Movies like The Devil Makes Three (1952)
The best movies like The Devil Makes Three (1952) are The Glass Key (1942), Lady in the Lake (1946) and The Mirror Crack'd (1980). If The Devil Makes Three hooked you with its crime and romance, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedBlack Cat, White Cat (1998)7.6/10 from 863 votes
- NewestOscar Shaw (2026)Released 2026
The Glass Key (1942)
A crooked politician finds himself being accused of murder by a gangster from whom he refused help during a re-election campaign.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLady in the Lake (1946)
Private eye Phillip Marlowe wants to get out of the detective racket and into crime writing. But when he's called to the office of editor Adrienne Fromsett, it's not to talk about his story ideas — she wants him to locate the missing wife of her boss, Mr. Kingsby. The assignment quickly becomes complicated when bodies start turning up.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Mirror Crack'd (1980)
Jane Marple solves the mystery when a local woman is poisoned and a visiting movie star seems to have been the intended victim.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPickup on South Street (1953)
In New York City, an insolent pickpocket, Skip McCoy, inadvertently sets off a chain of events when he targets ex-prostitute Candy and steals her wallet. Unaware that she has been making deliveries of highly classified information to the communists, Candy, who has been trailed by FBI agents for months in hopes of nabbing the spy ringleader, is sent by her ex-boyfriend, Joey, to find Skip and retrieve the valuable microfilm he now holds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMadigan (1968)
NYPD detectives Bonaro and Madigan lose their guns to fugitive Barney Benesch. As compensation, they are given a weekend to bring Benesch to justice. While they follow various leads, Police Commissioner Russell goes about his duties, including attending functions, meeting with aggrieved relatives, and counseling the spouses of fallen officers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Blue Lamp (1950)
P.C. George Dixon is a long-serving traditional copper who is due to retire shortly. He takes a new recruit under his aegis and introduces him to the easy-going night beat. Dixon is a classic ordinary hero but also anachronistic, unprepared and unable to answer the violence of the 1950s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIndemnity (2022)
An ex-fireman with PTSD goes on the run when accused of a crime he doesn't even remember committing, leading him down a rabbit hole of conspiracy to the highest degree.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisD.O.A. (1949)
Frank Bigelow is about to die, and he knows it. The accountant has been poisoned and has only 24 hours before the lethal concoction kills him. Determined to find out who his murderer is, Frank, with the help of his assistant and girlfriend, Paula, begins to trace back over his last steps. As he frantically tries to unravel the mystery behind his own impending demise, his sleuthing leads him to a group of crooked businessmen and another murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943)
During WWII several murders occur at a convalescent home where Dr. Watson has volunteered his services. He summons Holmes for help and the master detective proceeds to solve the crime from a long list of suspects including the owners of the home, the staff and the patients recovering there.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOscar Shaw (2026)
After retiring from the police force, a relentless detective haunted by the tragic loss of his closest friend sets out on a perilous quest for vengeance, seeking redemption and fighting to restore justice to the streets he once swore to protect.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Man Who Cheated Himself (1950)
A veteran homicide detective who has witnessed his socialite girlfriend kill her husband sees his inexperienced brother assigned to the case.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThis Gun for Hire (1942)
Sadistic killer-for-hire Philip Raven becomes enraged when his latest job is paid off in marked bills. Vowing to track down his double-crossing boss, nightclub executive Gates, Raven sits beside Gates' lovely new employee, Ellen, on a train out of town. Although Ellen is engaged to marry the police lieutenant who's hunting down Raven, she decides to try and set the misguided hit man straight as he hides from the cops and plots his revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942)
England, at the start of World War Two. Mysterious wireless broadcasts, apparently from Nazi Germany are heard over the BBC. They warn of acts of terror in England, just before they take place. Baffled, the Defense Committee call in Sherlock Holmes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNightfall (1956)
An innocent man turns fugitive as he reconstructs events that implicate him for a murder and robbery he did not commit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThunder Road (1958)
Unrepentant Tennessee moonshine runner Luke Doolin makes dangerous high-speed deliveries for his liquor-producing father, Vernon, but won't let his younger brother Robin join the family business. Under pressure from both out-of-town gangster Kogan, who wants a piece of the local action, and Treasury agent Barrett, who wants to destroy the moonshine business, Luke fights for his fast-fading way of life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe House of Fear (1945)
