Best Mystery Movies of 1939

1.

The Hound of the Baskervilles

5.2
7.4/10 IMDB

On his uncle's death Sir Henry Baskerville returns from Canada to take charge of his ancestral hall on the desolate moors of Devonshire, and finds that Sherlock Holmes is there to investigate the local belief that his uncle was killed by a monster hound that has roamed the moors since 1650, and is likely to strike again at Sir Henry.

Starring: Richard Greene, Basil Rathbone, Wendy Barrie, Nigel Bruce, Lionel Atwill, John Carradine, Barlowe Borland, Beryl Mercer, Morton Lowry, Ralph Forbes ..
Directed by: Sidney Lanfield
Release date: 1939-03-24
2.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

4.4
7.3/10 IMDB

Having once again avoided criminal conviction, Professor Moriarity develops a murderous plan to “finish off” his last major nemesis, Sherlock Holmes, by making him fail to prevent the perfect crime. Does it involve a family curse, the crown jewels of England, or something else…

Starring: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Ida Lupino, Alan Marshal, Terry Kilburn, George Zucco, Henry Stephenson, E. E. Clive, Arthur Hohl, May Beatty ..
Directed by: Alfred L. Werker
Release date: 1939-09-01
3.

Another Thin Man

4.0
7.4/10 IMDB

Not even the joys of parenthood can stop married sleuths Nick and Nora Charles from investigating a murder on a Long Island estate.

Starring: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Virginia Grey, Otto Kruger, C. Aubrey Smith, Ruth Hussey, Nat Pendleton, Patric Knowles, Tom Neal, Phyllis Gordon ..
Directed by: W.S. Van Dyke
Release date: 1939-11-17
4.

The Cat and the Canary

3.7
7.1/10 IMDB

Ten years after the death of millionaire Cyrus Norman, his will is to be read out to his six relatives, including Joyce Norman and Wally Campbell. Organized by Norman's lawyer, Crosby, the six meet at Norman's eerie New Orleans Gothic mansion. During the reading, the superstitious housekeeper declares that someone will be dead by midnight. Wally fears for Joyce when she is declared the sole inheritor, but all are alarmed when Crosby turns up dead.

Starring: Bob Hope, Paulette Goddard, John Beal, Douglass Montgomery, Gale Sondergaard, Elizabeth Patterson, George Zucco, Nydia Westman, John Wray, George Regas ..
Directed by: Elliott Nugent
Release date: 1939-10-27
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : Charlie Chan at Treasure Island
5.

Charlie Chan at Treasure Island

3.7
7.2/10 IMDB

Charlie Chan's investigation of a blackmail-induced suicide as a case of murder leads him into a world of magick and mysticism peopled with a stage magician, a phoney spiritualist, and a for-real mind reader.

Starring: Sidney Toler, Victor Sen Yung, Cesar Romero, Douglas Fowley, Pauline Moore, Donald MacBride, Wally Vernon, Douglass Dumbrille, Sally Blane, Charles Halton ..
Directed by: Norman Foster
Release date: 1939-08-31
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : Charlie Chan in Reno
6.

Charlie Chan in Reno

3.6
7.0/10 IMDB

Mary Whitman has gone to Reno to obtain a divorce. While there she is arrested on suspicion of murdering a fellow guest at her hotel (which specializes in divorcers). There are many others at the hotel who wanted the victim out of the way. Charlie comes from his home in Honolulu to solve the murder.

Starring: Sidney Toler, Ricardo Cortez, Phyllis Brooks, Slim Summerville, Kane Richmond, Victor Sen Yung, Pauline Moore, Eddie Collins, Kay Linaker, Louise Henry ..
Directed by: Norman Foster
Release date: 1939-06-16
7.

It's a Wonderful World

3.5
6.9/10 IMDB

Detective Guy Johnson's client, Willie Heywood, is framed for murder. While Guy hides him so he can catch the real killer, both of them are nabbed by the police, tried, convicted and sentenced to jail: Guy for a year with Willie to be executed. On the way to jail, Guy comes across a clue and escapes from the police.

