1920s Crime Movies

No overview available

Francis, a young man, recalls in his memory the horrible experiences he and his fiancée Jane recently went through. Francis and his friend Alan visit The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, an exhibit where the mysterious doctor shows the somnambulist Cesare, and awakens him for some moments from his death-like sleep.

When housewife Trina wins the lottery, her comfortable life with her dentist husband John slowly deteriorates, in part by her own increasing paranoia and partly by the machinations of villainous acquaintance Marcus.

No overview available

In 19th century France, Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a relentless policeman named Javert. The pursuit consumes both men's lives, and soon Valjean finds himself in the midst of the student revolutions in France.

Skin Deep is a 1929 American talking drama film directed by Ray Enright and starring Monte Blue. It was produced and distributed by the Warner Brothers. It was also released in the U.S. in a silent version for theaters not equipped yet with sound. The film is a remake of a 1922 Associated First National silent film of the same name directed by Lambert Hillyer and starring Milton Sills. All copies of this film are now lost. However, the Vitaphone soundtrack, of music and effects, survive.

When gangster Jimmy Donovan is made guardian of Midge, the 7-year-old brother of his friend Big Ben Murray, he decides to reform and rear Midge properly. The court takes custody of Midge, but Donovan proves himself by recovering a payroll stolen by some of his ex-colleagues, thereby winning Midge and Kitty, his girl.

"Assassination" - A far-right political organization called "Fellowship Loyalty" seeks contact with an easily seducable man whom she finds in Joachim Burthe. The leader of this deeply democratizing group, the equally characterless and unscrupulous Gregor of Askanius, whispers to the fanatical student seeking guidance that it is finally time to put the death sentence on the corrupt system and its representatives.

Crook Bennett Barton uses pretty Joan Granger as bait to blackmail millionaire John Warren.

The rehabilitation of "Chicago Sal," a lady crook, is seemingly realized when probation officers send her to the country home of Steve MacLaren to work off money stolen from him by her partner. She falls in love with MacLaren and is accepted as a member of the household. Unable to resist the temptation, however, she leaves the farm with two former colleagues when they come to visit her. MacLaren follows her to the city. She commits a crime; he helps her escape but is himself arrested for vagrancy and sent to jail. Sal returns to the country and promises to wait for him.

Set on the Maine coast, a young sloop skipper Bramdlet Dickery discovers a plot to smuggle alien Chinese into the United States. Bramdlet's younger brother Thad is enamored with daughter of the captain of the smuggling ship. A struggle over the smuggling ensues. Masked Emotions is a 1929 American sound adventure crime drama film produced and distributed by Fox Film Corporation starring George O'Brien and Nora Lane. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using both the sound-on-disc and sound-on-film process.

Interrupted during a robbery, thief Lady Raffles hides in an adjacent mansion and is mistaken for a maid during a party thrown by Warren Blake, who plans to present his mother with a diamond necklace. Also in attendance are Lillian and Dick, two jewel thieves who recognize Lady Raffles and fear that she is there to rob Warren as well. But sparks fly between Warren and Lady Raffles, despite Dick and Lillian's attempts at sabotage.

Dr. Mabuse and his organization of criminals are in the process of completing their latest scheme, a theft of information that will allow Mabuse to make huge profits on the stock exchange. Afterwards, Mabuse disguises himself and attends the Folies Bergères show, where Cara Carozza, the main attraction of the show, passes him information on Mabuse's next intended victim, the young millionaire Edgar Hull. Mabuse then uses psychic manipulation to lure Hull into a card game where he loses heavily. When Police Commissioner von Wenk begins an investigation of this mysterious crime spree, he has little to go on, and he needs to find someone who can help him.

Johnny Carroll joins a gang of thieves and is arrested by Detective McQuade for picking Judge Kerrigan's pocket. However, the judge remembers Johnny from his hometown of Meadville, and persuades him to reform. The young man returns home, takes a job in a grocery store, and renews his romance with Betty Bedford. Later, Johnny's former gang arrive in town and again try to recruit him. They induce him to crack the safe in Mr. Bedford's store, threatening to reveal his criminal past if he refuses. Upon opening the safe, Johnny refuses to be a party to the crime and fights the gang. Betty hears the commotion and returns with help. After the thieves are captured, Johnny and Betty are married.

London. A mysterious serial killer brutally murders young blond women by stalking them in the night fog. One foggy, sinister night, a young man who claims his name is Jonathan Drew arrives at the guest house run by the Bunting family and rents a room.

A rich man's chauffeur kills his mistress and frames his daughter's fiancé.

Belphégor deals with a series of mysterious appearances by a masked-and-robed figure in the Louvre; a security guard is murdered, and a later police trap is foiled when the phantom—“Belphégor” (the name of a legendary demon)—uses knock-out gas. Journalist Jacques Bellegarde of “Le Petit Parisien” (the real-life newspaper which published the original story in serial installments), investigates, and eventually discovers famous detective Chantecoq and his vivacious daughter Colette are also on the case.

A criminal known as Thunderbolt is imprisoned and facing execution. Into the next cell is placed Bob Moran, an innocent man who has been framed and who is in love with Thunderbolt's girl, without knowing of their relationship. Thunderbolt hopes to stave off the execution long enough to kill young Moran for romancing his girl.

Nan Carey ( Betty Compson ), a shoplifter, is caught by the police but acquitted through the influence of Lazare ( Lucien Littlefield ), a crooked lawyer, who places her with a gang of crooks. Posing as the Brockton family, they move to a seaside home, where they plan to steal the jewel collection of the Palmers, their neighbours. Nan wins the confidence of the family by flirting with Tom ( Kenneth Harlan ), who becomes infatuated and wants to go away with her, but she refuses him. Tom is caught red-handed in the Brockton mansion attempting to steal their jewels while Nan is making a success of the Palmer robbery.

