Best Thriller Movies of 1956
The Killing
Career criminal Johnny Clay recruits a sharpshooter, a crooked police officer, a bartender and a betting teller named George, among others, for one last job before he goes straight and gets married. But when George tells his restless wife about the scheme to steal millions from the racetrack where he works, she hatches a plot of her own.
The Man Who Knew Too Much
A widescreen, Technicolor remake by Hitchcock of his 1934 film of the same title. A couple vacationing in Morocco with their young son accidentally stumble upon an assassination plot. When the child is kidnapped to ensure their silence, they have to take matters into their own hands to save him.
The Bad Seed
Air Force Colonel Kenneth Penmark and his wife, Christine, dote on their daughter, Rhoda -- as does their lonely landlady, Monica Breedlove. But self-centered Rhoda has a secret tendency for selfishness and loves to accumulate gifts, whether given or stolen, in her room. Christine keeps her knowledge of her daughter's darker side to herself, but when a schoolmate of Rhoda's dies mysteriously, her self-deception unravels.
The Man Who Never Was
The true story of a British effort to trick the Germans into weakening Sicily's defenses before the 1943 attack. A dead soldier is dressed as a British officer and outfitted with faked papers showing that the Allies were intending to invade occupied Greece. His body is put into the sea where it will ultimately drift ashore and the papers be passed along to German Intelligence.

Ransom!
A rich man (Glenn Ford) stuns his wife (Donna Reed) and town with a televised threat to his son's kidnapper.
Nightfall
An innocent man turns fugitive as he reconstructs events that implicate him for a murder and robbery he did not commit.
23 Paces to Baker Street
Philip Hannon, a blind playwright living in London, overhears part of a conversation , that leads him into a desperate race, to find a kidnapped child. When he gets no help from the police, he along with his butler, and his ex fiancée, attempt to track down the crooks.

While the City Sleeps
Newspaper men compete against each other to find a serial killer dubbed "The Lipstick Killer"
A Kiss Before Dying
A college student tries to get rich quick by wooing two wealthy sisters.

The Killer Is Loose
A savings-and-loan bank is robbed; later, a police wiretap identifies teller Leon Poole as inside man. In capturing him, detective Sam Wagner accidentally kills Poole's young wife, and at his trial Poole swears vengeance against Wagner. Poole begins his plans to get revenge when he escapes his captors.
Slightly Scarlet
Kleptomaniac Dorothy Lyons is paroled from prison into the custody of her sister June, secretary to "reform" politician Frank Jansen. Ben Grace, associate of crime boss Sol "Solly" Caspar, sees this as a way to smear Jansen's campaign. Seductive Dorothy will do anything to get what she wants, which includes having a good time with Ben-- whom June is now in love with.

Crime of Passion
Kathy leaves the newspaper business to marry homicide detective Bill, but is frustrated by his lack of ambition and the banality of life in the suburbs. Her drive to advance Bill's career soon takes her down a dangerous path.
Crime in the Streets
A social worker tries to end juvenile crime by getting involved with a street gang.

Run for the Sun
Mike, a Hemingway-esque adventure novelist, is spending his days in a self-imposed exile somewhere in Central America. A reporter for Sight Magazine, Katie, has tracked him down in the hope of getting the biggest scoop of her career. Mike falls for Katie. On a flight to Mexico City, their plane crashes near a remote hideaway of Nazi war criminals in hiding. The Nazis want to stay hidden and plan to dispose of their new guests
Julie
A terrified stewardess is stalked by her psychotic estranged husband.
Foreign Intrigue
Millionaire Victor Danemore, living on the French Riviera, dies suddenly of a heart attack. His secretary, Dave Bishop, wants to know more about his employer's life. Surprisingly, not even his young wife knows anything about her husband's background or how he earned his fortune. Clues lead Bishop to Vienna and Stockholm, where he learns that Danemore was black-mailing people who cooperated with the Nazis during WW2.

Lost
U.S. Embassy employee Lee Cochrane and his wife, Sue, receive a shock when they discover that their 18-month-old son, Simon, has disappeared in London. He was last seen with their nanny, and the couple seemingly have no leads that might help police Detective Craig in his investigation. The media sensationalizes the incident, causing an unnecessary distraction as the couple prepares to confront the culprit face-to-face.

Tiger in the Smoke
Having been sent a picture of her husband, a war hero killed in France, Meg Elgin is led to believe he is still alive and arranges a meeting at a London railway station. When she arrives there with the police accompanying her, she catches sight of a man in the distance wearing an old coat of her husband's. When he is pursued and captured, he turns out to be Duds Morrison a former soldier and out-of-work actor recently let out of prison. He refuses to tell them anything, and having nothing they can charge him with, the police release him. His interest aroused by the pictures sent to Meg, her new fiancé Geoffrey Leavitt follows Morrison and tries to demand an answer from him about his sudden appearance masquerading as Meg’s dead husband.

