Movie Listings by Genre

Director: Buster Keaton    More Info
Starring: Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire, Joe Keaton, Ward Crane, Erwin Connolly, Kewpie Morgan, George Davis, Ruth Holly, Jane Connelly, Doris Deane

 A film projectionist (Buster Keaton) dreams of being a detective, and–miracle-of-miracles–he falls asleep and finds himself inside the film he is showing. He takes on the persona of Sherlock Jr., ace detective, and becomes involved in mystery stories. One story parallels his own life involving his girlfriend (Kathryn McGuire) and her other suitor (Ward Crane) who has stolen a watch to buy her a large box of chocolates. Camera tricks utilized provide classic moments in silent-film history.

Director: Roland West    More Info
Starring: Tullio Carminati, Charles Herzinger, Louise Fazenda, Emily Fitzroy, Arthur Housman, Robert McKim, Jack Pickford, Eddie Gribbon, George Beranger, Jewel Carmen

 Based on a popular Broadway play by Mary Roberts Rinehart, the story takes place in an old mansion. A killer, who dresses as a giant bat and flashes a bat-shadow on the wall when he strikes, goes after an assorted group of guests at the mansion. Remade by the director in 1930 as a talkie ("The Bat Whispers").

Director: Alfred Hitchcock    More Info
Starring: Ivor Novello, June, Marie Ault, Arthur Chesney, Malcolm Keen, Alfred Hitchcock, Eve Gray, Reginald Gardiner

 This is the prototype for Alfred Hitchcock's future suspense movies. "The avenger" is murdering women in London, and suspicions of being a murderer plague innocent Jonathan Drew (Ivor Novello) who has recently rented a room in a boarding house. The proprietor's daughter Daisey (June) suspects Jonathan and clues in her fiance Joe (Malcolm Keen) about her suspicions. Joe is a police detective, and he arrests Jonathan, but Jonathan manages to escape. Now, the police are on his trail, and Jonathan must evade the police until the real killer is discovered.

Director: Paul Leni    More Info
Starring: Laura LaPlante, Tully Marshall, Flora Finch, Creighton Hale, Gertrude Astor, Lucien Littlefield, Forrest Stanley, Arthur Edmund Carewe, Martha Mattox, George Siegmann

 This silent film classic is about expectant heirs who spend the night in a haunted house. It has been 20 years since wealthy Cyrus West died, and relatives are there for the reading of his will, which demands that they spend one night in the house. And the night of frights begins with murder not out of the question.

Director: Roy Del Ruth    More Info
Starring: May McAvoy, Louise Fazenda, Edward Everett Horton, Alec B. Francis, Matthew Betz, Holmes Herbert, John Miljan, Otto Hoffman, Joseph W. Girard, Frank Austin

 Edgar Wallace's play is brought to the screen in one of the first "talkies." A mysterious killer is on the loose and is now present at a dinner with assorted guests, including an undercover Scotland Yard investigator. Remade in 1938.

Director: Irving Cummings    More Info
Starring: Warner Baxter, Gilbert Emery, Philip Strange, E.L. Park, Lois Moran, Claude King, Boris Karloff, Jamiel Hasson, Peter Gawthorne, John Rogers

 This early sound movie, featuring the wise detective Charlie Chan (E.L. Park), is about an heiress (Lois Moran) who leaves her husband for a new "love" in her life but is about to suffer the consequences.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock    More Info
Starring: Anny Ondra, Sara Allgood, John Longden, Charles Paton, Donald Calthrop, Cyril Ritchard, Harvey Braban

 This is Alfred Hitchcock's and England's first sound film. When Alice (Anny Ondra) kills her attacker in self-defense, she finds herself at the mercy of a blackmailer.

Director: F. Richard Jones    More Info
Starring: Ronald Colman, Joan Bennett, Lilyan Tashman, Montagu Love, Charles Sellon, Claud Allister, Lawrence Grant, Tetsu Komai

 Retired British military officer Bulldog Drummond (Ronald Colman) searches for adventure–and he finds it when Phyllis Benton (Joan Bennett) asks him to rescue her rich uncle (Charles Sellon) from the clutches of a nursing home where he is being held captive. This is the first of several series of Bulldog Drummond films based on a character created in the early 1900s.

Director: Malcolm St. Clair    More Info
Starring: William Powell, Louise Brooks, Jean Arthur, James Hall, Eugene Pallette, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Charles(1) Lane, Lawrence Grant, Ned Sparks, Louis John Bartels

 This is the first of what would be a series of mysteries centered on the sophisticated Philo Vance. The films spanned nearly 20 years with several actors in the lead role, though William Powell is generally associated with the films. Beautiful nightclub singer Margaret (Louise Brooks), also called the "Canary," is not a nice person. She has affairs with, then blackmails, wealthy men. After meeting her true love, Jimmy (James Hall), she demands one lump-sum payment from each of her playboys. When she is murdered, Jimmy is suspected, and Philo enters the scene to solve the crime. Originally completed as a silent film, the cast was called back to dub the sound. Louise Brooks, an up-and-comer, refused, thus effectively ending her career (except for a few low-budget films).

Director: Frank Tuttle    More Info
Starring: William Powell, Florence Eldridge, Ullrich Haupt, Jean Arthur, Eugene Pallette, E.H. Calvert, Gertrude Norman, Lowell Drew, Morgan Farley, Brandon Hurst

 Philo Vance (William Powell) is back in the second film of S.S. Van Dine's sophisticated amateur sleuth/psychologist. He is called in by the police to assist in solving the murder of a rich, New York businessman. Philo has his hands full when the nine primary suspects begin to be killed off one-by-one.

Director: Lionel Barrymore    More Info
Starring: Ernest Torrence, Roland Young, Dorothy Sebastian, Boris Karloff, Natalie Moorhead, Sidney Jarvis, Polly Moran, Sojin

 Veterans of a British regiment, who had served in India, are being systematically murdered. Now, they try to figure out who is the murderer before more killings occur.