Best Crime Movies of 1956

A couple vacationing in Morocco with their young son accidentally stumble upon an assassination plot. When the child is kidnapped to ensure their silence, they have to take matters into their own hands to save him.

In 1953, an innocent man named Christopher Emmanuel "Manny" Balestrero is arrested after being mistaken for an armed robber.

Air Force Colonel Kenneth Penmark and his wife, Christine, dote on their daughter, Rhoda -- as does their lonely landlady, Monica Breedlove. But self-centered Rhoda has a secret tendency for selfishness and loves to accumulate gifts, whether given or stolen, in her room. Christine keeps her knowledge of her daughter's darker side to herself, but when a schoolmate of Rhoda's dies mysteriously, her self-deception unravels.

Newspaper men compete against each other to find a serial killer dubbed "The Lipstick Killer".

A rich man (Glenn Ford) stuns his wife (Donna Reed) and town with a televised threat to his son's kidnapper.

An innocent man turns fugitive as he reconstructs events that implicate him for a murder and robbery he did not commit.

A newspaper publisher, wanting to prove a point about the insufficiency of circumstantial evidence, talks his possible son-in-law Tom into a hoax in an attempt to expose ineptitude of the city's hard-line district attorney. The plan is to have Tom plant clues leading to his arrest for killing a female nightclub dancer. Once Tom is found guilty, he is to reveal the setup and humiliate the DA.

Philip Hannon, a blind playwright living in London, overhears part of a conversation , that leads him into a desperate race, to find a kidnapped child. When he gets no help from the police, he along with his butler, and his ex fiancée, attempt to track down the crooks.

A Czech refugee uses women to advance his business interest.

A college student tries to get rich quick by wooing two wealthy sisters.

Kleptomaniac Dorothy Lyons is paroled from prison into the custody of her sister June, secretary to "reform" politician Frank Jansen. Ben Grace, associate of crime boss Sol "Solly" Caspar, sees this as a way to smear Jansen's campaign. Seductive Dorothy will do anything to get what she wants, which includes having a good time with Ben-- whom June is now in love with.

Kathy leaves the newspaper business to marry homicide detective Bill, but is frustrated by his lack of ambition and the banality of life in the suburbs. Her drive to advance Bill's career soon takes her down a dangerous path.

A social worker tries to end juvenile crime by getting involved with a street gang.

A lawyer tries to exact justice on a woman he defended in court -- a woman whom he found out was guilty after getting her off.

Supposedly filmed in 'Schizophrenoscope', it concerns Inspector Quilt of Scotland Yard's attempts to retrieve a 'Mukkinese Battlehorn' stolen from a London museum. Along the way he meets characters not dissimilar to Eccles, Henry Crun and Minnie Bannister from The Goon Show. This attempt to adapt Goon humour to the big screen was written by Harry Booth, Jon Penington and regular Goon show co-writer Larry Stephens. It was then heavily rewritten on the filmset by Sellers and Milligan.

A terrified stewardess is stalked by her psychotic estranged husband.

U.S. Embassy employee Lee Cochrane and his wife, Sue, receive a shock when they discover that their 18-month-old son, Simon, has disappeared in London. He was last seen with their nanny, and the couple seemingly have no leads that might help police Detective Craig in his investigation. The media sensationalizes the incident, causing an unnecessary distraction as the couple prepares to confront the culprit face-to-face.

On an airliner bound for Hong Kong, Tony (Rory Calhoun), a career crook who deals in stolen diamonds, agonizes over whether he should stick with his girlfriend (Dolores Donlon) or pursue Pamela (Barbara Rush), an intriguing novelist with whom he's instantly infatuated. Viewing Tony's dastardly deeds as great material for her new book, Pamela gladly encourages him to continue his criminal behavior.

Having been sent a picture of her husband, a war hero killed in France, Meg Elgin is led to believe he is still alive and arranges a meeting at a London railway station. When she arrives there with the police accompanying her, she catches sight of a man in the distance wearing an old coat of her husband's. When he is pursued and captured, he turns out to be Duds Morrison a former soldier and out-of-work actor recently let out of prison. He refuses to tell them anything, and having nothing they can charge him with, the police release him. His interest aroused by the pictures sent to Meg, her new fiancé Geoffrey Leavitt follows Morrison and tries to demand an answer from him about his sudden appearance masquerading as Meg’s dead husband.

A man is tried for the murder of his neurotic wife by means of a sedative overdose.

A high-school music teacher is the victim of a student who writes indecent notes and assaults women.

An insurance detective encounters numerous surprises when he is assigned to investigate a meticulously-planned train robbery in Arizona.

A parable made in the manner of an old silent comedy about artistry and illusion.

