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English thriller films from the 1950s
The best 100 of 217
- 1
Rear Window
A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.
- 2
Vertigo
A retired San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia investigates the strange activities of an old friend's wife, all the while becoming dangerously obsessed with her.
- 3
North by Northwest
Advertising man Roger Thornhill is mistaken for a spy, triggering a deadly cross-country chase.
- 4
Dial M for Murder
When her American lover visits London, a wealthy woman’s jealous husband hatches a plan to murder her and inherit her fortune.
- 5
The Night of the Hunter
In Depression-era West Virginia, a serial-killing preacher hunts two young children who know the whereabouts of a stash of money.
- 6
Strangers on a Train
A charming psychopath tries to coerce a tennis star into his theory that two strangers can commit the perfect crime by exchanging murders—each killing the other’s most-hated person.
- 7
Touch of Evil
A border-town bombing draws Mexican investigator Miguel Vargas into a corruption-ridden police investigation led by crooked captain Hank Quinlan, setting off a deadly struggle over power, justice, and truth.
- 8
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 a
- 9
A Streetcar Named Desire
A disturbed, aging Southern belle moves in with her sister for solace — but being face-to-face with her brutish brother-in-law accelerates her downward spiral.
- 10
The Day the Earth Stood Still
An alien and a robot land on Earth after World War II and tell mankind to be peaceful or face destruction.
- 11
The Man Who Knew Too Much
An American doctor and his wife, a former singing star, witness a murder while vacationing in Morocco, and are drawn into a twisting plot of international intrigue when their young son is kidnapped.
- 12
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.
- 13
To Catch a Thief
When a string of jewel robberies hits the French Riviera, suspicion falls on retired thief John “The Cat” Robie. To clear his name, he sets out to trap the copycat himself—entangling a wealthy widow and her beguiling daughter in a seductive
- 14
In a Lonely Place
A violent screenwriter and a female neighbor fall in love after she clears him of murder, but she begins to have second thoughts.
- 15
The Big Heat
After the suspicious suicide of a fellow cop, tough homicide detective Dave Bannion takes the law into his own hands when he sets out to smash a vicious crime syndicate.
- 16
Bad Day at Black Rock
One-armed war veteran John J. Macreedy steps off a train at the sleepy little town of Black Rock. Once there, he begins to unravel a web of lies, secrecy, and murder.
- 17
3:10 to Yuma
Dan Evans, a small time farmer, is hired to escort Ben Wade, a dangerous outlaw, to Yuma. As Evans and Wade wait for the 3:10 train to Yuma, Wade's gang is racing to free him.
- 18
Pickup on South Street
In New York City, an insolent pickpocket, Skip McCoy, inadvertently sets off a chain of events when he targets ex-prostitute Candy and steals her wallet. Unaware that she has been making deliveries of highly classified information to the co
- 19
Kiss Me Deadly
One evening, Hammer gives a ride to Christina, an attractive hitchhiker on a lonely country road, who has escaped from the nearby lunatic asylum. Thugs waylay them and force his car to crash. When Hammer returns to semi-consciousness, he he
- 20
I Confess
When a priest hears a murderer’s confession, he becomes bound by his vow of silence—even as circumstantial evidence turns suspicion toward him. Torn between faith and self-preservation, he faces public scandal and trial for a crime he canno
- 21
Suddenly, Last Summer
The only son of wealthy widow Violet Venable dies while on vacation with his cousin Catherine. What the girl saw was so horrible that she went insane; now Mrs. Venable wants Catherine lobotomized to cover up the truth.
- 22
The Defiant Ones
Two convicts—one white, one black—escape while chained to each other.
- 23
The Bad Seed
Air Force Colonel Kenneth Penmark and his wife, Christine, adore their daughter Rhoda, despite her secret tendency for selfishness. Christine keeps her knowledge of her daughter's darker side to herself, but when a schoolmate of Rhoda's die
- 24
Where the Sidewalk Ends
A police detective's violent nature keeps him from being a good cop.
- 25
The Narrow Margin
A tough cop meets his match when he has to guard a gangster's widow on a train journey from Chicago to Los Angeles.
