In a 16th-century European town, the ruling family has been given a prophecy that, should there ever be twin boys born, the younger will murder the older; so is dismayed when twins are born to the popular baron. The older grows to be a selfish, slovenly man, who inherits the castle at his father's death and becomes ruler over the formerly happy villagers. He enjoys his power until he learns his younger brother is returning from abroad and, afraid of the prophecy, he determines to murder his sibling, hide his body in the "black room" - an old torture chamber sealed away behind the fireplace - and then impersonate him, right down to his withered arm. In this way he hopes to not only avoid the prophecy, but also escape consequences of his other criminal deeds and obtain marriage to a local girl of the nobility...
The story of the conception of a new British weapon for smashing the German dams in the Ruhr industrial complex and the execution of the raid by 617 Squadron 'The Dam Busters'.
Canadian World War II veteran John Graham works in London as a code breaker. Tragedy strikes when his pregnant wife, Carol, is accidentally run over by two crooks who are speeding away from the scene of a murder. Haunted, grieving, and thirsting for revenge, Graham sets out to find the two fugitive murderers.
In the Northwest Frontier of India, the 41st Bengal Lancers led by the harsh Colonel Tom Stone are having trouble with the rebellious leader Mohammed Khan. Surly McGregor and wry, blue-blooded Forsythe are officers in charge of newcomer Lieutenant Stone, the commanding officer’s inexperienced son. Motivated by a grudge toward his father, Lt. Stone allows himself to be captured by the enemy.
Special investigator Duke Martin is in London to investigate the authenticity of a rare postage stamp called the Barbados Overplate. Someone is willing to commit murder to get his or her hands on the stamp, which puts a crimp in Duke's efforts to romance every beautiful woman he meets.
Drummond manages to save a woman from jumping in front of his car but she runs away with his car. He traces her and she asks him to help her out of a dangerous situation.
When his mother dies, young Peter Ibbetson leaves Paris and his best friend, Mary, behind to live with a severe uncle in England. Years later, Peter is an architect with little time for women, until he begins a project with the Duke and Duchess of Towers. When Peter and the duchess become great friends, she reveals that she is Mary — but the duke soon suspects his wife of infidelity and challenges Peter to a duel, threatening the pair's second chance.
In early 19th century England, ambitious and ruthless orphan Rebecca Sharp advances from the position of governess to the heights of British society. The first feature length film to use three-strip Technicolor.
While in London trying to nab several fugitives who stole a million dollars from a U.S. Treasury vault, American federal agent Dennison (Dennis O'Keefe) assists Scotland Yard Insp. McClaren (Philip Friend) in his search for a missing atomic scientist (Paul Hardtmuth). The detective duo discovers that the key to solving both cases may rest with the scientist's daughter (Margaret Sheridan) and her fascinating diamond.
A former pilot suffering from blackouts discovers that a fellow flyer is suspected of being mixed up with a web of smugglers. While searching for his missing buddy, he unwittingly becomes entangled in a morass of suspicion.
King Louis XI masquerades as a commoner in Paris, seeking out the treachery he is sure lurks in his kingdom. At a local tavern, he overhears the brash poet François Villon extolling why he would be a better king. Annoyed yet intrigued, the King bestows on Villon the title of Grand Constable. Soon Villon begins work and falls for a lovely lady-in-waiting, but then must flee execution when the King turns on him.
Picking a pocket leads to blackmail and murder for a petty criminal in London.
'Strange Stories' consists of two stories, 'The Strange Mr Bartleby' and 'The Strange Journey'. The stories were sometimes shown individually on television.
Three playwrights develop a plot around a drunk who gets killed in their apartment.
Boys are sent to military school in order to get them out of the way of their too-busy-to-bother parents or guardians. Lonely young Philip Stewart writes himself letters his father should be writing. When his hoax is discovered, Philip attempts suicide.
A young girl is framed for a robbery and sent to a harsh reform school, where she becomes the target of a vicious warden.
Someone is murdering the cast and crew of a new Hollywood movie, and the leading lady may be next. As a police detective locks down the lot and refuses to let anyone leave, the studio’s publicity head and his secretary attempt to solve the murders themselves.
