A mystery film is a film that revolves around the solution of a problem or a crime. It focuses on the efforts of the detective, private investigator or amateur sleuth to solve the mysterious circumstances of an issue by means of clues, investigation, and clever deduction. Mystery films include, but are not limited to, films in the genre of detective fiction.
Cyril Raker Endfield was an American film director, who at times also worked as a writer, theatre director, magician and inventor. Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, he worked in the New York theatre in the late 1930s before moving to Hollywood in 1940. His film career was interrupted by the Hollywood blacklist, and he resettled in London at the end of 1951. He is particularly known for The Sound of Fury/Try and Get Me! (1950), Hell Drivers (1957) and Zulu (1964).
The Stranger is a 1946 American thriller film noir directed and co-written by Orson Welles, starring Edward G. Robinson, Loretta Young and Orson Welles. Welles's third completed feature film as director and his first film noir, it centers on a war crimes investigator tracking a high-ranking Nazi fugitive to a Connecticut town. It is the first Hollywood film to present documentary footage of the Holocaust.
The Sound of Fury is a 1950 American crime film noir directed by Cy Endfield and starring Frank Lovejoy, Kathleen Ryan, Richard Carlson. The film is based on the 1947 novel The Condemned by Jo Pagano, who also wrote the screenplay.
The Dark Mirror is a 1946 American film noir psychological thriller film directed by Robert Siodmak starring Olivia de Havilland as twins and Lew Ayres as their psychiatrist. The film marks Ayres' return to motion pictures following his conscientious objection to service in World War II. De Havilland had begun to experiment with method acting at the time and insisted that everyone in the cast meet with a psychiatrist. The film anticipates producer/screenwriter Nunnally Johnson's psycho-docu-drama The Three Faces of Eve (1957). Vladimir Pozner's original story on which the film is based was nominated for an Academy Award.
Universal Soldier is a 1971 film directed by Cy Endfield and starring George Lazenby as a mercenary. It was the final film of Endfield, who also has an acting role in it. The title came from the 1964 song of the same name by Buffy Sainte-Marie.
Cry Danger is a 1951 film noir thriller film, starring Dick Powell and Rhonda Fleming. The film was directed by Robert Parrish, a former child star and later editor in his debut as a director.
Hell Drivers is a 1957 British film noir crime drama film directed by Cy Endfield and starring Stanley Baker, Herbert Lom, Peggy Cummins and Patrick McGoohan. It was written by Endfield and John Kruse, and produced by the Rank Organisation and Aqua Film Productions. A recently released convict takes a driver's job at a haulage company and encounters violence and corruption.
Mysterious Island is a 1961 science fiction adventure film about prisoners in the American Civil War who escape in a balloon and then find themselves stranded on a remote island populated by giant and tiny animals.
Fly-by-Night is a 1942 American thriller/screwball comedy film directed by Robert Siodmak, starring Richard Carlson and Nancy Kelly. It was Siodmak's second American film.
Tarzan's Savage Fury is a 1952 film directed by Cy Endfield and starring Lex Barker as Tarzan, Dorothy Hart as Jane, and Patric Knowles, serving as the sixteenth film of the Tarzan film series that began with 1932's Tarzan the Ape Man. While most Tarzan films of this series in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s presented Tarzan as a very different character from the one in Edgar Rice Burroughs' novels, this movie does make some allusions to the novels. It was shot in Chatsworth, California's Iverson Movie Ranch. The film was the last to be directed by Cyril "Cy" Endfield in the US. Finding himself one of Hollywood's film-makers blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee he moved to Britain. The film was co-written by Cyril Hume, who'd contributed substantially to the "Tarzan" series back in its bigger budget MGM days. At 81 minutes, this is the longest Tarzan film since Tarzan's Secret Treasure in 1941. The film was followed by Tarzan and the She-Devil in 1953.
Captain Carey, U.S.A. is a 1950 American crime thriller film noir directed by Mitchell Leisen and starring Alan Ladd and Wanda Hendrix. An American returns to post–World War II Italy to bring a traitor to justice. It was produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film was based on the 1948 novel After Midnight by Martha Albrand. It was filmed under the title O.S.S. and then the title After Midnight.
Hide and Seek is a 1964 British thriller film directed by Cy Endfield and starring Ian Carmichael, Curt Jurgens and Janet Munro.
Night Beat is a 1947 British Brit noir crime thriller drama film directed by Harold Huth and starring Anne Crawford, Maxwell Reed, Ronald Howard, Hector Ross, Christine Norden and Sid James. Following the Second World War, the two comrades go their separate ways; one joins the Metropolitan Police while the other begins a police career but becomes a racketeer in post-war London. Sky Movies described the film as a "British thriller that examines a challenging issue of its times: the problems encountered by servicemen when trying to adjust to civilian life."
Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. Tension is created by delaying what the audience sees as inevitable, and is built through situations that are menacing or where escape seems impossible.
Impulse is a 1954 British second feature film noir directed by Cy Endfield and starring Arthur Kennedy, Constance Smith and Joy Shelton.
Stork Bites Man is a 1947 American comedy film directed by Cy Endfield. it was the last of five short features from Comet Productions, a company owned by Mary Pickford, her husband Charles "Buddy" Rogers and former Columbia executive Ralph Cohn.
Joe Palooka in the Big Fight is a 1949 comedy film directed by Cy Endfield, based on the comic strip by Ham Fisher. It is an entry in Monogram's Joe Palooka series.