- 26
Niagara
Rose Loomis and her older, gloomier husband, George, are vacationing at a cabin in Niagara Falls. The couple befriend Polly and Ray Cutler, who are honeymooning in the area. Polly begins to suspect that something is amiss between Rose and G
- 27
The Hound of the Baskervilles
When a nobleman is threatened by a family curse on his newly inherited estate, detective Sherlock Holmes is hired to investigate.
- 28
Stage Fright
A struggling actress tries to help a friend prove his innocence when he's accused of murdering the husband of a high-society entertainer.
- 29
5 Fingers
During WWII, the valet to the British Ambassador to Ankara sells British secrets to the Germans while trying to romance a refugee Polish countess.
- 30
The Desperate Hours
Escaped convicts terrorize a suburban family they're holding hostage.
- 31
Panic in the Streets
A medical examiner discovers that an innocent shooting victim in a robbery died of bubonic plague. With only 48 hours to find the killer, who is now a ticking time bomb threatening the entire city, a grisly manhunt through the seamy underwo
- 32
Mr. Arkadin
Claiming that he doesn't know his own past, a rich man enlists an ex-con with an odd bit of detective work. Gregory Arkadin says he can't remember anything before the late 1920s, and convict Guy Van Stratten is happy to take the job of expl
- 33
While the City Sleeps
Newspaper men compete against each other to find a serial killer dubbed "The Lipstick Killer".
- 34
Crime Wave
Reformed parolee Steve Lacey is caught in the middle when a wounded former cellmate seeks him out for shelter. The other two former cellmates then attempt to force him into doing a bank job.
- 35
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
- 36
- 37
Nightfall
An innocent man turns fugitive as he reconstructs events that implicate him for a murder and robbery he did not commit.
- 38
No Way Out
Two hoodlum brothers are brought into hospital for gunshot wounds, and when one dies, the other accuses their Black doctor of murder.
- 39
Don't Bother to Knock
An airline pilot pursues a live-in babysitter at his hotel and gradually realizes she is not as stable as perhaps she should be.
- 40
Tiger Bay
In Tiger Bay, the docklands of Cardiff, rough-and-tumble street urchin Gillie witnesses the brutal killing of a young woman at the hands of visiting Polish sailor Korchinsky. Instead of reporting the crime to the authorities, Gillie merely
- 41
Scandal Sheet
A tabloid editor assigns a young reporter to solve a murder the editor committed himself.
- 42
Murder by Contract
Claude is a ruthless and efficient contract killer. His next target, a woman, is the most difficult.
- 43
No Highway in the Sky
James Stewart plays aeronautical engineer Theodore Honey, the quintessential absent-minded professor: eccentric, forgetful, but brilliant. His studies show that the aircraft being manufactured by his employer has a subtle but deadly design
- 44
Odds Against Tomorrow
An old-time crook plans a heist. When one of his two partners is found out to be a black man tensions flare.
- 45
The Prowler
Los Angeles, California. A cop who, unhappy with his job, blames others for his work problems, is assigned to investigate the case of a prowler who stalks the home of a married woman.
- 46
His Kind of Woman
Career gambler Dan Milner agrees to a $50,000 deal to leave the USA for Mexico, only to find himself entangled with fellow guests at a luxurious resort and suspecting that the man who hired him may be the deported crime boss Nick Ferraro ai
- 47
Footsteps in the Fog
A Victorian-era murder mystery about a parlour maid who discovers that her employer may have killed his first wife.
- 48
Mystery Street
When a young woman's skeletal remains turn up on a Massachusetts beach, Barnstable cop Peter Moralas teams with Boston police and uses forensics, with the help of a Harvard professor, to determine the woman's identity, how she died, and who
- 49
The Snorkel
On the Italian coast, writer Paul Decker has grown unhappy in his marriage and executes what appears to be a perfect murder of his wife. While Paul is believed to be writing a book in France, his stepdaughter, Candy, suspects him of murderi
- 50
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, atte
- 51
The Mad Magician
Don Gallico is an inventor of stage magic effects who aspires to become a star in his own right. Just before his first performance his act is shut down by capricious manager Ross Ormond who wants Gallico's brilliant buzz saw effect for the
- 52
The Sniper
Eddie Miller struggles with his hatred of women, he's especially bothered by seeing women with their lovers. He starts a killing spree as a sniper by shooting women from far distances. In an attempt to get caught, he writes an anonymous let
- 53
No Man of Her Own
A penniless pregnant woman adopts the identity of a rich woman killed in a train crash.
