Best B Movies the 1940s
by karljhickey14 | created - 27 Dec 2015 | updated - 30 Nov 2021 | PublicNo Noir , Westerns , or series (except minor series , and series with only two or three films ).Those are the categories or genres with the best B movies , and are generally better known .
- Instant Watch Options
- Genres
- Movies or TV
- IMDb Rating
- In Theaters
- Release Year
- Keywords
1. The Devil Pays Off (1941)
Passed | 70 min | Crime, Drama, War
Chris Waring (William Wright) is a government investigator trying to gather the necessary evidence to convict a shipping magnate, DeBrock (J.Edward Bromberg), of selling his ships to the ... See full summary »
Director: John H. Auer | Stars: J. Edward Bromberg, Osa Massen, William Wright, Margaret Tallichet
Votes: 90
2. Lady Scarface (1941)
Approved | 66 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Lieutenant Bill Mason (Dennis O'Keefe) pursues a Chicago gang to New York City, unaware that its scar-cheeked leader, Slade (Dame Judith Anderson), is a woman.
Director: Frank Woodruff | Stars: Dennis O'Keefe, Judith Anderson, Frances E. Neal, Mildred Coles
Votes: 307
3. Bullet Scars (1942)
Passed | 59 min | Drama
Gangster Frank Dillon abducts Dr. Steven Bishop to treat wounded Joe Madison. Dillon also takes Joe's nurse sister. Dillon threatens Bishop's life if Joe dies, but Bishop knows Dillon will kill him anyway.
Director: D. Ross Lederman | Stars: Regis Toomey, Adele Longmire, Howard Da Silva, Ben Welden
Votes: 245
4. Island of Doomed Men (1940)
Passed | 68 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Undercover agent Mark Sheldon gets paroled to a remote tropical island with a diamond mine manned by slave labor run by sadistic Stephen Danel.
Director: Charles Barton | Stars: Peter Lorre, Rochelle Hudson, Robert Wilcox, Don Beddoe
Votes: 619
5. Mr. Dynamite (1941)
63 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
A ball player takes his girlfriend to a carnival, only to discover a ring of saboteurs.
Director: John Rawlins | Stars: Lloyd Nolan, Irene Hervey, J. Carrol Naish, Robert Armstrong
Votes: 79
6. Flight from Destiny (1941)
Approved | 75 min | Drama, Film-Noir
An elderly professor suffering from an aortic aneurysm confronts the problem of what to do knowing that he only has a few months to live.
Director: Vincent Sherman | Stars: Geraldine Fitzgerald, Thomas Mitchell, Jeffrey Lynn, James Stephenson
Votes: 323
7. A Night to Remember (1942)
Passed | 91 min | Comedy, Crime, Romance
A mystery writer and his newlywed wife move into a Greenwich Village apartment and find themselves with a corpse and a half dozen red herrings.
Director: Richard Wallace | Stars: Loretta Young, Brian Aherne, Jeff Donnell, William Wright
Votes: 1,418
8. The Cobra Strikes (1948)
Approved | 62 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Hard-boiled reporter Mike Kent investigates the murder of a prominent scientist and stumbles upon a sinister plot to steal a fortune in jewels.
Director: Charles Reisner | Stars: Sheila Ryan, Richard Fraser, Leslie Brooks, Herbert Heyes
Votes: 66
9. Scared Stiff (1945)
Approved | 65 min | Mystery, Comedy
The jumpy chess editor at a newspaper accidentally gets involved in some murders at a sleazy tavern run by a pair of bizarre brothers.
Director: Frank McDonald | Stars: Jack Haley, Ann Savage, Barton MacLane, Veda Ann Borg
Votes: 229
10. Midnight Manhunt (1945)
Approved | 64 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
A gem heist gone wrong leaves a wanted man dead. A female reporter finds his body and, to claim the reward, hides the body in a wax museum. When the body vanishes, the hunt is on.
Director: William C. Thomas | Stars: William Gargan, Ann Savage, Leo Gorcey, George Zucco
Votes: 474
11. Escape to Glory (1940)
64 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
A British ship is attacked by a German U-boat at the onset of World War II. The reactions of the frightened passengers-from a German doctor to a drunken Irishman-are chronicled in this good story.
