B&W Film Noir & B-Flix Crime Movie Classics

Alias French Gertie is an American Pre-Code crime film directed by George Archainbaud, with a screenplay by Wallace Smith, based upon the unproduced play, The Chatterbox by Bayard Veiller. It stars Bebe Daniels and Ben Lyon, who were making their first on-screen appearance together. Plot: A crook (Daniels) becomes a maid to steal jewelry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alias_French_Gertie

In this suspenseful drama, based on Agatha Christie's mystery tale, 10 strangers are summoned to a remote island. While they are waiting for the mysterious host to appear, a recording levels serious accusations at each of the guests, including Judge Francis J. Quinncannon (Barry Fitzgerald) and Dr. Edward G. Armstrong (Walter Huston), and soon they start being murdered, one by one. As the survivors try to keep their wits, they reach a disturbing conclusion: one of them must be the killer.

Behind Green Lights is a 1946 American film noir directed by Otto Brower. Plot: A cub reporter (Richard Crane) hangs around the police station, and an officer (William Gargan) falls for a murder suspect (Carole Landis). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behind_Green_Lights , IMDb.

Big Town After Dark is a 1947 American film noir drama film directed by William C. Thomas and written by Whitman Chambers. The film stars Phillip Reed, Hillary Brooke, Richard Travis, Ann Gillis, Vince Barnett, Joe Sawyer and Robert Kent. Crime reporter Hillary Brooke opposes local crime boss. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Town_After_Dark

Blonde Ice is a crime film noir movie released on July 24, 1948, directed by Jack Bernhard with music by Irving Gertz. The film was originally released as a B movie. This means the film is a low budget commercial film along with a feature movie. The film stars Leslie Brooks as Claire Cummings Hanneman, Robert Paige as Les Burns, and Micheal Whalen as Stanley Mason. It is based on the 1938 novel Once Too Often by Elwyn Whitman Chambers. Claire is a society reporter who is willing to go to extremes if it means publishing a story. She manages to keep herself in the headlines by marrying and seducing a series of wealthy men. However, all of these men die under certain mysterious circumstances. In order to protect her reputation, as well as deflect suspicion from herself, Claire frames her former boyfriend, the sportswriter Les Burns. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blonde_Ice

Borderline is a 1950 American crime film noir directed by William A. Seiter and starring Fred MacMurray and Claire Trevor. Pete Ritchie (Raymond Burr) runs a narcotics smuggling operation to the US from Mexico, which the Los Angeles Police Department and the US federal government have unsuccessfully tried to stop. Because of Ritchie's careful operating procedures, US authorities haven't even been able to find out the identities of his sources or customers and are desperate for a breakthrough. As a last resort, Madeleine Haley (Claire Trevor), an LAPD officer and former OSS operative, is sent undercover to Mexico to charm her way into Ritchie's confidence.

Doomed to Die is a 1940 American mystery film directed by William Nigh and starring Boris Karloff as Mr. Wong. It is a sequel to the 1940 film, The Fatal Hour. A newswoman (Marjorie Reynolds) asks sleuth Mr. Wong (Boris Karloff) to look into the murder of a shipping tycoon.

Mr. Wong, Detective is a 1938 American crime film directed by William Nigh and starring Boris Karloff in his first appearance as Mr. Wong. Simon Dayton is in fear for his life and seeks the help of Mr. Wong to protect him. Just prior to meeting Mr. Wong, Dayton is found dead in his office without a mark on him with several witnesses testifying Dayton was alone in his office that was locked from the inside. Though the police view Dayton's death as due to a heart attack, Mr. Wong discovers a broken glass ball that contained poison gas.

Mr. Wong in Chinatown is a 1939 American mystery film directed by William Nigh and starring Boris Karloff as Mr. Wong. A beautiful Chinese woman visits Mr. Wong late at night but is murdered before she can tell him why she needs his help. Wong discovers that she is Princess Lin Hwa, the sister of a powerful Chinese general, and that she was killed with a poisoned dart fired from a Chinese "sleeve gun."

The Fatal Hour is a 1940 American thriller crime drama film directed by William Nigh. It starred Boris Karloff (as James Lee Wong), Grant Withers, and Marjorie Reynolds. The film is also known as Mr. Wong at Headquarters in the United Kingdom. It was followed by the sequel Doomed to Die.Master sleuth Mr. Wong (Boris Karloff) and a newswoman (Marjorie Reynolds) help a police captain (Grant Withers) catch a killer.

Art collector Brandon Edwards (Morgan Wallace) is murdered shortly after smuggling a precious jewel out of China, despite a warning that whoever takes it will die. At the party where he's shot, Edwards manages to tell visiting detective Wong (Boris Karloff) the location of a note he wrote earlier, naming a suspect should he be harmed. Initially suspected is Edwards' secretary, Peter (Craig Reynolds), who Wong discovers is in love with Edwards' equally suspicious wife, Valerie (Dorothy Tree).

Boys' Reformatory is a 1939 American crime film directed by Howard Bretherton and produced by Lindsley Parsons for Monogram Pictures. The screenplay was written by Wellyn Totman and Ray Trampe after a story by Ray Trampe and Norman S. Hall. The film is about Tommy Ryan (Frankie Darro), a good natured teenager who takes the blame for a burglary committed by his foster brother (Frank Coghlan, Jr.), and his life in to a boys' reformatory where a morally upright staff physician, Dr. Owens (Grant Withers), takes an interest in his welfare. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boys%27_Reformatory

The British detective (John Lodge) looks for gunrunners who are looking for plans to a new British warplane.

