The "locked-room" or "impossible crime" mystery is a type of crime seen in crime and detective fiction. The crime in question, typically murder, is committed in circumstances under which it appeared impossible for the perpetrator to enter the crime scene, commit the crime, and leave undetected. The crime in question typically involves a situation whereby an intruder could not have left; for example the original literal "locked room": a murder victim found in a windowless room locked from the inside at the time of discovery. Following other conventions of classic detective fiction, the reader is normally presented with the puzzle and all of the clues, and is encouraged to solve the mystery before the solution is revealed in a dramatic climax.
Father Brown is a fictional Roman Catholic priest and amateur detective. He is featured in 53 short stories by English author G. K. Chesterton, published between 1910 and 1936. Father Brown solves mysteries and crimes using his intuition and keen understanding of human nature. Chesterton loosely based him on the Rt Rev. Msgr John O'Connor (1870–1952), a parish priest in Bradford, who was involved in Chesterton's conversion to Catholicism in 1922. Since 2013, the character has been portrayed by Mark Williams in the ongoing BBC Television Series Father Brown.
Walter Brown Gibson was an American writer and professional magician, best known for his work on the pulp fiction character The Shadow. Gibson, under the pen-name Maxwell Grant, wrote "more than 300 novel-length" Shadow stories, writing up to "10,000 words a day" to satisfy public demand during the character's golden age in the 1930s and 1940s. He authored several novels in the Biff Brewster juvenile series of the 1960s. He was married to Litzka R. Gibson, also a writer, and the couple lived in New York state.
Francis Healey Albertson was an American actor who had supporting roles in films such as It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and Psycho (1960).
"The Blue Cross" is a short story by G. K. Chesterton. It was the first Father Brown short story and also introduces the characters Hercule Flambeau and Aristide Valentin. It is unique among the Father Brown mysteries in that it does not follow the actions of the Father himself, but rather those of Valentin. It was first published on 23 July 1910, under the title "Valentin Follows a Curious Trail", in the Saturday Evening Post, Philadelphia. Re-titled as "The Blue Cross", publication in London followed, in The Story-Teller magazine of September 1910.
Hercule Flambeau is a fictional character created by English novelist G. K. Chesterton, who appears in 48 short stories about the character Father Brown. A master criminal, his surname "Flambeau" is an alias, the French word for a flaming torch.
The Adventures of Father Brown is an American radio crime drama that aired on the Mutual Broadcasting System, adapted from G. K. Chesterton's stories of Father Brown. It debuted on June 10, 1945, and ended on July 29, 1945.
Walter Connolly was an American character actor who appeared in almost 50 films from 1914 to 1939. His best known film is It Happened One Night (1934).
The League of Frightened Men is a 1937 American mystery film based on the 1935 novel of the same name, the second Nero Wolfe novel by Rex Stout. Directed by Alfred E. Green, the Columbia Pictures film stars Walter Connolly as Nero Wolfe, a role played by Edward Arnold in the previous year's Meet Nero Wolfe. The role of Wolfe's assistant Archie Goodwin was reprised by Lionel Stander.
Father Brown is a 1954 British mystery comedy film directed by Robert Hamer and starring Alec Guinness as the title character with Joan Greenwood, Peter Finch and Cecil Parker. Like the American film Father Brown, Detective (1934), it is based loosely on The Blue Cross (1910), the first Father Brown short story by G. K. Chesterton. It was shot at the Riverside Studios in London. The film's sets were designed by the art director John Hawkesworth. It was distributed by Columbia Pictures in both Britain and the United States where it was released as The Detective. It was screened at the 1954 Venice Film Festival.
Herbert Halliwell Hobbes was an English actor.
Lillian Gertrude Michael, sometimes nicknamed Beck Michael, was an American film, stage and television actress.
Meet Maxwell Archer is a 1940 British mystery film directed by John Paddy Carstairs and starring John Loder, Leueen MacGrath and Athole Stewart. The screenplay concerns a private detective who attempts to clear a man wrongly accused of murder. The film was based on the 1938 novel by Hugh Clevely. It was released in the U.S. in 1942 as Maxwell Archer, Detective.
Father Brown is a British television series, which originally aired on ITV in 1974. It featured Kenneth More as Father Brown, a Roman Catholic priest who solved crime mysteries. The episodes were closely based on the stories by G. K. Chesterton.
Father Brown is a British period detective television series loosely based on the Father Brown short stories by G. K. Chesterton, starring Mark Williams as the crime-solving Roman Catholic priest. Broadcast began on BBC One on 14 January 2013. In April 2023 the BBC confirmed that filming had begun on an 11th series, for broadcast in January 2024, and also confirmed the return of Lorna Watson as Sister Boniface. The commissioning of series 12 and 13 was confirmed in April 2024.
The Eddie Capra Mysteries is an American mystery television series starring Vincent Baggetta as a lawyer who investigates murders and has a knack for solving them. Original episodes aired on NBC from September 8, 1978, to January 12, 1979.
Nancy Steele Is Missing! is a 1937 American drama film directed by George Marshall and Otto Preminger and starring Victor McLaglen, Walter Connolly and Peter Lorre. It was produced and distributed by Twentieth Century Fox. The film's sets were designed by the British art director Hans Peters. It has been described as a precursor to film noir.
Menace is a 1934 American mystery film directed by Ralph Murphy and starring Gertrude Michael, Paul Cavanagh and Henrietta Crosman. The emerging star Ray Milland billed fifth. It was produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is based on the 1933 novel Menace by British writer Philip MacDonald. Mitchell Leisen was originally intended to direct the film before being replaced by Murphy. A review in the New York Times considered "it ranks several notches higher than the average murder film".
