The best John Dilson’s mystery movies

John Dilson

John Dilson

18/02/1891- 01/06/1944
If you love cinema, you will share this ranking of the best John Dilson’s movies, although you may have ordered them differently. In any case, we hope you love it and with a little luck discovering a movie that you still don’t know about John Dilson.

Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane
8.3/10
  • Genre: DramaMystery
  • Release: 17/04/1941
  • Character: Ward Heeler (uncredited)
Newspaper magnate, Charles Foster Kane is taken from his mother as a boy and made the ward of a rich industrialist. As a result, every well-meaning, tyrannical or self-destructive move he makes for the rest of his life appears in some way to be a reaction to that deeply wounding event.

Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case

Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case
6.1/10
In this 13th entry to the Dr. Kildare series, the medical staff of Blair General hospital are challenged with further dilemmas, not the least of which includes a prison inmate who Dr. Gillespie believes belongs instead in an insane asylum.

The Leopard Man

The Leopard Man
6.7/10
When a leopard escapes during a publicity stunt, it triggers a series of murders.

Great Guy

Great Guy
6.3/10
A meat inspector sets out to rid his town of payoff deals affecting the quality of meat being sold to the public.

Gallant Sons

Gallant Sons
6.3/10
  • Genre: Mystery
  • Release: 15/11/1940
  • Character: Druggist (uncredited)
When a teenager's father is accused of murder, the boy and his high-school classmates set out to find the real killer.

It's a Wonderful World

It's a Wonderful World
6.8/10
Detective Guy Johnson's client, Willie Heywood, is framed for murder. While Guy hides him so he can catch the real killer, both of them are nabbed by the police, tried, convicted and sentenced to jail: Guy for a year with Willie to be executed. On the way to jail, Guy comes across a clue and escapes from the police.

Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise

Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise
7.1/10
On a cruise ship from Honolulu to San Francisco, the famous Chinese detective encounters four more murders while trying to figure out the murder of a Scotland Yard friend.

Nancy Drew... Reporter

Nancy Drew... Reporter
6.5/10
While participating in a contest at a local newspaper in which school children are asked to submit a news story, local attorney Carson Drew's daughter Nancy intercepts a real story assignment. She "covers" the inquest of the death of a woman who was poisoned. Nancy doesn't think the young woman accused of the crime is guilty and corrals her neighbor Ted into searching for a vital piece of evidence and stumbles onto the identity of the real killer.

Over My Dead Body

Over My Dead Body
6.1/10
Berle plays a mystery writer who forever writes himself into corners and is never able to finish a story. While visiting his wife (Mary Beth Hughes) at the office where she works, Berle overhears several men discussing the suicide of a coworker. Struck with a brilliant notion, Berle decides to confess to the murder of the dead man, certain that he'll be able to wriggle out of the situation and thereby have plenty of material for a story.

A Night to Remember

A Night to Remember
6.6/10
A woman rents a gloomy basement apartment in Greenwich Village thinking it will provide the perfect atmosphere for her mystery writer husband to create his next book. They soon find themselves in the middle of a real-life mystery when a corpse turns up in their apartment.

Love Is on the Air

Love Is on the Air
5.4/10
A newscaster (Ronald Reagan) gets demoted for exposing the town's criminal activities over the airwaves.

The Shadow Strikes

The Shadow Strikes
4.8/10
  • Genre: Mystery
  • Release: 29/10/1937
  • Character: Bill Gordan
Lamont Cranston assumes his secret identity as "The Shadow", to break up an attempted robbery at an attorney's office. When the police search the scene, Cranston must assume the identity of the attorney. Before he can leave, a phone call summons the attorney to the home of Delthern, a wealthy client, who wants a new will drawn up. As Cranston meets with him, Delthern is suddenly shot, and Cranston is quickly caught up in a new mystery.

Whistling in the Dark

Whistling in the Dark
6.7/10
  • Genre: ComedyMystery
  • Release: 08/08/1941
  • Character: Hugo in Show (uncredited)
The operators of 'Silver Haven', a cultish group bilking gullible rich people out of money, is set to inherit a large sum after the deceased woman's heir also dies. Leader Joesph Jones decides to hurry the process along and kidnaps Wally Benton, his fiancé, and a friend, to further this goal. Wally, 'The Fox', is a radio sleuth who solves murders on the air. Jones wants him to devise a perfect murder, and isn't above killing others sloppily along the way to get his foolproof murder plot.

Phantom of Chinatown

Phantom of Chinatown
5.9/10
In the middle of a pictorial lecture on his recent expedition to the Mongolian Desert, Dr. John Benton,the famous explorer, drinks from the water bottle on his lecture table, collapses and dies. His last words "Eternal Fire" are the only clue Chinese detective Jimmy Wong and Captain Street of the police department have to work on.

Who Killed Gail Preston?

Who Killed Gail Preston?
6.2/10
A temperamental singer's murder leaves a nightclub full of suspects.

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