Doctor Mabuse is a criminal mastermind, doctor of psychology, and master of disguise, armed with the powers of hypnosis and mind control, who oversees the counterfeiting and gambling rackets of the Berlin underworld. He visits gambling dens by night under various guises and aliases, using the power of suggestion to win at cards and finance his plans.
As the police intensify their bemusing search on Doctor Mabuse's notorious band of gangsters, the deceptive, elusive hypnotist Mabuse simultaneously begins to close in on himself.
Two young doctors, surprised by the storm, take refuge in an inn. A diamond broker joins them and, for lack of space, shares their room. At dawn he is found dead. A few years later justice is done.
Jacqueline Logan stars as Paula, a beautiful and fearless circus leopard trainer. Working hand-in-glove with the police, Paula joins a circus where several murders have occurred. Among the suspects is gorilla trainer Caesar (Alan Hale Sr.). (NY Times)
When a rash of murders depletes their number, a billionaire's employees are brought together at an Englishman's estate.
In 19th Century Paris, a maniac abducts young women and injects them with ape blood in an attempt to prove ape-human kinship but constantly meets failure as the abducted women die.
Willy Ferrière is a gambler living beyond his means, and his mistress is as greedy as he's dead broke. One day, he says out of loud in a a Montparnasse café that he would give 100,000 francs to get rid of his wealthy aunt so he could claim his inheritance. Someone secretly lets Willy know it's a deal. The old lady is murdered, and a low-life criminal is manipulated to be the perfect suspect. But Superintendant Maigret feels something is wrong.
A traitor is lurking somewhere aboard the USS Carolina, and Lt. Tom Randolph is determined to find the offender. First a revolutionary new piece of technology -- an electric firing device -- is sabotaged. Then one of the cruiser's crew is murdered. In order to catch the killer, the captain locks down the ship. With foreign dignitaries, corporate goons and even Tom's girlfriend, Betty, trapped on the vessel, there is no shortage of suspects.
A Black night watchman at a chemical factory finds the body of a murdered white woman. After reporting it, he finds himself accused of the murder.
A famous detective is invited to a swanky party at an elegant mansion, but before the night is over he finds himself involved with gangsters, blackmail and murde
Former bootlegger Remy Marco has a slight problem with forclosing bankers, a prospective son-in-law, and four hard-to-explain corpses.
A Scotland Yard inspector and his reporter friend arrive on vacation in a small village and are immediately involved in what is claimed to be a murder but the body has disappeared, leaving it to the inspector to find the body, determine the motive and find the killer.
Ten years after the death of millionaire Cyrus Norman, his will is to be read out to his six relatives, including Joyce Norman and Wally Campbell. Organized by Norman's lawyer, Crosby, the six meet at Norman's eerie New Orleans Gothic mansion. During the reading, the superstitious housekeeper declares that someone will be dead by midnight. Wally fears for Joyce when she is declared the sole inheritor, but all are alarmed when Crosby turns up dead.
Private eye Jerry Church is hired by a criminal defense lawyer after five mobsters he has gotten acquitted are apparently strangled by a serial killer.
Sadistic killer-for-hire Philip Raven becomes enraged when his latest job is paid off in marked bills. Vowing to track down his double-crossing boss, nightclub executive Gates, Raven sits beside Gates' lovely new employee, Ellen, on a train out of town. Although Ellen is engaged to marry the police lieutenant who's hunting down Raven, she decides to try and set the misguided hit man straight as he hides from the cops and plots his revenge.
After one member of their group is murdered, the performers at a burlesque house must work together to find out who the killer is before they strike again.
A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he's investigating.
A young woman, a trio of singers, and a mystery writer are among the guests at a house long-considered to be haunted.
In the midst of Nazi air raids, a postman dies on the operating table at a rural hospital. But was the death accidental?
Two friends land in hot water when they begin dating twins and one of the women ends up dead.