Best Mystery Movies of 1961

Miss Marple believes she's seen a murder in a passing-by train, yet when the police find no evidence she decides to investigate it on her own.

An army major awakens in a small room with no idea of who he is or how he got there. He finds four other people in the same room, and they all begin to question how they each arrived there, and more importantly, how to escape.

A charming but ruthless criminal holds the family of a bank manager hostage as part of a cold-blooded plan to steal 97,000 pounds.

A wheelchair-bound young girl returns to her father's estate after ten years, and although she's told he's away, she keeps seeing his dead body on the estate.

A woman named Emily checks into a hotel and offers the bellboy $2000 to temporarily marry her. We soon find out Emily is the caretaker of a wheelchair-bound mute named Helga, who was the childhood guardian of a pair of siblings: Miriam Webster and her half-brother, Warren, who is about to inherit the estate of their late father. Who is the mysterious Emily and what are her intentions?

Tabitha, once the placid, gentle and devoted pet, adopts all the characteristics of a ferocious, wild animal following the murder of her mistress. The three guilty people are all trapped by the cat's power and each will come to untimely deaths of horrific proportions without anyone being able to solve the mystery that surrounds their brutal death.

A search for a winning lottery ticket in his dead father's grave causes Sardonicus' face to freeze in a horrible grimace, until he forces a doctor to treat his affliction--with even more grotesque results! The audience gets an opportunity to vote--via the "Punishment Poll"--for the penalty Sardonicus must pay for his deeds...

Five years after George Radcliffe was the chief witness in a high profile murder case, his wife receives a blackmailing letter accusing him of the crime.

A young couple go to check out a house they're thinking of buying. A somewhat mysterious woman tells the couple several stories of the fates that befell the house's previous owners.

In 1910, Hong Kong, under the rule of the British Empire, is a prosperous and bustling city, but, hidden in the shadows of its many narrow streets, the hideous members of the Red Dragon gang, a branch of the evil Chinese secret society of the Tongs, lurk and murder those who oppose to their tyranny, which thrives on vice, crime and the fear of the weakest.

A magician takes a simple-minded runaway under his wing. But the magician's wife has a sinister idea for the easily manipulated young man.

Ernie's Uncle Gabriel has just died but to claim his inheritance he must spend the night in the ancestral family home with the rest of his rather eccentric relatives. Ernie's imagination has been affected by his constant immersion in cheap horror novels, but his wildest fears turn out to be justified when the guests begin to drop dead.

A shipping tycoon with a record becomes a suspect when money goes missing from the company vault.

When the atheistic ranting of Irish-American author James Mulcahy upsets the inhabitants of the Irish village to which he has retired, a mob threatens him. But moments after he has dared God to strike him dead, a stranger appears and does so. The man, dubbed "Johnny Nobody" by the press, claims no knowledge of Mulcahy or even of himself. He asks the help of the village priest, Father Carey, in his upcoming trial for Mulcahy's murder. While the amnesiac Johnny goes to trial, Father Carey mulls questions of belief raised by the case. And then, the good father learns a little more about Johnny Nobody...

Following a frantic phone call about a crashed spaceship, two policeman try and determine who among the passengers of a bus at a snowed-in roadside diner is from another world.

Accused of killing a woman on a train, Sharon Carlin runs home to find another corpse there too!

A famous movie star's fan club secretary has been brutally murdered. She has in her office old newspaper clippings regarding a missing heiress. Did the secretary know something about the mystery of the heiress?

When a USAF sergeant stationed on a base in England is suspected and then accused of murdering a woman, both he and a local school teacher must race to clear his name and find the real killer.

A man is haunted by visions of a beautiful woman. When he finally meets her, he winds up involved in a satanic cult.

Vienna, 1956. After Soviet tanks crush the Hungarian uprising, soldier-of-fortune Michael Reynolds is hired to help a threatened Hungarian scientist escape from Budapest.

A reporter learns that his brother, a student, has committed suicide. Unconvinced, he begins his own investigation when the police dismiss his suspicions. Could a killer be on the loose in Cambridge?

A suspected serial killer is put in a jail house with a salesman, while a lynch mob waits outside.

The crazed brother of a condemned killer sent to the gas chamber swears vengeance on those he holds responsible for his brother's execution.

A 5-year-old boy finds his uncle's revolver, partially loads it with bullets, and plays with it in public, unaware of its deadly power.

Father Amion discovers that the large amounts of money turning up on the collection plate come from a grateful horse player who has hit a winning streak.

Jane and Ralph Birdwell get an unexpected and unwelcome visit from Mrs. Meade, their foster daughter’s biological mother.

Max Varnel’s British mystery thriller. After discovering a famous painting is a forgery, a noted art critic is killed by a hit-and-run driver. Starring Ray McAnally, Catherine Feller and Yvonne Buckingham.

From the TV series Five Fingers. Released theatrically in the UK in August 1961 as supporting film to Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

In Hungary, Sebastian searches for a traitor who betrays his people after promising them freedom. An episode of the spy show Five Fingers edited for theaters. Released theatrically in the UK in October 1961 as supporting film to The Queen's Guards.

Health officials from the World Health Organization link a smallpox outbreak in Europe to oil drilling in the Middle East.

Police procedural: tracking a ruthless Chicago hitman who's found a gig in Mexico City.