An ex-convict who's built a respectable post-prison life for himself as an engineer discovers that a past is a hard thing to shake. When old "friends" contact the former prisoner, it's not long before the gone-straight baddie finds himself being blackmailed into taking part in a major jewelry theft.
One of a series of movies based on the character Philo Vance
In order to give up her life of crime and go straight, renowned jewel thief Sophie Lang fakes her own death and retires to London. She soon finds a job as a companion to a wealthy old lady who is also a jewel collector. One day her employer decides to take an ocean trip to the US, taking Sophie with her. She also takes along a $200,000 diamond, which she locks up in the ship's safe. Of course, the diamond is soon stolen from the safe. A reporter also happens to be aboard the ship, and he has had his suspicions about who Sophie really is. Sophie has to find the real thief and recover the jewel before the ship docks in New York, because an investigation could reveal her true identity.
Michael 'Nuggin' Taylor and Powdah save lives during a sea tragedy in this story about the slave trade on the high seas during 1842.
When gangster's bullets put an end to the career of H.J. Barton, underworld gambling czar who masquerades as a respectable member of high society, his daughter Carol is left to bear the brunt of social stigma.
In the Australian Outback, the Carmody family--Paddy, Ida, and their teenage son Sean--are sheep drovers, always on the move. Ida and Sean want to settle down and buy a farm. Paddy wants to keep moving. A sheep-shearing contest, the birth of a child, drinking, gambling, and a racehorse will all have a part in the final decision.
A London artist struggles to complete one last painting before going blind.
When a little girl is knocked down it is discovered that there are only three donors of the right blood type to help with a life-saving operation. One is a murderer awaiting execution, one an atomic scientist selling secrets, and one an international footballer about to get his hundreth cap.
Phoebe Titus is a tough, swaggering pioneer woman, but her ways become decidedly more feminine when she falls for California bound Peter Muncie. But Peter won't be distracted from his journey and Phoebe is left alone and plenty busy with villains Jefferson Carteret and Lazarus Ward plotting at every turn to destroy her freighting company. She has not seen the last of Peter, however.
Soon after celebrating his engagement to aristocratic heiress Kathy Riddle (Carol Marsh), engineer Bob Jensen (Ronald Howard) is accused by an insurance investigator of being a notorious -- and murderous -- jewel thief. Can Bob restore his reputation and regain Kathy's trust? Desperate to prove his innocence, Bob engineers a daring jailbreak and pursues the real culprit. Montgomery Tully directs this crime drama.
Jeeves tries to keep his young master out of trouble.
White hunters in a Malayan jungle stalk a white tiger and bait their trap with a native girl. Captain Rogers to the rescue but falls for the Colonel's daughter.
A U.S. sailor docks in London and in three days tries to save his brother from the gallows.
Texas Ranger Dusty Rivers ("Isn't that a contradiction in terms?", another character asks him) travels to Canada in the 1880s in search of Jacques Corbeau, who is wanted for murder. He wanders into the midst of the Riel Rebellion, in which Métis (people of French and Native heritage) and Natives want a separate nation. Dusty falls for nurse April Logan, who is also loved by Mountie Jim Brett. April's brother is involved with Courbeau's daughter Louvette, which leads to trouble during the battles between the rebels and the Mounties. Through it all Dusty is determined to bring Corbeau back to Texas (and April, too, if he can manage it.)
Working for a slick restaurateur who has fallen for her, a down-on-life songstress falls instead for a crusading crime reporter, unaware that her employer is the secret head of the city's major gambling machine racket and has a penchant for murdering anyone who gets in his way.
During WW1, the destinies of British officers Michael Andrews and John Stevenson seem intertwined on the battle front as much as on a more personal level.
Shortly before the curtain goes up the first time at the latest performance of Earl Carroll's Vanities, someone is attempting to injure the leading lady Ann Ware, who wants to marry leading man Eric Lander. Stage manager Jack Ellery calls in his friend, policeman Bill Murdock, to help him investigate. Bill thinks Jack is offering to let him see the show from an unusual viewpoint after he forgot to get him tickets for the performance, but then they find the corpse of a murdered woman and Bill immediately suspects Eric of the crime.
