Best Crime Movies of 1964

When rich Mr. Benjamin Ballon's Spanish driver is found shot dead, Inspector Jacques Clouseau is the first official on the scene. All evidence suggests Maria Gambrelli, the maid, to be the murderer. But Clouseau, being attracted to the beautiful girl, is convinced that she is hiding something. So, he has her released from jail and secretly tries to follow her. Things do not work out the way the inspector wants and people keep ending up murdered, and every time, innocent Maria seems to be the killer. But with someone important wanting Clouseau and nobody else to cover this case, his tolerance-challenged boss Charles Dreyfuss is close to losing his mind when casualties keep turning up. And Clouseau keeps on causing trouble without knowing it...

Marnie is a thief, a liar, and a cheat. When her new boss, Mark Rutland, catches on to her routine kleptomania, she finds herself being blackmailed.

Arthur Simon Simpson is a small-time crook biding his time in Greece. One of his potential victims turns out to be a gentleman thief planning to steal the emerald-encrusted dagger of the Mehmed II from Istanbul's Topkapi Museum.

A former prostitute works to create a new life for herself in a small town, but a shocking discovery could threaten everything.

A murderer is brought to court and only Miss Marple is unconvinced of his innocence. Once again she begins her own investigation.

During an annual board of trustees meeting, one of the trustees dies. Miss Marple thinks he’s been poisoned after finding a chemical on him. She sets off to investigate at the ship where he had just come from. The fourth and final film from the Miss Marple series starring Margaret Rutherford as the quirky amateur detective.

A hit man and his partner try to find out why their latest victim, a former race-car driver, did not try to get away.

Working-class British housewife Myra Savage reinvents herself as a medium, holding seances in the sitting room of her home with the hidden assistance of her under-employed, asthmatic husband, Billy. In an attempt to enhance her credibility as a psychic, Myra hatches an elaborate, ill-conceived plot to kidnap a wealthy couple's young daughter so that she can then help the police "find" the missing girl.

The working class twin sister of a callous wealthy woman impulsively murders her out of revenge and assumes the identity of the dead woman. But impersonating her dead twin is more complicated and risky than she anticipated.

Anthony Richmond schemes to get the fortune of his tyrannical, wheelchair-using tycoon uncle Charles Richmond by persuading Maria, a nurse he employs, to marry him.

In prohibition-era Chicago, the corrupt sheriff and Guy Gisborne, a south-side racketeer, knock off the boss Big Jim. Everyone falls in line behind Guy except Robbo, who controls the north side. Although he's out-gunned, Robbo wants to keep his own territory. A pool-playing dude from Indiana and the director of a boys' orphanage join forces with Robbo; and, when he gives some money to the orphanage, he becomes the toast of the town as a hood like Robin Hood. Meanwhile, Guy schemes to get rid of Robbo, and Big Jim's heretofore unknown daughter Marian appears and goes from man to man trying to find an ally in her quest to run the whole show. Can Robbo hold things together?

Now middle-aged, mobster Murray looks back at his humble beginnings as a bootlegger and his rise to becoming wealthy and highly influential. Through it he talks about how much of his success and happiness is due to the support of his "friend" Joe. Unfortunately the only one who blindly believes Joe is anything close to a friend is Murray, because it's obvious to everyone that Joe back-stabs him at every chance and is sleeping with his wife.

A publisher is nearly framed for murder, but he appears to have been goaded by the blackmailer who has also blackmailed the publisher's wife.

At a disused railway station, three men -- a con artist, a preacher, and a prospector -- discuss the recent trial and sentencing of the outlaw Juan Carrasco for the murder of a man and the rape of his wife. In their recounting, the three explore the conflicting testimonies of the parties involved in the crimes. Disconcerting new questions arise with each different version of the event.

A fastidious insurance assessor investigates a potential case of insurance fraud.

When a ransom bid results in the death of a child, the police have only one lead – the old lady who witnessed the kidnapper using a public phone box. Though her recollection is vague, she volunteers to act as bait for the killer – telling the press that she had seen the kidnapper's face and she waits for him to attack.

Things go terribly wrong for four youths, ejected from a London nightclub for rowdiness, after they decide to break into a Magic shop, where they tie up and terrorize the owner. They find to their cost that he deals in more than illusions...

The film is based on the actual events of the Portland Spy Ring trial in the U.K. A disgruntled Navy Clerk is transferred to a secret research establishment and is subsequently black-mailed/paid by Czech intelligence to procure secrets for them. He seduces the secretary who controls the most secret documents, and they enjoy the fruits of their treachery until the British authorities begin to close in on them.

Paul Gregory (William Sylvester) is an accomplished composer despite his blindness, and his beautiful wife Anne (Barbara Shelley) seems to be the perfect supporting wife. But unknown to Paul, she is having a passionate affair with Ricky (Alexander Davion), a struggling artist. Keen to support her artist lover and give them more time to make love, she persuades Paul to commission Ricky to paint her portrait. But Paul senses their affection for each other, and threatens to cut Anne off without a penny. Desperate to keep both her lover and Paul s money, Anne plots the perfect murder and asks Ricky to carry it out...

A gangster is caught and arrested by police. When he's being transported by bus -- filled with innocent civilians -- it's hi-jacked by his gang in attempt to free their boss. They hide out. As the authorities close in they threaten to torch the barn the escapee and his men are hiding in -- with their hostage inside.

A prominent London psychologist seems to have taken his own life, causing stunned disbelief amongst his colleagues and patients. His teenage daughter refuses to believe it was suicide as this would go against all of the principles her father stood for, therefore she is convinced it was murder. She enlists the help of a former patient to try to get to the truth. However, the truth turns out to be both surprising and disturbing.

