Top 30 Crime Movies Picks from 1940

The wife of a rubber plantation administrator shoots a man to death and claims it was self-defense, but a letter written in her own hand may prove her undoing. Read about The Letter / IMDB / YouTube

When one of two truck-driving brothers loses an arm, they both join a transport company where the other is falsely charged as an accessory in the murder of the owner. Read about They Drive by Night / IMDB / YouTube

In this classic adaptation of Emile Zola's novel, a tortured train engineer falls in love with a troubled married woman who has helped her husband commit a murder. More about The Human Beast / IMDB / YouTube

After committing a murder, a man locks himself in his apartment and recollects the events that led him to the killing. Read about Daybreak / IMDB / YouTube

An aspiring reporter is the key witness at the murder trial of a young man accused of cutting a café owner's throat, and is soon accused of a similar crime himself. Find out about Stranger on the Third Floor / IMDB / YouTube

After retired racket boss John Sarto tries to reclaim his place and his former friends try to kill him, he finds solace in a monastery and reinvents himself as a pious monk. Explore Brother Orchid / IMDB / YouTube

Dr. Sovac transplants the brain of a gangster into his professor friend's body to save his life, but there is a side effect that causes a dangerous split personality. More about Black Friday / IMDB / YouTube

Danny is a content truck driver, but his girl Peggy shows potential as a dancer and hopes he too can show ambition. Danny acquiesces and pursues boxing to please her, but the two begin to spend more time working than time together. Info on City for Conquest / IMDB / YouTube

An escaped convicted murderer hides out at a New York wax museum where he hopes to get plastic surgery, which will help him revenge himself on Charlie Chan. Details on Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum / IMDB / YouTube

The manager of Kay Kyser's band books them for a birthday party bash for an heiress at a spooky mansion, where sinister forces try to kill her. Find out about You'll Find Out / IMDB / YouTube

Inspector Chan investigates a group of travelers, one of whom is a saboteur. Read about Charlie Chan in Panama / IMDB / YouTube

The son of a jailed Wall Street broker turns to crime to pay for his father's release. More about Johnny Apollo / IMDB / YouTube

After crooked nightclub owner Chips Maguire murders a police informant, he blackmails his piano player to allow him to stay at his eccentric mother's boarding house. Details on It All Came True / IMDB / YouTube

Insurance agent-physician collects on policies of men murdered by a disfigured resident of the home for the blind where he acts as doctor-on-call. More about The Human Monster / IMDB / YouTube

A physician on death row for a mercy killing is allowed to experiment on a serum using a criminals' blood, but secretly tests it on himself. He gets a pardon, but finds out he's become a Jekyll-&-Hyde. Find out about Before I Hang / IMDB / YouTube

Mr. Wong and a girl reporter investigate a shipping magnate's murder. Read about Doomed to Die / IMDB / YouTube

Charlie tries to discover the identity of a strangler who strikes multiple times on a cruise ship bound from Honolulu to California. Check out Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise / IMDB / YouTube

A cuckolded embezzler on the verge of suicide is helped by a tout, an alcoholic playwright, and a pick-up girl to reimburse the money with a gambling sting. Look into Angels Over Broadway / IMDB / YouTube

When Charlie's old friend from Scotland Yard is murdered when they attend a police convention in New York, Chan picks up the case he was working on. More about Murder Over New York / IMDB / YouTube

Early in World War II, Danish sea captain Andersen, delayed in a British port, tangles with German spies. Check out Blackout / IMDB / YouTube

When Captain Street's best friend Dan Grady is murdered, Street receives help from Chinese detective James Lee Wong and local newspaper reporter Bobbie Logan. Find out about The Fatal Hour / IMDB / YouTube

In 1936, a young man arrives in Hitler's Germany, frantically seeking information about his missing German mother, and finds she is pending execution at a concentration camp. Details on Escape / IMDB / YouTube

After Larry accidentally kills his lover Wanda's estranged blackmailing husband, someone else is arrested for the crime. Larry and Wanda nervously await the verdict: if the innocent suspect is found guilty then Larry will give himself up. Read about 21 Days Together / IMDB / YouTube

An arrogant mobster, sentenced to a long prison term in Sing Sing, becomes a changed man when given a chance by the fair and progressive warden. Get info on Castle on the Hudson / IMDB / YouTube

An enigmatic gang leader known as The Boss, who is a dead-ringer for Simon, puts The Saint under suspicion of murder. Learn about The Saint's Double Trouble / IMDB / YouTube

Researcher James Lee Wong is on the scene as archaeologist Dr. John Benton, recently returned from an expedition in China where a valuable ancient scroll was recovered, is murdered while giving a lecture on the expedition. More about Phantom of Chinatown / IMDB / YouTube

Inspector Fernack is framed by a cartel of five gangsters and Simon does his best to prove it before all the conspirators are murdered by a mysterious killer. Get info on The Saint Takes Over / IMDB / YouTube

A newspaper publisher and his Korean servant fight crime as vigilantes who pose as a notorious masked gangster and his aide. Check out The Green Hornet / IMDB / YouTube

Undercover agent Mark Sheldon gets paroled to a remote tropical island with a diamond mine manned by slave labor run by sadistic Stephen Danel. Get info on Island of Doomed Men / IMDB / YouTube

An aircraft designer falls for the wife of an imprisoned gangster. All goes well until the gangster gets out of prison. Get info on The House Across the Bay / IMDB / YouTube