Cinemateca » Mystery

Tomorrow at Seven (1933)

admin2 — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:58:39 +0000

People in an old, dark mansion are menaced by a maniac called “The Black Ace.”

Mystery

Chester Morris	…	Neil Broderick
Vivienne Osborne	…	Martha Winters
Frank McHugh	…	Clancy
Allen Jenkins	…	Dugan
Henry Stephenson	…	Thornton Drake
Grant Mitchell	…	Austin Winters
Charles Middleton	…	Jerry Simons
Oscar Apfel	…	Asa Marsden
Virginia Howell	…	Mrs. Quincy
Cornelius Keefe	…	Henderson
Edward LeSaint	…	Coroner
Gus Robinson	…	Pompey

The Most Dangerous Game (1932)

admin2 — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:10:18 +0000

After surviving a shipwreck in reefs not signalized in the maritime charts, the famous hunter Rober “Bob” Rainsford is lodged by the Russian hunter Count Zaroff in his castle in an isolated island. Bob meets Eve Trowbridge and her brother Martin Trowbridge, also survivors of another wrecked vessel and hosted by Zaroff. Soon, Bob and Eve find that they are part of a hunting game plotted by the insane Zarof where they are the prey, and they have to escape and survive until the next morning to Zaroff and his hounds.

Adventure | Thriller | Horror | Mystery

Joel McCrea	…	Bob Rainsford
Fay Wray	…	Eve Trowbridge
Leslie Banks	…	Count Zaroff
Robert Armstrong	…	Martin Trowbridge
Noble Johnson	…	Ivan
Steve Clemente	…	Tartar Servant (as Steve Clemento)
Oscar ‘Dutch’ Hendrian	…	Tarter Servant (as Dutch Hendrian)
William B. Davidson	…	Captain (as William Davidson)

Rene Clair’s – And Then There Were None (1945)

admin2 — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:07:36 +0000

On a remote and isolated island, ten people – 8 invited guests and two servants – find themselves facing their own deaths. Their unidentified host informs them, via a gramophone record, that as they have all been responsible for someone’s death, they in turn will die before the weekend is out. There is no way for any of them to flee the island, so they set about trying to determine who their hidden host might be and where he might be hiding. One by one, the guests are killed and one of them suggests that the killer is likely among them.

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Barry Fitzgerald	…	Judge Francis J. Quinncannon
Walter Huston	…	Dr. Edward G. Armstrong
Louis Hayward	…	Philip Lombard
Roland Young	…	Detective William Henry Blore
June Duprez	…	Vera Claythorne
Mischa Auer	…	Prince Nikita ‘Nikki’ Starloff
C. Aubrey Smith	…	General Sir John Mandrake (as Sir C. Aubrey Smith)
Judith Anderson	…	Emily Brent
Richard Haydn	…	Thomas Rogers
Queenie Leonard	…	Ethel Rogers
Harry Thurston	…	Fred Narracott

Lady of Burlesque (1943)

admin2 — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:04:03 +0000

Sassy Dixie Daisy is the hot new attraction at a former opera house that’s been turned into a burlesque theater. She’s popular with the customers, although not with Lolita La Verne, a stuck-up diva who was hoping she’d get the top spot. Also complicating matters is the return of the Princess Nirvena, the show’s former star who once had a fling with the boss. When the Princess blackmails her way into the top spot, Dixie is none too pleased. When both Lolita and the Princess are murdered, Dixie becomes a prime suspect. She then sets up a trap to nail the real killer.

Comedy | Horror | Music | Mystery | Romance

Barbara Stanwyck	…	Deborah Hoople, aka Dixie Daisy
Michael O’Shea	…	Biff Brannigan
Iris Adrian	…	Gee Gee Graham
Charles Dingle	…	Inspector Harrigan
J. Edward Bromberg	…	S.B. Foss
Frank Conroy	…	‘Stacchi’ Stacciaro
Victoria Faust	…	Lolita La Verne
Gloria Dickson	…	Dolly Baxter

Irish Luck (1939)

admin2 — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 06:57:07 +0000

Buzzy O’Brien is a bellhop in a hotel where a guest is murdered. The police blame Kitty Monahan and Buzzy succeeds in helping her escape and hides her at his home with his mother. Buzzy and his pal Jefferson manage to fumble their way to finding the real killer who was after the stolen bonds carried by the victim. Based on Charles Molyneaux Brown’s story “Death Hops the Bells.”

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Crime | Mystery

Frankie Darro	…	Buzzy O’Brien
Dick Purcell	…	Steve Lanahan
Lillian Elliott	…	Mrs. O’Brien
Dennis Moore	…	Jim Monahan
James Flavin	…	Hotel Detective Fluger
Sheila Darcy	…	Kitty Monahan
Mantan Moreland	…	Jefferson

The Boss of Big Town (1942)

admin2 — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:26:45 +0000

Diligent City Market official Michael Lynn resists overtures by well-to-do gangster Kenneth Craige to fix produce and dairy prices during wartime. Lynn seems unable to stop the resulting sabotage and violence on the part of the mob to bring the farmers and wholesalers into line and so is fired by city attorney Jeffrey Moore. After Lynn’s assistant Bram Hart is murdered for going to the authorities, Lynn takes responsibility for his daughter and feigns co-operation with Craige in order to discover the real boss of the criminal enterprise. Lynn unmasks Moore as the corrupt head, and the conspiracy is exposed and foiled.