A government agent's son wins respect and love when he challenges counterfeiters.

A tense thriller that tears the lid off Soho's underworld and reveals the cunning organization behind a gang of safe-breakers who will stop at nothing, not even murder, to achieve their goals.

A 1920s chorus girl inherits a slain gangster's empire.

A co-owner of a race track goes on the run after witnessing something he shouldn't have at the track.

Police in Paris recruit an English ship's officer (Michael Craig) to help trap counterfeiters by joining them.

Cop Andy Doyle investigates a car-bombing murder and the killing of a sleazy modeling agency owner. Are they connected?

Clarinetist Stan has a nightmare about killing a man in a mirrored room. But when he wakes up and finds blood marks on himself and a key from the dream, he suspects that it may have truly happened.

A newly promoted police sergeant discovers his girlfriend my be involved with a gang of car thieves.

In the Colorado Rockies, Sheriff Scott, heads a posse that is after four escaped convicts, and thought it is his sworn duty to return the men dead or alive, he is, as always, reluctant to kill his fellow man. He is accompanied by Jaynes, a tavern owner, who takes much delight in his telescopic rifle, and by "Smitty," a gas station held up the escapees and more than ready to show she can be as tough as any man, although she seems to have some other motive for getting to the leader of the convicts, Kaygo.

A locksmith is pressured into crime when the mob makes him perform an elaborate bank robbery.

An ex-football brute (Anthony Quinn) and his beatnik gang take a rich girl (Carol Ohmart) and her boyfriend hostage (Arthur Franz) at a jazz joint.

A Brooklyn-born 17-year-old's loyalty is torn between his parents' old-fashion values and a local gangster's flashy lifestyle.

An escaped killer hides out by forcing a travelling family to take him with them.

A Texas oil driller schemes to steal millions of dollars in oil.

A police detective baits killer gamblers with a mob witness (Patricia Medina) in the Everglades.

This titillating bit of pulp sensationalism was the last in a string of "B" films that Cleo Moore starred in at Columbia. Moore plays Lila Crane, an ambitious clip-joint floozie turned photographer with flexible morals and a penchant for fast money.

A crusading politician falls prey to the temptations of power.

Crime drama in which a man unknowingly helps a gang pull off a big heist. The gang discovers that the man is more trouble than he is worth and as a result, things don't go as smoothly as planned.

Alcoholic detective investigating the murder of an actress starts getting worried when all fingers begin to point at him.

An unhappy wife uses her powers of manipulation to draw an infatuated man into an ill-fated jewelry heist.

The tale of a young bookie, married to a beautiful woman who goes to jail, and becomes involved with hoodlums.

After being consulted by a friend concerning a murder case, a private eye learns the friend has become the next victim. Passport to Treason was put together by Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman, the same team who’d later collaborate on the UK TV series The Saint. Rod Cameron stars as an American private eye, stationed in London. For the sake of a murdered friend, the detective takes over the dead man’s case, which turns out to have international ramifications. The villains are members of a phony pacifistic society, all of whom harbor plans for taking over the world.

Former Coastguardsmen Jim Benson is about to lose his boat when a couple approaches him for a fishing charter. Jim departs just ahead of the Sherrif with drunken Shanks, and his companion Sally (Gates). Shanks takes off into a small Mexican village after a fight with Jim, stranding both Sally and him with no money. Two local men hear of Jim's plight, and offer him money to smuggle a batch of illegal aliens, called Wetbacks, into the U.S. He agrees but is blackmailed into continuing to run the smuggling operation. Afraid, Jim decides to make a run for it, but someone close to him reveals themselves as a US Immigration agent and asks him to assist them in shutting down the smugglers for good.

Stanley Baker's O'Donovan is sent to steal the plans of a rival company's racing car designs, to ensure his employers win the competition. However, when opening a safe containing the plans, he triggers an alarm leading to a gun battle where he kills a number of people. James Robertson Justice, alarmed by the scandal surrounding the killings, orders his agent be killed surreptitiously to hide his involvement with the plot. The film uses original footage from the Mille Miglia , an Italian open-road endurance race, featuring classic period racing cars.

When Johnny Matlock whisks away a cold war secret from under the noses of Berlin's top secret agents, his every move is followed when he returns to England. His girlfriend Paula is kidnapped but her handbag is discovered at the scene of the crime by the aristocratic private eye, Duke Martin. Inside it he discovers the secret formula that the agents are searching for and tracks down her sister Paula. As Johnny grows frantic for the safe return of his girlfriend, Duke Martin plays a deadly game of double bluff with the enemy agents.

A journalist is framed for the murder of a rival and has to prove his innocence, whatever the cost.