(1972) Stelio Candelli, Patrizia Viotti, Veronika Korosec, Rossella Bergamonti, Tom Felleghy.  A man finds his wife brutally murdered. He has no alibi so is instructed by his lawyer to go into hiding in an old, abandoned hotel. Strange occurrences start happening immediately, including the discovery of a woman with her throat cut! The hotel setting of this film is in some ways reminiscent of The Shining...

(1935, Universal) Austin Trevor, Gary Marsh, George Hayes, Robert Horton, Brian Buchell.  A visiting French sleuth steps in to help the police solve the “diary murders,” in which each victim is found in possession of a diary page of a dead actress. Before long a murdered corpse is found in a locked room!  This is one of those cool, intricate murder mysteries in a big old mansion filled with red herrings and other furtive types...

(1960) Joel Rinne, Elina Pohjanpää, Matti Ranin, Leo Jokela, Leo Riuttu. This is a good old-fashioned closed room murder mystery.  The world famous Lieutenant Palmu is brought in to investigate when a much-despised millionaire playboy is found dead in his interior pool—murdered.  Who is the killer?  There are some nice tongue-in-cheek moments thrown into this well-made murder thriller...

(1952) Tod Slaughter, Patrick Barr, Tucker McGuire, Ingeborg von Kusserow.  Tod is up to his nefarious plans once again as he plans an elaborate scheme for blackmail.  Barr plays the detective who’s out to bring him to justice.  There’s murder and mayhem aplenty in this curious film.  Tod has some priceless bits of dialogue, complimented here and there with his maniacal laughter...

(1938) Erich von Stroheim, Michel Simon, Armand Bernard, Aimé Clariond, Serge Grave.  This is another forgotten von Stroheim gem.  A group of college boys form a secret society with an ultimate plan of going to America.  There’s a mystery afoot, though, when people start disappearing.  Things take a turn for the worse when an art professor turns up dead—murdered!  

(1935, Mascot) Victor Jory, Evelyn Venable, Ralph Forbes, Esther Ralston.  A group of people become entangled in a web of intrigue on board a super-duper streamline passenger train, streaking across the countryside.  On board are a crook, a stage director, an actress and a number of other characters...  

Armchair Fiction presents extra large editions of classic mystery-crime double novels.  Robert Moore Williams’ “Somebody Wants You Dead” is our first electric tale of murder and mayhem. This double novel’s second tale is another great thriller, “The Black Key” by M. Scott Michel.  It was a dream that held the secret to a killer’s identity...

(1979) Toshiyuki Nishida, Isao Natsuyagi, Haruko Wanibuchi, Tomoko Saitô.  This is a really well-made Japanese “locked room” murder mystery set in the 1930s.  The famous Nipponese detective Kindaichi is called in to investigate a number of horrible slayings.  His investigations soon point the finger at members of a wealthy family—a family that, as it turns out, has many dark secrets to hide...

Armchair Fiction presents extra large editions of classic mystery-crime double novels.  Mike Brett’s “Scream Street” is our first great tale of crime and mystery.  Late one evening at a traffic light, Sam Dakkers witnessed a woman on the receiving end of a vicious attack…  This second novel is another gritty murder mystery, “Murder Makes the Corpse” by Sean Gregory. 

(1962) Liz Fraser, Kenneth Griffith, Peter Reynolds, Tony Wickert, David Hemmings. Two small-time blackmail artists (a man and woman) run afoul of a brutal gangster, who  stabs the man to death in his apartment as a warning for others to stay clear of his territory.  But when the woman shows up with an intended victim (a drunken student), the body is discovered and the student, in a drunken stupor, agrees to dispose of it...

CROSS-UP (1958) Larry Parks, Constance Smith, Lisa Daniely, Donald Stewart. On the first night of his London assignment, news agency reporter Parks becomes heavily involved with a mysterious woman (Daniely). The affair ends when she is shot as they grapple for a gun she has pulled.  But this is only the beginning of Parks’ troubles, especially considering the dead woman worked for a criminal organization...

(1959) Horst Buckholz, Mario Adorf, Helmut Schmid, Alf Marholm.  Buckholz gives the performance of his life as a human castoff, in international limbo, because of the loss of his passport.  He is conned into taking a job on a tramp steamer filled with misfits, smugglers, and murderers.  Soon after realizing his plight, he and his pal discover the ship’s cargo isn’t exactly what it’s purported to be...  

(1956, Upgraded 3/21/21) Dinos Iliopoulos, Margarita Papageorgiou, Marika Lekaki, Giannis Argyris.  This is a brilliant piece of Greek filmmaking, filled with wonderful performances and perfectly written pieces of dialogue.  A peaceful, frightened little man is mistakenly identified as "the dragon", a notorious criminal at large and known womanizer. He somewhat reluctantly rules the local underworld until...

(1931) Lowell Sherman, Peggy Shannon, Lila Lee, Berton Churchill, David Landau, Joyce Compton.  Sherman gives a grand performance as a doctor who’s fired from his hospital job for being morally corrupt.  He then sets himself up as a plastic surgeon, although he is completely unqualified.   He seduces women, rips off his patients, and soon causes an operating room tragedy that lands him in criminal court...

(1935) Henry Kendall, Eve Gray, Jeanne Stuart, Garry Marsh, Wally Patch. A well-known film director has a gangster double, whom he ends up killing. Taking the gangster’s place, he then causes an actress to...

Armchair Fiction presents large, deluxe editions of classic mystery-crime novels.  “The Crooked Circle” is a gritty tale of suicide and murder; authored by crime/mystery novelist Manning Lee Stokes.  A hundred grand could tempt anyone.  Private investigator Steve Paget had always thought he would do anything for money, but nothing quite as vile and low-down as Jefferson Torrance’s proposition had ever been offered to him before...

Armchair Fiction presents large, deluxe editions of classic mystery-crime novels.  “The Crooked City” is a taut, nail-biting novel of corruption and greed by Robert Kyle.  “MacBAIN CAUGHT, JAILED IN QUINN MURDER—Professional Cop’s Wife in Love Triangle”  That was what the headlines read. It was a tough spot for a not-so-tough man—James MacBain. MacBain lived in an asphalt tabernacle for prostitutes, dope pushers, and murderers...