The gangster movie genre is as old as cinema itself, with silent era masterpieces like Intolerance and early efforts like Scarface setting the template for future crime dramas. With such a rich history, there are still modern-day gangster movies trying to keep the genre alive, but few of them match the brilliance of the classics.

While there have been great gangster movies in the 21st century, with names like Martin Scorsese (The Irishman) and Ridley Scott (American Gangster) keeping the crime drama alive, even these masters struggle to match the brilliance of classic gangster flicks. Looking at movies made before the 1980s, there were movies of a level of quality that remains unmatched by modern cinema.

The Roaring Twenties (1939)

James Cagney is one of the most iconic names in gangster movies from the 1930s to the 1940s. It was his performance as a street-level gangster that many actors emulated in the coming years. Cagney had several masterpieces over his career, and The Roaring Twenties is one of the best.

This was the third movie Cagney made with Bogart, as the two men were at the top of Hollywood’s casting charts for crime movies.

Directed by Raoul Walsh, Cagney stars as Eddie Bartlett, a soldier in World War I who becomes friends with two fellow soldiers as the war comes to an end. After the war, Eddie becomes a cab driver, George (Humphrey Bogart) becomes a bootlegger, and Lloyd (Jeffrey Lynn) becomes an attorney.

However, when Eddie also drifts into a life of crime, it puts him at odds with George and his gang. The evolving dynamic and changes in their respective statuses between the two friends as time pᴀssed helped ground the story in a way that felt relatable.

Mean Streets (1973)

Martin Scorsese might be a bigger fan of classic gangster movies than any other director in Hollywood. He ended up known for the genre himself over the years, with masterpieces like Goodfellas to his name. Scorsese even started his career in the genre, as Mean Streets was the third movie of his career, and his true breakout.

The cast includes some of Scorsese’s regulars, with Harvey Keitel starring as Charlie Cappa and Robert De Niro as his younger friend Johnny Boy. Charlie works for the mafiosa, and Johnny Bot is a gambler who can’t keep out of trouble and owes a lot of money to loan sharks.

The movie shows how dangerous life is on the streets, especially for the low-level gangsters who only have their own wits when it comes to survival. In 1997, the Library of Congress added Mean Streets to the National Film Registry.

M (1931)

One of the best gangster films no one talks about is Fritz Lang’s M. Part of it might be because it is a German mystery film from 1931, and another part is that it is mostly about a child murderer roaming the streets. However, this is a gangster movie and has a strong connection to the genre.

As a child murderer named Hans Beckert (Peter Lorre) kills kids on the streets, the police frantically hunt him down. To lure him out, they crack down on the city’s gangs and criminal organizations. This causes the criminal organizations to lose money and miss out on opportunities, so they take issues in their own hands and seek out the killer.

This is an interesting gangster movie because the gangsters here are the protagonists of the film, in that they are out to stop the child killer. However, they are also lawless vigilantes whom the police used to do their job for them, and it remains one of the most thought-provoking films of the 1930s.

The Public Enemy (1931)

While Intolerance was the first real gangster film masterpiece in the silent era, the first huge hit of the sound era came in 1931 with The Public Enemy. Directed by William A. Wellman, this was a pre-code gangster film, which means it didn’t have the same restrictions as movies released over the next few decades.

James Cagney became a gangster icon with this movie, starring as Tom Powers, a young man who rises through the ranks in the criminal underworld during Prohibition-era America. However, just as fast as he rose up the ranks, he fell just as hard, and that is what makes this movie so intriguing.

Many films released after this copied its style and theme, but none had as shocking a final scene as The Public Enemy when a rival gang delivered his ᴅᴇᴀᴅ body to his mother in one of gangster cinema’s most iconic scenes. This gangster movie has a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score.

Get Carter (1971)

Released one year before The Godfather, Get Carter is the British equivalent of the groundbreaking gangster movie, and one that is just as good, but mostly forgotten. Directed by Mike Hodges, Michael Caine stars as Jack Carter, a London gangster who returns home for his brother’s funeral.

A true gangster, he then sets out to find out who was responsible for his brother’s death and bring vengeance and retribution to his hometown. Based on the Ted Lewis novel, this is a revenge tale, but it is set squarely in the realm of the gangster movie and shows a very different side to the killers in these groups.