Shark Rawley is a sailor aboard the tramp steamer Aurora , presided over by a brutal captain named Sanchez. While ashore one night, Shark and Sanchez encounter society girl Doris Selby and her friends on a slumming expedition at a dockside bar called the Wine Room. Entrapped by some of the predatory characters that infest the place, Doris escapes through a cellar only to abducted by Sanchez who then takes her to the Aurora.

Following her father's advice, Hélène Haviland (Sandra Milovanoff) accepts the marriage proposal of Fellaire de Sizac (Abel Tarride). Later she finds Dr. Groult (Henri Fabert), one of their friends, trying to kill her husband by poisoning slowly over a long period of time. It's painful but she keeps silence...

Noted criminologist Miles Manning captures a gang of crooks by posing as a super-criminal--a mysterious man called "The Eel"--when the mayor's daughter, Cordelia, believing that he really is a crook, enlists his assistance in ridding the city of its criminals.

Gamblers Dave Hume and Ed Felton are rivals for the love of Babe Lennox, a chorus girl. Hume informs on Felton, and though the latter is arrested he is released on bail, and Talbot, the attorney, warns Hume to stay clear of him. Hume, who is in ill health, determines to commit suicide, making it appear that Felton killed him; and (concealing a record of his plans on a small statuette) he makes a wager with Felton that he can do so.

No overview available

Based on the real life events of the 1927 Steglitzer Schülertragödie, in which several high school students planned murder-suicides.

A wealthy man is found bludgeoned to death near a railway. The question is, who killed him and why?

Professor Grant signs a contract with Dr. Selin for the sale of his invention of cold light with the plans for his invention being kept in Grant's apartment. The negotiations are secretly heard by the illusionist Durk, who wants to seize the invention. A few days later Selín is found dead, killed by a light bulb filled with poisonous gas. Durk performs at the birthday party of Grant's daughter Anna and seizes the plans for the invention.

Veteran postman Bob Morley and his son Johnnie are honored for their service to the U. S. Mail Service. When Johnnie takes a position on the Enterprise, he is falsely convicted of theft and murder when the cargo is stolen and the ship's officer is shot.

Hector MacKnight, known to the townspeople as "Goofy" and an irritatingly terrible fiddler, is innocently drawn into a rigged poker game. A general fight brings the sheriff, and a chase ensues. Before the confusion is ended and Hector cleared, he meets Ruth Randolph and becomes involved in a circus while trying to recover the other half of her treasure map.

This unusual melodrama with comic touches was based on Octavus Roy Cohen's novel The Iron Chance. Alan Beckwith (Rod La Rocque) is a war hero who is very much down on his luck. He makes a deal with big-time bootlegger Andrew North (Gustave von Seyffertitz) -- if North will give him a large sum of money, Beckwith will kill himself at the end of a year's time. He is to marry a girl of North's choosing and take out an insurance policy naming her as beneficiary; North will collect from the widow. The plot thickens when Beckwith and Beverly (Marguerite De La Motte), the girl North has him marry, actually fall in love. Beverly's brother, Johnny (Ray Hallor), teams up with Beckwith to steal one of North's cargos of rum. North and his men catch them and things look bad until revenue officers -- called on by Beverly -- show up. The North gang is rounded up and Beckwith looks forward to a long life with his wife.

The Mask 1921 film

Glenn Higgins and Patsy Jones are a song-and-dance team traveling the vaudeville circuit across the United States, and land in a Kentucky tank-town filled with sharpies and wise-guys , wearing spats and carrying canes, who have reasons for wanting a horse named "Hot Heels, not to win the race he is scheduled to run in. This does not bode well for the vaudevillians as Glenn, acting on a hot tip from a hot vamp, has bet the pair's bankroll on "Hot Heels" to win.

St. Pauli, the place of unrestrained exuberance, but also of the strangest crimes: Here - as in almost no other place on the continent - you will find rich and poor, high and low. Here you meet the greats of the world as well as those who shy away from the light. This movie will interest many people who are from the big city, and even more so those who are not yet familiar with the dangers of the big city. Everyone should watch this program, which was produced with the participation and cooperation of the Hamburg security and port police, in order to be more careful in big cities.

Mary Carlton, who lives with her invalid father on a cotton plantation, receives a letter from Bob, her brother, in New York, stating that he faces death in the electric chair for a crime of which he claims to be innocent. Determined to save him, she goes there, learns of his association with an underworld gang, and begins to suspect Handsome Joe of a connection with the crime.

Richard Hill is a subway ticket taker who believes beautiful Jeanette Stewart is involved in a robbery, but he still falls in love with her and tries to stop her wedding.

Nayland Smith restores a `dead' man to life.

Pat O'Farrell, a rich young man, takes a job as a truck-driver for his uncle's milk company, and falls in love with Cliare Knight, daughter of the Knight Car Company.

Countess Margherita is a Sicilian girl who is about to be married, but Caesar Maruffi, the head of a criminal syndicate, wants her for himself. He arranges to have the bridegroom assassinated, and Norvin Blake, a young American (Robert Elliott), almost loses his life in his attempt to save him.

Adventuress Leonie Sobatsky falls in love with a young man named Nevil Trask, and he with her. Trask doesn't know that Leonie is actually the head of an international smuggling ring--and Leonie doesn't know that Trask is an undercover Secret Service agent assigned to break up the ring and capture its head.

The rise and inevitable fall of an amoral but naive young woman whose insouciant eroticism inspires lust and violence in those around her.