Think First (1939)

In this MGM Crime Does Not Pay series short, a protection racket preying on milk distribution is broken through the persistence of law enforcement and the courage of a local businessman.

Racketeers muscle in on construction business, use inferior materials, make big profits and endanger the public safety.

In this MGM Crime Does Not Pay series short, a man and his racketeer buddies devise a scheme to bilk those already seemingly desperate for money of what little they have.

After Police Captain Dan McLaren becomes police commissioner, former detective Johnny Blake publicly punches him, convincing rackets boss Al Kruger that Blake is sincere in his effort to join the mob. "Bugs" Fenner, meanwhile, is certain that Blake is a police agent.

Former bootlegger Dutch Barnes pressures neighborhood druggist Jimmy Morrell into making cut-rate knockoff toiletry, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical products.

James “Brick” Davis, a struggling attorney, owes his education to a mobster, but always has refused to get involved with the underworld. When a friend of his is gunned down by a notorious criminal, Brick decides to abandon the exercise of the law and join the Department of Justice to capture the murderer.

In this Crime Does Not Pay series entry, John Jones is an up and coming businessman who drinks too much but denies he has a problem. One day he mixes drinking and driving, and the tragic consequences hit very close to home.

This entry in MGM's "Crime Does Not Pay" series deals with illegal gambling and bookmaking.

This MGM Crime Does Not Pay series short features a big city crime boss's attempt to use his crime "machine" to fraudulently win reelection for the current corrupt mayor. By using several illegal tactics, and aided by voter apathy, the crime boss nearly continues his control of the city.

Dan Adams resigns his position as prosecutor on the district attorney's staff and sets out to clean up a gang of fake-accident racketeers. He gets a job with an insurance company, and assures the company president he will get the goods on the gang or die in the attempt. At the company offices, he meets Carol Carter and she, believing he is a shyster (possibly redundant) lawyer in the employ of the racketeers gives him as little help as possible. Dan visits his brother Eddie, who is mixed up with the gang and tries to make him break away. Eddie is belligerent but finally, because of the pressure brought by Dan and his wife Tonia, agrees to go straight. The gang, led by "Duke" Trotti, fears he will squeal and they kill him, plus they make his death look like an accident and plan to collect on it. Dan is closing in on the gang when Carol, who is now his assistant, comes up with some conclusive evidence, but "Duke" has plans to get rid of her before she can give the information to Dan.

In this MGM "Crime Does Not Pay" series short, a radio and television engineer falls into a life of crime by dismantling alarms for robberies.

This MGM Crime Does Not Pay series short looks at the U.S. Department of Immigration's efforts to halt the smuggling of illegal aliens into the country. Desperate immigrants, tired of waiting for legal entry, pay exorbitant fees and risk a grisly death to enter by illegal means.

This Crime Does Not Pay short shows how cooperation among all the nations of the Americas helps the war effort. In this case, a US government agent travels to Chile and Colombia. He works with local authorities to try to thwart an Axis plan to ship stolen ammunition.

A temporary laborer who helps bring down a mob-sponsored employment racket

This entry in MGM's "Crime Does Not Pay" series deals with racketeers shaking down small grocers and horning in on the relief tickets, forcing prices up with the consumers paying the freight.

In this MGM Crime Does Not Pay series short, doctors scam patients with a fake cure for cancer.

In this MGM Crime Does Not Pay series short, police go after a fraud operation that stages automobile accidents to collect insurance money.

An embezzler who expects to serve his time in prison and then pick up his buried loot is in for a surprise.

From MGM's "Crime Does Not Pay" series. Mobsters convince a meat packing company employee to help them hijack a truckload of beef.

The MGM crime reporter introduces Norman Kennedy, District Attorney of a large city, he who talks about the general want for money, and the extraordinary lengths some will go to to get it. The loan sharking business has that want for money on both sides. He tells the story of one such loan shark, Stephen Hanley, who tried to pass his company off as a legitimate loan business, but who charged exorbitant rates, and used extortion and fraud to get out of his customers even more than what they may have owed on paper.