There was also a modern-day remake that is considered one of the worst gangster movies of all time, which speaks volumes about how great this original version is.

Drunken Angel (1948)

While Akira Kurosawa remains best known for his samurai movies, he also has some great crime dramas and thrillers as well. In 1948, he released his Japanese yakuza film Drunken Angel. The film stars Takashi Shimura and Toshirō Mifune as a doctor who is trying to save his yakuza patient from illness and corruption.

This was also the first Japanese movie to show the post-World War II look at the yakuza and their operations in the country. This was also the first of 16 collaborations between Kurosawa and Mifune over their careers. Even with some censorship by the Allied occupation government, it remains a solid masterpiece of gangster cinema.

The movie received positive reviews upon its release, with an emphasis on Kurosawa allowing the story to unfold without condemning the actions of his protagonist, a member of the yakuza. Some critics also compared it to Bicycle Thieves in the realm of post-war cinema melodramas.

White Heat (1949)

In one of James Cagney’s late-era gangster movies, he played Cody Jarrett, a ruthless criminal and the leader of the Jarrett gang. Directed by Raoul Walsh, who also directed Cagney in The Roaring Twenties ten years earlier, the movie also features a disturbing Oedipal complex that pervades the story.

While Cody is overly dependent on Ma Jarrett, he is overly violent and destructive when leading the James Gang in their various criminal activities. It also has one of the most iconic endings to any movie when he died by suicide by blowing up a gas tanker and yelling, “Made it, ma! Top of the world!“

The gangster film earned Virginia Kellogg an Oscar nomination for the screenplay, and the American Film Insтιтute named Cody Jarrett as one of its top movie villains of the last 100 years. It was added to the National Film Registry in 2003.

On The Waterfront (1954)

Marlon Brando was in one of the best gangster movies in history with The Godfather, but he was in one that was just as great in 1954 in On the Waterfront. It is easy to forget that On the Waterfront is a gangster movie because Brando’s Terry Malloy is not a gangster, but this is definitely a gangster flick.

Terry is a New York prizefighter whose career ended when he agreed to throw a fight for a mob boss named Johnny Friendly. The mob boss then got Terry a job through his labor union as a longshoreman. When Terry is tricked into being an accomplice to a murder, he finds his life spiraling out of control.

On the Waterfront earned 10 Oscar nominations, winning for Best Picture, Best Director for Elia Kazan, Best Actor for Marlon Brando, Best Supporting Actress for Eva Marie Saint, and Best Screenplay for Budd Schulberg. It was only the Best Supporting Actor from sweeping the major Oscars categories, but it had three nominees there.

Angels With Dirty Faces (1938)

Humphrey Bogart starred in the 1938 gangster movie Angels with Dirty Faces. Directed by Michael Curtiz, who later won Best Director for Bogart’s Casablanca, the movie tells the story of a notorious gangster, Rocky Sullivan, and his childhood friend, who is now a priest named Jerry Connolly.

James Cagney stars as the gangster, with Pat O’Brien as Father Connolly. Bogart stars as Jim Frazier, a crooked lawyer who owes Rocky money, and whom Rocky goes after when he gets out of prison. At the same time, Father Connolly tries to save some youngsters from falling in with Rocky.

The film earned three Oscar nominations for Best Director, Best Actor for Cagney, and Best Writing. This is yet another gangster movie with a 100% fresh Rotten Tomatoes score.

The Godfather (1972)

Arguably, the best gangster movie of all time is The Godfather, although the sequel might be even better. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, Marlon Brando is Vito Corleone, the head of a powerful mob family, while Al Pacino enjoyed his breakout as his son Michael Corleone, who took over the family when his dad died.

The movie was a huge success, earning nine Oscar nominations and winning for Best Picture and Best Actor (Brando). It was also the first of two films in the franchise to win Best Picture, the first time a sequel ever won Best Picture at the Oscars.

The Library of Congress added The Godfather to the National Film Registry in 1990, and the American Film Insтιтute named it one of the greatest films of all time, alongside Citizen Kane. It remains one of the best gangster films of all time, if not the best.