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High and Low poster

Movies that feel likeHigh and Low (1963)

A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but demand the ransom anyway.

If you loved High and Low, the closest films we have are Stray Dog (1949), The Lady from Shanghai (1947) and The Big Sleep (1946). All three share High and Low's gritty and tense 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).

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If High and Low hit the spot, these will too

Stray Dog poster
Stray Dog
1949 · dir. Akira Kurosawa
🍅 100%★ 7.8crime · drama · thriller

The same hand behind both of them: Akira Kurosawa

A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose desperation has led him to a life of crime. With each step, cop and criminal’s lives become more intertwined and the investigation becomes an examination of Murakami’s own dark side.

The Lady from Shanghai poster
The Lady from Shanghai
1947 · dir. Orson Welles
🍅 86%★ 7.5mystery · crime · thriller

The same preoccupation in both: film noir

A romantic drifter gets caught between a corrupt tycoon and his voluptuous wife.

The Big Sleep poster
The Big Sleep
1946 · dir. Howard Hawks
🍅 96%★ 7.9mystery · crime · thriller

One thread runs through both: blackmail

The difference: Trades the stillness of High and Low for an angle of its own

Private Investigator Philip Marlowe is hired by wealthy General Sternwood regarding a matter involving his youngest daughter Carmen. Before the complex case is over, Marlowe sees murder, blackmail, deception, and what might be love.

The Naked City poster
The Naked City
1948 · dir. Jules Dassin
🍅 85%★ 7.5crime · mystery · thrillerMax

Both keep coming back to the same thing: film noir

After a former model is drowned in her bathtub, Detective James Halloran and Lieutenant Dan Muldoon attempt to piece together her murder.

Shadow of a Doubt poster
Shadow of a Doubt
1943 · dir. Alfred Hitchcock
🍅 100%★ 7.8thriller · mystery · crime

The same mix in both: grit, then tension

The difference: Made in the 1940s, in a different era of the craft

In sleepy Santa Rosa, restless young Charlie’s world brightens when her sophisticated Uncle Charlie arrives for a long visit. But as his behavior grows increasingly strange, she begins to suspect that her beloved uncle may be hiding a terrible secret—and that danger has quietly entered her home.

Blast of Silence poster
Blast of Silence
1961 · dir. Allen Baron
🍅 83%★ 7.4crime · drama · thriller

Contemplative where it counts, atmospheric underneath

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 Killers poster
The Killers
1946 · dir. Robert Siodmak
🍅 97%★ 7.7crime · mystery · thriller

Common ground: black and white

Two hit men walk into a diner asking for a man called "the Swede". When the killers find the Swede, he's expecting them and doesn't put up a fight. Since the Swede had a life insurance policy, an investigator, on a hunch, decides to look into the murder. As the Swede's past is laid bare, it comes to light that he was in love with a beautiful woman who may have lured him into pulling off a bank robbery overseen by another man.

Odd Man Out poster
Odd Man Out
1947 · dir. Carol Reed
🍅 100%★ 7.6crime · drama · thrillerMax

Both are built on the same subject: black and white

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

Touch of Evil poster
Touch of Evil
1958 · dir. Orson Welles
🍅 96%★ 7.9crime · thriller · dramaPrime Video

Both lean on stillness more than on drama

A border-town bombing draws Mexican investigator Miguel Vargas into a corruption-ridden police investigation led by crooked captain Hank Quinlan, setting off a deadly struggle over power, justice, and truth.

Le Samouraï poster
Le Samouraï
1967 · dir. Jean-Pierre Melville
🍅 92%★ 8crime · thriller · dramaPrime VideoMax

Common ground: police

After carrying out a flawlessly planned hit, Jef Costello, a contract killer with samurai instincts, finds himself caught between a persistent police investigator and a ruthless employer, and not even his armor of fedora and trench coat can protect him.

Shoot the Piano Player poster
Shoot the Piano Player
1960 · dir. François Truffaut
🍅 90%★ 7.4drama · thriller · crimeMax

Crime built on grit, twice over

Charlie is a former classical pianist who has changed his name and now plays jazz in a grimy Paris bar. When Charlie's brothers, Richard and Chico, surface and ask for Charlie's help while on the run from gangsters they have scammed, he aids their escape. Soon Charlie and Lena, a waitress at the same bar, face trouble when the gangsters arrive, looking for his brothers.

Le Doulos poster
Le Doulos
1962 · dir. Jean-Pierre Melville
🍅 96%★ 7.7drama · thriller · crime

Tense thriller, and it commits to that

Enigmatic gangster Silien may or may not be responsible for informing on Faugel, who was just released from prison and is already involved in what should be a simple heist. By the end of this brutal, twisting, and multilayered policier, who will be left to trust?

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The best-reviewed films that share High and Low’s defining feeling.