One of a series of murder mysteries featuring the character Philo Vance. A Lost Movie
Social & External
Philo Vance
Inspector Moor
Dr. Bliss
Angela Hargreaves
Donald Scarlett
Salveter
Winthrop Clavering a mystery writer, is continually ridiculed for the fiction of the crimes he depicts, so he decides to solve a case himself. To that end, he determines to find the slayer of Pedro Alvarez, who whispered before dying that his assailant was a woman. At the City Refuge for Homeless Girls, Clavering obtains the assistance of Margaret Holt, the sister of Victor Holt, the district attorney. Margaret, it is revealed, was abducted by Juanita, a member of a gang of white slavers led by Alvarez. After escaping from a brothel, Margaret became Alvarez' stenographer, hoping to gather secret information on his gang. While searching for evidence, Margaret was surprised by Alvarez, whom she killed. Finally, Clavering captures the gang, clears Margaret, and encourages her romance with cub reporter Jack Howell. This film is presumably lost.
In this story the hero is haunted by a beautiful young woman who tries to stab him to death with a knife. This fantasy recurs on each of his birthdays, becoming more and more real as the years go on. He leaves home to secure a place as groom, but arrives at his destination too late. Forced to retrace his steps, he seeks shelter in a little inn, forgetting that the hour of his birth is approaching. In the middle of the night he awakens, terrified with fright… Based on Wilkie Collins' novel “The Dream Woman”.
A young American man arrives in London to claim an estate he has inherited. One of the conditions is that he signs a paper stating he will never sell the estate. When he arrives at the estate he now owns, he runs into a ring of American gangsters there and discovers that the estate is the site of some buried pirate treasure.
Young London realtor Leonard Tavernake becomes involved with two sisters, one good and one evil, which leads to much melodrama but things work out in the end.
Millionaire Joshua Barker insists that his daughter, Faith, must marry Phil Langhorne, a man that neither likes, and Faith is in love with and eager to marry her childhood sweetheart, John Temple.
Bob Marston, a San Francisco socialite turned amateur detective is assigned to apprehend a gang of bootleggers.
Wealthy spinster, Rachel Innes rents a country house with her niece and nephew for the summer, only for a series of strange occurrences and a murder at the house's circular staircase to lead to shocking revelations about the home's owner and the family secrets within the house.
Guido, an artist, is obsessed with the desire for the death of Clavering, a rich man who has entered into a forced marriage with Margaret, the girl whom Guido loves. The thought accompanies him in his work, his sleep and fills his every moment. One night, he awakens from a dream in which he has murdered Clavering. The next morning, Clavering is found murdered and Guido labors under the uncanny feeling that he is the murderer. Hoping to relieve Guido's fears, Margaret induces him to paint the picture of his dream. Clavering's butler sees the painting of his dead master, and is so horror stricken that he confesses to murdering Clavering for his money.
Chaney plays two roles: mad scientist Arthur Lamb and Lamb's "experiment", known only as the Ape Man. This hideous creature was the result of Lamb's attempts to transplant animal glands into human beings. A lost film.
Young Edyth Vail, believes her fiancé Allen Morris may have committed a murder, asking Ashton Kirk to investigate the crime. The fiancé admits he went to the David Hume's home to retrieve plans for a submarine, invented by his scientist father and stolen by the murdered man, but Allen claims he left the home before retrieving the plans. Kirk uses a train conductor's punch ticket to discover the identity of the murderers, one of whom is mute, and sets a trap to apprehend the suspects.
While touring India, noted English criminologist Richard Duvall saves the life of a Buddhist priest who rewards him with the presentation of a wonderful crystal globe. By gazing in it the priest demonstrates that Duvall can fall into a cataleptic state and his astral body is released and is free to roam at will. Shortly afterward he uses the orbs powers to help his lady love Grace Ellicott solve the murder of her aunt and restore her fortune.
A man and two women, suspected of stealing bonds, are traced to a country hotel. While Judith, one of the women, is out horseback riding, the other two, Walter and Vera, are arrested. When, during a storm, Judith is injured in a fall from her horse, Boone Pendleton comes to her rescue. Soon the river becomes impassable, and they are trapped in Boone's cabin, where the two fall in love.
After serving fifteen years of a twenty-year prison term for embezzlement, Joe Moore is released early for good behavior. In New York, he finds Matthew Owens and James Horton, his former business associates, and demands that they pay what they owe him.
A woman's cheating husband is murdered at their country estate, and suspicion immediately falls on her.
Private Detective Philo Vance gets involved with a succession of murders and a mystery concerning the disappearance of an emerald that has been smuggled into the United States.
Philo Vance is hired to write a true-crime mystery... but when the facts about an unsolved crime are about to be brought out into the open a murder takes place.
