Movies that feel likeThe Set-Up (1949)

Name: The Set-Up
Director: Robert Wise
Genre: drama, crime
Released: 1949

Expecting the usual loss, a boxing manager takes bribes from a betting gangster without telling his fighter.

If you loved The Set-Up, the closest films we have are Odds Against Tomorrow (1959), Force of Evil (1950) and The Big Combo (1955). All three share The Set-Up's contemplative and gritty feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Blast of Silence (1961).

🍅 85% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.8 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Robert Wisecontemplative gritty atmospheric

8 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Amazon Prime Video · Criterion Channel

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See it on the Mood Map

If The Set-Up hit the spot, these will too

Odds Against Tomorrow

1959 · dir. Robert Wise

🍅 88%★ 7.4crime · drama · thriller

The same hand behind both of them: Robert Wise

The difference: Sits closer to thriller than The Set-Up does

An old-time crook plans a heist. When one of his two partners is found out to be a black man tensions flare.

Force of Evil

1950 · dir. Abraham Polonsky

🍅 100%★ 7.2crime · drama

Common ground: film noir

Lawyer Joe Morse wants to consolidate all the small-time numbers racket operators into one big powerful operation. But his elder brother Leo is one of these small-time operators who wants to stay that way, preferring not to deal with the gangsters who dominate the big-time.

The Big Combo

1955 · dir. Joseph H. Lewis

🍅 93%★ 7.3drama · crime

One thread runs through both: film noir

Police Lt. Leonard Diamond vies to bring a clever, well connected, and sadistic gangster to justice all the while obsessing over the gangster's girlfriend.

Fat City

1972 · dir. John Huston

🍅 100%★ 7.2drama

Both are working the same pair: transporter, sports

The difference: Trades the grit of The Set-Up for an angle of its own

The story of two men, a veteran boxer who is down and out, and a young man who is just starting his life and boxing career. Their fighting careers cross paths as their lives and fortunes head in opposite directions.

Scarlet Street

1945 · dir. Fritz Lang

🍅 100%★ 7.7drama · crimePrime Video

The same mix in both: stillness, then grit

Cashier and part-time starving artist Christopher Cross is absolutely smitten with the beautiful Kitty March. Kitty plays along, but she's really only interested in Johnny, a two-bit crook. When Kitty and Johnny find out that art dealers are interested in Chris's work, they con him into letting Kitty take credit for the paintings. Cross allows it because he is in love with Kitty, but his love will only let her get away with so much.

Mildred Pierce

1945 · dir. Michael Curtiz

🍅 88%★ 7.9crime · drama

Atmospheric drama, and it commits to that

A hard-working mother inches towards disaster as she divorces her husband and starts a successful restaurant business to support her spoiled daughter.

Angels with Dirty Faces

1938 · dir. Michael Curtiz

🍅 100%★ 7.8crime · drama

Both lean on stillness more than on crime

Childhood chums Rocky Sullivan and Jerry Connelly grow up on opposite sides of the fence: Rocky matures into a prominent gangster, while Jerry becomes a priest, tending to the needs of his old tenement neighborhood.

Odd Man Out

1947 · dir. Carol Reed

🍅 100%★ 7.6crime · drama · thrillerMax

Drama built on grit, twice over

Belfast police conduct a door-to-door manhunt for an IRA gunman wounded in a daring robbery.

The Asphalt Jungle

1950 · dir. John Huston

🍅 98%★ 7.8crime · drama

Atmospheric crime in both cases

Recently paroled from prison, legendary burglar "Doc" Riedenschneider, with funding from Alonzo Emmerich, a crooked lawyer, gathers a small group of veteran criminals together in the Midwest for a big jewel heist.

Blast of Silence

1961 · dir. Allen Baron

🍅 83%★ 7.4crime · drama · thriller

Drama with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

A hired killer from Cleveland has a job to do on a second-string mob boss in New York. But a special girl from his past and a fat gun dealer with pet rats get in his way.

The Big Risk

1960 · dir. Claude Sautet

🍅 100%★ 7.5crime

Gritty crime, and it commits to that

Two men pull off a daring daylight payroll heist in Milan, making a fast getaway. One is returning to France after years in hiding, needing money to start fresh with his family.