Dwight Frye

Dwight Frye

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Dwight Iliff Frye (February 22, 1899 – November 7, 1943) was an American stage and screen actor, noted for his appearances in the classic horror films Dracula, Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein. Frye was born in Salina, Kansas. Nicknamed "The Man with the Thousand-Watt Stare," and "The Man of a Thousand Deaths," he specialized in the portrayal of mentally unbalanced characters, including his signature role, the madman Renfield in Tod Browning's 1931 version of Dracula. Later that same year he also played the hunchbacked assistant in the film Frankenstein. (This character, named Fritz, is often mistakenly referred to as Ygor, a character originated by Béla Lugosi in the later film Son of Frankenstein.) Frye had a prominent role in the 1933 horror film The Vampire Bat, starring Lionel Atwill, Melvyn Douglas, and Fay Wray, in which he played Herman, a half-wit suspected of being a killer. He also had a memorable role in the classic Bride of Frankenstein, in which he played Karl. The part of Karl was originally much longer and many extra scenes of Frye were shot as a sub plot but were edited out of the final version to shorten the running time as well as to appease the censor boards. The most memorable of these "cut scenes" was that of Karl killing the Burgomaster portrayed by E. E. Clive. No known prints of these scenes survive today, but photographs of the scene were used to illustrate the scene's synopsis and are included in the recent Universal DVD release of the film. During the early 1940s, Frye alternated between film roles and appearing on stage in a variety of productions ranging from comedies to musicals, as well as appearing in a stage version of Dracula. In 1924 he played the Son in a translation of Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author.[1] There was a Dwight Frye Fan Club at one time,[2] but it is currently dormant. He also made a contribution to the war effort by working nights as a tool designer for Lockheed Aircraft. Frye's strong resemblance to former Secretary of War Newton D. Baker helped land him what would have been a substantial role in the biographical film Wilson, based on the life of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, but he died of a heart attack while riding on a bus in Hollywood a few days before filming was to have begun. Frye was interred in Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery. Description above from the Wikipedia article Dwight Frye, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

  • Title: Dwight Frye
  • Popularity: 0.9142
  • Known For: Acting
  • Birthday: 1899-02-22
  • Place of Birth: Salina, Kansas, USA
  • Homepage:
  • Also Known As: Dwight Iliff Fry, Dwight I. Frye
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Dwight Frye Movies

  • 1931
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    Dracula

    Dracula

    7.161 1931 HD

    A British estate agent travels to Transylvania to meet the mysterious Count Dracula, who is interested in leasing a London castle. After Dracula enslaves the agent and drives him to insanity, the pair return to London together, where Dracula, a secret bloodsucker, begins preying on socialites.

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  • 1935
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    Bride of Frankenstein

    Bride of Frankenstein

    7.514 1935 HD

    Dr. Frankenstein and his monster both turn out to be alive after being attacked by an angry mob. The now-chastened scientist attempts to escape his past, but a former mentor forces him to assist with the creation of a new creature.

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  • 1931
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    Frankenstein

    Frankenstein

    7.465 1931 HD

    Henry Frankenstein pieces together body parts in the hope of bringing a human-like creature to life. The mad scientist’s dreams are shattered by his monstrous creation awakening with rage to a world that hates and fears him.

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  • 1943
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    Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man

    Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man

    6.2 1943 HD

    Grave robbers open the grave of the wolf man and awaken him. He doesn't like the idea of being immortal and killing people when the moon is full so tries to find Dr. Frankenstein, in the hopes that the doctor can cure him. Dr. Frankenstein has died; however, his monster is found.

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  • 1942
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    The Ghost of Frankenstein

    The Ghost of Frankenstein

    5.8 1942 HD

    Frankenstein's unscrupulous colleague, Dr. Bohmer, plans to transplant Ygor's brain so he can rule the world using the monster's body, but the plan goes sour when he turns malevolent and goes on a rampage.

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  • 1930
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    The Doorway to Hell

    The Doorway to Hell

    6.3 1930 HD

    A vicious crime lord decides that he has had enough and much to the shock of his colleagues decides to give the business to his second in command and retire to Florida after marrying his moll. Unfortunately, he has no idea that she and the man are lovers.

