A beautiful blonde model is murdered in her New York apartment. Lt. Dan Muldoon (Berry Fitzgerald) and detective Jimmy Halloran (Dan Taylor) are put on the case. It will lead to a string of jewelry robberies and to the nearly pathologically untruthful Frank Niles (Howard Duff) and his snooty fiancée Ruth Morrison (Dorothy Hart). Critics
In this lighthearted version of The Maltese Falcon, con artist Ted Shayne (Warren William in the Spade role) was just kicked out of town so drums up some business for his old partner Ames (Porter Hall in the Archer role) and then rejoins his detective agency in another city. He, of course, hits on secretary
Seventeen-year-old psychopath Pinkie Brown (Richard Attenborough) runs a cheap protection racket in Brighton with his gang of Dallow (William Hartnell), Cubitt (Nigel Stock), and Spicer (Wylie Watson). He kills a reporter, and it is ruled a suicide, but Ida (Hermione Baddeley), a performer the reporter met briefly, doesn’t believe it and sets out to prove
In a town ruled by the wealthy Ivers family, on a stormy night, run-away Martha Ivers is brought back to her domineering aunt. The night ends with the aunt dead, tough kid Sam gone, and weak kid Walter at Martha’s side. Years later, Sam (Van Heflin) passes through town and meets recent parolee, Toni Marachek
Detective Walter Brown (Charles McGraw) is given the task of escorting Frankie Neall (Maria Windsor), the wife of a mob boss, across country by train. The mob has sent a group of assassins to kill her, though they don’t know what she looks like. They mistake an innocent woman on the train (Jacqueline White) for
Deported gangster Nick Ferraro (Raymond Burr) wants to sneak back into the US and figures the best way involves finding someone his size. So his minions hire down-on-his-luck gambler Dan Milner (Robert Mitchum) to travel to a Mexican vacation lodge. Milner wants to figure out what is going on as he interacts with a group
Doc Riedenschneider (Sam Jaffe), recently released from prison, enters the city, where crime is rampant, though not successful, and the police are either on the take or suggest beating citizens because rights don’t matter. He has a perfect plan for a big heist, much bigger than the local low-life criminals are used to. It’s too
A middle aged professor (Edward G. Robinson) runs into a beautiful call girl (Joan Bennett) while admiring her portrait and they go back to her apartment. A jealous client bursts in and attacks the professor and they kill him in self defense. Fearful of their reputations, and that they won’t be believed, they decide to
Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark), a penny-ante crook who is forever going after the big score, gets in far over his head when he attempts to become a wrestling promoter. To do so he crosses mid-level crook Philip Nosseross (Francis L. Sullivan), Norreross’s scheming wife (Googie Withers), his foolishly faithful girlfriend Mary Bristol (Gene Tierney), wrestler
A sad, emasculated cashier, Christopher Cross (Edward G. Robinson), falls for Kitty March (Joan Bennett) a younger woman he believes he’s rescued from an attack, which was really just her sleazy, drunk boyfriend (Dan Duryea) slapping her around, as he often does. Thinking he is a rich painter, the two attempt to con him out
Dixon Steele (Humphrey Bogart), a short-fused screenwriter, takes a hat-check girl home, and she’s found dead the next morning. The police suspect him, especially due to his violent past. He gets a partial alibi from his neighbor, Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame), and the two start a romantic relationship. This is a strange film for Bogart.
A serial killer is targeting young women and Walter Kyne (Vincent Price), the immature son of a just-deceased media mogul, decides whichever of his underlings can find the killer can become the new man in charge. The three candidates are Jon Day Griffith (Thomas Mitchell), the newpaper editor, Mark Loving (George Sanders), head of the