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Movies like Knock on Any Door (1949)

The best movies like Knock on Any Door (1949) are Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017), Illegal (1955) and Cry of the City (1948). If Knock on Any Door hooked you with its drama and crime, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks

  1. Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017)

    Hard-nosed liberal lawyer Roman J. Israel has been fighting the good fight forever while others take the credit. When his partner – the firm's frontman – has a heart attack, Israel suddenly takes on that role. He soon discovers some unsettling truths about the firm – truths that conflict with his values of helping the poor and dispossessed – and finds himself in an existential crisis that leads to extreme actions.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime

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  2. Illegal (1955)

    A hugely successful DA goes into private practice after sending a man to the chair -- only to find out later he was innocent. Now the drunken attorney only seems to represent criminals and low lifes.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  3. Cry of the City (1948)

    Petty crook and cop-killer Martin Rome, in bad shape from wounds in the hospital prison ward, still refuses to help slimy lawyer Niles clear his client by confessing to another crime. Police Lt. Candella must check Niles' allegation; a friend of the Rome family, he walks a tightrope between sentiment and cynicism. When Martin fears Candella will implicate his girlfriend Teena, he'll do anything to protect her. How many others will he drag down to disaster with him?

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  4. Just Mercy (2019)

    The powerful true story of Harvard-educated lawyer Bryan Stevenson, who goes to Alabama to defend the disenfranchised and wrongly condemned — including Walter McMillian, a man sentenced to death despite evidence proving his innocence. Bryan fights tirelessly for Walter with the system stacked against them.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  5. Michael Clayton (2007)

    A law firm brings in its "fixer" to remedy the situation after a lawyer has a breakdown while representing a chemical company that he knows is guilty in a multi-billion dollar class action suit.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime

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  6. Under Suspicion (2000)

    A lawyer is asked to come to the police station to clear up a few loose ends in his witness report of a foul murder. "This will only take ten minutes", they say, but it turns out to be one loose end after another, and the ten minutes he is away from his speech become longer and longer.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  7. Red Corner (1997)

    An American attorney on business in China, ends up wrongfully on trial for murder and his only key to innocence is a female defense lawyer from the country.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  8. I Want to Live! (1958)

    Brazen perpetual offender Barbara Graham tries to go straight but she finds herself implicated in a murder and sent to death row.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  9. The Naked City (1948)

    After a former model is drowned in her bathtub, Detective James Halloran and Lieutenant Dan Muldoon attempt to piece together her murder.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  10. The Young Savages (1961)

    A district attorney investigates the racially charged case of three teenagers accused of the murder of a blind Puerto Rican boy.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  11. They Made Me a Fugitive (1947)

    After being framed for a policeman's murder, a criminal escapes prison and sets out for revenge.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  12. Straight Time (1978)

    After being released on parole, a burglar attempts to go straight, get a regular job, and just go by the rules. He soon finds himself back in jail at the hands of a power-hungry parole officer.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  13. Insomnia (2002)

    Two Los Angeles homicide detectives are dispatched to a northern town where the sun doesn't set to investigate the methodical murder of a local teen.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  14. Killer's Kiss (1955)

    Davey Gordon, a New York City boxer at the end of his career, falls for dancer Gloria Price. However, their budding relationship is interrupted by Gloria's violent boss, Vincent Rapallo, who has eyes for Gloria. The two decide to skip town, but before they can, Vincent and his thugs abduct Gloria, and Davey is forced to search for her among the most squalid corners of the city, with his enemy hiding in the shadows.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  15. Let Him Have It (1991)

    In 1950s England, slow-witted Derek Bentley falls in with a group of petty criminals led by Chris Craig, a teenager with a fondness for American gangster films. Chris and Derek's friendship leads to their involvement in the true case which would forever shake England's belief in capital punishment.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  16. Juror #2 (2024)

    While serving as a juror in a high profile murder trial, family man Justin Kemp finds himself struggling with a serious moral dilemma…one he could use to sway the jury verdict and potentially convict—or free—the accused killer.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  17. 12 Angry Men (1957)

    The defense and the prosecution have rested and the jury is filing into the jury room to decide if a young Spanish-American is guilty or innocent of murdering his father. What begins as an open and shut case soon becomes a mini-drama of each of the jurors' prejudices and preconceptions about the trial, the accused, and each other.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Absolute CinemaMovies like this
  18. The Rainmaker (1997)

    Fresh out of law school and desperate for work, idealistic rookie Rudy Baylor takes on a powerful insurance company accused of denying a dying boy’s claim. Teaming up with a scrappy, unlicensed paralegal, he finds himself in a David-versus-Goliath courtroom battle that tests his ethics, courage, and belief in justice.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  19. A Murder of Crows (1999)

