Detektyw Mark Dixon (Dana Andrews) zawsze chciał być kimś, kto w przeciwieństwie do jego ojca, stoi po właściwej stronie prawa. Jednak brutalne zachowanie wobec podejrzanych, jakiego się dopuszcza podczas pracy, dalekie jest od uznawanego za właściwe. Z tego powodu popada w konflikt ze swoim przełożonym i nie otrzymuje upragnionego awansu. Dixon zostaje przydzielony do sprawy o morderstwo, przy której chce się zrehabilitować w oczach szefa. Wszystko się komplikuje, kiedy detektyw przypadkowo dokonuje strasznego czynu o tragicznych konsekwencjach
An unpolished racketeer, whose racket is finding heirs for unclaimed fortunes, affects ethics and tea-drinking manners to win back the sweetheart who now works for his seemingly upright competitor.
Members of a teenage gang are sent to the State Reformatory, presided over by the callous Thompson. Soon Patsy Gargan, a former gangster appointed Deputy Commissioner, arrives and takes over the administration to run the place on radical principles. Thompson needs a quick way to discredit him.
Never-wed, poor, rough around the edges Apple Annie has always written to her daughter, Louise, in Spain that she is married and a member of New York's high society. Upon receiving unexpected word from Louise (who hasn't seen Annie since infancy) that she is en route to America with her new fiancé and his father, a count, so the three of them can meet her, Annie panics, despairing that her beloved daughter will be destroyed by the deception.
Nico Palmieri is a police inspector who battles a criminal gang terrorizing a sleepy Italian town, extorting cash from the local merchants. With the threat of violence, no one dares to act, except for a restaurant owner who is forced by Palmieri to tell the truth.
Racketeer Jim Barnes is trying to force the independent taxicab-drivers to join his "protection service" at the cost of five bucks a day. Champion race-car driver, Bob Kane, joins with his friends Lee and "Dad" Martin in a fight for the street rights of a big city.
A policeman in New Mexico takes payoff money but still manages to go after a racketeer.
Adventures of a cocky con man and his beautiful accomplice.
Gangsters, nightclubs and the Roaring '20s.
Michael is a young Englishman abroad who deliberately visits a tough Chinese district of Tiger Bay to test his strength. He falls in love and battles a protection racket.
After Police Captain Dan McLaren becomes police commissioner, former detective Johnny Blake publicly punches him, convincing rackets boss Al Kruger that Blake is sincere in his effort to join the mob. "Bugs" Fenner, meanwhile, is certain that Blake is a police agent.
Bobby Martin, a young middleweight champion boxer, is an honest and decent fighter. However, a dishonest but beautiful woman uses every trick to ensnare him.
Steve Bell, Tommy, Pig, Ape, and String are run of town. Steve, while hopping a freight card and trying to avoid the brakeman, is killed. The boys meet Steve's mother, Alice Bell and Tommy is given a job in the storage garage which she owns jointly with Mack Steward. Steve's brother Don Bell is working with some gangsters by tipping them off on valuable merchandise that can be hijacked. Pig, Ape and String overhear Don's plans to use Tommy as the fall guy in the next hijacking.
A lawyer changes from defending public enemies to bringing them to justice after his brother is killed.
A gangster is drafted into the Army and, soon realizing how wrong his life of crime has been, agrees to help the FBI break up a black market ring by pretending to have been kicked out of service and to have resumed his old life of crime.
After several years of supporting parts, Victor McLaglen once more landed a leading role in Republic's City of Shadows. McLaglen plays Big Tim Channing, an ageing but powerful gangster who raises young newsboy Dan Mason as his own son. Upon reaching adulthood, Mason (John Baer) becomes a law student, with the covert (and illegal) help of Channing. Despite his checkered past, Mason opts for honesty when he falls in love with Fern Fellows (Kathleen Crowley). This decision ultimately spells the doom for Mason's mentor Big Tim.
Three New York Irish brothers cross paths as policeman, doctor and bootlegger.
Former bootlegger Dutch Barnes pressures neighborhood druggist Jimmy Morrell into making cut-rate knockoff toiletry, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical products.
A Chinese-American surgeon faces a moral dilemma after operating on the mob boss in charge of vice and protection rackets in her city's Chinatown.
Rose Manning swears revenge for the unjust slaying of her father by Inspector McArthur. Five years later, as a nightclub hostess, she is sought by Chuck Gaines, secretly a bootlegger, but she centers her attentions on young Jimmy Carter, who, she learns, is the son of McArthur.