Irena Soldanis, the wife of a man Captain Hugh (Bulldog) Drummond sent to the gallows the year before, has kidnapped Drummond's perennial fiancée, Phyllis Clavering. Drummond must rescue Phyllis, and the riddles Irena provides send him and his friends on one wild goose chase after another in a plan to eventually trap him and kill he and Phyllis.

From IMDb: Captain Hugh (Bulldog) Drummond has just returned to England. As he is driving home in the dark, a young woman jumps out in front of his car. He misses her, but she falls to the ground. As he tries to revive her, he hears a shout for help, then gunshots. As he goes to investigate, the woman drives away with Drummond's car. He is soon able to trace her to nearby Greystone Manor, and when he goes there to meet her, she urges him to help her get out of a desperate situation.

From IMDb: As his wedding to Phyllis Clavering approaches, Hugh (Bulldog) Drummond has taken extreme precautions to avoid getting caught up in another adventure that would delay the wedding. But even as they make their final preparations, their friend Colonel Nielsen is being kidnapped by a gang headed by the traitorous Richard Lane. Phyllis witnesses the abduction, and quickly finds Drummond to tell him. They track the gang to Morocco, where they will face many obstacles to their goal of rescuing Nielsen.

From IMDb: Henri Armides and his assistant, Garvey, blow up and rob a London bank in broad daylight and get away with 10,000 pounds. They hide the money in a radio but the radio is in the apartment that Colonel Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond and his intended bride, Phyllis Caverling, will be occupying after they are married. Married or not, they check out the honeymoon apartment. This does not bode well for Armides and Garvey's plans to recover the money; it also does not bode well for Phyllis and Drummond's plans to get married. Stars: John Howard, Heather Angel, H. B. Warner, Reginald Denny, and E. E. Clive.

Another trip to the altar for Hugh (Bulldog) Drummond and Phyllis Clavering is averted when, at a pre-wedding gathering at the Clavering estate in Switzerland, a Swiss detective guarding the wedding gifts is murdered and an artificial diamond is stolen. Stars: John Howard, Louise Campbell, Reginald Denny, E. E. Clive, and John Barrymore.

While driving to Rockford Manor with Algy and Tenny to join others in the wedding party before they leave for Switzerland, Hugh (Bulldog) Drummond comes across a parachuted suitcase. While they examine it, they are nearly run down by a speeding car. Shortly afterward, a plane crashes nearby. After arriving at Rockford Manor, the suitcase is stolen, and the marriage of Bulldog and Phyllis Clavering is postponed once again. Stars: John Howard, Louise Campbell, Reginald Denny, E. E. Clive, and John Barrymore.

Captain Hugh (Bulldog) Drummond and his fiancée, Phyllis Clavering, are at his ancestral home preparing it for their wedding when a historian arrives to inform him of a hidden treasure within the castle. However, the historian's former assistant wants the treasure, and will stop at nothing to get it. Stars: John Howard, Heather Angel, H. B. Warner, Reginald Denny, and E. E. Clive.

The retired British captain (Ralph Richardson) forms a gang to rescue his wife (Ann Todd) and thwart his nemesis (Francis L. Sullivan).

Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo is a 1937 American movie directed by Eugene Forde. The main character is Charlie Chan, a Chinese-Hawaiian detective. This was the sixteenth and final Charlie Chan film with Warner Oland portraying Chan. The film features Keye Luke as Charlie's son Lee and character actor Harold Huber as a French police inspector.
Warner Oland contracted bronchial pneumonia during his visit to Sweden and died there on August 6, 1938, at age 57. The series continued at Fox for another eleven entries with Sidney Toler. In 1942 Fox sold it to Monogram Pictures, and it continued on even after Toler's death in 1947 with Roland Winters in the role through six films into 1949. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Chan_at_Monte_Carlo

Charlie Chan at the Circus is the 11th film produced by Fox starring Warner Oland as Charlie Chan. A seemingly harmless family outing drags a vacationing Chan into a murder investigation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Chan_at_the_Circus The Chinese sleuth (Warner Oland) takes his brood to the circus and solves a murder by a snake charmer.

Charlie Chan at the Olympics (1937) is possibly the most topical Charlie Chan film,[1] as it features actual footage from the 1936 Berlin Olympics. There is also a scene where Charlie crosses the Atlantic in the Hindenburg. This is the 14th film starring Warner Oland as Chan and produced by Fox. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Chan_at_the_Olympics IMDb: When a strategically important new aerial guidance system is stolen, Charlie traces it to the Berlin Olympics, where he has to battle spies and enemy agents to retrieve it.

Charlie Chan at the Opera is considered by many to be the best Warner Oland Charlie Chan film, probably due to the presence of Boris Karloff as the principal suspect, as well as faux operatic music composed by Oscar Levant. This is the 13th film starring Oland as Chan; it was directed by H. Bruce Humberstone for 20th Century-Fox in 1936. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Chan_at_the_Opera IMDb: A dangerous amnesiac escapes from an asylum, hides in the opera house, and is suspected of getting revenge on those who tried to murder him 13 years ago.