The Good Comrades are a collection of varied gentlemen who crave one thing - solitude. They reside at Drearcliff House, ancestral home of their eldest member. All seems serene and convivial until one by one the members begin to perish in the most grisly of manners. Foul play is suspected by the Good Comrades' insurance agent, who turns to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson for guidance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlack Angel (1946)
A falsely convicted man's wife, Catherine, and an alcoholic composer and pianist, Martin, team up in an attempt to clear her husband of the murder of a blonde singer, who is Martin's wife.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1942)
In the midst of World War II, Sherlock Holmes rescues the Swiss inventor of a new bomb-sight from the Gestapo and brings him to England, where he quickly falls into the clutches of the evil Professor Moriarty.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Blueprint for Murder (1953)
Whitney Cameron is in a quandary: he's attracted to his beautiful sister-in-law, Lynn, but also harbors serious suspicions about her. Her husband, Cameron's brother, died under mysterious circumstances, and now that the death of her stepchild, Polly, has been attributed to poisoning, he suspects that Lynn is after his late brother's estate, and killing everyone in her way.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSecret Agent (1936)
During World War I, a novelist declared dead is recruited by British intelligence and sent to Switzerland under a new identity to assassinate a German spy. Teamed with a fellow agent posing as his wife and an eccentric assassin known as “the General,” the trio close in on their target — until two of them grow ambivalent when their duty to the mission clashes with their consciences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBuffalo Soldiers (2002)
A criminal subculture operates among U.S. soldiers stationed in West Germany just before the fall of the Berlin wall.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEuropa (1991)
In 1945 Germany, following the end of World War II, Leopold Kessler, an American of German descent, is hired by his uncle as a sleeping car conductor on the Zentropa train line. Leopold's wish is to be neutral to the ongoing purges of loyalists by Allied forces and do what he can to help a hurting country, but ultimately finds himself being used by both sides.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thriller & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDon't Die (2023)
Jenks has been pushed to the brink by a system that does not care about him. Desperate for life-saving medicine, he resorts to robbing a small-town drug store. But when he injures a mysterious woman involved in a black market pharmacy, his attempts to save her life may end up jeopardizing his own.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & thriller
Great Freedom (2021)
In post-war Germany, liberation by the Allies does not mean freedom for everyone. Hans Hoffmann is repeatedly imprisoned under Paragraph 175, which criminalizes homosexuality. Nevertheless, over the decades, he continues his quest for freedom and love, even if he finds it in the most unusual places.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Murderers Are Among Us (1946)
After returning from a concentration camp, Susanne finds a traumatized ex-soldier living in her apartment in bombed out Berlin. Together the two try to move past their experiences during WWII.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlack Cat, White Cat (1998)
A small-time hustler makes a deal with a notorious gangster to whom he owes money: marry his teenage son to the latter's daughter. However, the young lovers are not as agreeable.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlack Gravel (1961)
Tensions rise when a U.S. military base is built in a small village in post-war Germany.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & thriller
Coma (1978)
When relatively healthy patients begin having 'complications' during simple operations and ending up in comas, a concerned doctor defies her male superiors when she suspects a secret plot.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Am Here (2015)
Successful businesswoman Maria has achieved everything except what she wants the most - a baby of her own. She decides to deal with the matter by herself and embarks on a desperate and dangerous journey in order to make her dream come true.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Devil Makes Three?
The closest matches to The Devil Makes Three are The Glass Key (1942), Lady in the Lake (1946) and The Mirror Crack'd (1980). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Devil Makes Three?
Start with The Glass Key (1942), the closest match to The Devil Makes Three.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Devil Makes Three?
Black Cat, White Cat (1998), rated 7.6/10 by 863 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Devil Makes Three?
Oscar Shaw (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Devil Makes Three?
Yes: The Glass Key (1942), Lady in the Lake (1946) and The Mirror Crack'd (1980).
How are movies similar to The Devil Makes Three chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Devil Makes Three, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.