A Criminal Is Born

A Criminal Is Born

A Criminal Is Born

Share

A Criminal Is Born

1938

0h 21m

8.0(3 votes)

Crime

Drama

Overview

An entry in MGM's Crime Does Not Pay series, this short tells the true story of how a young man, ignored by his parents, gets into a gang and starts a crime spree which leads to murder.

Links & Resources

Social & External

Production Companies

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Cast & Crew

12 members

Acting

George P. Breakston

Henry

George P. Breakston

Acting

David Durand

Rodney 'Rod'

David Durand

Acting

Norman Phillips Jr.

Tom

No Image

Acting

Warren McCollum

Jimmy Wheeler

No Image

Acting

Joseph Crehan

Frank Wheeler

Joseph Crehan

Acting

Dorothy Vaughan

Martha Wheeler

Dorothy Vaughan

Acting

Eddy Waller

Cafe Owner Joe

Eddy Waller

Acting

Ben Taggart

First Shooting Victim

Ben Taggart

Acting

Harry Strang

Cop

Harry Strang

Acting

Harry C. Bradley

Druggist (uncredited)

Harry C. Bradley

Acting

Eddy Chandler

Rod's Father (uncredited)

Eddy Chandler

Acting

William Stack

Judge Charles Edwin Marshall (uncredited)

William Stack

Similar Movies

Bonnie and Clyde

Bonnie and Clyde

In the 1930s, bored European-American waitress Bonnie Parker falls in love with a European-American ex-con named Clyde Barrow and together they start a violent crime spree through the country, stealing cars and robbing banks.

Once Were Warriors

Once Were Warriors

In a violent relationship, it takes a mother’s strength to save herself and her children from the man she loved. Once Were Warriors is a violent love story set against a contemporary urban backdrop.

Tough Enough

Tough Enough

From the youth directed novel of the same name by Greogor Tressnow comes a film by Detlev Buck that is a realistic portrait of life in the section of Berlin called Neukölln. It’s about power and weakness, delinquents and victims, and the difficulties a 15-year-old faces in a poor and criminal environment.

In the Heat of the Night

In the Heat of the Night

African-American Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs is arrested on suspicion of murder by Bill Gillespie, the racist police chief of tiny Sparta, Mississippi. After Tibbs proves not only his own innocence but that of another man, he joins forces with Gillespie to track down the real killer. Their investigation takes them through every social level of the town, with Tibbs making enemies as well as unlikely friends as he hunts for the truth.

Off the Record

Off the Record

After a socially conscience reporter adopts a slum orphan after she causes his brother's gang to go to prison.

Scream

Scream

A year after the murder of her mother, a teenage girl is terrorized by a masked killer who targets her and her friends by using scary movies as part of a deadly game.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Outlaw Jesse James is rumored to be the 'fastest gun in the West'. An eager recruit into James' notorious gang, Robert Ford eventually grows jealous of the famed outlaw and, when Robert and his brother sense an opportunity to kill James, their murderous action elevates their target to near mythical status.

Kill, Panther, Kill!

Kill, Panther, Kill!

Two rivals are out to recover a cache of stolen jewels. The thief who originally stole them has just gotten out of prison, however, and he is looking for his twin brother, who knows where the jewels are hidden. Complications ensue.

Jerry Cotton: Death and Diamonds

Jerry Cotton: Death and Diamonds

Sixth part of Jerry Cotton movies. Agent Jerry Cotton infiltrates a big crime syndicate that is planning a major diamond heist.

Shank

Shank

Teenage gang member Cal, hides his sexuality from his fellow gang members despite their often violent dislike of anyone that isn't the same as them, be they unsuspecting shoppers, foreign students, gays, etc. When his world collides with Olivier, a student he rescues from a pointless beating, he encounters a lifestyle that presents as many new experiences as it does obstacles.

Odds Against Tomorrow

Odds Against Tomorrow

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

Anyone Can Kill Me

Anyone Can Kill Me

The holdup of the bank is a success. All happened according to plan. Now, Cyril Gad and his four accomplices must secure an alibi. What better place than a prison cell? As a result the five gangsters have themselves arrested on minor charges and start waiting until they are released. Unfortunately three of them die mysteriously, another one is openly murdered. The only man still alive, Tony, is scared. Easy to understand why...

These Dangerous Years

These Dangerous Years

A Liverpool gang member wins a singing contest is then called up for National Service where he clashes with another soldier.

Highway 301

Highway 301

The "Tri-State" gang goes on a successful bank robbing streak causing local authorities to turn up the heat on the daring career criminals.

The Gravity

The Gravity

As a mysterious planetary alignment sets the sky on fire, two brothers are reunited with a childhood friend.

Dark Blue

Dark Blue

Set during the Rodney King riots, a robbery homicide investigation triggers a series of events that will cause a corrupt LAPD officer to question his tactics.

The Great Train Robbery

The Great Train Robbery

After the train station clerk is assaulted and left bound and gagged, then the departing train and its passengers robbed, a posse goes in hot pursuit of the fleeing bandits.

