Part public service, part exploitation, MGM’s series of “Crime Does Not Pay” two-reelers entertained cinema-goers from 1935 to 1947, serving up punchy little cautionary tales about people who break the law—either because they’re criminals by trade, victims of circumstance, or just negligent. Warner Archive’s six-disc Crime Does Not Pay set contains all 50 of the series’ shorts, from “Buried Loot,” in which the feds arrange a prison break so that they can track one con’s attempt to recover his stolen cash, to “The Luckiest Guy In The World,” in which a young man plots to fake his own death and then discovers—whoops!—that he’s worth more alive. Some of these shorts are taut procedurals, revealing how the dogged heroes of law enforcement chase down every clue and trip up crafty crooks. Others are designed to inform viewers about common scams, to offer helpful safety tips, or to function as dark sketches of desperation. All are compact models of classic Hollywood storytelling, using veteran character actors to imbue stock types with personality, and then grinding those types through the plot-twist mill to an inevitably bleak fate.