The Set-Up
Expecting the usual loss, a boxing manager takes bribes from a betting gangster without telling his fighter.
Movies Like The Set-Up
Similar in style, tone, and themes — find your next watch.
99 River Street
1953★ 6.8
A former boxer turned taxi driver earns the scorn of his nagging wife and gets mixed up with jewel thieves.
Body and Soul
1947★ 6.7
Charley Davis, against the wishes of his mother, becomes a boxer. As he becomes more successful the fighter becomes surrounded by shady characters, including an unethical promoter named Roberts, who tempt the man with a number of vices. Charley finds himself faced with increasingly difficult choices.
Champion
1949★ 6.7
An unscrupulous boxer fights his way to the top, but eventually alienates all of the people who helped him on the way up.
711 Ocean Drive
1950★ 6.4
A telephone repairman in Los Angeles uses his knowledge of electronics to help a bookie set up a betting operation. After the bookie is murdered, the greedy technician takes over his business. He ruthlessly climbs his way to the top of the local crime syndicate, but then gangsters from a big East Coast mob show up wanting a piece of his action.
Framed
1947★ 6.5
Truck driver Mike Lambert is a down-and-out mining engineer searching for a job. When his rig breaks down in a small town, he happens upon a venomous seductress. When her boyfriend robs a bank, they intend to frame Lambert.
Hell Drivers
1957★ 6.7
An ex-con trying to go clean ends up working for a crooked trucking company swindling money.
Hollow Triumph
1948★ 6.6
Pursued by the big-time gambler he robbed, John Muller assumes a new identity—with unfortunate results.
Johnny Eager
1941★ 6.2
A charming racketeer seduces the DA's stepdaughter for revenge, then falls in love.
Plunder Road
1957★ 7.0
A spectacular heist starts to unravel as the crooks take it on the lam.
The Big Combo
1955★ 7.0
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.
Pitfall
1948★ 6.9
An insurance man wishing for a more exciting life becomes wrapped up in the affairs of an imprisoned embezzler, his model girlfriend, and a violent private investigator.
Cry of the City
1948★ 6.7
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?
5 Against the House
1955★ 5.9
Former war-time Army buddies now students in college decide to rip off a Reno casino.
Nightfall
1956★ 6.9
An innocent man turns fugitive as he reconstructs events that implicate him for a murder and robbery he did not commit.
The Big Knife
1955★ 6.0
Movie star Charlie Castle draws the ire of Hollywood producer Stanley Hoff when he refuses to sign a new seven-year contract. Castle is sick of the low quality of the studio's films and wants to start a new life. While his estranged wife supports him in the decision, Castle's talent agent urges him to reconsider. When Castle continues to be uncooperative, Hoff resorts to blackmail in order to get his way.
The Damned Don't Cry
1950★ 7.0
Fed up with her small-town marriage, a woman goes after the big time and gets mixed up with the mob.
Tokyo Joe
1949★ 6.1
An American veteran returns to Tokyo to try to pick up the threads of his pre-World War II life there, but finds himself squeezed between criminals and the authorities.
Kid Galahad
1962★ 6.1
After completing his military service, Walter Gulick takes a job as a sparring partner at a gym, the owner of which sees potential in Walter as a professional fighter—and takes him under his wing.
They Made Me a Fugitive
1947★ 6.6
After being framed for a policeman's murder, a criminal escapes prison and sets out for revenge.
The Champ
1979★ 7.0
Billy used to be a great boxer, but he's settled into a hardscrabble life that revolves around drinking, training horses, and the one bright spot in his existence — his young son, T.J. Although Billy has had custody of T.J. since his wife, Annie, left the family years ago, her return prompts a new struggle for the former fighter. Determined to hold on to his son, Billy gets back into the ring to try and recapture his past success.