Best Mystery Movies of 1945

Architect Walter Craig, seeking the possibility of some work at a country farmhouse, soon finds himself once again stuck in his recurring nightmare. Dreading the end of the dream that he knows is coming, he must first listen to all the assembled guests' own bizarre tales.

Ten strangers are summoned to a remote island and while they are waiting for the mysterious host to appear, a recording levels serious accusations at each of the guests. Soon they start being murdered, one by one. As the survivors try to keep their wits, they reach a disturbing conclusion: one of them must be the killer.

An unemployed drifter, Eric Stanton wanders into a small California town and begins hanging around the local diner. While Eric falls for the lovely waitress Stella, he also begins romancing a quiet and well-to-do woman named June Mills. Since Stella isn't interested in Eric unless he has money, the lovelorn guy comes up with a scheme to win her over, and it involves June. Before long, murder works its way into this passionate love triangle.

The Good Comrades are a collection of varied gentlemen who crave one thing - solitude. They reside at Drearcliff House, ancestral home of their eldest member. All seems serene and convivial until one by one the members begin to perish in the most grisly of manners. Foul play is suspected by the Good Comrades' insurance agent, who turns to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson for guidance.

A woman finds herself entrenched in a murder cover-up when she goes to work for a wealthy widow.

Pete Marshall is sent as a replacement to the mountain district town of Plainville when a public opinion surveyor who went there goes missing. Visiting the hillbilly family of Mamie Fleagle, Pete begins to suspect that she and her two sons have murdered the surveyor. Pete then believes that Mamie is slowly poisoning wealthy Grandma Fleagle, who has put a vital clue to her fortune in a nonsensical embroidered sampler.

After the King of Ruthenia has been assassinated, Holmes and Watson are engaged to escort his son to Europe via Algiers, aboard a transatlantic ocean liner which also carries a number of suspicious persons, any of whom may be involved in a plot to also assassinate him.

When a man asks another man more facile with words to do his wooing for him, there are always complications. The man with no talent for writing marries the girl, confesses one night he didn't write the letters and ends up with a knife in his back. The writer of the letters fell in love with the woman he wrote to and wants to become her second husband even if she did murder husband number one. Singleton doesn't remember the murder or anything about the first 22 years of her life as Victoria Remington. Then at her second wedding she wonders why she said "I take you, Roger," instead of "I take you, Allen."

While watching from her train window, Nikki Collins witnesses a murder in a nearby building. When she alerts the police, they think she has read one too many mystery novels. She then enlists a popular mystery writer to help her solve the crime on her own, but her sleuthing attracts the attentions of suitors and killers.

Sherlock Holmes investigates when young women around London turn up murdered, each with a finger severed. Scotland Yard suspects a madman, but Holmes believes the killings to be part of a diabolical plot.

A beautiful but unscrupulous female performer manipulates all the men in her life in order to achieve her aims.

After nearly running over him with her cab, Patty Mitchell picks up a fare who claims to have amnesia. As he fumbles to remember the basic facts of his identity, Patty becomes interested in the stranger and decides to help him in his search. But as the pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place, and Patty's interest becomes more personal, the stranger finds that he is the prime suspect in a murder case.

On a Greek island during the 1912 war, several people are trapped by quarantine for the plague. If that isn't enough worry, one of the people—a superstitious old peasant—suspects a young woman of being a vampiric demon.

Chinese sleuth Charlie Chan discovers a scheme for the theft of government radar plans while investigating several murders.

Someone is attempting to steal radium stored in a bank. Death by cobra venom connects a number of murders. Charlie Chan investigates.

The latest assignment for respected detective Charlie Chan has come directly from the government and involves the disappearance of a scientist named Harper, who was working on an extremely important serum. When the scientist is killed, Chan must sort through all very likely suspects, including the man's sister and his butler.

An adolescent believes that his widowed mother's suitor may have murdered his father.

When a man dies of a heart attack, a stage and radio mentalist believes he has willed him to die because he was angry with the man. Riddled with guilt, the mentalist cancels further shows, breaks off his engagement to his female partner, who can read minds while in a hypnotic trance, and takes refuge in the eerie wax-museum-cum-home of another woman friend.

A perfumed message provides the only clue for a blind detective bent on clearing a man accused of murder.

A military nurse recovering at an inn from a nervous breakdown keeps having dreams where she sees two men trying to murder a third. When she meets a man who is a federal agent at the inn, she is astounded to discover that he is the man in her dream who is the intended murder victim.

Detective Tracy (Morgan Conway) rescues Tess Trueheart (Anne Jeffreys) and Junior from a killer called Splitface (Mike Mazurki).