Starring: Claudette Colbert, James Stewart, Guy Kibbee, Nat Pendleton, Frances Drake, Edgar Kennedy, Ernest Truex, Richard Carle, Cecilia Callejo, Sidney Blackmer ..
Directed by: W.S. Van Dyke
Release date: 1939-05-19
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : They Made Me a Criminal
8.

They Made Me a Criminal

3.5
6.8/10 IMDB

A boxer flees, believing he has committed a murder while he was drunk.

Starring: John Garfield, Claude Rains, Ann Sheridan, May Robson, Gloria Dickson, Billy Halop, Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell ..
Directed by: Busby Berkeley
Release date: 1939-01-21
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : City in Darkness
9.

City in Darkness

3.4
6.5/10 IMDB

Chan, in Paris for a reunion with friends from World War I, becomes involved in investigating the murder of a munitions manufacturer who was supplying arms to the enemy, even as the rising clouds of World War II force the city into nightly blackout status..

Starring: Sidney Toler, Lynn Bari, Richard Clarke, Harold Huber, Pedro de Cordoba, Dorothy Tree, C. Henry Gordon, Douglass Dumbrille, Noel Madison, Leo G. Carroll ..
Directed by: Herbert I. Leeds
Release date: 1939-11-15
10.

Nancy Drew... Reporter

3.4
6.5/10 IMDB

While participating in a contest at a local newspaper in which school children are asked to submit a news story, local attorney Carson Drew's daughter Nancy intercepts a real story assignment. She "covers" the inquest of the death of a woman who was poisoned. Nancy doesn't think the young woman accused of the crime is guilty and corrals her neighbor Ted into searching for a vital piece of evidence and stumbles onto the identity of the real killer.

Starring: Bonita Granville, John Litel, Frankie Thomas, Dickie Jones, Renie Riano, Mary Lee, Larry Williams, Betty Amann, Thomas E. Jackson, Olin Howland ..
Directed by: William Clemens
Release date: 1939-02-18
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : Mr. Moto's Last Warning
11.

Mr. Moto's Last Warning

3.3
6.4/10 IMDB

A Japanese man claiming to be Mr. Moto, of the International Police, is abducted and murdered soon after disembarking from a ship at Port Said in Egypt. The real Mr. Moto is already in Port Said, investigating a conspiracy against the British and French governments.

Starring: Peter Lorre, Ricardo Cortez, Virginia Field, John Carradine, George Sanders, Joan Carroll, Robert Coote, Margaret Irving, Leyland Hodgson, John Davidson ..
Directed by: Norman Foster
Release date: 1939-01-20
12.

The Return of Doctor X

3.1
5.7/10 IMDB

When news reporter Walter Garrett arrives at the hotel room of bombshell actress Angela Merrova to conduct an interview, he finds her dead from multiple stab wounds. He returns with the police to find the hotel empty and the body vanished. Garrett writes about the incident but is fired when Merrova, alive and well, goes to the paper to complain. Now his only chance to get his job back is to find the truth, which involves the grisly scheme of a madman.

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Rosemary Lane, Wayne Morris, Dennis Morgan, John Litel, Lya Lys, Huntz Hall, Charles C. Wilson, Vera Lewis, Howard Hickman ..
Directed by: Vincent Sherman
Release date: 1939-11-23
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : Inspector Hornleigh
13.

Inspector Hornleigh

3.0
6.7/10 IMDB

When a landlady finds one of her tenants murdered, Inspector Hornleigh is sent to investigate. Inspector Hornleigh's assistant, Sergeant Bingham, soon finds an attaché case that had been stolen from the murdered man. When Hornleigh examines the case, inside it he finds a bag that was used to carry important government documents. The documents have been taken, and to make things even more confusing, a duplicate of the stolen bag soon turns up.

Starring: Gordon Harker, Alastair Sim, Miki Hood, Wally Patch, Steven Geray, Edward Underdown, Hugh Williams, Gibb McLaughlin, Ronald Adam, Eliot Makeham ..
Directed by: Eugene Forde
Release date: 1939-03-07
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : The Fresh Vegetable Mystery
14.

