Best Thriller Movies of 1951

An alien and a robot land on Earth after World War II and tell mankind to be peaceful or face destruction.

After years of investigation, Assistant District Attorney Martin Ferguson has managed to build a solid case against an elusive gangster whose top lieutenant is about to testify.

A detective tries to prevent the assassination of President-elect Abraham Lincoln during a train ride in 1861.

In a desperate attempt to get out of debt, career gambler Dan Milner agrees to rendezvous with a mysterious contact at a distant Mexican resort in exchange for $50,000. Upon arriving, Milner meets his fellow guests, including a plastic surgeon, a philandering movie star and his beautiful girlfriend. Soon Milner discovers that the man who hired him may be the ruthless gangster Nick Ferraro -- a deported crime boss looking to re-enter the USA.

A young man, morally destroyed by his parents not loving him and by the fear of being not capable to make his girlfriend happy, rises on the ledge of a building with the intention of committing suicide. A policeman makes every effort to argue him out of it.

Los Angeles, California. A cop who, unhappy with his job, blames others for his work problems, is assigned to investigate the case of a prowler who stalks the home of a married woman.

After serving five years of a life sentence, Rocky Mulloy hopes to clear his friend who's still in prison for the same crime.

A crook on the run hides out in an innocent girl's apartment.

WWII is entering its last phase: Germany is in ruins, but does not yield. The US army lacks crucial knowledge about the German units operating on the opposite side of the Rhine, and decides to send two German prisoners to gather information. The scheme is risky: the Gestapo retains a terribly efficient network to identify and capture spies and deserters. Moreover, it is not clear that "Tiger", who does not mind any dirty work as long as the price is right, and war-weary "Happy", who might be easily betrayed by his feelings, are dependable agents. After Tiger and another American agent are successfully infiltrated, Happy is parachuted in Bavaria. His duty: find out the whereabouts of a powerful German armored unit moving towards the western front.

A big-city cop is reassigned to the country after his superiors find him too angry to be an effective policeman. While on his temporary assignment he assists in a manhunt of a suspected murderer.

Set in 19th-century New York, this mystery begins when a Frenchwoman shows up at the home of one of Napoleon's former marshals. The alcoholic man is badly crippled and slowly dying, but this doesn't stop the forthright lady from pushing him to change his will to include his estranged grandson so that he can help out the struggling French Republic. Unfortunately, the dying man's conniving housekeeper and butler, already planning murder to get the money themselves, overhear her and begin plotting her demise.

An undercover officer tracks waterfront corruption from California to New Orleans and back.

Novelist Janet Frobisher, lives in an isolated house, having been separated for years from her criminal husband. She has fallen in love with her secretary's fiancé and when her estranged husband unexpectedly appears, Janet poisons him, but just as she's about to dispose of the body, one of her husband's criminal cohorts also shows up.

Concentration camp survivor Victoria Kowelska finds herself involved in mystery, greed, and murder when she assumes the identity of a dead friend in order to gain passage to America.

Remake of the 1931 original. In the city, someone is murdering children. The Police search is so intense, it is disturbing the 'normal' criminals, and the local hoods decide to help find the murderer as quickly as possible.

Mobster Nick Scanlon has managed to buy several of the local government and law-enforcement officials. However, he can't seem to touch the incorruptible police captain Tom McQuigg, who refuses all attempts at bribery. Prosecuting attorney, Welch, and a police detective, Turck, are crooked and make McQuigg's job as an honest officer nearly impossible.

A bedridden and gravely ill man believes his wife and doctor are conspiring to kill him, and outlines his suspicions in a letter.

The wicked Alain plots an elaborate revenge against his younger brother Edmund, leading to a deadly confrontation in his dungeon deathtrap.

While watching for a planet that may collide with earth, scientists stationed in Scotland are approached by a visitor from outer space.

Mary Herries has a passion for art and fine furniture. Even though she is getting on in years, she enjoys being around these priceless articles. One day she meets a strange young painter named Elcott, who uses his painting skill to enter into her life. Little does she expect that his only interest in Mary is to covet everything she has.

Bill Cannon (Dan Duryea) loses everything to alcohol: his job, his family, his self-respect. Soon after his wife and daughter leave him, he receives word his little girl has been injured in a car accident outside Chicago. His wife will call later with news, but Bill’s short the $53 he needs to keep his phone from being disconnected. Filled with anguish, he heads out onto the Los Angeles streets to find some way to come up with the cash. As his character encounters expected cruelty and unexpected kindness, Duryea takes what might have been mere melodrama and turns it into a perceptive examination of one shattered soul. The other fine star of this race-against-the-clock programmer is an unglamorous, lunch-bucket L.A. rarely captured on film.

