poverty row
17 movies and shows
The 13th Man
Tue, 29 Jun 1937
A tough district attorney has been cleaning up the town, and has already imprisoned twelve dangerous criminals. As he is about to name the target for his next investigation, he is murdered in the midst of a crowd. The police have many suspects and hardly any clues, so two reporters decide to investigate for themselves.
The Border Menace
Sun, 01 Apr 1934
Ranger Bill Williams goes to prison to get information on Chuck Adams. Then a fake posse chase gets him invited into Adams' gang. But just as he learns who Adams' boss is and is about to make his move, his cell mate who escaped from prison returns to identify him.
They Never Come Back
Tue, 10 May 1932
Prizefighter Jimmy Nolan, facing an opportunity to get a championship fight, is knocked out when he sustains what is apparently a permanent injury to his arm. From there, Nolan's path leads downhill. He is drawn into a romance with a nightclub entertainer, then is framed on a theft charge by a jealous suitor. After his prison term, Nolan makes a spectacular comeback in a fight which proves his courage and integrity, while disproving the fallacy about the old sports adage that "they never come back."
Air Eagles
Sun, 20 Dec 1931
Two former WWI aces from opposite sides, Bill Ramsey and Otto Shumann, in the best tradition of Eddie Rickenbacker and the Red Baron, barnstorm their way across the Poverty Row skies of middle-America while competing for daredevil honors and the favors of the lovely Eve.
The Stone Face
Mon, 03 Sep 1973
After losing his son in a traffic accident and his wife to mental illness, Harry moves to a gloomy Stockholm suburb. A local youth gang is harassing the neighborhood and Harry comes up with the idea of hiring the gang to kill the bureaucrats who are responsible for the construction of the suburb. The film is a fierce critique of the political project of building suburbs designed only for workers to sleep in and also wants to have a say in the debate over nature vs nurture.
White Zombie
Thu, 28 Jul 1932
A wealthy landowner living in Haiti convinces a sorcerer to lure the woman he has fallen for away from her fiancé. The madman later betrays their agreement by keeping the woman for himself…As a zombie.
Porgy and Bess
Wed, 20 Mar 2002
In the early 1900s, the fictional Catfish Row section of Charleston, South Carolina serves as home to a black fishing community. Crippled beggar Porgy, who travels about in a goat-drawn cart, loves the drug-addicted Bess, who lives with stevedore Crown, the local bully.
Sheer Luck
Mon, 26 Jan 1931
Two milkmen foil a prohibition raid set-up; one finds romance with a society deb in the bargain.
Miracle in Harlem
Mon, 29 Nov 1948
A crooked real estate tycoon tricks a trusting young woman out of her small candy store. When he is found dead, the girl is suspected of the crime.
Bowery at Midnight
Fri, 30 Oct 1942
A seemingly charitable soup kitchen operator (who moonlights as a criminology professor) uses his Bowery mission as a front for his criminal gang. Police attempt to close in on the gang as they commit a series of robberies, murders and bizarre experiments on corpses.
Across The Rio Grande
Sat, 14 May 1949
Outlaws attempting to kidnap Steve Blaine from a stagecoach are ran off by the sharpshooting of his sister, Sally and rescuers Jimmy Wakely and Cannonball Taylor. Steve is investigating his father's sudden death after charges of theft from the Sloan/Carson mine. Sloan is killed after Wakely learns that ore is being smuggled across the Mexican border into the mine, and then sold at the higher U.S. prices
The Devil Diamond
Fri, 15 Jan 1937
A group of thugs tries to steal the cursed title gem from a jeweler who has been hired to cut it into small, saleable pieces.
Edgar G. Ulmer: The Man Off-Screen
Sat, 04 Sep 2004
Documentary on the life and work of B-movie filmmaker Edgar G. Ulmer, spanning from his early life to his last film.
The Moth
Sun, 14 Jan 1934
Wealthy young socialite Diane Wyman squanders her fortune and becomes involved in a scandalous raid at a wild party. Her legal guardian, a lecherous old man who has the hots for her, hires a private detective to spy on her. He tails her to a train headed for New Orleans, but she catches on to him. She befriends a young woman aboard the train and they both give the private eye the slip. What Diane doesn't know, however, is that that her newfound friend is actually a notorious criminal known as The Moth, and she has her own reasons for helping Diane escape--she, too, is being tailed by a detective, who's after a cache of jewels she's stolen.
The Lone Rider and the Bandit
Fri, 16 Jan 1942
A singing cowboy and his sidekick rescue miners from a bad deal.
The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess
Sun, 19 Apr 2009
In the early 1900s, the fictional Catfish Row section of Charleston, South Carolina serves as home to a black fishing community. Crippled beggar Porgy, who travels about in a goat-drawn cart, loves the drug-addicted Bess, who lives with stevedore Crown, the local bully.