The Fresh Vegetable Mystery

3.0
6.6/10 IMDB

Crime strikes the vegetable world when Mrs. Mama Carrot awakens and finds her children have been carrot-napped. She summons the Irish-Potato Police and they are soon on the trail of the culprit. But the various suspects they round up, and grill, aren't the criminals. They finally track down the guilty parties, who turn out to be a gang of mice in disguise. Thrown into a third-degree mousetrap, the mice soon confess. Bleeding Heart Warning: This cartoon contains racial stereotypes (an Irish potato), and cruelty to vegetables...and mice.

Directed by: Dave Fleischer
Release date: 1939-09-29
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : Mr. Moto in Danger Island
15.

Mr. Moto in Danger Island

2.9
6.7/10 IMDB

In Puerto Rico to investigate a glut of contraband diamonds that are flooding the world's jewel market, Mr. Moto and his sidekick, a wrestler, find themselves involved in murders by thrown daggers, the frame-up of an overstressed Army colonel, and a pirate gang led by an unknown boss who has inside knowledge of the ensuing investigation.

Starring: Peter Lorre, Jean Hersholt, Amanda Duff, Warren Hymer, Richard Lane, Leon Ames, Douglass Dumbrille, Charles D. Brown, Paul Harvey, Robert Lowery ..
Directed by: Herbert I. Leeds
Release date: 1939-04-07
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : The House of Fear
16.

The House of Fear

2.9
6.3/10 IMDB

A detective goes undercover as a producer to investigate an actor's murder, which occurred during the performance of a play...

Starring: William Gargan, Irene Hervey, Dorothy Arnold, Alan Dinehart, Harvey Stephens, Walter Woolf King, Robert Coote, El Brendel, Tom Dugan, Jan Duggan ..
Directed by: Joe May
Release date: 1939-06-30
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation
17.

Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation

2.9
6.5/10 IMDB

Mr. Moto is in Egypt to thwart a criminal mastermind determined to steal the priceless crown of the Queen of Sheba. When the precious treasure is transported to America, Mr. Moto must race against time to unmask the cunning thief who will stop at nothing—not even murder—to get what he wants.

Starring: Peter Lorre, Joseph Schildkraut, Lionel Atwill, Virginia Field, John 'Dusty' King, Iva Stewart, G.P. Huntley, Victor Varconi, John Bleifer, Honorable Wu ..
Directed by: Norman Foster
Release date: 1939-07-07
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : The Mysterious Miss X
18.

The Mysterious Miss X

2.9
6.0/10 IMDB

After being mistaken for Scotland Yard detectives, two vaudevillians (Michael Whalen, Chick Chandler) try to solve a murder in a Midwestern town.

Starring: Michael Whalen, Lynne Roberts, Chick Chandler, Mabel Todd, Frank M. Thomas, Regis Toomey, Donald Douglas, Wade Boteler, Dorothy Tree, Eddie Acuff ..
Directed by: Gus Meins
Release date: 1939-01-10
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : Tell No Tales
19.

Tell No Tales

2.9
6.5/10 IMDB

A newspaper editor turns a kidnapping into the banner headlines and exclusive story that could save his publication.

Starring: Melvyn Douglas, Louise Platt, Gene Lockhart, Douglass Dumbrille, Florence George, Halliwell Hobbes, Zeffie Tilbury, Harlan Briggs, Sara Haden, Hobart Cavanaugh ..
Directed by: Leslie Fenton
Release date: 1939-06-12
20.

Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase

2.9
6.6/10 IMDB

Nancy helps two aging spinsters fulfill the byzantine provisions of their father's will, but the murder of their chauffeur complicates matters.

Starring: Bonita Granville, Frankie Thomas, John Litel, Frank Orth, Renie Riano, Vera Lewis, Louise Carter, William Gould, John Ridgely, William Hopper ..
Directed by: William Clemens
Release date: 1939-09-09
21.

Nancy Drew... Trouble Shooter

2.8
6.6/10 IMDB

Nancy Drew clears her Uncle Matt of murder charges when she exposes the real murderers. She and Ted find themselves in many dangerous positions such as trying to fly an airplane after the pilot parachuted out and being face-to-face with the murderer.

