Best Crime Movies of 1958

Two convicts—a white racist and an angry black man—escape while chained to each other.

Barbara Graham is a woman with dubious moral standards, often a guest in seedy bars. She has been sentenced for some petty crimes. Two men she knows murder an older woman. When they get caught they start to think that Barbara has helped the police arresting them. As a revenge they tell the police that Barbara is the murderer.

In San Francisco, a psychopathic gangster and his mentor retrieve heroin packages carried by unsuspecting travelers.

Claude is a ruthless and efficient contract killer. His next target, a woman, is the most difficult.

Slick lawyer Thomas Farrell has made a career of defending mobsters in trials. It's not until he meets a lovely showgirl at a mob party that he realizes that there's more to life than winning trials. Farrell tries to quit the racket, but mob boss Rico Angelo threatens to hurt the showgirl if Farrell leaves him.

On the Italian coast, writer Paul Decker has grown unhappy in his marriage and executes what appears to be a perfect murder of his wife. While Paul is believed to be writing a book in France, his stepdaughter, Candy, suspects him of murdering her mother, as well as her father years before. With the police unwilling to investigate any further, Candy sets out to confirm her suspicions and take Paul down herself.

Light-hearted pilot for a proposed CBS detective series featuring character created by Erle Stanley Gardner (under the pseudonym of A.A. Fair). Penny-pinching, rotund Bertha Cool runs a detective agency while her dimunitive junior partner Donald Lam provides the legs and padded expense account. In the pilot, Lam's investigation of infidelity leads to murder.

Scotland Yard Inspector George Gideon starts his day off on the wrong foot when he gets a traffic-violation ticket from a young police officer. From there, his 'typical day" consists in learning that one of his most-trusted detectives has accepted bribes; hunts an escaped maniac who has murdered a girl; tracks a young girl suspected of involvement in a payroll robbery and then helps break up a bank robbery.

A mad bomber holds an innocent family hostage.

An 1840s British surgeon, experiments with anesthetic gases in an effort to make surgery pain-free. While doing so, his demonstration before a panel of his peers ends in a horrific mishap with his patient awakening under the knife; he is forced to leave his position in disgrace. To complicate matters, he becomes addicted to the gases and gets involved with a gang of criminals, led by Black Ben and his henchman Resurrection Joe.

An American doctor, Jethro Jones, comes into a quiet British seaside community and becomes entangled in a murder mystery when the town gossips inform him that all of the three wives of the town doctor, Doctor Dysert (or Doctor Deadcert as they call him) have had mysterious deaths. And now Doctor Dysert is treating his own secretary, Kitty, who he wants to make her his next wife, as she has inexplicably fallen ill.

A researcher investigating a notorious serial killer who was hanged 20 years earlier seemingly becomes possessed by the long dead strangler.

A tough kid comes to a new high school and begins muscling his way into the drug scene. This is a typical morality play of the era, filled with a naive view of drugs, nihilistic beat poetry, and some incredible '50s slang.

After his wife and her blind sister have died under his care, a doctor's small daughter is kidnapped and reported as buried alive, and he is given just five hours to find and rescue her.

George Kelly is angry at the world and scared to death of dying. A career bank robber, Kelly gets his confidence from his Thompson SMG and his girl Flo. After a botched robbery, Flo, Kelly and his gang try their hand at a more lucrative job: kidnapping.

Unable to pay his bookie, a man returns to his hometown where his embezzler brother and girlfriend plot a robbery that ends in tragedy.

A Liverpool juvenile liaison officer struggles with a young and dangerous pyromaniac.

British melodrama about a cabbie befriending a girl caught up in the white slave trade.

A professional thief is sprung from prison with the assistance of a new partner who wants to know where he's hid his loot.

A rookie cop takes on criminals who have the local government in their pocket.

When the nephews of Phyllis Carter are killed in an automobile crash while under the influence of narcotics, she persuades Police Lieutenant Jim Hahan to use her as an undercover agent.

Ben Cooper, an old farmer, falls in love with the young blond hitchhiker Mari Lou. She falls in love with Ben Coopers money. But, will he have enough to make her happy?

