Best Mystery Movies of 1932

New York schoolmarm Hildegarde Withers assists a detective when a body of unscrupulous stockbroker Gerald Parker suddenly appears in the penguin tank at the aquarium.

In 19th Century Paris, the maniacal Dr. Mirakle abducts young women and injects them with ape blood in an attempt to prove ape-human kinship. He constantly meets failure as the abducted women die. Medical student Pierre Dupin discovers what Mirakle is doing too late to prevent the abduction of his girlfriend Camille. Now he desperately tries to enlist the help of the police to get her back.

A wisecracking New York reporter intrudes on a research scientist's quest to unmask The Moon Killer.

Thirteen women who were schoolmates ask a swami to cast their horoscopes. The news they receive are not good for any of them.

A gang of thieves gather at a safe house following a robbery, but a detective is on their trail.

Five men have to prove their innocence when a blackmailer is murdered.

A man tries to hide aboard a moving train after murdering a jewelry magnate.

When a movie actor is shot and killed during production, the true feelings about the actor begin to surface. As the studio heads worry about negative publicity, one of the writers tags along as the killing is investigated and clues begin to surface.

The sixth in The Shadow series of shorts from Universal. In this one the circus trapeze artist falls to her death when someone flips the light switch just as she starts her famed triple somersault. It only takes the circus manager about fifteen minutes to figure out the obvious suspect was the guilty one.

A police commissioner investigates the murder of a nightclub owner who was under police protection.

Megalomaniacal rancher is a law unto himself, until a Ranger is called-upon to bring him to justice.

Charlie is the intended murder victim here, and he avoids death only by chance. To find the murderer (since, of course, murder does occur), Charlie must outguess Scotland Yard and New York City police.

Society matron Mrs. Livingston Baldwin Crane is selected as a juror in the trial of former chorus girl Yvette Gordon, who's accused of murdering her rich older husband. In court and during deliberations, Mrs. Crane proves to be a disruptive and unorthodox juror.

Scion of the once-rich Mitchell family, Herbert Wynn is found shot to death. Nurse Adams, bored by hospital routine, is recruited by the police to ferret out clues as she tends to Wynn's elderly aunt Julia. Jokingly given the 'rank' of Miss Pinkerson, after the famous detective agency, Adams probes into the mystery, but not before a second death.

Defense Atorney Gerald Waring uses great skill and ingenuity in his efforts to save the life of a young man charged with the murder of his father. Witness after witness piles up damaging evidence against the accused youth, but expert cross-examination by Waring digs out the startling truth behind the killing and subsequently reveals the identity of the real killer in a surprise-twist ending.

An airliner makes a forced landing at night in the desert. The passengers and crew take refuge in a nearby deserted house. Soon some of the passengers are found murdered, and one of the passengers reveals himself to be a detective who was guarding one of the murdered passengers, who was carrying a bag of diamonds--which is now missing. The detective must find out which of the passengers is the killer.

The Wrecker wrecks trains on the L & R Railroad. One of his victims is Larry Baker's father. Baker wants to find the evildoer, among a host of suspects, but it will be difficult since the Wrecker can disguise himself to look like almost anyone

Thirteen years after a dinner party in which the thirteenth guest failed to arrive, the remaining guests are being murdered one by one, and their bodies being placed at the same dinner table in the appropriate seats they occupied thirteen years prior.

Moriarty is sentenced to death, and Sherlock Holmes prepares to retire to the country and marry his girl. But Moriarty has sworn that Holmes, Lt. Col. Gore-King of Scotland Yard, and his trial judge shall all be hanged too. When Moriarty escapes and proceeds to put his threat into operation, Holmes has to postpone his retirement.

Bodies start mysteriously disappearing from the city morgue. An investigator tries to determine what is going on.

John Mason returns to the Sally Ann mine to claim his half share. Janet Cater also returns although her father lost his half share to Joe Ryan. Ryan and his gang are also there to get the gold. A mysterious Phantom is also present. Mason's plan to expose Ryan as an outlaw and to force him to turn his share to Janet works. But when distracted by the Phantom, John is made a prisoner by the gang.

Railroad foes cause terror on the tracks with the illusion of a ghost train.

A group of amateur detectives sets out to expose The Crooked Circle, a secretive group of hooded occultists.

A young woman turns to Sherlock Holmes for protection when she's menaced by an escaped killer seeking missing treasure. However, when the woman is kidnapped, Holmes and Watson must penetrate the city's criminal underworld to find her.

College football player is asked to dope a star teammate by his crooked gambler brother. He refuses, but they player is doped anyway and collapses and dies. A detective has the whole game re-enacted to find important clues.