Starring: Bonita Granville, Frankie Thomas, John Litel, Aldrich Bowker, Charlotte Wynters, Edgar Edwards, Renie Riano, Roger Imhof, Erville Alderson, Willie Best ..
Directed by: William Clemens
Release date: 1939-06-17
22.

Q Planes

2.8
6.5/10 IMDB

An eccentric Scotland Yard inspector thinks something beamed from a spy ship is dropping planes.

Starring: Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, Valerie Hobson, George Curzon, George Merritt, Gus McNaughton, David Tree, Sandra Storme, Hay Petrie, Frank Fox ..
Directed by: Tim Whelan, Arthur B. Woods
Release date: 1939-02-21
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt
23.

The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt

2.8
6.4/10 IMDB

Spies force former jewel thief Michael Lanyard to steal defense secrets in Washington.

Starring: Warren William, Ida Lupino, Rita Hayworth, Virginia Weidler, Ralph Morgan, Tom Dugan, Don Beddoe, Leonard Carey, Ben Welden, Brandon Tynan ..
Directed by: Peter Godfrey
Release date: 1939-01-27
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : The Four Just Men
24.

The Four Just Men

2.8
6.2/10 IMDB

The Four Men of the title are British WWI veterans who decide to work secretly against enemies of the country. They aren't above a bit of murder or sabotage to serve their ends, but they consider themselves to be true patriots.

Starring: Hugh Sinclair, Griffith Jones, Francis L. Sullivan, Frank Lawton, Anna Lee, Alan Napier, Basil Sydney, Lydia Sherwood, Edward Chapman, Athole Stewart ..
Directed by: Walter Forde
Release date: 1939-06-01
25.

Miracles for Sale

2.7
6.2/10 IMDB

A maker of illusions for magicians protects an ingenue likely to be murdered.

Starring: Robert Young, Florence Rice, Frank Craven, Henry Hull, Lee Bowman, Cliff Clark, Astrid Allwyn, Walter Kingsford, Frederick Worlock, Gloria Holden ..
Directed by: Tod Browning
Release date: 1939-08-10
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : The Amazing Mr. Williams
26.

The Amazing Mr. Williams

2.7
6.5/10 IMDB

Kenny Williams, a lieutenant on the homicide squad, is engaged to Maxine Carroll, the Mayor's secretary. Or isn't he rather married with his job? For each time he has a date with his longtime fiancée, he is prevented from keeping it by his devotion to duty. Maxine, in desperation, decides to take action and bring Kenny to the altar. Who will win, Maxine's curves or the glorious fight against crime?

Starring: Melvyn Douglas, Joan Blondell, Clarence Kolb, Ruth Donnelly, Edward Brophy, Donald MacBride, Don Beddoe, Jonathan Hale, John Wray, Jane Barnes ..
Directed by: Alexander Hall
Release date: 1939-11-22
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : Bulldog Drummond's Secret Police
27.

Bulldog Drummond's Secret Police

2.7
6.2/10 IMDB

Captain Drummond and his girlfriend want to marry but a hidden treasure in the house in which they want to celebrate their marriage is complicating the situation involving a series of deaths and an elusive murderer.

Starring: John Howard, Heather Angel, H.B. Warner, Reginald Denny, E. E. Clive, Elizabeth Patterson, Leo G. Carroll, Forrester Harvey, Clyde Cook, David Clyde ..
Directed by: James P. Hogan
Release date: 1939-03-29
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : The Saint in London
28.

The Saint in London

2.6
6.4/10 IMDB

Suave soldier of fortune Simon Templer gets mixed up with a gang of counterfeiters who've murdered and robbed an European count of 1,000,000 pounds. He is aided reluctantly by Scotland Yard inspector Teal, who's convinced that Templar himself pulled off the heist, and less reluctantly by light-fingered Dugan and dizzy socialite Penny Parker.

Starring: George Sanders, Sally Gray, David Burns, Gordon McLeod, Athene Seyler, Henry Oscar, John Abbott, Ralph Truman, Charles Carson, Carl Jaffe ..
Directed by: John Paddy Carstairs
Release date: 1939-06-30
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : The Mystery of Mr. Wong
29.

