Movies like The Day of the Owl (1968)
The best movies like The Day of the Owl (1968) are Lucky Luciano (1973), The Boss (1973) and One Hundred Days in Palermo (1984). If The Day of the Owl 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
- Highest ratedSuburra (2015)7.3/10 from 1,333 votes
- NewestInside Man (2023)Released 2023
- In ItalianLucky Luciano (1973)Also in Italian
Lucky Luciano (1973)
Lucky Luciano is one of the bosses of the Mafia. He orders the slaughter of 40 other responsibles, therefore becoming the only boss. But a few years later he is put into jail. In 1946, he got a pardon and is sent back to Sicilia. There, he begins becoming one of the chief of the Mafia. The US Army seems to refrain from interfering.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Boss (1973)
A hitman finds himself embroiled in the middle of a Mafia war between the Sicilians and the Calabrians.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOne Hundred Days in Palermo (1984)
In the late 1970s and early 80s, assassinations in Sicily get the attention of Communist deputy, Pio La Torre, who appeals to General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa to become prefect in Palermo and take on the Mafia. Dalla Chiesa approaches the job with the same focus and methods he used in hunting down the Red Brigade.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Valachi Papers (1972)
When Joe Valachi has a price put on his head by Don Vito Genovese, he must take desperate steps to protect himself while in prison. An unsuccessful attempt to slit his throat puts him over the edge to break the sacred code of silence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNostalgia (2022)
Felice returns to his native Rione Sanità in Naples to look after his dying mother, having lived abroad for the last forty years. Here he discovers that his old friend Oreste has become a notorious crimeboss.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBelly (1998)
Tommy Bundy and Sincere are best friends as well as infamous and ruthless criminals and shot-callers in the hood. Respected by many but feared by all. As the police are closing in on them and new players are looking for a come up, will their reign last?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBoys Cry (2018)
Mirko and Manolo are best friends and live in the suburbs of Rome. They both live in poor conditions with their single parents, are still in school and struggle with occasional odd jobs to make ends meet. Together they share dreams of women, of sex and money, of a better life to come. Then, after killing a man in a hit-and-run one night, they get involved with the local mafia and their lives change dramatically.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPiranhas (2019)
A gang of teenage boys stalk the streets of Naples armed with hand guns and AK-47s to do their mob bosses' bidding – until they decide to be the bosses themselves.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSiberian Education (2013)
The story of a gang of children growing up in a community of banished criminals, in a forgotten corner of the former Soviet Union. This community rejects the world outside. The only law it obeys… is its own. Against this backdrop two best friends, Kolyma and Gagarin, gradually become fierce enemies as they find themselves on opposite sides of the strict code of honour of the ‘honest criminal’ brotherhood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMafia Millionaires (2014)
The rise and fall of a Neapolitan criminal clan through the story of a boss and his family, divided between the aspiration for a bourgeois life and the deep impulses of oppression. Thirty years of history of one of the most beautiful and discussed cities in the world, the dream of a boy who is overwhelmed by the desire for power as an end in itself, to become the nightmare of a man and those who live next to him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSuburra (2015)
A gangster known as "Samurai" wants to turn the waterfront of Rome into a new Las Vegas. All the local mob bosses have agreed to work for this common goal. But peace is not to last long.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Quiller Memorandum (1966)
After two British Secret Intelligence Service agents are murdered at the hands of a cryptic neo-Nazi group known as Phoenix, the suave agent Quiller is sent to Berlin to investigate.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisSuburbicon (2017)
In the quiet family town of Suburbicon during the 1950s, the best and worst of humanity is hilariously reflected through the deeds of seemingly ordinary people. When a home invasion turns deadly, a picture-perfect family turns to blackmail, revenge and murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisAcross 110th Street (1972)
In a daring robbery, some $300,000 is taken from the Italian mob. Several mafiosi are killed, as are two policemen. Lt. Pope and Capt. Mattelli are two New York City cops trying to break the case. Three small-time criminals are on the run with the money. Will the mafia catch them first, or will the police?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRun (1991)
When a law student accidentally kills the son of a mob boss in a fight, he finds himself relentlessly pursued by the mob and the police.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlood Ties (2013)
Two brothers, on either side of the law, face off over organized crime in Brooklyn during the 1970s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInside Man (2023)