Newsies

Newsies

A week in the life of the exploited, child newspaper sellers in turn-of-the-century New York. When their publisher, Joseph Pulitzer, tries to squeeze a little more profit out of their labours, they organize a strike, only to be confronted with the Pulitzer's hard-ball tactics.

Godforsaken!

Godforsaken!

Two small town Dutch boys whose socially unnatural friendship is so close, they care nothing for human or divine rules and lose all grip on reality, sliding into violent crime.

Coffins on Wheels

Coffins on Wheels

Unscrupulous car dealers foist faulty and dangerous cars on an unsuspecting public.

Recommended Movies

Belly

Belly

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?

The Outsiders

The Outsiders

In 1960s Tulsa, class divisions ignite a violent rivalry between the working-class Greasers and the privileged Socs. When a deadly encounter forces two Greasers, Ponyboy and Johnny, to flee, their struggle for survival and redemption exposes the fragile innocence and enduring bonds of youth on the wrong side of town.

Bottle Rocket

Bottle Rocket

Dysfunctional friends Dignan and Anthony plan and execute a robbery with their pot-growing friend, Bob. The short film that inspired Wes Anderson’s feature debut.

The Place Beyond the Pines

The Place Beyond the Pines

A motorcycle stunt rider considers committing a crime in order to provide for his wife and child, an act that puts him on a collision course with a cop-turned-politician.

The Asphalt Jungle

The Asphalt Jungle

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.

The Damned Don't Cry

The Damned Don't Cry

Fed up with her small-town marriage, a woman goes after the big time and gets mixed up with the mob.

Dead End

Dead End

The lives of a young man and woman, an infamous gangster and a group of street kids converge one day in a volatile New York City slum.

Heist 88

Heist 88

A criminal mastermind recruits a group of young bank employees to steal 80 million dollars in one of the largest bank heist in US history.

What Doesn't Kill You

What Doesn't Kill You

Two childhood friends from South Boston turn to crime as a way to get by, ultimately causing a strain in their personal lives and their friendship.

South Central

South Central

During a 10-year sentence for murdering the leader of a rival South Central Los Angeles gang, Bobby Johnson finds religion and rehabilitation with the help of Muslim inmate Ali. Upon his release, Bobby returns home to find that his young son, Jimmie, has joined the Deuces, his old crew. Tensions rise as Bobby struggles to convince Jimmie to leave the gang that was his only family during the painful years his absent father spent behind bars.

True Believer

True Believer

Eddie Dodd is a burnt out former civil rights lawyer who now specializes in defending drug dealers. Roger Baron, newly graduated from law school, has followed Eddie's great cases and now wants to learn at his feet. With Roger's idealistic prodding, Eddie reluctantly takes on a case of a young Korean man who, according to his mother, has been in jail for eight years for a murder he didn't commit.

Avengement

Avengement

While on a prison furlough, a lowly criminal evades his guards and returns to his old stomping ground to take revenge on the people who turned him into a cold blooded killer.

Tough Guys

Tough Guys

Harry Doyle and Archie Lang are two old-time train robbers, who held up a train in 1956 and have been incarcerated for thirty years. After serving their time, they are released from jail and have to adjust to a new life of freedom. and soon realize that they still have the pizzazz when, picking up their prison checks at a bank, they foil a robbery attempt.

Little Caesar

Little Caesar

A small-time hood shoots his way to the top, but how long can he stay there?

Rumble Fish

Rumble Fish

Absent-minded street thug Rusty James struggles to live up to his legendary older brother's reputation, and longs for the days of gang warfare.

Take the Money and Run

Take the Money and Run

Virgil Starkwell is intent on becoming a notorious bank robber. Unfortunately for Virgil and his not-so-budding career, he is completely incompetent.

Johnny Dangerously

Johnny Dangerously

An honest, goodhearted man is forced to turn to a life of crime to finance his neurotic mother's skyrocketing medical bills.

Juice

Juice

Four Harlem friends -- Bishop, Q, Steel and Raheem -- dabble in petty crime, but they decide to go big by knocking off a convenience store. Bishop, the magnetic leader of the group, has the gun. But Q has different aspirations. He wants to be a DJ and happens to have a gig the night of the robbery. Unfortunately for him, Bishop isn't willing to take no for answer in a game where everything's for keeps.

Bad Boys

Bad Boys

Mick O'Brien is a young Chicago street thug torn between a life of petty crime and the love of his girlfriend. But when the heist of a local drug dealer goes tragically wrong Mick is sentenced to a brutal juvenile prison where violence is a rite of passage and respect is measured in vengeance.

Sleepless

Sleepless

Undercover Las Vegas police officer Vincent Downs, who has a lot of enemies, is caught in a high stakes web of corrupt cops and the mob-controlled casino underground. When a heist goes wrong, a crew of homicidal gangsters kidnap Downs’ teenage son T. In one sleepless night, Downs will have to rescue his son, evade an internal affairs investigation, and bring the kidnappers to justice.