The best Fred Kelsey’s mystery movies
We present our ranking of the best Fred Kelsey’s movies. Do you love cinema? Or are you looking for a movie of your favorite actor to watch tonight? Surely you have some to see or that you did not know yet about Fred Kelsey.
Pacific Blackout
7.2/10
Falsely convicted of murder, young Robert Draper (Robert Preston) escapes custody during a practice blackout drill. Under cover of darkness, Draper hopes to find the real killer, who turns out to be a member of a Nazi sabotage ring. Completed shortly before America entered WW2.
Invisible Ghost
5.2/10
The town's leading citizen is a man victim of homicidal impulses beyond his control. He is being controlled by his wife who had left him for another man. She was involved in a car accident that has left her brain damaged and is kept in the basement, in secret, by Kessler's gardener.
Tell No Tales
6.5/10
A newspaper editor turns a kidnapping into the banner headlines and exclusive story that could save his publication.
The Unfaithful
6.8/10
Christine Hunter kills an intruder and tells her husband and lawyer that it was an act of self-defense. It's later revealed that he was actually her lover and she had posed for an incriminating statue he created.
The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case
7.1/10
The boys think their days of fishing to feed themselves have come to an end, when Stan's rich uncle Ebenezer dies leaving a large estate. But they soon learn that Ebenezer was murdered and all the relatives, including Stan, are suspects.
Crime by Night
6.2/10
A private eye and his secretary probe a murder and find an international spy.
Charlie Chan in Reno
7/10
Mary Whitman has gone to Reno to obtain a divorce. While there she is arrested on suspicion of murdering a fellow guest at her hotel (which specializes in divorcers). There are many others at the hotel who wanted the victim out of the way. Charlie comes from his home in Honolulu to solve the murder.
X Marks the Spot
5.2/10
A private detective, soon to enlist in the army, is drawn into one final case when his police officer father is killed in the line of duty. Soon his prime suspect is murdered as well, and he finds himself framed for the crime. As more witnesses get murdered, he finds himself on the run from both the police and former Prohibition violators who seem to have found a new racket.
The Garden Murder Case
6/10
Detective Philo Vance is in charge of the investigation of several mysterious murders. Things take a turn when he gathers evidence against Major Fenwicke-Ralston.
The Last Warning
6.8/10
A producer decides to reopen a theater, that had been closed five years previously when one of the actors was murdered during a performance, by staging a production of the same play with the remaining members of the original cast.
Super-Sleuth
5.7/10
A movie actor playing a detective gets carried away with his role and starts trying to solve real-life crimes.
The Lone Wolf Takes a Chance
6.3/10
A reformed jewel thief fights to clear his name when he's framed for murder.
The Lone Wolf Keeps a Date
6.1/10
Complicated plot involving missing stamp collection and kidnapped businessman, with the Lone Wolf keeping one step ahead of the police in Havana trying to solve the crime and make a profit.
Charlie Chan at Treasure Island
7.2/10
Charlie's investigation of a phony psychic during the 1939 World Exposition on San Francisco's Treasure Island leads him to expose a suicide as murder.
Discarded Lovers
4.7/10
In this murder mystery, sexy blonde film star Irma Gladden is found dead in her car after shooting the last scene in her film, "Falling Star" at Eminent Studios. The suspects are numerous due to her free and easy lifestyle and messy romantic affairs. Among them are Grace Sibley the jealous wife of her director, Warren Sibley, her drunken actor husband, Andre Leighton, her screenwriter boyfriend, Rex Forsythe, and her first husband, Robert Worth. Also on hand to help solve the mystery are visiting reporter Bob Adair, Irma's secretary, Valerie Christine, and policemen Captain Sommers and Sergeant Delaney.
The Green Archer
6.5/10
Columbia's 12th serial of 57 total (following 1940's "Deadwood Dick" and ahead of 1941's "White Eagle") is another of director's James Horne's "classics" where he evidently figured that the same reactions that served him well in Laurel and Hardy films would work well in action serials where he has all hands, heroes and villains alike, doing some kind of over-the top "take", no matter the situation. This loose adaptation of an Edgar Wallace story finds Michael Bellamy (Kenne Duncan in his Kenneth Duncan period) inheriting Garr Castle, but his brother, Abel Bellamy (James Craven, as usual making Oil-Can Harry look smooth), has him imprisoned unjustly and moves into the castle himself. When Michael's wife, Elaine Bellamy (Dorothy Fay), fails to return after visiting Abel, her sister Valerie Howett (Iris Meredith), accompanied by their father,
Atlantic Adventure
5.4/10
When reporter Dan Miller is once again late to meet his girl friend, Helen Murdock, because he is working on a story, Helen breaks up with him. Later, in an effort to reconcile with her, Dan misses an appointment with the district attorney, and is fired when his editor learns that the district attorney was murdered in Dan's absence. The man suspected of the crime, Mitts Coster, is rumored to be traveling to Europe aboard an ocean liner. While Dan's friend, photographer Snapper McGillicuddy, fetches Helen to the boat, under the pretense that Dan is leaving town to forget her, Dan searches the ship for Mitts, whom he does not recognize. When Helen arrives, Dan feigns illness, and she admits her love for him. When Helen learns of Dan's ruse, however, she angrily hits him with a package that a passenger gave her when she boarded the ship. The package contains a passport for Dorothy Madden, who greatly resembles Helen, and $2,000 dollars.
The Strange Mr. Gregory
5.5/10
The title character, played by Edmund Lowe, is a famous magician who fakes his own death -- then reappears as his nonexistent twin brother. It's all part of Gregory's master scheme to pin his "murder" on innocent John Randall (Don Douglas), the husband of Ellen (Jean Rogers), the woman Gregory loves.
Murder on the Waterfront
5.1/10
A sailor and his wife become involved in a murder investigation.
Secrets of the Lone Wolf
6.4/10
Michael Lanyard's faithful butler Jamison is mistaken for his boss by a gang of jewel robbers.