The Mystery of Mr. Wong

2.6
6.1/10 IMDB

Detective James Lee Wong must find the "Eye of the Daughter of the Moon," a priceless but cursed sapphire stolen in China and smuggled to America. His search takes him into the heart of Chinatown and to the dreaded "House of Hate" to find the deadly gem before it can kill again.

Starring: Boris Karloff, Grant Withers, Dorothy Tree, Craig Reynolds, Ivan Lebedeff, Holmes Herbert, Morgan Wallace, Lotus Long, Chester Gan, Hooper Atchley ..
Directed by: William Nigh
Release date: 1939-03-08
30.

Fast and Furious

2.6
6.1/10 IMDB

Joel & Garda Sloan, a husband and wife detective team, who also sell rare books in New York, take a vacation to Seaside City. At Seaside, Joel's pal, Mike Stevens is managing and preparing for their beauty pageant. Joel is made one of the judges plus he has invested $5,000 in it, to Garda's dismay. Eric Bartell, promoter, arrives to dupe Stevens. When Ed Connors, New York racketeer arrives, Bartell is mysteriously murdered. Joel and Garda set out to investigate the murder.

Starring: Franchot Tone, Ann Sothern, Ruth Hussey, Allyn Joslyn, Lee Bowman, Frank Orth, John Miljan, Mary Beth Hughes, Bernard Nedell, Cliff Clark ..
Directed by: Busby Berkeley
Release date: 1939-10-06
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : The Saint Strikes Back
31.

The Saint Strikes Back

2.6
6.2/10 IMDB

Suave private detective Simon "The Saint" Templar arrives in San Francisco and meets Val, a woman whose police inspector father killed himself after being accused of corruption and dismissed from the force. Convinced of the man's innocence, Templar takes it upon himself to vindicate the memory of Val's father. To do so he must take on the city's most dangerous criminal gang, while also battling hostile members of the police department.

Starring: George Sanders, Wendy Barrie, Jonathan Hale, Jerome Cowan, Barry Fitzgerald, Neil Hamilton, Robert Elliott, Russell Hopton, Edward Gargan, Robert Strange ..
Directed by: John Farrow
Release date: 1939-03-08
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : Slightly Honorable
32.

Slightly Honorable

2.6
6.1/10 IMDB

A lawyer is framed for the murder of a young party girl and tries to clear his name.

Starring: Pat O’Brien, Edward Arnold, Broderick Crawford, Ruth Terry, Alan Dinehart, Claire Dodd, Phyllis Brooks, Eve Arden, Douglass Dumbrille, Bernard Nedell ..
Directed by: Tay Garnett
Release date: 1939-12-22
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : The Gracie Allen Murder Case
33.

The Gracie Allen Murder Case

2.6
6.3/10 IMDB

The zany plot follows nitwit Gracie Allen trying to help master sleuth Philo Vance solve a murder.

Starring: Gracie Allen, Warren William, Ellen Drew, Kent Taylor, Jed Prouty, Jerome Cowan, Donald MacBride, H.B. Warner, William Demarest, Judith Barrett ..
Directed by: Alfred E. Green
Release date: 1939-06-02
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : Inquest
34.

Inquest

2.6
5.7/10 IMDB

A woman is suspected of killing her husband after a revolver is found in her attic. A coroner is determined to prove that she did it, but thanks to the assistance of a quick-witted lawyer she is eventually found innocent.

Starring: Elizabeth Allan, Herbert Lomas, Hay Petrie, Barbara Everest, Olive Sloane, Philip Friend, Harold Anstruther, Malcolm Morley, Jean Shepherd, Charles Stephenson ..
Directed by: Roy Boulting
Release date: 1939-12-01
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : Nick Carter, Master Detective
35.

Nick Carter, Master Detective

2.6
6.1/10 IMDB

Detective Nick Carter is brought in to foil spies at the Radex Airplane Factory, where a new fighter plane is under manufacture.

Starring: Walter Pidgeon, Rita Johnson, Henry Hull, Stanley Ridges, Donald Meek, Addison Richards, Henry Victor, Milburn Stone, Martin Kosleck, Frank Faylen ..
Directed by: Jacques Tourneur
Release date: 1939-12-13
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : The Witness Vanishes
36.