Based on true events. A disgraced police detective seeking redemption goes undercover to expose a violent crime syndicate. But as he sinks deeper into the mob, the price for absolution may be higher than he can afford.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Devil You Know (2022)
Once-incarcerated Marcus Cowans is trying to turn over a new leaf with the support of his loving family. Upon discovering that one of his brothers may have been involved in a horrific crime, Marcus grapples with the limits of brotherhood and loyalty. He and his family, increasingly weary of the justice system’s failings, end up in the crosshairs of a seasoned but jaded detective.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAbove the Rim (1994)
Story of a promising high school basketball star and his relationships with two brothers, one a drug dealer and the other a former basketball star fallen on hard times and now employed as a security guard.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRulers of the City (1976)
Tony, a mob loan collector, is dissatisfied with his station in life. Though he dreams of one day being rich, he is stuck with the dead-end job of beating up borrowers who fall behind in their payments. After meeting up with Napoli, another mob enforcer who's just been fired from his job, the two hatch a plan. Together, they will con mob boss Manzari out of a fortune, after which they can retire and live in luxury. Manzari, however, is not about to let them go so easily.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBugsy (1991)
New York gangster Ben 'Bugsy' Siegel takes a brief business trip to Los Angeles. A sharp-dressing womanizer with a foul temper, Siegel doesn't hesitate to kill or maim anyone crossing him. In L.A. the life, the movies, and most of all strong-willed Virginia Hill detain him while his family wait back home. Then a trip to a run-down gambling joint at a spot in the desert known as Las Vegas gives him his big idea.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Dead Pool (1988)
Dirty Harry Callahan returns for his final film adventure. Together with his partner Al Quan, he must investigate the systematic murder of prominent figures. By the time Harry learns that the murders are part of a sick game to predict such deaths, it may be too late.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe American Friend (1977)
Tom Ripley, an American who deals in forged art, is slighted at an auction in Hamburg by picture framer Jonathan Zimmerman. When Ripley is asked by gangster Raoul Minot to kill a rival, he suggests Zimmerman, and the two, exploiting Zimmerman's terminal illness, coerce him into being a hitman.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCrows Zero II (2009)
Genji and his victorious G.P.S. alliance find themselves facing down a new challenge by the students of Hosen Academy, feared by everyone as 'The Army of Killers.' The two schools, in fact, have a history of bad blood between them. And the simmering embers of hatred are about to flare up again, burning away any last remnants of the truce they had so rigorously observed until now.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDeported (1950)
The real-life deportation of gangster Lucky Luciano was the inspiration for this romanticized and slightly crackbrained crime drama. Jeff Chandler plays the Luciano counterpart, who once he arrives in Italy renews his criminal activities.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
The Outfit (1973)
A two-bit criminal takes on the Mafia to avenge his brother's death. Earl Macklin is a small time criminal who is released from prison after an unsuccessful bank robbery only to discover that a pair of gunmen killed his brother.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJustice (1999)
A lawyer and her partner run from the Colombian Mafia and the corrupt U.S. marshals and attorneys assigned to protect them.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Salvatore Giuliano (1962)
Sicilian bandit Salvatore Giuliano's bullet-riddled corpse is found facedown in a courtyard in Castelvetrano, a handgun and rifle by his side. Local and international press descend upon the scene, hoping to crack open the true story behind the death of this young man, who, at the age of twenty-seven, had already become Italy’s most wanted criminal and celebrated hero.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisVice Raid (1959)
A prostitute sets out to frame a cop.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
The Funeral (1996)
After the funeral of one of their own, a criminal family decides to embark on an emotionally unnerving journey in an attempt to exact bloody revenge.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Day of the Owl?
The closest matches to The Day of the Owl are Lucky Luciano (1973), The Boss (1973) and One Hundred Days in Palermo (1984). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Day of the Owl?
Start with Lucky Luciano (1973), the closest match to The Day of the Owl.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Day of the Owl?
Suburra (2015), rated 7.3/10 by 1,333 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Day of the Owl?
Inside Man (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Italian movies like The Day of the Owl?
Yes: Lucky Luciano (1973), The Boss (1973) and One Hundred Days in Palermo (1984).
How are movies similar to The Day of the Owl chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Day of the Owl, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.