Best Crime Movies of 1943

Sherlock Holmes investigates a series of so-called "pajama suicides". He knows the female villain behind them is as cunning as Moriarty and as venomous as a spider. Based on "The Sign of Four" and the short stories "The Dying Detective", "The Final Problem", "The Speckled Band" and "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot".

During WWII several murders occur at a convalescent home where Dr. Watson has volunteered his services. He summons Holmes for help and the master detective proceeds to solve the crime from a long list of suspects including the owners of the home, the staff and the patients recovering there.

In World War II, a British secret agent carrying a vitally important document is kidnapped en route to Washington. The British government calls on Sherlock Holmes to recover it.

Japanese master spy Daka operates a covert espionage-sabotage organization located in Gotham City's now-deserted Little Tokyo, which turns American scientists into pliable zombies. The great crime-fighters Batman and Robin, with the help of their allies, are in pursuit.

Losing his memories of the last few days, neurologist Dr. Steele is told that his wife has been brutally murdered. Steele, aware of his conniving wife's infidelity, believes he may have been the killer and enlists the aid of his pretty nurse Stella to hypnotize him into recovering his lost memories.

Mystery writer Barry Craig (Allyn Joslyn) and his wife Jane (Evelyn Keyes), prefer solving crimes rather than writing about them. They get a chance when killings plague the fashion photography studio of Ralph McCormick (Edmund Lowe). After his secretary, Julie Taylor(Anita Louise) reports an attempt to murder her there, Erika McCormick's (Ann Savage) Aunt Isabel Fleming (Mary Forbes) is stabbed and the evidence points to Madge Lawrence (Bess Flowers) an older model and an apparent suicide. Police Inspector Joseph Clinton (Frank Craven) declares the case closed...but then Erika is murdered.

Fur thieves, who murder trappers when they refuse to give up their pelts at a low price, occupy the attention of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police. The leader of the gang is Victor Renaud, also the mayor of the small Canadian town where the gang is headquartered. Lucky Kerrigan is broken from the mounted service for apparent disobedience to orders, which results in the death of a fellow Mountie. Lucky, working undercover, aids the Mounties in rounding up the gang and gains back his uniform, and also the love of Gabrielle Renaud, Renaud's sister who was unaware of his criminal activities.

A crime reporter begins to investigate the disappearance of his bosses wife who had witnessed a murder.

In the small town of Crownport local attorney Bill Adams is trying to break up the ring of corrupt town officials by running for mayor. The cards seemed stacked against him when he gets help from a visiting hunter who, unknown to Adams and the rest of the town, is actually vacationing supreme court justice John Josephus Grant.

A forger steals and kills for a rare book from a library in order to make forgeries to sell to rich suckers.

A private eye is hired by a mayoral candidate to prevent any sort of adverse publicity. It seems that, somewhere in town, there's a talking blackbird who insists upon saying that the candidate will commit a murder. When the killing occurs, the candidate is implicated, and the detective is off on a hectic pursuit of the incriminating crow and the actual murderer.

Radio crime show host "The Fox" finds himself on the trail of a serial killer while a suspect himself.

A mad scramble for stolen loot ensues after Boston Blackie has prisoners released for work in a wartime defence plant.

The Falcon is called to a young woman's school to investigate a murder. When he arrives, another victim is discovered.

Reformed jewel thief the Lone Wolf investigates the murder of a playboy who was blackmailing three socialites.

A gang of tough street kids decide to go straight and get jobs in order to free draft-age men for the war effort. However, because of their past tangles with the law, they can't find anybody who'll hire them. Finally one of them gets a job at the department store where his sister works, but runs afoul of a store executive who is in league with a ring of hijackers.

Robert is found beside the highway with a head injury and amnesia. His amnesia motivates him to become a Physician and the country's leading criminal psychologist.

The Lone Wolf goes undercover in Egypt to foil a Nazi plot to bomb and disable the Suez canal, which is vital to England's war effort.

The Falcon is framed for the murder of a banker and the theft of war bonds. He makes his escape into the mountains where he hides out in a rustic lodge. From here he uncovers a phony war bond operation.

Blackie is arrested when retrieving stolen gems from a safety deposit box for a friend.

Two industrialists disappear from an airplane while the plane is in the air. Also missing is $100,000. The Falcon investigates and discovers a plot against the government.

An Ohio bank clerk's life becomes a nightmare when his descriptions is a fit of a maniac killer.

When police officer Moe Finkelstein and his colleague Officer Salomon are ordered to serve as bodyguards to German consul Karl Baumer by the mayor of New York City, Finkelstein turns in his badge, convinced he has to quit the service because the man is a Nazi.

In this 13th entry to the Dr. Kildare series, the medical staff of Blair General hospital are challenged with further dilemmas, not the least of which includes a prison inmate who Dr. Gillespie believes belongs instead in an insane asylum.

