Best Crime Movies of 1954
Dial M for Murder
An ex-tennis pro carries out a plot to have his wife murdered after discovering she is having an affair, and assumes she will soon leave him for the other man anyway. When things go wrong, he improvises a new plan—to frame her for murder instead.
On the Waterfront
Terry Malloy dreams about being a prize fighter, while tending his pigeons and running errands at the docks for Johnny Friendly, the corrupt boss of the dockers union. Terry witnesses a murder by two of Johnny's thugs, and later meets the dead man's sister and feels responsible for his death. She introduces him to Father Barry, who tries to force him to provide information for the courts that will smash the dock racketeers.

Bugs and Thugs
When Bugs calls a cab he doesn't know it's the getaway car for a couple of bankrobbers (he does know the capital of Nevada).

An Inspector Calls
Based on a famous stage play and set in the year 1912, an upper crust family dinner is interrupted by a police inspector who brings news that a girl known to everyone present has died in suspicious circumstances. It seems that any or all of them could have had a hand in her death. But who is the mysterious Inspector and what can he want of them?
Riot in Cell Block 11
A prisoner leads his counterparts in a protest for better living conditions which turns violent and ugly.
Pushover
A police detective falls for the bank robber's girlfriend he is supposed to be tailing.
Shield for Murder
A crooked detective masterminds a robbery then fights to keep his money.

King of the Coral Sea
A body is found floating in the Torres Strait and pearler Ted King is asked to investigate. He discovers the murder is connected to a people smuggling ring and involves one of his men, Yusep. He is helped by Peter Merriman, the playboy owner of King's company who romances King's daughter Rusty. Yusep kidnaps Rusty but Merriman and King rescue her.

Drive a Crooked Road
A mechanic gets caught up with the mob when he falls for a gangster's girlfriend.
Suddenly
The tranquility of a small town is marred only by sheriff Tod Shaw's unsuccessful courtship of widow Ellen Benson, a pacifist who can't abide guns and those who use them. But violence descends on Ellen's household willy-nilly when the U.S. President passes through town... and slightly psycho hired assassin John Baron finds the Benson home ideal for an ambush.
Witness to Murder
A woman fights to convince the police that she witnessed a murder while looking out her bedroom window.

The Good Die Young
An amoral, psychotic playboy incites three men who are down on their luck to commit a mail van robbery, which goes badly wrong.
Dragnet
Two homicide detectives try to find just the facts behind a mobster's brutal murder.
Private Hell 36
In New York, a bank robbery of $300,000 goes unsolved for a year, until some of the marked bills are found in a Los Angeles drugstore theft. Police detectives Cal Bruner and Jack Farnham investigate and are led from the drugstore to a nightclub, where singer Lili is another recipient of a stolen bill. With Lili's help, the partners track down the remaining money, but both Lili and Frank are dismayed when Cal decides he wants to keep part of it.

Father Brown
Works of art are disappearing, stolen by a master thief, a master of disguise. Father Brown has two goals: to catch the thief and to save his soul.
Night People
A US intelligence officer, stationed in Germany, is caught in a political dilemma when the Russians kidnap a young Army private, the son of prominent American businessman. In exchange for the soldier's return, the Russians attempt to barter a trade for an elderly German couple who they want for treason.

Naked Alibi
Questioned as a murder suspect, solid (but drunk) citizen Al Willis attacks his police questioners, is beaten, and swears vengeance against them. Next night, Lieut. Parks is murdered; Willis is the only suspect in the eyes of tough Chief Conroy, who pursues him doggedly despite lack of evidence. The obsessed Conroy is dismissed from the force, but continues to harass Willis, who flees to a sleazy town on the Mexican border. Of course, Conroy follows. But which is crazy, Conroy or Willis?

Convict Concerto
Woody is a piano tuner and is forced to play after a bank robber hides out in the piano and points a gun at him.

Eight O'Clock Walk
Only a British cabdriver's (Richard Attenborough) wife (Cathy O'Donnell) and lawyer (Derek Farr) believe him innocent of killing a little girl.

Loophole
Bank teller Mike Donovan (Barry Sullivan) takes the first step on the road to Perdition when he fails to report a $49,000 shortage. Accused of theft, Donovan is fired from his job. He is then prevented from finding other employment by Javert-like insurance investigator Gus Slavin (Charles McGraw). Despite many setbacks, Donovan attempts to clear his muddied name.

Forbidden Cargo
Kenyon is a narcotics agent who, with the aid of a titled bird-watcher attempts to trap a brother and sister drug smuggling team.
The Fast and the Furious
A man wrongly imprisoned for murder breaks out of jail. He wants to clear his name, but with the police pursuing him, he's forced to take a beautiful young woman, driving a fast sports car, hostage and slip into a cross-border sports car race to try to make it to Mexico before the police get him.

Alaska Seas
A crooked salmon fishermantries to steal his best friend's fiancée and put him out of business.

Duffy of San Quentin
San Quentin's new warden crusades for reform and for a framed inmate who loves a nurse.

Blackout
When a beautiful girl offers Casey Morrow a lot of money for a mystery job, Morrow doesn't ask too many questions. But when the girl's father is found murdered the following day and Morrow's coat is soaked with blood perhaps a little more caution should have been exercised. An intriguing story of deception, greed and immorality.

Cry Vengeance
Ex-cop Vic Barron crossed the wrong mobsters; his wife and child were killed and he himself scarred, framed and imprisoned. On release, Vic has but one desire, revenge on still-hiding Tino Morelli.
Phantom of the Rue Morgue
When several women are found mutilated and murdered, the Paris police are baffled as to who the killer may be. All evidence points to Dupin, but soon it becomes apparent that it is someone (or something) stronger and deadlier than a human.