Meet Ellen Sheppard, an American living in Britain. Her English husband, Jason Sheppard, has been killed and she's under suspicion despite the appearance of a happy marriage. Jason's friend assists Ellen go over the facts to see if they can find the real killer.

An escaped mental patient, reported to be homicidal, hides out in a woman's rural home.

When Emil travels by bus to Berlin to visit his grandmother and his cousin, his money is stolen by a crook who specializes in digging tunnels. Emil must get the money back as it is for his grandmother. While following the thief, Emil runs into Gustav, an enterprising young boy who gathers up all his friends to help Emil find the money. Emil's cousin also gets involved and they get into more trouble than they bargained for when Emil's pickpocket turns out to be mixed up with a couple of notorious bank robbers.

Two detectives investigate the murder of a local businessman by a mysterious woman.

The teenage Tobe Hooper’s first film was a slapstick comedy. This farcical low-budget short is about three thieves who are wanted dead or alive. A bit Three Stooges, a bit Chaplin and a bit Keaton!

Angoroj (1964; Esperanto for "Agonies") was the first feature film to be produced entirely in Esperanto. (Jacques-Louis Mahé, a friend of Raymond Schwartz and under the pseudonym of 'Lorjak', had however already produced a silent Esperanto publicity film before World War II, titled Anta?en! (Onwards!). At the start of the 1960s Mahé, a professional photographic and cinematic expert, invested in the production of the first fictional film in Esperanto. Using a scenario by Mahé himself, the actors of the Internacia Arta Teatro (International Arts Theatre) presented a crime story, set in the Parisian periphery of petty thieves and cheats. Other notable people who played parts in the film included Schwartz (the commissioner), Gaston Waringhien (the voice-over) and many from the environs of the contemporary Paris, including a very young Michel Duc-Goninaz.

A professor of astronomy helping on a missile development program. An old friend of his is a Russian chess champion. The Russian is working with shady businessman Marek and they plan to kidnap the professor and make it look as though he has defected to the Soviet Union.

The story of a serial killer known as "Georgie Porgie." The Chicago turnpike is threatened over a three-day period as the police try to catch him by blocking the whole area.

A wealthy young layabout tries to double cross the master-crook who has engaged him to do a job.

Three psychotic murderers escape from a mental institution and stalk women in Los Angeles.

A gunman whose best friend has been murdered enacts a plan to blackmail the corrupt labor union leader responsible but finds he isn't the only one after his money.

The beautiful, brutal Olga procures prostitutes and pushes heroin for the syndicate, confining and torturing her pretty victims in a private dungeon located in New York City's sinister Chinatown.

An American pilot assists the Portuguese colonial police who are battling a gang of criminals involved in drug smuggling from Lisbon to Mozambique to Zanzibar.

Ruthless narcotics dealer and white slavery ring leader Olga keeps her harem of girls in line by hooking them on addictive drugs. Olga suspects an informant in their midst and uses various brutal methods of torture to weed out the squealer. Meanwhile, several of Olga's girls plot their revenge against Olga for her continual sadistic treatment of them.

Young bright medical student Fred has a dark secret - he's a peeping tom!

In this third installment of the "Olga" series, our heroine adds jewel smuggling to her repertoire of dope pushing and white slavery. As the vicious Olga (Audrey Campbell) expands her criminal empire, she also encounters more resistance as a string of once-trusted partners turn traitor in an effort to steal the successful racket out from under her. The result is exactly what fans of the series expect, a barrage of torture scenes featuring soldering irons, floggings, spankings, and even an electric chair. As with its predecessors, Olga's House of Shame is a silent black and white film with narration to explain the action, but even with direct commentary it's difficult to keep track of the characters and Campbell (who is occasionally caught laughing out loud at the absurdity of it all) has all the menace of a kindergarten teacher, even when wielding a machete.

The first victim is the butler of South African millionaire Wexler, who hires hard-hitting private eye Steve Martin for protection. Once at Wexler’s palatial Cape Town estate, Martin meets the patriarch’s family, close associates – and possible suspects. When it’s discovered that the key to the killing may lie in an old war photograph, Martin sets out on a mission to unravel the identities of the men in the picture before they become target two through VICTIM 5.

Three children are stalked by hired killers after they unknowingly take evidence pointing to the existence of a corrupt international cartel, which has just murdered their father.

A struggling actor auditioning in London learns that his actress-girlfriend who dumped him is married to the play's backer, a rich diamond merchant. They soon rekindle their romance and plan to get her out of her marriage.

A dangerous psychological game plays out between a man and the husband of the lover who spurned him.

A client arrives to a jewelry store in Bogotá, he choose a gem and pays it no matter the cost of it. He asks the manager to keep the gem in the store during the weekend. Meanwhile, a band of professional thieves plans the theft to the store without imagining that the fate of death surrounds them, and all beacuse of a red light.

A down-on-his-luck apartment house manager hatches a plan to rob a Catalina Island bank and escape with his accomplices using scuba gear.

In a barroom fight over Connie Zelenko, Eddie Dickinson is badly wounded and Connie's boyfriend is killed. Witnesses claim Dickinson is the killer, but he maintains his innocence despite public prosecutor Murray Brock's advice that he plead guilty and take a life-imprisonment sentence rather than risk capital punishment. When Connie comes out of hiding, she confirms the other witnesses' stories, but Brock believes Dickinson is innocent. Dickinson sticks to his story at his trial but receives the death sentence. In the death house, Dickinson continues to maintain his innocence, but after the execution of the sentence, Brock receives a letter from Dickinson confessing to the murder.

Tab Hunter as a scary-eyed Aryan-blonde psychopath living in London, who emerges from prison and immediately proceeds to psychologically - and eventually physically - destroy his small family.