A Life in the Balance

Watch Movie

A Life in the Balance

"A killer with the cunning of a maniac. A little boy with the courage of a lion."

1955

1h 14m

6.4(9 votes)

Crime

Mystery

Thriller

Overview

A widower's young son leads the police to a killer of sinners in Mexico City.

Links & Resources

IMDbView

Social & External

IMDb

Production Companies

Cast & Crew

13 members

Acting

Ricardo Montalban

Antonio Gómez

Acting

Anne Bancroft

María Ibinia

Acting

Lee Marvin

The Killer

Acting

José Pérez

Paco Gómez

Acting

Rodolfo Acosta

Lt. Fernando

Acting

Carlos Múzquiz

Capt. Saldana

Acting

Jorge Treviño

Sergeant

No Image

Acting

José Torvay

Andrés Martínez

Acting

Eva Calvo

Carla Arlota

No Image

Acting

Fanny Schiller

Carmen Martínez

Acting

Tamara Garina

Doña Lucrecia

Acting

Pascual García Peña

Porter (as Pascual G. Pena)

Acting

Tony Carbajal

Pedro (as Antonio Carbajal)

Similar Movies

7.1

2022

Girl in the Picture

A young mother’s mysterious death and her son’s subsequent kidnapping blow open a decades-long mystery about the woman’s true identity, and the murderous federal fugitive at the center of it all.

Movie

10.0

1991

Writer's Block

A female writer of popular thrillers decides that it is time to kill off one of her characters, a serial killer who has appeared in many of her recent books. Soon afterward, she finds herself pursued by a copy-cat serial killer.

Movie

6.1

1952

The Hour of 13

1890, London, and a serial killer known as The Terror is murdering policemen. When gentleman thief Nicholas Revel unwittingly becomes the chief suspect, he must use his guile and wits to prove he’s not the killer; whilst also not getting caught for a jewel robbery he has just committed.

Movie

2.0

2017

Fletcher and Jenks

Starring George Jac, Kayla Schaffroth and directed by Tony Olmos. When an over-eager recruit is matched up with an absent-minded detective, the well-meaning pair end up doing more harm than good.

Movie

6.0

1987

Best Seller

Hit man Cleve approaches writer/cop Dennis about a story for his next book: How Cleve made a living, working for one of the most powerful politicians in the country. To get the story right, they travel around the country to gather statements and evidence, while strong forces use any means they can to keep the story untold.

Movie

6.4

2017

Lucid Dream

Dae-ho, an investigative journalist, seeks to track down the whereabouts of his son who was abducted three years ago. With the help of a detective and a psychiatrist friend, he will retrace his memory of the incident through the use of lucid dreaming techniques.

Movie

5.4

1970

The Females

A young woman joins an exclusive women's health clinic only to discover it's run by feminist cannibals.

Movie

7.3

1969

Deadly Shots on Broadway

An FBI agent is killed by the mob after making off with five million in gold bars in a robbery gone bad. Agent Jerry Cotton is called in to bring the gang to justice and find out where his dead pal hid the missing gold.

Movie

7.5

1996

Thesis

While working on a thesis about audiovisual violence, film student Ángela finds a snuff video where a girl is tortured until death. Soon she discovers that she was a former student in her university, and that the authors of the video are not very far either.

Movie

6.8

1991

The Last Boy Scout

Somewhere in Los Angeles, the city of broken dreams, a stripper is murdered. Now, the private detective she had hired and her ex-footballer boyfriend are going to find her murderer... if they don't kill each other first. But the more they dig, the deeper they become enmeshed in a web of extortion, blackmail and corrupt politics hidden beneath the surface of professional football.

Movie

6.8

1999

The Bone Collector

Lincoln Rhyme was the department's top homicide detective and leading expert in criminal forensics until an injury left him paralyzed, depressed, and incapable of working. But when a gruesome murder in Manhattan leaves detectives baffled, they call on Rhyme to help solve the mystery. Amelia Donaghy, a rookie cop whose quick thinking preserved a gruesome murder scene, is enlisted by Rhyme to be his on-the-scene forensics expert. With Amelia reluctantly acting as Rhyme's able-bodied go-between, the pair piece together cryptic clues the killer leaves behind at the scene of the crime, hoping to catch the grisly serial killer.

Movie

6.6

1991

The People Under the Stairs

Trapped inside a fortified home owned by a mysterious couple, a young boy quickly learns the true nature of the homicidal inhabitants, and secret creatures hidden deep within the walls.

Movie

5.9

1992

Split Second

In a flooded future London, Detective Harley Stone hunts a serial killer who murdered his partner and has haunted him ever since — but he soon discovers what he is hunting might not be human.

Movie

7.5

2004

Man on Fire

Jaded ex-CIA operative John Creasy reluctantly accepts a job as the bodyguard for a 10-year-old girl in Mexico City. They clash at first, but eventually bond, and when she's kidnapped he's consumed by fury and will stop at nothing to save her life.

Movie

6.3

2005

The Matador

The life of Danny Wright, a salesman forever on the road, veers into dangerous and surreal territory when he wanders into a Mexican bar and meets a mysterious stranger, Julian, who's very likely a hit man. Their meeting sets off a chain of events that will change their lives forever, as Wright is suddenly thrust into a far-from-mundane existence that he takes to surprisingly well … once he gets acclimated to it.

Movie

7.5

1993

A Perfect World

A kidnapped boy strikes up a friendship with his captor: an escaped convict on the run from the law, headed by an honorable U.S. Marshal.

Movie

6.2

2002

Blood Work

Still recovering from a heart transplant, a retired FBI profiler returns to service when his own blood analysis offers clues to the identity of a serial killer.