    In the wake of a career-ending scandal, disgraced lawyer Lawson Russell moves to Key West, where he befriends aging novelist Christopher Marlowe. After letting Russell borrow his latest manuscript, Marlowe dies of a heart attack. When Russell publishes the dead man's manuscript under his own name, he makes the best-seller list—and unwittingly becomes the prime suspect in the investigation of a grisly multiple homicide.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  20. The Lazarus Project (2008)

    After Ben Garvey foolishly turned back to crime, he thought his life was over when he was sentenced to death by lethal injection. But his death sentence isn't quite what it seems, as Ben regains consciousness near an eerie psychiatric ward, where he's told he's been hired as the groundskeeper. With the state of his soul in question, and the love for his wife and daughter all the more real and powerful, Ben must figure out if he's truly cheated death, or if he's become part of something far more sinister.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  21. The Green Mile (1999)

    A supernatural tale set on death row in a Southern prison, where gentle giant John Coffey possesses the mysterious power to heal people's ailments. When the cell block's head guard, Paul Edgecomb, recognizes Coffey's miraculous gift, he tries desperately to help stave off the condemned man's execution.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & crime

    Absolute CinemaMovies like this
  22. Twitz from Pluto: Graff, Jackass and TV Casualty (2022)

    The story of two teenage extraterrestrial refugees from the planet Pluto, who escape to Earth after their planet is destroyed by the US government, as it was deemed “insignificant.” For many years prior, tensions between the Plutonians and the Earthlings had seen a steady incline, as Pluto held camps where Earthlings were experimented on and tortured. The two aliens make their crash landing, undertake human form and undergo the aliases “Hugh Jainus” and “E. Rection”. In an effort to wage revenge on the nation, with their brainwashed sidekick Potator under their wing, the trio hijack television stations worldwide and broadcast mind-numbingly stupid and ridiculous, yet insane and often violent programs to dumb down and distract the nation’s citizens from their devious plans. The tube tells the story...

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & crime

  23. Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

    Semi-retired Michigan lawyer Paul Biegler takes the case of Army Lt. Manion, who murdered a local innkeeper after his wife claimed that he raped her. Over the course of an extensive trial, Biegler parries with District Attorney Lodwick and out-of-town prosecutor Claude Dancer to set his client free, but his case rests on the victim's mysterious business partner, who's hiding a dark secret.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  24. Witness for the Prosecution (1982)

    An ailing barrister is thrust back into the courtroom in what becomes one of the most unusual and eventful murder cases of the lawyer's career when he finds himself defending a man being tried for the murder of a socialite.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama

  25. Sin's Pay Day (1932)

    A woman married to a defense lawyer leaves him when he refuses to stop defending criminals she believes are guilty.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama

  26. It's Just A Gun (2016)

    Imagine in the life time of a gun all the hands it passes through. It's Just A Gun is just one chapter in that story.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama

  27. The Blue Room (2014)

    In their blue hotel room, a clandestine couple of two married lovers plan an impossible future, as death shutters their already frail tranquillity. Now, the noose tightens more and more around innocents and sinners; but, was there a crime?

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  28. Beretta's Island (1994)

    Franco Armando - code name Beretta - is forced out of retirement to avenge the cold-blooded murder of a cop. The killer's trail leads to Franco's hometown on the beautiful island of Sardinia, where drugs are turning the peaceful village into a hell hole. The sinister druglord has a sadistic welcome for Franco: the kidnapping of his best friend's beautiful daughter.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime

  29. Evidence of Blood (1998)

    When a brilliant crime writer investigates a 40-year-old murder, he confronts a small town's worst fears.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

  30. True Romance (1993)

    Clarence marries hooker Alabama, steals cocaine from her pimp, and tries to sell it in Hollywood, while the owners of the coke try to reclaim it.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime

    Worth the HypeMovies like this

Like Knock on Any Door and something else?

Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best movies like Knock on Any Door?

The closest matches to Knock on Any Door are Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017), Illegal (1955) and Cry of the City (1948). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.

What should I watch after Knock on Any Door?

Start with Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017), the closest match to Knock on Any Door.

What is the highest-rated movie like Knock on Any Door?

12 Angry Men (1957), rated 8.6/10 by 10,590 TMDB users.

What is the newest movie like Knock on Any Door?

Juror #2 (2024) is the most recent release on this list.

Are there English movies like Knock on Any Door?

Yes: Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017), Illegal (1955) and Cry of the City (1948).

How are movies similar to Knock on Any Door chosen?

First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Knock on Any Door, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.

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