Now and Forever
A rich young society girl falls in love with a car mechanic. Her family is appalled and stops her seeing him. The girl attempts to commit suicide and then decides to elope.
The Unguarded Moment
A high-school music teacher is the victim of a student who writes indecent notes and assaults women.

Hot Cars
Story of a salesman lured into the "hot car" racket.

Cloak Without Dagger
A British Intelligence officer fails a mission during WW2. Years later whilst working in a hotel he bumps into an old flame who is desperate to discover what went wrong?
Outside the Law
A government agent's son wins respect and love when he challenges counterfeiters.

The Gelignite Gang
A tense thriller that tears the lid off Soho's underworld and reveals the cunning organization behind a gang of safe-breakers who will stop at nothing, not even murder, to achieve their goals.
It Conquered the World
An alien from Venus tries to take over the world with the help of a disillusioned human scientist, as his wife, his best friend and the friend's wife try to intervene.

Man in the Vault
A locksmith is pressured into crime when the mob makes him perform an elaborate bank robbery.

Crime Against Joe
Down-and-out artist Joe Manning (John Bromfield) wakes up from a night of drunken revelry in a jail cell, where he's being held on suspicion for the murder of a nightclub singer.

The Scarlet Hour
An unhappy wife uses her powers of manipulation to draw an infatuated man into an ill-fated jewelry heist.

Checkpoint
Stanley Baker's O'Donovan is sent to steal the plans of a rival company's racing car designs, to ensure his employers win the competition. However, when opening a safe containing the plans, he triggers an alarm leading to a gun battle where he kills a number of people. James Robertson Justice, alarmed by the scandal surrounding the killings, orders his agent be killed surreptitiously to hide his involvement with the plot. The film uses original footage from the Mille Miglia , an Italian open-road endurance race, featuring classic period racing cars.

The Narrowing Circle
A journalist is framed for the murder of a rival and has to prove his innocence, whatever the cost.

Satellite in the Sky
A bomb dooms the first space satellite, manned by a selfless crew, a stowaway reporter (Lois Maxwell) and a mad scientist (Donald Wolfit).

A Strange Adventure
A trio of thieves make their getaway by kidnapping a young hot-rodder, and take over a mountain cabin for a hideout after overpowering its occupants.

A Woman's Devotion
An artist suffering from mental problems from his experiences during the war goes to Acapulco on his honeymoon. Soon young women are turning up dead in the area, and the ex-GI comes to believe he might be responsible, as he has long stretches where he can't remember anything.

The Hostage
In this political thriller, set within an unnamed country, revolutionaries try to prevent their leader's execution by kidnapping the president's daughter. A brave hostage pilot, breaks out and heroically saves the girl as the revolutionary leader is killed.

Accused of Murder
The story tells of nightclub singer Vera Ralston, who is accused of murder; and it looks like she's guilty as she was the last person to see crooked attorney Hobart alive. However Lt. Roy Hargis is convinced that Ilona is innocent, and he intends to prove it.
The Violent Years
A newspaper publisher's daughter suffers from neglect by her parents. She and her friends turn to crime by dressing up like men, holding up gas stations, raping young men at gunpoint, and having makeout parties when her parents are away. Their "fence" gets them to trash the school on request of sinister un-American clients, and they run afoul of the law, apple pie, and God himself.

The Hide-Out
An insurance investigator in London attempts to thwart smugglers trafficking stolen lambskins infected with anthrax.

Swamp Women
An undercover policewoman helps three female convicts escape from prison so that they can lead her to a stash of stolen diamonds hidden in a swamp.

Whistle and I'll Come to You!
A university professor, confident that everything which occurs in life has a rational explanation, finds his beliefs severely challenged when he awakens horrors beyond human understanding. A decade before the BBC's version of MR James' supernatural classic came this chilling version from the North Downs Cinematograph Society.

The Man in the Road
A brilliant scientist who has lost his memory is hunted by Communist agents out to obtain a secret formula.

Emergency Hospital
About the lives and loves of the staff of an emergency hospital as reflected in a single frenetic night of business-as-usual.
No Place to Hide
Some pellets containing a deadly virus are carried by two boys on the run through the Philippines.

Operation Thunderbolt

The Boss
A crusading politician falls prey to the temptations of power.
5 Steps to Danger
Can a couple keep important secrets from Communist spies?
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Check out our top containing the Best Thriller Movies of 1956 - PickTheMovie.com. This top was obtained with our unique algorithm ordered by our unique ranking system.