Movie

6.9

2005

Unleashed

Raised as a slave, Danny is used to fighting for his survival. In fact, his "master," Bart, thinks of him as a pet and goes as far as leashing him with a collar so they can make money in fight clubs, where Danny is the main contender. When Bart's crew is in a car accident, Danny escapes and meets a blind, kindhearted piano tuner who takes him in and uses music to free the fighter's long-buried heart.

Movie

4.3

2006

Attack Force

Marshall Lawson is the commander of an elite military unit. Marshall Lawson loses his strike-team in a cold-blooded and seemingly random attack, and he takes it upon himself to investigate the attack, with the help of his girlfriend Tia and his friend Dwayne.

Movie

7.2

1992

Man Bites Dog

The activities of rampaging, indiscriminate serial killer Ben are recorded by a willingly complicit documentary team, who eventually become his accomplices and active participants. Ben provides casual commentary on the nature of his work and arbitrary musings on topics of interest to him, such as music or the conditions of low-income housing, and even goes so far as to introduce the documentary crew to his family. But their reckless indulgences soon get the better of them.

Movie

Recommended Movies

6.0

2012

The Tall Man

When her child goes missing, a mother looks to unravel the legend of the Tall Man, an entity who allegedly abducts children.

Movie

7.5

2004

Man on Fire

Movie

6.5

1989

Cohen and Tate

A boy kidnapped by two mismatched hitmen puts them at each other's throats while being driven to their employers, possibly to be killed. Cohen, an older professional becomes increasingly irritated with his partner Tate, a brutish killer, when their prisoner uses unnatural guile and resourcefulness to play them off against each other.

Movie

6.3

2012

6 Bullets

An ex-mercenary known for finding missing children is hired by a mixed martial arts fighter whose daughter has been kidnapped.

Movie

6.9

2025

Barron's Cove

When his young son is viciously murdered by a classmate, a grieving father with a history of violence kidnaps the child responsible, igniting a frenzied manhunt fueled by a powerful politician -- the father of the kidnapped boy.

Movie

5.9

2022

Mindcage

Detectives Jake Doyle and Mary Kelly seek the help of an incarcerated serial killer named The Artist when a copycat killer strikes. While Mary searches for clues in The Artist's brilliant but twisted psyche, she and Jake are lured into a diabolical game of cat and mouse, racing against time to stay one step ahead of The Artist and his copycat.

Movie

6.4

1951

M

Remake of the 1931 Fritz Lang original. In the city, someone is murdering children. The Police search is so intense, it is disturbing the 'normal' criminals, and the local hoods decide to help find the murderer as quickly as possible.

Movie

6.3

2021

The Girl Who Got Away

A female serial killer who killed four young girls is sent away to prison, but a fifth victim escaped with her life. Twenty years later, the killer escapes and begins hunting for the one who got away.

Movie

6.1

2023

God Is a Bullet

Vice detective Bob Hightower finds his ex-wife murdered and daughter kidnapped by a cult. Frustrated by the botched official investigations, he quits the force and infiltrates the cult to hunt down the leader with the help of the cult’s only female victim escapee, Case Hardin.

Movie

7.5

1993

A Perfect World

A kidnapped boy strikes up a friendship with his captor: an escaped convict on the run from the law, headed by an honorable U.S. Marshal.

Movie

6.4

2024

Cult Killer

A private investigator is forced into a dangerous alliance with a killer in order to uncover a quiet town’s grisly criminal underbelly and clear the name of her mentor, who is implicated in the crimes.

Movie

6.3

2014

A Walk Among the Tombstones

Private investigator Matthew Scudder is hired by a drug kingpin to find out who kidnapped and murdered his wife.

Movie

6.1

1946

Black Angel

A falsely convicted man's wife, Catherine, and an alcoholic composer and pianist, Martin, team up in an attempt to clear her husband of the murder of a blonde singer, who is Martin's wife.

Movie

7.3

2012

The Imposter

In 1994, a 13-year-old boy disappeared without a trace from his home in San Antonio, Texas. Three-and-a-half years later, he is found alive in a village in southern Spain with a horrifying story of kidnap and torture. His family is overjoyed to bring him home. But all is not quite as it seems.

Movie

6.4

2015

Secret in Their Eyes

A tight-knit team of FBI investigators, along with their District Attorney supervisor, is suddenly torn apart when they discover that one of their own teenage daughters has been brutally murdered.

Movie

6.7

2023

The Black Book

After his son is wrongly accused of kidnapping, a deacon who has just lost his wife takes matters into his own hands and fights a crooked police gang to clear him.

Movie

6.1

2014

Every Secret Thing

One clear summer day in a Baltimore suburb, a baby goes missing from her front porch. Two young girls serve seven years for the crime and are released into a town that hasn't fully forgiven or forgotten. Soon, another child is missing, and two detectives are called in to investigate the mystery in a community where everyone seems to have a secret.

Movie

6.8

1997

The Wrong Guy

Nelson Hibbert expects to become the new president of Nagel Industries, but Mr. Nagel gives the promotion to another employee. When Nelson barges into Nagel's office to confront him, he finds Nagel's been murdered. Fearing that he will be implicated, Nelson decides to run from the law...despite the fact that the police already know the killer's identity.

Movie

6.2

1983

Vigilante

New York City factory worker Eddie Marino is a solid citizen and regular guy, until the day a sadistic street gang brutally assaults his wife and murders his child. When a corrupt judge sets the thugs free, he goes berserk and vows revenge.

Movie

7.0

1996

From Dusk Till Dawn

After kidnapping a father and his two kids, the Gecko brothers head south to a seedy Mexican bar to hide out in safety, unaware of its notorious clientele.

Movie