Wonderful idea to give a party with people who dislike each other. Late at night, everyone decides to go into the pool, except Stamm, who is drunk. Montague dives in as does Greeff and Leland, but only Greeff and Leland come out. Montague is no where to be found so Leland suspects foul play and calls the cops. Luckily, Philo is with the D.A. and comes along, but they do not find Montague. When they drain the pool the next day, they find nothing except what looks like dragon prints. Philo has his suspicions and tries to piece the clues together to find out what has happened.
Super-sleuth Philo Vance faces the zaniest case of his career when Gracie Allen "helps" him try to solve the murder of an escaped convict. As she attempts to clear the name of a friend accused of the killing, her wacky, scatterbrained ways constantly impede the investigation.
In Dijon, Inspector Hanaud investigates Betty Harlowe after her uncle, Boris Waberski, accuses her of poisoning her wealthy aunt for an inheritance. While an initial autopsy finds nothing, Hanaud discovers the use of Strophanthus Hispidus—a rare, undetectable poison applied via an antique arrow. Amidst a flurry of "poison pen" letters and deception, Hanaud proves the murder occurred despite the lack of conventional medical evidence.
The abandoned Balfour House, the owner of which was found dead five years earlier, comes back to life with the arrival of two suspicious sinister-looking tenants. This film was lost in the 1965 MGM vault fire; only a few stills exist.
Philo Vance, accompanied by his prize-losing Scottish terrier, investigates the locked-room murder of a prominent and much-hated collector whose broken Chinese vase provides an important clue.
Jessica and her fiancé Evan just moved from the city into their dream home on a quiet suburban street. Soon after, Jessica catches her seemingly friendly new neighbor, Simon, in a strange lie and can't let her suspicions rest. The danger escalates when Simon lures her inside his home and imprisons Jessica in his secret bunker, meticulously decorated in the idealized style of the 1950's.
When a couple of scammers hold young Alice Faulkner against her will to discover the whereabouts of letters whose dissemination could cause a scandal affecting the royal family, Sherlock Holmes decides to take over the case. (Considered lost, a copy was found in 2014, in the vaults of the Cinémathèque Française.)
Over-the-hill gumshoe in Los Angeles seeks to avenge the killing of an old pal, another detective who was involved in a case concerning a murdered broad, stolen stamps, a nickel-plated handgun, a cheating dolly, and a kidnapped pussycat.
After his son is wrongly accused of kidnapping, a deacon who has just lost his wife takes matters into his own hands and fights a crooked police gang to clear him.
When the skeleton of his murdered predecessor is found, Sheriff Sam Deeds unearths many other long-buried secrets in his Texas border town.
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 exploring his new acquaintance's life story. Guy's research turns up stunning details about his employer's past, and as his work seems linked to untimely deaths, the mystery surrounding Mr. Arkadin deepens.
Bakery owner Hannah Swensen just can't keep her hands out of the batter when murder stirs things up in Lake Eden, Minnesota, leaving the sheriff dead, a deputy accused, and a killer on the loose.
Harry Crumb is a bumbling and inept private investigator who is hired to solve the kidnapping of a young heiress which he's not expected to solve because his employer is the mastermind behind the kidnapping.
After a cheerleader is sexually assaulted by the high school football team, she must overcome her shame and use the evidence gathered from the subsequent social media firestorm to piece together the night that she can't remember in her fight for justice. Based on the true story of the Steubenville, Ohio rape case.
Faced with two false confessions and numerous suspects after a despised civil magistrate is found shot in the local vicarage, Detective Inspector Slack reluctantly accepts help from Miss Marple.
The local theater is producing a mystery that crime fiction expert Amy unearthed. When one of the actress' life is threatened, Amy & Travis must uncover which character is playing for keeps.
Actress Jane Wilkinson wants a divorce, but her husband, Lord Edgware, refuses. She convinces Hercule Poirot to use his famed tact and logic to make her case. Lord Edgware turns up murdered, a well-placed knife wound at the base of his neck. It will take the precise Poirot to sort out the lies from the alibis - and find the criminal before another victim dies.
During a murder hunt game at a country house, to which Hercule Poirot is invited as an "expert", a real murder occurs.
Jane Marple solves the mystery when a local woman is poisoned and a visiting movie star seems to have been the intended victim.
Early in his crime-solving career, Sherlock Holmes attempts to prevent Moriarty from cornering the heroin market.
A businessman, on his daily commute home, gets unwittingly caught up in a criminal conspiracy that threatens not only his life but the lives of those around him.
A single mother must protect her daughter and herself during a heist gone wrong at a high-tech storage facility.
After an attack leaves him in limbo -- invisible to the living and also near death -- a teenager discovers the only person who might be able help him is his attacker.
After being forced into early retirement, former detective Jeff Jackson returns to a quiet life on Martha's Vineyard. Quiet, at least, until a body washes up and he's drawn back into crime solving.