Underworld

Underworld (1927) is Josef von Sternberg's silent crime drama, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Prohibition-era Chicago belongs to bank robber Bull Weed, a loud brute who rules the night and pulls a drunk off the gutter on a whim.

That drunk is a ruined lawyer Bull nicknames Rolls-Royce. Sober and sharp, he becomes the brains behind the gang, planning the jobs his boss used to muscle through. Then loyalty curdles: Rolls-Royce and Bull's girl, known as Feathers, fall for each other, and the bond that held the crew together turns into a trap. George Bancroft plays Weed as an overgrown kid with a gun; Evelyn Brent and Clive Brook carry the quieter, deadlier half of the story.

Film historians treat this as the seed of the entire gangster genre, years ahead of Scarface or The Godfather. Ben Hecht's script took home the very first Academy Award for Best Original Story. There isn't a line of spoken dialogue in it — the whole thing runs on glances, shadows and silhouettes, which is exactly why it still grips. Stream Underworld (1927) online on iFILM.