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Romance

John Litel	…	Michael Lynn
Florence Rice	…	Linda Gregory
H.B. Warner	…	Jeffrey Moore
John Miljan	…	Kenneth Craige
Jean Brooks	…	Iris Moore
David Bacon	…	Dr. Gil Page
Mary Gordon	…	Mrs. Lane
Frank Ferguson	…	Bram Hart

The 39 Steps (1935)

admin2 — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:00:55 +0000

Richard Hannay is on the run from the police, who suspect him of murdering the woman found stabbed to death in his London flat. This story, including his photograph, are in many of the newspapers throughout Great Britain. In reality, the woman picked Hannay up at the Mr. Memory show at which they both attended, she telling him that there were two men there who were trying to kill her in an effort to obtain information which would breach national security. Hannay is not only on the run from police but is also trying to find out the nature of the potential national security breach in an effort to clear his name. All he knows from the dead woman is that it has something to do with a man in a small town in Scotland, another man who has part of his pinky finger missing and something called the 39 steps. As Hannay is on his journey of discovery all the while trying to elude both the police and the real murderers, he is forced out of circumstances outside of his control to take along a feisty young woman named Pamela whose continued belligerence toward him is despite her precarious situation.

Mystery | Thriller

Robert Donat	…	Richard Hannay
Madeleine Carroll	…	Pamela
Lucie Mannheim	…	Annabella aka Miss Smith
Godfrey Tearle	…	Professor Jordan
Peggy Ashcroft	…	Margaret – Crofter’s Wife
John Laurie	…	John – Crofter
Helen Haye	…	Mrs. Jordan

Sunset Murder Case (1938)

admin2 — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:14:14 +0000

First of all this film was produced and distributed in 1938, and is not a 1941 production. The exhibitors and various censor boards objected to the original title, “The Sunset Strip Case” (because of the double meaning that implied a strip on Sunset rather than the name of the street, which is exactly what the producer had in mind when he hired fan-dancer Sally Rand, the hit of the Chicago Exposition and the later Texas Centennial), and Boston promptly banned the film, as Boston was often subject to do with far less reason than they had with this film. The film was tied up in law suits across the country brought against the various blue-nose boards who also blocked its showing, and all this was going on during the collapse of Grand National with GN president E. W. Hammons being hauled to court by exhibitors and creditors, including the production unit headed by this film’s producer George A. Hirliman. The latter produced it for Grand National distribution, but Grand National had no distribution left when Hirliman finally got it cleared for showing in New York in 1941 under the title of “The Sunset Murder Case”…and it was distribued through indie exchanges in 1941 as Grand National had long folded its tent. It still carried the Grand National logo, which evidently has fooled the source that keeps calling this a 1941 production, and showing it as being distributed by an entity that no longer existed. The cast order shown on the 1941 prints is no way reflective of the cast order shown on original release. Excuse the use of Plot Summary to explain why this is not a 1941 film, but that is beginning to appear to be the only way to get this film into its proper decade. The plot summary, albeit skimpy,already on site will suffice for the plot. Be advised that Sally Rand was slower with her fans and showed more flesh in a later-Soundies short film than she does here. This one ran into trouble in 1938 because of her name, and not what she actually showed, although she showed more than was custom in 1938…or 1948 or 1958 for that matter.

Crime | Drama | Mystery

Sally Rand	…	Kathy O’Connor
Esther Muir	…	Lora Wynne
Vince Barnett	…	Barney
Paul Sutton	…	Bapti Stephani
Lona Andre	…	Nita Madera
Mary Brodel	…	Jane Baird

The Speckled Band (1931)

admin2 — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:30:44 +0000

Violet Stoner dies under mysterious circumstances in her bedroom at the gloomy mansion of her brutish stepfather, Dr. Grimesby Rylott. Because Violet had become engaged to be married, she stood to inherit a substantial annual allowance from her parents’ estate but never survived to collect it. Her last words were “The Speckled Band!” Now, her sister Helen has become engaged, and the mercenary doctor views the event as money out of his pocket as she stands to get a yearly stipend too. When he orders her to start sleeping in her sister’s bedroom, and she finds the bed bolted to the floor, she fears that a fate similar to Violet’s will befall her. She turns to the residents of 221B Baker Street for help.

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Lyn Harding	…	Dr. Grimesby Rylott
Raymond Massey	…	Sherlock Holmes
Angela Baddeley	…	Helen Stonor
Nancy Price	…	Mrs. Staunton
Athole Stewart	…	Dr. John Watson

Slightly Honorable (1940)

admin2 — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 17:59:30 +0000

A lawyer is framed for the murder of a young party girl and tries to clear his name.

Mystery

Pat O’Brien	…	John Webb
Edward Arnold	…	Vincent Cushing
Broderick Crawford	…	Russ Sampson
Ruth Terry	…	Nightclub singer
Alan Dinehart	…	District Attorney Joyce
Claire Dodd	…	Alma Brehmer
Phyllis Brooks	…	Sarilla Cushing