- 54
The Tall Target
A detective tries to prevent the assassination of President-elect Abraham Lincoln during a train ride headed for Washington in 1861.
- 55
Decision Before Dawn
WWII is entering its last phase: Germany is in ruins, but does not yield. The US army lacks crucial knowledge about the German units operating on the opposite side of the Rhine, and decides to send two German prisoners to gather information
- 56
Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye
Ralph Cotter, a ruthless criminal, escapes violently from a farm prison. Then, he seduces a dead inmate’s sister, gets back quickly into the crime business, faces corrupt local cops who run the city’s underworld and meets a powerful tycoon’
- 57
The Killer Is Loose
A savings-and-loan bank is robbed; later, a police wiretap identifies meek bank teller Leon Poole as the inside man. In capturing him, detective Sam Wagner accidentally kills Poole's young wife, and at his trial Poole swears vengeance again
- 58
No Name on the Bullet
When hired killer John Gant rides into Lordsburg, the town's folk become paranoid as each leading citizen has enemies capable of using the services of a professional killer for personal revenge.
- 59
Seven Days to Noon
When Professor Willingdon becomes wary of the nuclear weapons he is helping build, he steals a warhead and threatens to detonate it in London in seven days unless the government begins nuclear disarmament. As Willingdon goes into hiding, De
- 60
Cry Danger
After serving five years of a life sentence, Rocky Mulloy hopes to clear his friend who's still in prison for the same crime.
- 61
The Night My Number Came Up
British Air Marshal Hardie is attending a party in Hong Kong when he hears of a dream, told by a pilot, in which Hardie's flight to Tokyo on a small Dakota propeller plane crashes on a Japanese beach. Hardie dismisses the dream as pure fant
- 62
Zero Hour!
In 1950s Canada, during a commercial flight, the pilots and some passengers suffer food poisoning, thus forcing an ex-WW2 fighter pilot to try to land the airliner in heavy fog.
- 63
The Scapegoat
An Englishman in France unwittingly is placed into the identity, and steps into the vacated life, of a look-alike French nobleman.
- 64
Man in the Shadow
In a modern cow town, the powerful ranch owner’s henchmen kill a ranch hand, prompting the sheriff to investigate despite facing strong opposition. He finds an unlikely ally in the rancher's overprotected daughter, but their quest for justi
- 65
The Mob
An undercover officer tracks waterfront corruption from California to New Orleans and back.
- 66
Storm Warning
A fashion model witnesses the brutal assassination of an investigative journalist by the Ku Klux Klan while traveling to a small town to visit her sister.
- 67
Jeopardy
A woman is kidnapped when she goes to get help for her husband who is trapped on a beach with the tide coming in to surely drown him.
- 68
The Blue Lamp
P.C. George Dixon is a long-serving traditional copper who is due to retire shortly. He takes a new recruit under his aegis and introduces him to the easy-going night beat. Dixon is a classic ordinary hero but also anachronistic, unprepared
- 69
Park Row
In New York's 1880s newspaper district, a dedicated journalist manages to set up his own paper. It is an immediate success but attracts increasing opposition from one of the bigger papers and its newspaper heiress owner.
- 70
Libel
A California commercial pilot sees a telecast in London of an interview with Sir Mark Lodden at his home. The Canadian is convinced that the baronet is a fraud, and he is actually a look-alike actor named Frank Welney.
- 71
Jet Storm
Crisis in the air: A passenger aboard a commercial airplane flying from London to New York threatens to detonate a bomb over the Atlantic.
- 72
Pushover
A police detective falls for the bank robber's girlfriend he is supposed to be tailing.
- 73
Armored Car Robbery
While executing an armored car heist in Los Angeles, icy crook Dave Purvis shoots policeman Lt. Phillips before he and his cronies make off with the loot. Thinking he got away scot-free, Purvis collects his money-crazy mistress, Yvonne, the
- 74
Pool of London
Jewel thieves, murder, and a manhunt swirl around a sailor off a cargo ship in post-war London.
- 75
Verboten!