Melodrama set in Victorian Brighton. Scheming pub landlady uses the timorous son of a domineering pharmacist to assist in the poisoning of her drunkard husband. (The title is from the way pharmacists used to wrap parcels containing poison).

A scientist who is working on a cure for influenza is victimized by his unscrupulous boss, who releases the vaccine before it's ready, resulting in the death of the scientist's son.

A feud between rival newspapermen Kruger (Bromberg) and McDonald (Guilfoyle) goes deadly when blackmailing McDonald ends up murdered and his corpse planted in the trunk of Kruger's car. Good guy Kruger attempts to hide McDonald's body, with the help of chauffeur Hogan (Jenks), to keep from being charged with murder. However, zany scenarios occur as the body just won't stay hidden, and keeps on popping up in multiple places where Kruger is located, leading to him hiding the body again and again while Kruger tries to find the real killer.

A young couple's accident could make them rich, if they can evade a Nazi spy ring.

An eccentric wealthy man is murdered, and the police set out to find his killer.

Donald has an unpleasant evening when a mysterious book salesman comes to his door then disappears leaving Donald with a collection of whodunnit novels. He reads one and gets so fully involved in it that it appears that the characters are actually coming out of the book and into his living room getting him involved in the murder caper. Finally the author of the book, J. Harold King, steps forth and claims Donald innocent. The characters return to the novel from whence they came leaving Donald wondering if it was really just his "imagination"

Attorney Wayne Fletcher and his secretary have an affair. When Wayne's wife is found smothered to death, he becomes the prime suspect. As the police investigate the murder, a psychic with questionable motives tries to contact the deceased woman. Soon, Wayne begins seeing visions of his dead wife, and other people involved with the case begin to be killed, one by one.

While on vacation, the Falcon is arrested for kidnapping after striking up a friendship with a girl who's nurse has been recently murdered.

A playboy produces an airtight alibi when he is questioned about the murder of his wealthy aunt.

In the early part of this century, Maddelena a teenage Italian girl, is attacked whilst walking in the woods. The attack leaves her mentally scarred and our story flashes forward to the 1940s where Maddelena is still troubled. She disappears one day and her daughter vows to find her.

Chan is faced with suspects in a stolen atomic bomb formula case, that are being killed with bullets that are not fired from a gun.

A woman uses a deck of cards to predict death within 24 hours for a stranger sitting at a bar, then tries to help him remember who he is based on items in his pockets.

A criminal psychiatrist investigates the murder of a two-time widower.

Newlyweds (George Murphy, Carole Landis) drag their lawyer friend (Pat O'Brien) to a mountain resort on a search for a missing magician.

A doctor answers a suicide call in a Latin nightclub.

A young woman is tormented by the belief that she is the victim of a witch's curse.

In San Francisco, detective partners Jack Packard and Doc Long are hired by socialite Jefferson Monk who believes someone is following him with the aim to kill him.

A criminal psychologist treats an artist whose blackouts coincide with a series of murders.

A London curator loses the Mona Lisa to a collector, who discovers it's a fake.

An elderly couple move into an old, supposedly haunted abandoned house. A young girl comes to live with the pair as a companion for the wife. However, soon the girl is possessed by the spirit of another girl, a wealthy woman who had once lived in the house but who had been murdered there.

Blackie is implicated in a murder when he accidently sells a phony Charles Dickens first edition at an auction.

A female hitchiker is taken in by a family after a horrible car accident. While she recovers, she begins to unravel a murder mystery involving the woman of the house.

A reporter learns that an executed killer has taken over a scientist's mind.

An ex-cop is suspected of murder after he is found with a dead woman. The private detective is on the run -- attempting to prove his innocence.

Leo, a former convict, is living in seclusion on an island with his step-daughter, the daughter of his late wife. Leo was framed by a group of former business associates, and he also suspects that one of them killed his wife. He has invited the group to his island, tempting them by hinting about a hidden fortune, and he has installed a number of traps and secret passages in his home. He is aided in his efforts by a former cell-mate who holds a grudge against the same persons. When everyone arrives, the atmosphere of mutual suspicion and the thick fog that covers the island promise a tense and hazardous weekend for everyone.

The title character, played by Edmund Lowe, is a famous magician who fakes his own death -- then reappears as his nonexistent twin brother. It's all part of Gregory's master scheme to pin his "murder" on innocent John Randall (Don Douglas), the husband of Ellen (Jean Rogers), the woman Gregory loves.

Blackie helps the police rescue hostage from an escaped maniac on a killing spree.

An estranged wife shows up after a nearly 7 years of disappearance -- thought to be dead, to prevent her husband from marrying his new love until someone kills her.