The Witness Vanishes

2.5
5.6/10 IMDB

In this mystery, a newspaper executive and three of his colleagues conspire to have the owner of the highly-respected London Sun committed to an insane asylum. The hapless publisher manages to escape. Soon after, the four collaborators begin dying one-by-one. Oddly their obituaries appear in a rival publication before they are actually killed.

Starring: Edmund Lowe, Wendy Barrie, Bruce Lester, Forrester Harvey, Walter Kingsford, J.M. Kerrigan, Barlowe Borland, Boyd Irwin, Vernon Steele, Reginald Barlow ..
Directed by: Otis Garrett
Release date: 1939-09-22
37.

Fast and Loose

2.5
6.2/10 IMDB

The Sloanes tie murder to the theft of a Shakespeare manuscript.

Starring: Robert Montgomery, Rosalind Russell, Reginald Owen, Ralph Morgan, Etienne Girardot, Alan Dinehart, Jo Ann Sayers, Joan Marsh, John Hubbard, Tom Collins ..
Directed by: Edwin L. Marin
Release date: 1939-02-17
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : Mr. Wong in Chinatown
38.

Mr. Wong in Chinatown

2.5
5.8/10 IMDB

A pretty Chinese woman, seeking help from San Francisco detective James Lee Wong, is killed by a poisoned dart in his front hall, having time only to scrawl "Captain J" on a sheet of paper. She proves to be Princess Lin Hwa, on a secret military mission for Chinese forces fighting the Japanese invasion. Mr. Wong finds two captains with the intial J in the case, neither being quite what he seems; there's fog on the waterfront and someone still has that poison-dart gun...

Starring: Boris Karloff, Marjorie Reynolds, Grant Withers, Huntley Gordon, George Lynn, William Royle, James Flavin, Lotus Long, Lee Tung Foo, Bessie Loo ..
Directed by: William Nigh
Release date: 1939-08-01
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : Island of Lost Men
39.

Island of Lost Men

2.5
6.4/10 IMDB

A Chinese general's daughter tracks her father to a slave-labor tyrant's (J. Carrol Naish) jungle empire.

Starring: Anna May Wong, J. Carrol Naish, Eric Blore, Ernest Truex, Broderick Crawford, Anthony Quinn, William Haade, Rudolf Forster, Richard Loo, Eric Blore ..
Directed by: Kurt Neumann
Release date: 1939-08-16
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : The Body Vanished
40.

The Body Vanished

2.5
5.7/10 IMDB

A Scotland Yard inspector and his reporter friend arrive on vacation in a small village and are immediately involved in what is claimed to be a murder but the body has disappeared, leaving it to the inspector to find the body, determine the motive and find the killer.

Starring: Anthony Hulme, C. Denier Warren, Ernest Sefton, Evelyn Foster, Frank Atkinson, Wilfred Noy, Hamilton Keene, Cyril Chamberlain, Frederick Keen, Charles Paton ..
Directed by: Walter Tennyson
Release date: 1939-10-27
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : Traitor Spy
41.

Traitor Spy

2.3
6.4/10 IMDB

A British man is hunted by British and German spies when he tries to sell blueprints.

Starring: Bruce Cabot, Marta Labarr, Tamara Desni, Romilly Lunge, Edward Lexy, Cyril Smith, Percy Walsh, Eve Lynd, Alexander Field, Hilary Pritchard ..
Directed by: Walter Summers
Release date: 1939-12-01
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : Dick Tracy's G-Men
42.

Dick Tracy's G-Men

2.3
6.5/10 IMDB

A mad doctor named Zanoff uses a drug to bring himself back from the dead after his execution in prison. Dick Tracy sets out to capture Zanoff before he can put his criminal gang back together again.

Starring: Ralph Byrd, Irving Pichel, Ted Pearson, Walter Miller, George Douglas, Kenneth Harlan, Robert Carson, Julian Madison, Ted Mapes, Jennifer Jones ..
Directed by: John English, William Witney
Release date: 1939-09-02
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : Sued for Libel
43.

Sued for Libel

2.2
6.2/10 IMDB

A New York City newspaper is sued for libel after reporting the wrong verdict in a murder trial.