Director: John Brahm | Stars: Pat O'Brien, Constance Bennett, John Halliday, Alan Baxter
Votes: 56
12. Thru Different Eyes (1942)
64 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
District Attorney Stephen Pettijohn returns to his alma mater to lecture on circumstantial evidence, and uses a recent case,the murder of banker James Gardner, to make his point: Constance ... See full summary »
Director: Thomas Z. Loring | Stars: Frank Craven, Mary Howard, June Walker, Donald Woods
Votes: 50
13. Nine Lives Are Not Enough (1941)
Approved | 63 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
An investigative crime reporter helps the cops solve the case of a missing tycoon who's later found dead in a cheap boarding house.
Director: A. Edward Sutherland | Stars: Ronald Reagan, Joan Perry, James Gleason, Howard Da Silva
Votes: 369
14. The Great Mr. Nobody (1941)
Approved | 71 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Perpetual optimist "Dreamy" Smith aspires to quit his job as newspaper publicity drudge and sail the world. But life--and his editor--conspire against him: Not only does the car he intends ... See full summary »
Director: Benjamin Stoloff | Stars: Eddie Albert, Joan Leslie, Alan Hale, William Lundigan
Votes: 224
15. I'll Sell My Life (1941)
Approved | 73 min | Action, Crime, Drama
As Freddie and Lugger, employees of Bovhini, are waiting in the parking lot of the Club Sirocco for Ruth Parmelee, they see a woman accost Ruth and then shoot her and speed away in a car. ... See full summary »
Director: Elmer Clifton | Stars: Rose Hobart, Michael Whalen, Stanley Fields, Joan Woodbury
Votes: 59
16. Detective Kitty O'Day (1944)
Approved | 61 min | Comedy, Mystery, Romance
When a girl and her boyfriend are suspected of murdering her employer, they have to clear their names and find the real killer.
Director: William Beaudine | Stars: Jean Parker, Peter Cookson, Tim Ryan, Veda Ann Borg
Votes: 318
17. Adventures of Kitty O'Day (1945)
Approved | 63 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
Dragging along her spineless boyfriend Johnny, hare-brained secretary Kitty O'Day is unstoppable as she tries to determine her boss's murderer. In her exuberance she and Johnny keep running... See full summary »
Director: William Beaudine | Stars: Jean Parker, Peter Cookson, Tim Ryan, Lorna Gray
Votes: 213
18. Bermuda Mystery (1944)
Approved | 65 min | Mystery
A private eye (Preston Foster) and a niece (Ann Rutherford) investigate when six World War I veterans start dying in the same week.
Director: Benjamin Stoloff | Stars: Preston Foster, Ann Rutherford, Charles Butterworth, Helene Reynolds
Votes: 73
19. The Boss of Big Town (1942)
Approved | 62 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A criminal plot to control produce and dairy products during the wartime emergency is foiled by a courageous undercover city market official.
Director: Arthur Dreifuss | Stars: John Litel, Florence Rice, H.B. Warner, John Miljan
Votes: 114
20. 13 Lead Soldiers (1948)
Passed | 64 min | Crime, Mystery
Captain Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond is called in to solve the murder of a man from whom two lead soldiers were stolen. Drummond learns that the two soldiers were part of a set of thirteen which... See full summary »
Director: Frank McDonald | Stars: Tom Conway, Maria Palmer, Helen Westcott, John Newland
Votes: 137
21. Enter Arsene Lupin (1944)
Approved | 72 min | Drama, Film-Noir
A rich but naive young woman is in possession of some priceless jewels. She doesn't realize it, but a gang of jewel thieves does.
Director: Ford Beebe | Stars: Charles Korvin, Ella Raines, J. Carrol Naish, George Dolenz
Votes: 168
22. Eyes in the Night (1942)
Passed | 80 min | Crime, Mystery
A blind detective and his seeing-eye dog investigate a murder and discover a Nazi plot.
Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Edward Arnold, Ann Harding, Donna Reed, Stephen McNally
Votes: 1,947
23. Find the Blackmailer (1943)
Passed | 55 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
John Rhodes (Gene Lockhart)hires private detective D. L. Trees (Jerome Cowan)to track down a talking blackbird owned by Fred Molner, who uses the bird as a means of blackmailing Rhodes. ... See full summary »
Director: D. Ross Lederman | Stars: Jerome Cowan, Faye Emerson, Gene Lockhart, Marjorie Hoshelle
Votes: 319
24. The Hat Box Mystery (1947)
Passed | 44 min | Short, Action, Comedy
Susan Hart, assistant to private detective Russ Ashton, is given a camera concealed in a hat box and assigned to take a picture of a woman. A gun is accidentally hidden in the box and the ... See full summary »
Director: Lambert Hillyer | Stars: Tom Neal, Pamela Blake, Allen Jenkins, Virginia Sale
Votes: 145
25. Identity Unknown (1945)
Passed | 71 min | Drama, Romance, War
An amnesiac soldier, the only survivor of a group of four unidentified soldiers - victims of a bomb raid - visits each man's address with the hope of restoring his memory and identity.