This being a Republic picture, it should come as no surprise that Storm Over Bengal was filmed in its entirety in the San Fernando Valley. Within its concise 65 minutes, the film manages to accommodate a Bengal Lancers main plot, a romantic subplot, the obligatory coward who makes good, intrigue aplenty from a villainous Indian potentate, and an outsized climactic battle between the rebels and the British forces. Patric Knowles, previously one of the leads in the British-India epic Charge of the Light Brigade, heads the cast. Worth noting is the presence in the cast of Richard Cromwell as secondary romantic lead Neil Allison and Douglass Dumbrille as the despicable Khan. Three years earlier, Cromwell had been tortured by Dumbrille's minions in Lives of a Bengal Lancer, and he undergoes much the same treatment here-"just to make him feel at home" observed film historian Roger Dooley.
Chester Beatty and Tessie Weeks have been engaged for 5 years and going together for 15 years before that. Chester is reluctant to burden Tessie with marriage because of his secret problem. He is a sleepwalker. When Tessie finally does rope Chester into marriage, he can't get time off from his boss of 26 years, Mr. Frisbee. To resolve the problem, Chester sets out to impress his boss by securing a big sales contract of glass eyes. He takes Tessie and follows the rich doll company owner Horace B. Stanton to a lakeside resort and befriends him. However, his sleep-walking makes him a prime suspect in a thievery/murder case.
In 1910 Manhattan, Victoria Van Brett, a bitter spinster heiress lives an isolated life with her sister Caroline. Her domineering urges go into overdrive when their half-brother Rip brings a new bride home to the family’s gloomy Fifth Avenue mansion, built by their late industrialist father. The title refers to a secret soundproofed chamber that the villainess uses to entrap her enemies.
When strongman Samson rejects the love of the beautiful Philistine woman Delilah, she seeks vengeance that brings horrible consequences they both regret.
When a young woman named Barbara Clarke has an affair with adventurer Roger Coverman, it causes a scandal in the Puritanical town of Salem, Massachusetts. After a meddling girl arouses their suspicions, the town's elders accuse Barbara of being a witch. She is tried, convicted of sorcery and sentenced to death. As the townspeople prepare to burn Barbara at the stake, Roger tries desperately to save the woman he loves.
A woman has been sentenced to death by hanging. Her cousin believes she is innocent and he works against time to prove it before she is executed.
During a bank robbery, the manager and a cashier are locked in the strongroom, while the crooks escape. Later, when the gang realise that their plan to release the pair has gone wrong, they return to the bank to try and release them before the police turn up.
An adventurer investigates the theft of a formula for hardened steel, assisted by his girlfriend.
Safe cracker, Colley Dawson, is recruited to steal a list of Nazi agents from a safe in a Nazi occupied chateau in Belgium.
The year is 1940 and Pilot Officer T.B. Baird arrives straight out of flight school to join a front line RAF squadron at the height of the Battle of Britain. After an unfortunate start and a drumming down from his commanding officer, Baird must balance the struggle to impress his Group Captain, regain his pride, fit in with his fellow pilots, and survive one of the most intense air battles in history.
A vacationing journalist investigates the mysterious death of a composer and debunks the theory that it was suicide.
During the early 1960s, a Chicago mobster and a Londoner try to get involved in a jukebox racket.
A modern boardroom take on Julius Caesar.
After notorious jewel thief Flambeau meets Evelyn Fischer during a raid on a casino, he falls deeply in love with her. Later Flambeau sends notes to both Leopold Fischer, who unknown to him is Evelyn's uncle, and Father Brown, in which he vows he will steal from them the ten diamonds that comprise the "Flying Star." Flambeau intends to give these diamonds to Evelyn. Father Brown, whose gold cross contains some of the Flying Star diamonds, is determined to meet Flambeau before he is arrested, to reform and redeem his soul.
To beautify his street and trim city spending, stuffy councilman Jack (Francis Matthews) pushes to have the last gas lamp in town removed. But this angers his neighbors Albert (Ian Fleming) and Victoria (Amy Dalby), an inconspicuous pair of serial killers who choose Jack as their next victim. This dark comedy also stars Lisa Daniely as Mary, a local advocate who fights tooth and nail against Jack's modernization efforts.