(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...

(1929) William Black, Viola Richard, directed by Charles L. Glett.  Don’t bother looking, you won’t find this incredibly rare American-made crime featurette in any of the major film research books or websites.  It’s a little creaky but interesting—especially from a film history perspective.  PLUS:  BOTHERED BY A BEARD (1945) Tod Slaughter, Jerry Verno, John Salew.  Todd does a short reprisal of his Sweeny Todd character...

(1961) William Franklyn, Moira Redmond, Bruno Barnabe, Leonard Sachs, Nigel Green.  Near an old, derserted bombsite, a young child discovers a man lying unconscious.  When the boy awakens him, the man discovers he can’t remember anything from the past three weeks!  Adding to all the mystery, he finds out that his wife’s private detective has been murdered and that his company’s safe has been opened and emptied...

(1959) Ken Takakura, Kenji Imai.  This is a terrific film about a mad killer on an airliner.  The film’s initial exposition is great as we get to know all the various passengers who are boarding the plane. The killer, who has just murdered three people, then boards with a gun in hidden in his pocket (no security screening back then).  When one of the passengers discovers his identity, the killer holds the plane at bay (in flight) and threatens to kill anyone who refuses to obey him...

(1939) Henry Kendall, Kathleen Kelly, Richard Gofe, Alastair Sim, Guy Middleton.  Kendall plays a down and out, unemployed family man who’s behind on his rent and has his gas cut off by his landlord.  Desperate to make ends meet, he comes up with an incredible ruse.  He creates a non-existant alter-ego, “Mr. Davis,” and begins an elaborate con-game that becomes wildly successful...

THE DESIGNATED VICTIM—Widescreen (1971) Tomas Milian, Pierre Clémenti, Katia Christine, Marisa Bartoli.  An oddball count becomes friends with a frustrated businessman.  Together they work out a scheme in which the count will bump off the businessman’s loveless wife, while the businessman will rub out the Count’s unpleasant brother... 

THE END OF THE LINE (1957) Alan Baxter, Charles Clay, Jennifer Jayne, Barbara Shelley, Ferdy Mayne.  Baxter has a great part as an American writer in London who succumbs to the charms of his ex-girlfriend, played by Barbara Shelley (who wouldn’t!).  Unfortunately, she’s now married!  And when her hubby ends up dead, he finds himself the target of a blackmail scheme...

THE ISLAND MONSTER (1954) Boris Karloff, Franca Marzi, Renato Vicario, Patricia Remiddi.  This often-maimed Karloff thriller really isn’t all that bad if you can get past the fact that Karloff’s voice is dubbed by someone else.  A law enforcement agent heads to a small Italian island to break up a drug smuggling ring.  Things get complicated when the smugglers kidnap his daughter...

THE BLACK RIDER (1954) Jimmy Hanley, Rona Anderson, Leslie Dwyer, Lionel Jeffries, Vincent Ball.  This B-film crime-quickie has minor elements of both horror and sci-fi.  Hanley is an effervescent reporter who tackles the story of a mysterious, hooded black rider who is seen a motorcycle near a crumbling castle on full moon nights.  Who is the rider and what is his strange purpose...?  

DOUBLE EXPOSURE (1953) John Bentley, Rona Anderson, Garry Marsh, dir. by John Gilling.  This is a nifty little crime film about a photograph that catches what is deemed to be a suicide, only—you guessed it—it’s not really a suicide, but murder!  Dant! Dant! Dah!  And of course, the photographer soon discovers she’s being stalked by the killer... 

THE ARSENAL STADIUM MYSTERY (1939) Leslie Banks, Greta Gynt, Ian McLean, Liane Linden, Anthony Bushnell.  A star English football player collapses right on the field during a big game.  When the dust settles, it’s discovered that the player was murdered!  But how…and by who?  Enter a snappy but serious police inspector played brilliantly by Banks...

THE SILENCE OF DEAN MAITLAND (1934) John Longden, Charlotte Francis, Constance Worth, John Warwick, John Pickard.  This forgotten Aussie-British crime-drama has Todd Slaughter regular Warwick released from prison after a twenty-year stretch for a killing he didn’t commit.   On his mind—revenge against the clergyman who stole those years by not clearing his name.  This film deals with murder, seduction, out of wedlock pregnancy, and betrayal.  Worth is priceless as the seductive hussy who ruins the lives of those around her.  From 16mm. 

THE DEVIL PLAYS (1931) Jameson Thomas, Florence Britton, Thomas E. Jackson, Dorothy Christy.  This quickie was distributed by the king of poverty row murder mysteries, Chesterfield Pictures.  In a nutshell, the film deals with a murder mystery that takes place over one long weekend at an expensive mansion...

DEATH HAUNTS MONICA (1976) Nadiuska, Arturo Fernández, Jean Sorel, Karin Schubert, Damian Velasco.  This is a pretty good Spanish Giallo complete with good guys in trench coasts and mysterious killers.  A beautiful, wealthy lady is implicated in a series of horrible murders.  She ends up running the gauntlet of numerous plot twists and subplots...

THE KILLER IS ON THE TELEPHONE—WIDESCREEN EDITION (1972) Telly Savalis, Anne Heywood, Giorgio Piazza, Osvaldo Ruggieri.  Beautiful Anne Heywood plays a woman whose husband was murdered five years before.  She is stalked, though, by the killer (Savalis) who wants to rub her out and end her threat as a potential witness against him... 

(1963) Anthony Newley, Robert Stephens, Julia Foster.  Wow… Newley is brilliant as Sammy Lee, a street hustler and strip club host who finds himself on the short end of life more often than not.  The plot has Sammy frantically trying to raise 300 pounds to pay off a debt to a mysterious personage known only as "Connor".  Connor’s ruffians are sent to track Sammy down when Sammy fails to pay...  

CAT & MOUSE (1958) Lee Patterson, Ann Sears, Hilton Edwards, Victor Maddern, Stuart Saunders.  Patterson (from Jack the Ripper) is truly detestable as a shiftless army deserter who blackmails a young lady (Sears) into revealing the hiding place of some jewels stolen by her father some twenty years before...

LADY IN THE DEATH HOUSE (1944, PRC) Lionel Atwill, Jean Parker, Douglas Fowley, Marcia May Jones.  This is a PRC one-week wonder with Parker on death row for murdering the man who blackmailed her family.  She claims the whole thing was a set-up.  In a strange twist of fate, her fiancé, (who’s a doctor who is conducting experiments on reviving the dead!) also happens to be the executioner at the prision...