IDS 101: Murder, Money and Mayhem: Films

A young secret service agent falls in love with a schoolteacher in a small Mississippi town. Later in New York, he has to save her friend from the numbers racket and is accused of murder. Produced and directed by Oscar Micheaux.

The hapless Roger Rabbit is framed for the murder of Marvin Acme, who was photographed "playing patticake" with Roger's wife Jessica. The mixed live and animated action takes place in Hollywood and next-door "Toontown," where humans and "Toons" co-exist.

The scene is San Francisco in 1928. Dashiell Hammett has retired from his career as a Pinkerton detective to devote himself to writing fiction. An old friend calls in an old debt, and Hammett finds himself in the middle of a search for a missing girl in Chinatown.

In the heartland of Iowa, five grad school liberals share a house, a left-wing outlook, and Sunday suppers filled with conversation and social criticism. But when a redneck trucker threatens one of their own, he inadvertently puts them on the radical road to serial murder.

A New York City cop goes underground to lure a killer who preys on homosexuals. The real mystery begins when officer Burns thinks that he has found the murderer.

In 1846, Herncastle visits his sister to wish his niece a happy birthday. His sister refuses to see him. He vows to return. A mysterious moonstone is delivered by Franklin Blake to Herncastle's niece. The stone turns up missing

Lawyers seek justice for a group of Mexican-Americans being sent to prison. Based on the Sleepy Lagoon murder case and the zoot suit riots of 1940's Los Angeles.

Vincent is an "In-Valid," who assumes the identity of a member of the genetic elite to pursue his goal of traveling into space with the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation. However, a week before his mission, a murder marks Vincent as a suspect. With a relentless investigator in pursuit and the colleague he has fallen in love with beginning to suspect his deception, Vincent's dreams steadily unravel.

Silent film serial about the adventures of Fantomas, the mysterious bandit in a black hood who is relentlessly tracked by Juve, the detective.

Truffaut expertly combines clever humor, tender romance, and heart-stopping suspense for this thriller in the tradition of the Hollywood detective genre.

When a serial killer is stalking the children of the city, everyone, including the criminal underworld, wants to see him brought down.

Revisiting the village in the Po Valley where a man was murdered by Fascists in 1936, reveals the man was a traitor executed by his own men.

Set in Tokyo during the late 1940s, the film captures the chaos and humiliation that existed in Japan immediately after World War II. When detective Murakami loses his revolver, he must descend into Tokyo's underworld and face the killer who has taken it.

Over the course of three nights, detective Ferrán and bar owner Picasso are in search of answers about the death of notorious Latin American gangster Miguel "El Chino" Sanabria

A New York nightclub gal is turning from singer to canary-- with a tell-all diary about her mobster ex-boyfriend. But when she winds up breaking more than a leg and Chan's Number One Son is accused of the murder, Charlie is determined to unmask the culprit-- even if it brings down the house.

Private eye Philip Marlowe is hired by an ex-con to find the ex-con's missing sweetheart. In the course of Marlowe's search he is beaten unconscious and wakes up next to a corpse. So Marlowe's tasks are multiplying- find the girl, clear himself of the murder and discover the link between the two.

Based on the novel: Farewell my lovely by Raymond Chandler. The story of a private detective who gets drawn into a complex web of murder, blackmail, and double-dealing while searching for a missing jade necklace.

When a police detective's wife is killed by a bomb meant for himself, he goes undercover to track down the gangsters who are responsible.

L.A. private detective Philip Marlowe takes on a blackmail case and follows a trail peopled by murderers, pornographers, nightclub rogues, the spoiled rich - just to name a few. Marlowe is hired to protect a young woman and in the process, he falls in love with the woman's older sister.

Two New York City narcotics detectives learn of a scheme to smuggle a large quantity of heroin inside an automobile being shipped from France.

Sam Spade is a partner in a private-eye firm who finds himself hounded by police when his partner is killed while tailing a man. The woman who asked his partner to follow the man turns out to be someone who is not what she says she is, and is really involved in something to do with the 'Maltese Falcon', a gold-encrusted life-sized statue of a falcon, the only one of its kind.

Crime/comedy thriller featuring Nick Charles, private eye, and his wife Nora. The plot unfolds at Christmas when an eccentric inventor disappears after threatening his mistress with a lawsuit for embezzlement.

A private detective finds himself in over his head as he takes on a case involving the most rich and powerful people in Chinatown.

A police captain (Young) methodically unravels the truth behind the brutal murder of an innocent Jewish man by a World War II soldier (Ryan) with a rabid hatred of Jews.

Frank Bigelow, a real-estate salesman, is given a slow-acting, lethal poison. In the few hours left to him, he frantically seeks to learn who is responsible and why he was poisoned.

An insurance man and a suburban wife conspire to trick her husband into signing a policy that pays double for accidental death-- then push him from a train. It's an almost perfect crime.

While driving down a lonely road late one evening, Hammer picks up a beautiful blonde hitchhiker, dressed in nothing but a raincoat. At first, Hammer assumes that the incoherent girl is an escaped lunatic; his mind is changed for him when he and the girl are abducted by two thugs...

Three detectives in the corrupt and brutal L.A. police force of the 1950s use differing methods to uncover a conspiracy behind the shotgun slaying of the patrons at an all-night diner.

A beautiful young woman named Laura is found murdered shortly before her wedding to a dashing young playboy. Stirred by her portrait and adoring descriptions by her admirers, the detective assigned to her case finds that he is strangely under Laura's spell.

Former private detective Jeff Bailey is trying to lead a quiet life, but his past comes back to haunt him and he finds himself framed for murder.

Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, black-market opportunist Harry Lime-- and thus begins this legendary tale of love, deception, and murder.

A narcotics officer and a corrupt cop are involved in a murder investigation in a small border town.

When a Parisienne finds her husband murdered and four men after her to retrieve a quarter-million dollars in stolen gold, a handsome stranger comes to her rescue--but is he hero, spy, or murderer?

In 1888 London's Whitechapel slums, poor women like Mary Kelly and her friends walk the streets for a living. When the streetwalkers begin to be murdered one by one, it attracts the attention of Inspector Abberline, who takes a personal interest in the case, and Mary Kelly. Now he must use his psychic abilities to stop the most notorious serial killer in history--Jack the Ripper--before Mary is killed.

Guy Haines, a tennis star who hates his wife, is approached on a train by a stranger, Bruno Anthony, who hates his father. Anthony offers a plan: each could kill the other's victim.

A celebrity-studded thriller of murderous obsession among Hollywood's glamorous elite.

San Francisco police detective Scottie Ferguson is forced to retire when a freak accident gives him a severe fear of heights. When a rich shipbuilder hires Scottie to follow his wife, who may be suicidal, Scottie finds himself falling in love with her.