Director: Walter Colmes | Stars: Richard Arlen, Cheryl Walker, Roger Pryor, Bobby Driscoll
Votes: 372
26. Murder in Times Square (1943)
Passed | 65 min | Crime, Mystery, Romance
Actor-playwright Cory Williams (Edmund Lowe) is sitting in a nightclub when Longacre Lil (Esther Dale), a Broadway vagrant, comes in and asks him for some money. He not only refuses her but... See full summary »
Director: Lew Landers | Stars: Edmund Lowe, Marguerite Chapman, John Litel, William Wright
Votes: 74
27. Strange Holiday (1945)
Approved | 61 min | Drama, Thriller
A man returns from a trip to find fascists have taken over the U.S. government.
Director: Arch Oboler | Stars: Claude Rains, Bob Stebbins, Barbara Bate, Paul Hilton
Votes: 242
28. Night in New Orleans (1942)
Approved | 75 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Police Lieutenant Steve Abbott is engrossed in a baffling murder case. As Steve pieces the clues together, he comes to the sobering conclusion that his own wife Ethel might be intimately ... See full summary »
Director: William Clemens | Stars: Preston Foster, Patricia Morison, Albert Dekker, Charles Butterworth
Votes: 93
29. Phantom of Chinatown (1940)
Approved | 62 min | Mystery
Detective James Lee Wong is on the scene as archaeologist Dr. John Benton, recently returned from an expedition in China where a valuable ancient scroll was recovered, is murdered while giving a lecture on the expedition.
Director: Phil Rosen | Stars: Keye Luke, Lotus Long, Grant Withers, Charles Miller
Votes: 828
30. Phantom Raiders (1940)
Passed | 70 min | Mystery
An insurance company tasks with Carter and Beeswax to go to Panama where cargo ships are mysteriously exploding and sending their valuable cargoes to the bottom with all hands.
Director: Jacques Tourneur | Stars: Walter Pidgeon, Donald Meek, Joseph Schildkraut, Florence Rice
Votes: 487
31. Seven Were Saved (1947)
Passed | 73 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Shortly after WW2, a military transport plane carrying an assortment of passengers crashes into the South China Sea forcing the survivors to await their rescue in a life raft.
Director: William H. Pine | Stars: Richard Denning, Catherine Craig, Russell Hayden, Ann Doran
Votes: 204
32. Lady from Chungking (1942)
Approved | 66 min | Drama, War
After the Japanese invade China in WW 2, a young woman leads a band of partisans against the occupying troops.
Director: William Nigh | Stars: Anna May Wong, Harold Huber, Mae Clarke, Rick Vallin
Votes: 345
33. Miss V from Moscow (1942)
Approved | 73 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Vera Marova is a Soviet spy impersonating a dead German spy whom she closely resembles. Her ally is Steve Worth, an American serving in the British armed services, and the two work with the... See full summary »
Director: Albert Herman | Stars: Lola Lane, Noel Madison, Howard Banks, Paul Weigel
Votes: 106
34. It Happened in Flatbush (1942)
Passed | 80 min | Comedy, Romance, Sport
A washed up baseball player (Lloyd Nolan) returns to Brooklyn to manage his old team but ends up clashing with the beautiful new owner (Carole Landis)
Director: Ray McCarey | Stars: Lloyd Nolan, Carole Landis, Sara Allgood, William Frawley
Votes: 349
35. The Man Who Wouldn't Talk (1940)
Approved | 74 min | Crime, Drama
A man involved in a crime (Nolan) kills his key witness by mistake and resigns himself to death. He changes his name so as not to harm his family. The law is not content with his explanation, however.
Director: David Burton | Stars: Lloyd Nolan, Jean Rogers, Richard Clarke, Onslow Stevens
Votes: 90
36. The Living Ghost (1942)
Passed | 61 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A retired detective, Nick Trayne, is hired to look for a missing banker. During the investigation, the aforementioned banker returns in a zombie-like state. Trayne must track down the madman responsible for the banker's state.