In this murder mystery, sexy blonde film star Irma Gladden is found dead in her car after shooting the last scene in her film, "Falling Star" at Eminent Studios. The suspects are numerous due to her free and easy lifestyle and messy romantic affairs. Among them are Grace Sibley the jealous wife of her director, Warren Sibley, her drunken actor husband, Andre Leighton, her screenwriter boyfriend, Rex Forsythe, and her first husband, Robert Worth. Also on hand to help solve the mystery are visiting reporter Bob Adair, Irma's secretary, Valerie Christine, and policemen Captain Sommers and Sergeant Delaney.

A range lawman (Ken Maynard) unmasks a black-cloaked phantom killer (Sheldon Lewis).

When the skeleton of a young man is dug up in an alley, a mysterious Chinese merchant and his eccentric upstairs tenants come under suspicion. The team of Inspector Carr and Dr. Crabtree use the skull of the victim to solve the murder.

Ruth Earlton has come home to her ancestral mansion to claim her inheritance. Accompanied by her boyfriend, she discovers that her father died suddenly under suspicious circumstances. Now it's her turn, as her deranged and relentless uncle targets her for death with the help of his wife and son, plus a very unhappy ape.

During a séance at an elderly millionaire's house, the millionaire is murdered. The detectives investigating the crime discover that everyone who was at the séance had a motive for killing the man.

A man framed for murder escapes from prison in order to prove his innocence.

Elna Curry, once a concert pianist, develops an unfounded jealousy of neighbor, Trudie Morrow. Elna who suffers from neurasthenia, believes that Trudie is having an affair with her husband, John, and vows revenge on Trudie. John explains to Trudie Elna's condition and plan. Trudie, being good-hearted tells John that she'll move. One evening, John returns late from work to discover Elna dead. John burns Elna's suicide note to protect Trudie. This results in John being charged for murder and put on trial.

When Captain Howland decides that his daughter Tess is getting a bit to old to continue to go to sea with him, they move into a small cottage on the coast of Maine, but not for long. A local millionaire, Frederick Garfield, lays a false claim to the property and has them evicted. Later, when Tess saves a young man about her age from drowning, she is a bit dismayed to learn that he is Garfield's son. But when her father is jailed on a false-accusation charge of murder, the younger Garfield comes to their aid and proves he himself.

A young woman goes to stay at the house of Lord Lebanon, but two murders in quick succession lead to the arrival of detectives and cause the woman to fear for her life.

Doctor Smith and his wife, Mary,depart a riverboat and are met by Phil Talbot. Phil informs Dr. Smith that Jessup, the only other white man in the village, has died while the doctor and his wife were off on a two-day holiday. Unknown to Smith, Jessup and his partner, Ross King, had a large cache of ivory tusks in the jungle, and he had told Phil about it. Meanwhile, Mary Smith has decided to steam-boat down the Congo River to Capetown for an extended holiday. Kuba, King's gun-bearer, asks Smith to write a letter to King, currently residing at a New York City Explorer's Club, and advise him that his partner has died. Talbot sends a letter to his stateside sweetheart, Diane Cameron, and her father, asking them to come to Africa and join him on an ivory-treasure expedition, and replenish their family-fortune lost in the recent stock-market crash. What Mr. Cameron and Diane don't know about Talbot is that his years in Africa have unhinged him...

In this musical short, General Bierbeau sends his weakling son, Pierre, to French Morocco to fight Arab insurgents, the Riffs, in the hopes that this will toughen him up. Pierre soon becomes the Riffs' leader and assumes a secret identity: The Red Shadow.

A London nobleman (Lionel Atwill) takes the blame and stands trial after his son strangles a lover (Greta Nissen).

A murder victim is brought back to life by a scientific experiment. However, the effects only last for six hours, and he must find his killer in that time.

Sherlock Holmes goes on the trail of a Rembrandt painting, stolen by a drug-addicted artist.

Divorcee Laura marries Paul but his employer is also enamored with Laura and sends Paul on a business trip during which a murder is committed and he is accused of the crime.

A cellist is murdered during a symphony concert. Shortly afterwards, the manager of the hall is found dead, an apparent suicide. But is it?

On his uncle's death Sir Henry Baskerville returns from abroad and opens up the ancestral hall on the desolate moors of Devonshire. Holmes uncovers a plot to have Sir Henry murdered by a terrible trained hound.

A man assists a woman to dispose of the body of her stepfather....

Dr. Crabtree (Donald Meek) and Insp. Carr (John Hamilton) are visited by a man who has been receiving notes threatening to kill him. The latest note says he will die at eight o'clock tonight, so Carr sends a couple men to his house. Sure enough, the many is murdered under everyone's noses, so the two men must find out what really happened.

A murder mystery about the smuggling of illegal Chinese aliens into America through Chinatown.

A police lieutenant and a female reporter investigate a series of murders committed by a hooded killer in an old dark house.

A condemned man uses hypnotism on a judge. After the man's death, the judge finds himself acting like the condemned man.

A young woman trying to obtain proof that a gangster committed a murder is befriended by a playboy who drinks just a bit too much.

A British crime film directed by G.B. Samuelson.