Starring: Kent Taylor, Linda Hayes, Lilian Bond, Morgan Conway, Richard Lane, Roger Pryor, Thurston Hall, Emory Parnell, Roy Gordon, Keye Luke ..
Directed by: Leslie Goodwins
Release date: 1939-10-27
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : The Invisible Killer
44.

The Invisible Killer

1.8
4.2/10 IMDB

Reporter Sue Walker has too much inside information on the local gambling rackets to suit her sweetheart, Detective Lieutenant Jerry Brown, chief of the police Homicide Squad. When the call comes in that there has been a killing at Lefty Ross' place, a notorious gambling joint, Jerry is peeved when Sue beats him there. He discovers that gambler Jimmy Clark was killed as he answered a telephone call, and his body is riddled with bullets but Jerry can't find any weapon. Sue is amazed to see Gloria Cunningham there. Gloria's father is one of the town's leading reformers and she is engaged to District Attorney Richard Sutton. Ross decides to give Sutton all the information he needs and makes an appointment to go to Sutton's home. Once there, Ross is called to the telephone before he can give any information, and is killed in the same mysterious manner as Jimmy Clark.

Starring: Grace Bradley, Roland Drew, William Newell, Alex Callam, Frank Coletti, Sidney Grayler, Crane Whitley, Boyd Irwin, Jean Brooks, David Oliver ..
Directed by: Sam Newfield
Release date: 1939-11-14
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : This Man in Paris
45.

This Man in Paris

1.8
7.9/10 IMDB

A British reporter and his wife, on vacation in Paris, run into a gang of counterfeiters.

Starring: Barry K. Barnes, Valerie Hobson, Alastair Sim, Edward Lexy, Garry Marsh, Max Michel, Mona Goya, Anthony Shaw, Cyril Chamberlain, Charles Oliver ..
Directed by: David MacDonald
Release date: 1939-07-01
46.

Midnight Shadow

1.6
3.3/10 IMDB

A confidence man pretending to be a mentalist swindles a family.

Starring: Ira "Buck" Woods, Jess Lee Brooks, Frances Redd, Richard Bates, Ollie Ann Robinson, Clinton Rosemond, Edward Brandon, Laurence Criner, Pete Webster, Ruby Dandridge ..
Directed by: George Randol
Release date: 1939-01-01
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : Death Goes North
47.

Death Goes North

1.5
6.1/10 IMDB

Sergeant Ken Strange, of the Canadian Mounted Police, and his dog, King, are on the trial of the murderer.

Starring: Edgar Edwards, Sheila Bromley, James McGrath, Jameson Thomas, Walter Byron, Rin Tin Tin Jr., Arthur Kerr, Dorothy Bradshaw, Reginald Hincks, Vivian Combe ..
Directed by: Frank McDonald
Release date: 1939-06-30
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : Private Detective
48.

Private Detective

1.4
5.9/10 IMDB

A female private eye joins forces with a police detective to investigate the suspicious murder of a millionaire.

Starring: Jane Wyman, Dick Foran, Gloria Dickson, Maxie Rosenbloom, John Ridgely, Morgan Conway, John Eldredge, Joseph Crehan, William B. Davidson, Selmer Jackson ..
Directed by: Noel M. Smith
Release date: 1939-12-09
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : Mystery of the White Room
49.

Mystery of the White Room

1.4
6.0/10 IMDB

A doctor and nurse solve an operating-room murder.

Starring: Bruce Cabot, Helen Mack, Joan Woodbury, Constance Worth, Thomas E. Jackson, Tom Dugan, Mabel Todd, Roland Drew, Addison Richards, Frank Reicher ..
Directed by: Otis Garrett
Release date: 1939-03-17
Best Mystery Movies of 1939 : Grand Jury Secrets
50.

Grand Jury Secrets

1.4
5.8/10 IMDB

A newspaper reporter gets involved with shady stock promoters when he listens in on a jury room session.

Starring: John Howard, Gail Patrick, William Frawley, Jane Darwell, Porter Hall, Harvey Stephens, John Hartley, Elisha Cook Jr., Kitty Kelly, Morgan Conway ..
Directed by: James P. Hogan
Release date: 1939-06-23

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