Director: William Beaudine | Stars: James Dunn, Joan Woodbury, Paul McVey, Vera Gordon
Votes: 676
37. Whistling in the Dark (1941)
Passed | 78 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
Radio crime show host 'The Fox' along with his fiancée and ex-girlfriend are kidnapped by a larcenous cult who demand that he help them plan a perfect murder.
Director: S. Sylvan Simon | Stars: Red Skelton, Conrad Veidt, Ann Rutherford, Virginia Grey
Votes: 1,096
38. Quiet Please: Murder (1942)
Approved | 70 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Book thief/forger sells a fake book to a Nazi through a female agent. A detective tries to uncover who the forger is and gets in the middle of a three way struggle for rare books and revenge in a public library.
Director: John Francis Larkin | Stars: George Sanders, Gail Patrick, Richard Denning, Lynne Roberts
Votes: 415
39. Half Past Midnight (1948)
Approved | 69 min | Action, Adventure, Crime
A man with an affinity for trouble meets a girl in distress in a nightclub. She becomes involved in the murder of a Spanish dancer and both of them become major suspects. The couple, ... See full summary »
Director: William F. Claxton | Stars: Kent Taylor, Peggy Knudsen, Joe Sawyer, Walter Sande
Votes: 43
40. The Man Who Wouldn't Talk (1940)
Approved | 74 min | Crime, Drama
A man involved in a crime (Nolan) kills his key witness by mistake and resigns himself to death. He changes his name so as not to harm his family. The law is not content with his explanation, however.
Director: David Burton | Stars: Lloyd Nolan, Jean Rogers, Richard Clarke, Onslow Stevens
Votes: 90
41. Behind the News (1940)
75 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
It's Jeff Flavin's first day on the job as a cub reporter for the Enquirer. The boss, Archer, places him with lazy reporter Stu Woodrow. Stu detests cubs and treats Jeff badly. Jeff saves a... See full summary »
Director: Joseph Santley | Stars: Lloyd Nolan, Doris Davenport, Frank Albertson, Robert Armstrong
Votes: 85
42. Millionaires in Prison (1940)
Approved | 64 min | Crime, Drama
As a crop of millionaire inmates struggles to acclimate to prison life, inmate Nick Burton watches out for everyone's interests on the inside.
Director: Ray McCarey | Stars: Lee Tracy, Linda Hayes, Raymond Walburn, Morgan Conway
Votes: 199
43. The Mad Doctor (1940)
Approved | 90 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Romance
A crazed physician marries a wealthy women and, with the help of his demented assistant, murders them for their money.
Director: Tim Whelan | Stars: Basil Rathbone, Ellen Drew, John Howard, Barbara Jo Allen
Votes: 294
44. Murder in the Music Hall (1946)
Approved | 84 min | Crime, Music, Mystery
Lovely ice ballerina Lila Leighton meets former ice show producer Carl Lang at his New York City penthouse apartment and refuses his offer to star in his new Music Hall Ice Show. Back at ... See full summary »
Director: John English | Stars: Vera Ralston, William Marshall, Helen Walker, Nancy Kelly
Votes: 152
45. No Hands on the Clock (1941)
Passed | 76 min | Crime, Mystery
The first of three Pine-Thomas productions for Chester Morris finds him as wise-cracking private detective Humphrey Campbell who impresses his boss, Oscar Flack, no end by not only finding ... See full summary »
Director: Frank McDonald | Stars: Chester Morris, Jean Parker, Rose Hobart, Dick Purcell
Votes: 236
46. Granny Get Your Gun (1940)
Passed | 56 min | Comedy, Western
Minerva Hatton is back in Nevada, where she grubstaked her fortune years ago. Her granddaughter Julie Westcott is visiting while getting a divorce. They are blackmailed by Julie's husband, ... See full summary »
Director: George Amy | Stars: May Robson, Harry Davenport, Margot Stevenson, Hardie Albright
Votes: 190
47. The Pay Off (1942)
Passed | 74 min | Action, Crime, Film-Noir
The city's District Attorney is murdered, and a newspaper reporter investigates. He starts finding out that everything wasn't quite as cut and dried as it appeared to be.
