Best Thriller Movies of 1944

A Martinique charter boat skipper gets mixed up with the underground French resistance operatives during WWII.

A newlywed fears she's going mad when strange things start happening at the family mansion.

During World War II, a small group of survivors is stranded in a lifeboat together after the ship they were traveling on is destroyed by a German U-boat.

A seductive woman gets an innocent professor mixed up in murder.

Gumshoe Philip Marlowe is hired by the oafish Moose Malloy to track down his former girlfriend. He's also hired to accompany an effeminate playboy buy back some jewels. When the exchange results in the playboy's murder, Marlowe can't leave the case alone, and soon discovers it's related to Malloy's. As he gets drawn deeper into a complex web of intrigue by a mysterious blonde, the detective finds his own life in increasing jeopardy.

A woman lies on the sand, left there by the tides and waves (and in a pose that would be copied in From Here to Eternity). She reaches up across tree roots and makes a difficult climb. Only to discover herself climbing horizontally along a long dinner table as bourgeoise black-tie guests chat and drink and smoke, oblivious to her. At the top of the table, a man is playing chess but abandons the game. Fascinated, she gazes at board, the pieces moving unaided. The woman chases a pawn as it falls to the floor. Falls down a waterfall. Is lost.

On a trip to visit his parents, detective Nick Charles gets mixed up in a murder investigation.

The famous Pearl of Death, a valuable gem with a history of bringing murder and misfortune to its owner since the days of the Borgias, finally reaches its proper place at a museum in London. But before long the jewel is ingeniously stolen. Shortly thereafter, a series of horrible murders begin, with the murderer leaving his victims surrounded by a mass of smashed china.

A woman is found dead -- with her throat torn out. Villagers blame a supernatural source but Holmes has other ideas.