A young man zigzags through the sordid vortex of downtown Los Angeles while seeking vengeance on the man that beat his father.

Richard Trevelyan was convicted of murdering his wife, given an 11th-hour Death Row reprieve and freed under unusual circumstances after a retrial. But his past does not matter to Shelley Carnes, an actress visiting the Texas ranch land that Richard calls home; she has fallen in love with him. But after she marries him, Shelley is beset by doubts and fear.

A woman becomes desperate to find a pair of car thieves after her husband -- while on their honeymoon -- is killed during a robbery.

An American comes to Britain to investigate the murky circumstances of his brother's death that occurred during a WW2 commando raid.

Canadian World War II veteran John Graham (Robert Preston) works in London as a code breaker. Tragedy strikes when his pregnant wife, Carol (Elizabeth Sellars), is accidentally run over by two crooks who are speeding away from the scene of a murder. Haunted, grieving, and thirsting for revenge, Graham sets out to find the two fugitive murderers.

Four scientists and a newsman crash land on Mars and meet martians who act friendly.

Vincent Lubeck is a vicious ex-convict. His criminal activities are despised by his family, but he uses and abuses them in the course of his crimes. Eventually his own brother must stand up to him.

A killer called 'The Dark Man' commits double murder. This is witnessed by the young aspiring actress Molly Lester. The Dark Man tries everything to put Molly out of the way. Detective Inspector Viner of Scotland Yard investigates the murders.

A man believe to have murdered a woman, escapes from the insane asylum to find if he was the one to actually kill her using the scarf she was wearing.

Men from Scotland Yard and military intelligence build a dossier on a sabotage ring.

A young woman becomes a murder target after inheriting her estranged father's estate.

An ex-American GI returns to Italy to find some money he stashed before doing a prison term. He discovers his cash is now gone and quickly sets off on a manhunt to find out who stole his buried fortune.

Efforts to move Britain into the modern age don't sit well with the people of the small village of Anderia Marsh, who have claimed a right (going back to Henry III) to evade government-imposed import duties and taxes. And when the government decides to curb this right, the whole village quietly rises up in a comical rebellion. After their vessel runs aground during a storm and is impounded by the British authorities, local smugglers must find a way of disposing of their contraband brandy cargo before it's discovered by the Customs Officers.

A man discovers that an evil twin has taken over his life.

A San Francisco hood is rubbed out by rival Bruno Felkin, who himself reports the crime to Homicide Lt. Kelsey in an alibi scheme which fails. To escape, he stows away on a fishing boat. At sea, skipper Hamil Linder receives Bruno kindly, teaching him fishing; Bruno enlists Hamil's wayward son Carl to tend his slot machines. Then Carl takes an interest in Bruno's girl Connie. Climax in a storm at sea.

A San Francisco man (Hugh Beaumont) is paid to bid on a saxophone and escort a woman to a yacht party.

A blackmailer is murdered, and those who witnessed the scene agree to keep quiet; the complication is that the scene is also witnessed by a young artist, a victim of blackmail as well. (BFI Website)

Rogue River stars Rory Calhoun as Ownie Rodgers, the nephew of crooked Oregon police chief Joe Dandridge (Frank Fenton). A $70,000 windfall, bequeathed to Dandridge by a man he'd once framed on a bank robbery charge, unleashes innumerable family skeletons. Ownie is obliged to solve the long-ago bank job himself, and in so doing he discovers that his "faithful" girl friend Judy (Ellye Marshall) was in on the scheme.

Robert Ayres is driving down a country lane when he comes across someone laying in the middle of the road. Thinking it is someone who has been hit by a car he stops to see if he can help. What he gets for his efforts is a vicious belt to the head from a lead cosh. He is then relieved of his wallet and his car. Several minutes later having somewhat recovered, he staggers to a nearby farmhouse and collapses.

A group of refugees fleeing Chinese Communist rule via train are beset by a gang of terrifying outlaws.

An American agent working undercover as a cafe pianist in Cairo sets out to capture a notorious spy and jewel thief known as "The Voice". Director Ray Nazarro's 1951 drama stars Richard Denning, Lisa Ferraday, Norman Lloyd, George Zucco, Nestor Paiva, Donald Randolph and Dick Elliott.