Passengers struggle to survive after their plane crashes on a remote island. Director Richard Wilson's 1958 drama stars Esther Williams, Jeff Chandler and Rosanna Podesta.

A Los Angeles teacher becomes a mob target when he agrees to be a star witness in a gangland murder case.

A Korean War veteran returns to Washington D.C. only to discover his business partner had died and their public-research business sold, so he works there undercover to find out the truth.

Remake of "To Have and Have Not" based on Hemingway short story. Plot reset to early days of Cuban revolution. A charter boat skipper gets entangled in gunrunning scheme to get money to pay off debts. Sort of a sea-going film noir with bad girl, smarmy villain, and the "innocent" drawn into wrong side of law by circumstances.

Three teens get into the drug business when they discover heroin in a stolen briefcase.

When Mary Maloney's police chief husband is found murdered, the police investigate and have a hard time trying to find the murder weapon.

American scientist Dr. Frank Smith is brought to Britain to help the C.I.A. There is a defecting East block scientist they want him to debrief. The commies are less than amused and set Dr. Smith up for a murder.

The manager (Stephen McNally) of a rocket-fuel plant deals with a worker (Vic Morrow) threatening to blow himself up.

A sea captain stands trial for manslaughter after 162 people are killed in a fire aboard his cruise ship. Director Fred F. Sears' 1958 drama stars Edmond O'Brien, Robert McQueeney, Paul Birch, Mona Freeman and Karin Booth.

A GI deserter frames a girl for killing a blackmailer, and holds her captive while seeking gems.

Peter Chance suffers a blow to the head and wakes up with amnesia in a luxurious home, where a doctor and several women tell him he's a missing heir who's inherited millions. But Peter soon suspects something is not quite right with their story. He sets out to learn the truth before he's forced to sign a document that purportedly finalizes the transfer of the estate. This drama is based on Hugh Wheeler's novel Puzzle for Fiends.

A crime boss tries to cause a riot and prison break while behind bars.

A detective tracking a stolen gem begins to suspect there's more to the case than just theft.

Members of the 87th Precinct search for a cop killer who has already murdered two of their own.

Safe cracker, Colley Dawson, is recruited to steal a list of Nazi agents from a safe in a Nazi occupied chateau in Belgium.

A third rate con man lands himself the job of a get-away driver for a bank heist that has complications.

An innocent nightclub singer becomes mixed up in illegal drug dealings shortly after witnessing her husband's death and the murder of a couple of narcotics agents.

A teenager finds her wayward sister running with thieves in San Francisco.

A £20,000 insurance claim is lodged when a nightclub is destroyed by fire, and claims investigator Mike Davies is assigned to get to the bottom of things. One suspect is Harry Drayson, the club owner but if he torched his own property for the insurance, how safe are his other, heavily insured properties?

Gangster and police look for a gangster's son who witnessed a murder.

Pursued by detectives, Johnny Walters leaves the city to visit his family in a small California town. Among the household: his dead brother's luscious widow Helen, who soon is attracted to him. Ominous events and conflicting evidence leave Helen suspicious, but uncertain about her brother-in-law as tension builds...

A nightclub operator (Mara Corday), her sister (Barbara Bostock), a beautician (Lita Milan) and two other women rob a payroll.

A teenage boy panics and takes hostages when he thinks he's committed murder.

Loot goes missing in robbery double-cross. Gang members, an ex-lover and a handsome stranger are left to sort it out.

Cops go under cover to track down a Mafia drug kingpin who has re-entered the country to sell "junk" to the prostitutes and "hopheads" on Bourbon Street. Edited from TV series N.O.P.D.

The Hellcats are an all-female gang bent on bucking authority and terrorizing the schools by doing things like having a bad attitude toward their teachers and parents. When Joyce, a new student, moves into the neighborhood, she draws the attention of The Hellcats. Desperate for acceptance and unhappy with her homelife, Joyce goes along with the gang, and is soon drinking, dancing and meeting boys. Can her parents stop her descent into depravity?

US Army Officer Dan Adams, blinded during the war, is framed for a diamond smuggling rap. Upon regaining his sight, Adams goes after the real thieves in an effort to clear his name. In order to trap the wily criminals, Adams pretends that he's still bereft of his vision.