sings and plays the ukulele. Joe in particular sets out to woo her while Jerry/Daphne is wooed by a millionaire, Osgood Fielding III. Mayhem ensues as the two men try to keep their true identities hidden and Spats Colombo and his crew show up for a meeting with several other crime lords.
Plot Keywords: sex comedy, comedy of errors, 1920s, disguise, farce, organized crime, prohibition ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: After building an empire with bootleg alcohol, legendary crime boss Al Capone rules Chicago with an iron fist. Though Prohibition Agent Eliot Ness attempts to take Capone down, even his best efforts fail due to widespread corruption within the Windy City's police force. Recruiting an elite group of lawmen who won't be swayed by bribes or fear, including Irish-American cop Jimmy Malone, Ness renews his determination to bring Capone to justice.
Plot Keywords: corruption, money laundering, italian american, railway station, crime boss, chicago illinois, mafia ...
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: loyalty, organized crime, neo noir, 1920s, unsubtitled foreign language, character's point of view camera shot, betrayal ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Suave Dan Hardesty, a convicted murderer, is apprehended by Steve Burke, a police detective, in Hong Kong and accompanied on the SS Maloa headed for San Francisco. On board, Dan romances Joan Ames, a terminally ill socialite. She is unaware that his ultimate destination is San Quentin. Both realize that their time together is fleeting so they make a pact to meet at a Mexican night club on New Years Eve. When they part in San Francisco they know that the odds are against them.—Gary Jackson <garyjack5@cogeco.ca>
Plot Keywords: terminal illness, new year's eve, bartender, bullet, dancing, doctor, drunkenness ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: The saga of Tom Holmes - a man of principles - from the Great War to the Great Depression. Will he ever get a break? His war heroics earn fame and a medal for someone else, and his wounds result in a morphine addiction that costs him a job, his reputation in his home town, and months in a clinic. He goes to Chicago, where he's enterprising and dedicated to his work and his fellow workers, but an invention he champions results in the opposite of his intentions, leading to loss of life and an unjust imprisonment. After release, during the Depression, he must face local "red squads" and vigilante groups jousting out jobless men. Will anyone see his true heroic character?—<jhailey@hotmail.com>
Plot Keywords: veteran, hunger, laundry, machine gun, mob violence, mother son relationship, police ...
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: Lola Burns is at the top of the pile in Hollywood. But life ain't easy, what with her father and brother always hanging around for handouts, and devious studio publicity honcho Space Hanlon cooking up endless lurid newspaper stories. Makes a girl want to give up pictures.—Jeremy Perkins {J-26}
Plot Keywords: money, teddy bear, publicity, marquis, movie star, secretary, newspaper ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Buddies Big John McMasters and Square John Sand are fast-talking, wisecracking wildcatters who manage to con enough equipment and capital to develop their own oil fields, but their friendship is put to the test when Big John inadvertently falls in love with Elizabeth, Square John's longtime girlfriend. Eventually their friendship and partnership comes to an end on the flip of a coin. Years later, when Big John's interest in the beautiful Karen Vanmeer threatens his marriage too, Square John intervenes in an effort to save the marriage of his former friend - even if it means ruining him financially.—G. Taverney (duke1029@aol.com)
Plot Keywords: oil, kiss, toy gun, double barreled shotgun, fistfight, six shooter, revolver ...
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: woman punches a man, child in peril, ethics, drunkenness, conspiracy, attempted murder, ambulance ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Alfred's father wants him to make of a man of himself so sends him off on a hunting and fishing trip. He doesn't catch or shoot anything, but he does fall in love with a mountain girl. When her father and brothers laugh at this they are informed that he is Alfred "Battling" Butler, the championship fighter. From there on the masquerade must be maintained.—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>
Plot Keywords: boxing, cigarette smoking, dire straits, farce, hotel desk clerk, deception, jealousy ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A radio-singer, Bing Hornsby, is none-too-concerned about his job, and an affair with Mona leads to his dismissal. When it appears Hornsby is getting and paying a lot of attention to his fiancée, Anita Rogers, station manager Leslie McWhinney buys the station, gives Hornsby his job back, and goes on a honeymoon with Anita.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
Plot Keywords: loss of job, 1930s, quartet, radio announcer, radio program, radio show, singing ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A telephone operator at an opulent hotel falls in love with a young man who turns out to be a rich oil millionaire.
Plot Keywords: hotel manager, desk clerk, cigarette smoking, slang, flapper, 1920s, cigar smoking ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: The Professor dispenses the wisdom of the ages and does not make a living wage. The sons of the rich and powerful are students lacking any motivation. The next door neighbor of the Professor, businessman Olsen, has money and lots of food, while the Griggs have hardly any. Both Peter Olsen and Reverend Gates are taken by the beauty of young Amelia Griggs. When rich son Phil West falls for Amelia Griggs and befriends the poor Reverend Gates, he finally sees the difference in his life and theirs and tries to do something to change that.—Tony Fontana <tony.fontana@spacebbs.com>
Plot Keywords: independent film, poverty, pride, romantic rivalry, spinster, social commentary, love triangle ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Jerry Strong's the son of a wealthy businessman, but he wants to be a painter. He hires Kay Arnold, a woman with a questionable past, as a model. They fall in love, and plan to get married. But Jerry's parents raise strong objections.—John Oswalt <jao@jao.com>
Plot Keywords: attempted suicide, rowboat, player piano, artist, model, party, flapper ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Fun loving Pearl White, working in a garment sweatshop, gets her big chance when she "opens" for a delayed Shakespeare play...with a comic vaudeville performance. Her brief stage career leads her into those "horrible" moving pictures, where she comes to love the chaotic world of silent movies, becoming queen of the serials. But the consequences of movie stardom may be more than her leading man can take.—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>
Plot Keywords: character name in title, audition, pie in the face, railway, reporter, director, marriage proposal ...
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