The Black Rider
When young reporter and amateur biker Jerry Marsh investigates a mysterious hooded figure on a motorbike, he discovers crooks hiding out in a ruined castle with atomic sabotage on their minds...

Dangerous Voyage
Intrigue and smuggling in the English Channel.

Highway Dragnet
An ex-Marine on the lam from a murder charge. He hitches a ride from glamor-magazine photographer, who is travelling cross-country with her principal model. Tensions rise when the woman realize the man with them may be a killer.
Meet Mr. Malcolm
Celebrated crime writer Colin Knowles (Richard Knowles) finds himself at the centre of a baffling real-life mystery when his estranged wife Louie (Sarah Lawson) asks for his help. Her new boss has gone missing at his grand country home -- and when his body is found, the hunt is on for a devious and twisted murderer. Sinister letters from London refer to a 'double crime'. Who will be the killer's next victim?
Rogue Cop
A police detective on the take tries to catch his brother's killer.

River Beat
British diamond smugglers use the radiowoman (Phyllis Kirk) from a freighter docked on the Thames to unwittingly "mule" their swag, hidden in cigarettes, past customs, not knowing that she has befriended an Inspector for the Thames River Patrol.
Face the Music
A famed trumpet player is suspected of murdering a blues singer. Using only two minor clues, he narrows the suspects to four people, but only after surviving poison placed on the mouthpiece of his trumpet!

Meet Mr. Callaghan
A young woman is framed for the murder of a wealthy man who met his death at the hands of his heirs.

Black Tuesday
Vicious gangster Vincent Canelli pulls off a daring prison escape just moments before going to the electric chair, taking with him Peter Manning – a bank robber and cop killer who was to die right after him. Taking several hostages along, they try to get their hands on the loot from Manning’s robbery to finance their escape from the country.

Time Is My Enemy
A happily-married woman is blackmailed by her first husband, who she wrongly believed was killed in the Blitz.

Final Appointment
A pair of reporters try to discover the link between three unsolved, seemingly isolated murders. The only connection between them is they all took place on the same day in three successive years. The police don't trust their instincts - but as 10th July nears again, a solicitor has started receiving threatening letters...

The Human Jungle
Danforth is assigned to take over the police department in a section of a large city saddled with juvenile delinquency, petty crimes, graft and also a recent unsolved murder of a strip-tease dancer. Recognizing the laxity of the department he implements many changes and soon finds himself under fire by the newspapers, the attorney of a racket leader and the denizens of this human jungle.

The Long Wait
The Long Wait is a mystery thriller written by Mickey Spillane. A man gets in a car accident and is badly burned. He also cannot remember his own identity.

Five Days
A man pays a hitman to kill him. Circumstances change and he tries to call off the hit but he has trouble getting the deal killed.

The Miami Story
Fed up with the raising crime in Miami, the police chief and the leading members of the city council hire a former Miami gangster, gone straight, to help eliminate the biggest crime syndicate in the city.

The Diamond Wizard
While in London trying to nab several fugitives who stole a million dollars from a U.S. Treasury vault, American federal agent Dennison (Dennis O'Keefe) assists Scotland Yard Insp. McClaren (Philip Friend) in his search for a missing atomic scientist (Paul Hardtmuth). The detective duo discovers that the key to solving both cases may rest with the scientist's daughter (Margaret Sheridan) and her fascinating diamond.

Impulse
An American realtor living in England is dissatisfied with what he believes to be his humdrum life. One weekend while his wife is out of town, he gives a ride to a woman he sees stranded on the road. One thing leads to another, and he soon finds himself enmeshed in a plot involving a diamond robbery, gangsters and murder.

Burnt Evidence
Duncan Lamont plays Jane Hylton's jealous husband. In a confrontation, Lamont accidentally shoots Hylton's lover. Convinced that he's a murderer, he heads for the hills as a police hunt begins... Classic British thriller from the creator of Dixon Of Dock Green.

Dangerous Cargo
Inspired by the real events of the attempted heist at Heathrow Airport in 1952, a criminal tricks an old friend into giving away the location of a shipment of gold bullion so he and his gang can steal it.

Angela
Dennis O'Keefe plays a GI who falls in love with Mara Lane in postwar Rome. Lane kills her boss, forcing her to flee the law. O'Keefe goes along for the ride so that he won't be knocked off by Lane's husband. Just when it looks as though O'Keefe is willing to go to any lengths to protect the woman he loves, he discovers that she frankly isn't worth it.

The Passing Stranger
The British Passing Stranger stars Hollywood actor Lee Patterson as a deserting American GI. He drifts about until he falls in with a gang of gunrunners. He wants to quit, but can't until he makes enough money to support himself and his love Diane Cilento. Just before this is possible, Cilento's ex-boyfriend blows the whistle on the crooks. Just long enough not to wear out its welcome, The Passing Stranger is a passing good little film noir.

Scarlet Web
An insurance investigator is framed for murder after a pretty woman hires him to recover a letter from a man who wants to blackmail her.

Delayed Action
Robert Ayres plays a moody author with a suicide complex. Ayres' melancholia plays right into the hands of a gang of thieves. For a lofty fee, they convince the author to confess to their crimes and then kill himself. Yes, you're way ahead of us: Ayres has a change of heart and decides that he loves life. Delayed Action was produced by Robert Baker and Monty Berman, the men behind the popular 1960s TV adventure series The Saint.
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