A young American serviceman stationed in Germany after the fall of the Third Reich, jeopardises his future after falling in love with a German woman.
- 76
Man on a Tightrope
The owner of an impoverished circus in Communist-ruled Czechoslovokia plots to flee across the border to freedom, taking his entire troupe of performers and wild animals with him.
- 77
The Camp on Blood Island
Set in a Japanese prisoner of war camp during World War II, the film focuses on the brutality and horror that the allied prisoners were exposed to as the Japanese metered out subjugation and punishment to a disgraced and defeated enemy. Thi
- 78
Cast a Dark Shadow
Edward "Teddy" Bare is a ruthless schemer who thinks he's hit the big time when he kills his older wife, believing he will inherit a fortune. When things don't go according to plan, Teddy sets his sights on a new victim: wealthy widow Freda
- 79
Nowhere to Go
A professional thief is sprung from prison with the assistance of a new partner who wants to know where he's hid his loot.
- 80
Crisis
An American doctor gets caught in the middle of a revolution when he's forced to operate on a South American dictator.
- 81
Shadow on the Wall
Angered that her sister Celia has stolen her fiance, Dell Faring kills her and allows Celia's husband David, knocked out in an argument with Celia, to take the blame and end up on death row. Later Dell, finding out that David's young daught
- 82
Union Station
Police catch a break when suspected kidnappers are spotted on a train heading towards Union Station. Police, train station security and a witness try to piece together the crime and get back the blind daughter of a rich business man.
- 83
Dark City
Gamblers who "took" an out-of-town sucker in a crooked poker game feel shadowy vengeance closing in on them.
- 84
Two of a Kind
A con woman and a lawyer get a carnival grifter to pose as an elderly rich couple's long-lost son.
- 85
Side Street
A struggling young father-to-be gives in to temptation and impulsively steals an envelope of money from the office of a corrupt attorney. Instead of a few hundred dollars, it contains $30,000. When he decides to return the money, things go
- 86
The Steel Trap
Joseph Cotten plays an assistant bank manager who steals $1,000,000 from the safe late on a Friday and then plans to flee to Brazil over the weekend.
- 87
Tight Spot
A former model, serving time in prison, becomes a key witness in a trial against a notorious gangster. She is put under protective watch by the District Attorney in a posh hotel, but the crime kingpin makes attempts to get to her.
- 88
The Stranglers of Bombay
In 1826 British-ruled India, the secret Cult of Thugee demonstrates their worship of their goddess, Kali, by the mutilation and mass murder of thousands of Indians while pirating the shipments of the British East-Indian Tea Company. As t
- 89
Floods of Fear
A man framed for murder escapes from prison during a flood and helps a young woman in distress.
- 90
- 91
Whirlpool
The wife of a psychoanalyst falls prey to a devious quack hypnotist when he discovers she is an habitual shoplifter. Then one of his previous patients now being treated by the real doctor is found murdered, with her still at the scene, and
- 92
The Unguarded Moment
A high-school music teacher is the victim of a student who writes indecent notes and assaults women.
- 93
The House on Telegraph Hill
Concentration camp survivor Victoria Kowelska finds herself involved in mystery, greed, and murder when she assumes the identity of a dead friend in order to gain passage to America.
- 94
Affair in Trinidad
A nightclub singer enlists her brother-in-law to track down her husband's killer.
- 95
Where Danger Lives
A young doctor falls in love with a disturbed young woman and apparently becomes involved in the death of her husband. They head for Mexico trying to outrun the law.
- 96
Split Second
Escaped convicts hold hostages in a ghost town targeted for a nuclear bomb test.
- 97
The Decks Ran Red
A band of dishonest seamen plans a murderous mutiny aboard the S.S. Berwind.
- 98
Under My Skin
After defying a gangster in Italy, American jockey Danny Arnold flees race-fixing accusations and escapes to Paris with his son. There, he learns that his old friend has been murdered and finds work through British jockey George Gardner. De
- 99
The Black Rider
When young reporter and amateur biker Jerry Marsh investigates a mysterious hooded figure on a motorbike, he discovers crooks hiding out in a ruined castle with atomic sabotage on their minds...
- 100
Girls on the Loose
A nightclub operator, her sister, a beautician and two other women rob a payroll.