Director: Arthur Dreifuss | Stars: Lee Tracy, Tom Brown, Tina Thayer, Evelyn Brent
Votes: 264
48. Dr. Broadway (1942)
Approved | 68 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
New York City physician, Dr. Timothy Kane, knows Broadway, the Great White Way and all of its characters thoroughly, as does his receptionist, Connie Madigan. A man Kane had sent to prison ... See full summary »
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: Macdonald Carey, Jean Phillips, J. Carrol Naish, Richard Lane
Votes: 128
49. Having Wonderful Crime (1945)
Passed | 70 min | Mystery
A lawyer and two newlyweds get mixed up in mock mystery at a resort.
Director: A. Edward Sutherland | Stars: Pat O'Brien, George Murphy, Carole Landis, Lenore Aubert
Votes: 598
50. Lady on a Train (1945)
Passed | 94 min | Comedy, Crime, Film-Noir
In New York, a woman who partially witnesses a killing from a train window seeks the aid of a crime novelist to solve the murder.
Director: Charles David | Stars: Deanna Durbin, Ralph Bellamy, David Bruce, George Coulouris
Votes: 2,554
51. Betrayal from the East (1945)
Approved | 82 min | Action, Drama
Before World War II, Japanese spies seek secrets of the Panama Canal.
Director: William Berke | Stars: Lee Tracy, Nancy Kelly, Richard Loo, Regis Toomey
Votes: 263
52. Cafe Hostess (1940)
Approved | 65 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Jo (Ann Dvorak), a "percentage girl" at the notorious Club 46, is in despair. She can see no way out of the dreary and sordid routine of entertaining customers - called drinking and dancing... See full summary »
Director: Sidney Salkow | Stars: Preston Foster, Ann Dvorak, Douglas Fowley, Wynne Gibson
Votes: 85
53. Crime by Night (1944)
Approved | 72 min | Comedy, Drama, Mystery
Detective Sam Campbell and his perky sidekick Robby Vance are called in on a routine child support dispute. Things take an unexpected turn when the client's ex-father-in-law, head of a chemical plant, is the victim of an axe murder.
Director: William Clemens | Stars: Jane Wyman, Jerome Cowan, Faye Emerson, Charles Lang
Votes: 578
54. The Hidden Eye (1945)
Approved | 69 min | Action, Crime, Mystery
Blind detective Duncan Maclain relies on his working senses to piece together an assortment of clues to solve a case of murder.
Director: Richard Whorf | Stars: Edward Arnold, Frances Rafferty, Ray Collins, Paul Langton
Votes: 419
55. The Crimson Canary (1945)
Approved | 64 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
Members of a Jazz Band come under suspicion when a beautiful nightclub singer is murdered.
Director: John Hoffman | Stars: Noah Beery Jr., Lois Collier, John Litel, Steven Geray
Votes: 103
56. The Crimson Key (1947)
Passed | 76 min | Action, Crime, Mystery
A red key to a public locker is also the key to solving a string of mysterious murders investigated by private eye Larry Morgan.
Director: Eugene Forde | Stars: Kent Taylor, Doris Dowling, Dennis Hoey, Louise Currie
Votes: 141
57. The Unwritten Code (1944)
Approved | 61 min | Drama, Romance, War
When an Allied prisoner of war ship transporting a cargo of German prisoners is torpedoed by a German submarine in the North Atlantic, three survivors cling for their lives to a raft. The ... See full synopsis »
Director: Herman Rotsten | Stars: Ann Savage, Tom Neal, Roland Varno, Howard Freeman
Votes: 52
58. The Mystery of the 13th Guest (1943)
Passed | 60 min | Crime, Mystery, Romance
A woman of twenty-one opens her grandfather's will left to her thirteen years earlier, per his instructions. Murder soon follows.
Director: William Beaudine | Stars: Helen Parrish, Dick Purcell, Tim Ryan, Frank Faylen
Votes: 840
59. Secret Agent of Japan (1942)
Passed | 72 min | Mystery, Romance, Thriller
Kay Murdock (Lynn Bari) strolls into the Dixie Bar in Shanghai on November 1, 1941 and asks the bartender for a letter addressed to Captain Larsen, and is referred to Roy Bonnell (Preston ... See full summary »
Director: Irving Pichel | Stars: Preston Foster, Lynn Bari, Noel Madison, Victor Sen Yung
Votes: 117
60. London Blackout Murders (1943)
Approved | 59 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A man helps the authorities uncover a ring of murderous German spies in wartime London.
Director: George Sherman | Stars: John Abbott, Mary McLeod, Lloyd Corrigan, Lester Matthews
Votes: 149
Tell Your Friends