8 Movies Banned For Telling You How To Commit A Crime

Fritz Lang's 1933 classic crime thriller The Testament of Dr. Mabuse is focused on the titular criminal mastermind (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), who while incarcerated in an asylum writes a megalomaniacal manifesto promoting crime and terrorism which is then enacted by his supporters on the outside.

It's generally accepted that Lang was using Mabuse as a proxy for the Nazi agenda, the doctor's insane screed even paraphrasing Hitler's 1925 book "Mein Kampf" in parts, such that the German Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, swiftly banned the film.

Given that the film is focused on a small group, led by Inspector Lohmann (Otto Wernicke), fighting back against Mabuse's tyrannical plans, Goebbels' official reason for the ban was because it "showed that an extremely dedicated group of people are perfectly capable of overthrowing any state with violence", and therefore "[presented] criminal acts so detailed and fascinating that they might tempt copy-cats."

Basically, Goebbels was terrified that the film's anti-authoritarian overtures could inspire an insurrection - which, one way or another, is a crime - and went about burying it as aggressively as possible.