Murders result from an uncle's wish to eliminate beneficiaries to a will.

A young girl, Mary Tillet, is forced to find a new place to live due to her London home being bombed during World War II. Her tobacconist landlord, Jack Rawling, tries to help her turn her new apartment into a home. Meanwhile the newspapers are reporting news of the "London Blackout Murders," a murder spree being committed against a ring of suspected Nazi spies, and Mary must determine if her kind landlord is an assassin.

A wild playboy is framed by crooks for a robbery he didn't commit and eventually lands in prison. There he becomes pals with the prison's most hardened criminal, who plans a daring escape.

The Crime Doctor gets involved in the case of the poisoning of a wealthy industrialist.

A young woman's husband has been imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. In order to be near him to try to help him get his sentence overturned, she moves into a boardinghouse near the prison whose residents are the wives of inmates.

A ventriloquist is murdered during a theatre variety performance. A dwarf goes undercover as the dummy...

Young radio personality Judy Joyner becomes mayor of the moribund town, Sleepy Lagoon, after running on an all women ticket and promptly sets out to turn the town around.

A crusading district attorney tries to stop a local mob boss who has connections in high places.

Judy Wilson (Gale Storm), feeling neglected because both of her parents are working in defense plants, meets and falls in love with Danny Chester (Jackie Cooper), who enlists in the Navy and is sent to San Diego for training. She accepts an invitation to go on a ride to San Diego with her friends Herb (Neyle Morrow), Opal (Evelyn Eaton)and Jerry (Jimmy Zahner) but doesn't know the car has been stolen.

Cosmo Jones, a correspondence-school detective from a small town, comes to the big city to offer his services to the police. He happens by where a gangster is killed by an opposing gang. Socialite Phyllis Blake is running around with gang member Tom and the opposing gang plan on kidnapping her. Cosmo is with Sergeant Flanagan when the attempt is made in front of a night club, where a bystander is seriously wounded in the gun-battle. Police Chief Murphy blames Flanagan for the shooting and demotes him. Cosmo, with the aid of a porter, Eustace and Flanagan's fiancée, Susan, tries to find the killer. Phyllis is finally kidnapped and Cosmo decides the act was committed by one of the two gangs. He has her father place an ad in the newspaper that contact has been made with the kidnappers. Each gang thinks the other is pulling a double cross, and one gang wipes out the other.

A dark night in war time, with several black-outs, it's just a night for murder. Susan Cooper, a fast-talking girl reporter, doubles as amateur sleuth solving yet another mystery among Hollywood's famous.

A fired teacher finds work at a girls reform school and helps a detective on a case.

A gambler is about to stand trial for a crime he actually didn't commit. In order to brush up his "image", he adopts an orphaned newsboy.

A prison Chaplain is forced to leave his post for health reasons, but fate provides him with another chance to reform an escaped convict.

District Attorney Holden and his special investigator Betty Higgins are trying to convict brothers Joe and Lou Manson, silk-racket hoods, after they are indicted for murder.

Henry Stephenson stars as a retired Scotland Yard detective. He is regarded as an icon because he has written volumes of books on the art of detection. While Stephenson is being honoured for his past successes, he senses modern detectives, particularly the current District Attorney, look at him and his methods as outdated. This spurs the old man out of retirement to prove himself to the know-it-all modern detectives.

Two tuneful gamblers gambol across the country in a struggle for the money they need to run their respective casinos. It all begins when gangsters oust a gambler from the Big Apple. In need of quick cash, he goes to Las Vegas and enters a casino owned by a tough but pretty young woman. Cheating like crazy, the gambler breaks the house back and takes his considerable winnings back to New York to open his own casino. The woman is in hot pursuit and eagerly plans to turn the tables in her favor.

A private detective and a blonde acquaintance whom he has rescued from a misdirected murder charge, discover a body in his beachside cottage; only it has disappeared by the time the police arrive, leaving him to be charged with hoaxing the police. With his license in jeopardy, his would-be fiancee and an inquiring reporter set out to investigate.

Liz lives with her mother and stepfather in a boarding house on the "wrong side of the tracks"

Millionaire Sam Winston is an unhappy man. His wife Constance lives a gay life, devoting all her time to parties; his daughter Gloria is in one scandal after another, changing husbands as often as her moods, and son Jerry spends his time getting drunk and chasing women. Sam hires gangster Johnny April to bump him off but Johnny, liking the old man, defers the killing and sets about making the family appreciate Sam.

People on a train want what's in a Nazi spy bag, unaware it's a time bomb.

Inspector Slade investigates a murder.

Test of observation for amateur detectives. Two crimes are depicted: The Crooked Billet Murder and Back Stage Murder.

A murderous twin gets his comeuppance.