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  • 1928
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    The Night Bird

    The Night Bird

    6 1928 HD

    A boxer falls in love with a girl he meets in the park.

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  • 1931
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    The Maltese Falcon

    The Maltese Falcon

    6.3 1931 HD

    A lovely dame with dangerous lies employs the services of a private detective, who is quickly caught up in the mystery and intrigue of a statuette known as the Maltese Falcon.

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  • 1943
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    Dead Men Walk

    Dead Men Walk

    4.4 1943 HD

    When a small town doctor buries his twin brother, a practitioner of the black arts, he believes him dead; but subsequent events force him to realize that his brother has, in fact, returned from the dead as a vampire and is seeking revenge on the doctor, who had killed him in self-defense.

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  • 1933
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    The Vampire Bat

    The Vampire Bat

    5.413 1933 HD

    A German village is stricken by a series of murders that appear to be the work of vampires.

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  • 1937
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    Sea Devils

    Sea Devils

    5.7 1937 HD

    Doris lives with her rough Coast Guardsman father. He has plans for her to marry an up and coming officer, but there is competition when a new, brash, Guardsman enters the picture. Dad hates the new guy, mostly because he is like himself.

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  • 1933
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    The Circus Queen Murder

    The Circus Queen Murder

    4.714 1933 HD

    Suave, lip-reading DA Thatcher Colt plans to get away from the big city for a while. So he and his secretary, Miss Kelly hop on a train for an Upstate NY town called Gilead. They expect a calm oasis, but when a small time circus rolls into town they soon find themselves caught up in a sordid tale of marital infidelity, murder, cruelty to animals, and cannibalism.

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  • 1938
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    Think It Over

    Think It Over

    6.3 1938 HD

    A gang of 'professional torches' burn down stores for the insurance money.

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  • 2000
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    The Many Faces of Dracula

    The Many Faces of Dracula

    3.5 2000 HD

    Hosted by Christopher Lee, this documentary examines the different actors who have portrayed Dracula over the years.

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  • 1991
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    Frankenstein: A Cinematic Scrapbook

    Frankenstein: A Cinematic Scrapbook

    5.7 1991 HD

    Documentary with a treasure trove of rare footage and vintage trailers, offering a rich and unusual look at the history of Frankenstein on the screen.

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  • 1938
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    Sinners in Paradise

    Sinners in Paradise

    5.077 1938 HD

    The survivors from a plane crash are washed up on an island where the only inhabitants are Mr. Taylor and his servant, Ping. The mismatched group must learn to get along and work together if they are to convince Taylor to let them borrow his boat and return to the main land.

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  • 1938
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    Who Killed Gail Preston?

    Who Killed Gail Preston?

    6 1938 HD

    A temperamental singer's murder leaves a nightclub full of suspects.

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  • 1937
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    The Shadow

    The Shadow

    6.5 1937 HD

    Mary Gillespie is restoring the Col. Gillespie Circus to its former splendor after her father's death. With the help of her publicist boyfriend Jim, the sell-out crowds are returning to the big top. Egotistical equestrian star Senor Martinet, however, holds $60,000 of notes signed by the Colonel and due in 24 hours. When a mysterious shadowy figure is seen on the circus lot, and Martinet is murdered in the center ring during his performance, there are suspects aplenty, including Vindecco, Martinet's badly abused hunchback assistant.

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  • 1930
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    Man to Man

    Man to Man

    5.7 1930 HD

    A young man attempts to overcome the memory of his father, who was sent to jail for committing a murder.

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  • 1936
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    Beware Of Ladies

    Beware Of Ladies

    5 1936 HD

    An unhappily married newspaper reporter discovers she's being used as a pawn in a scheme to discredit the political candidate she's been assigned to write about.

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  • 1943
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    Submarine Alert

    Submarine Alert

    4.3 1943 HD

    Nazi spies use a stolen shortwave transmitter prototype to broadcast top secret shipping info to an offshore Japanese sub. To nab the spy ring, the Government has the West Coast's top radio engineers fired and shadowed to see if the Nazis recruit them to complete work on the prototype radio. Radio engineer Lew Deerhold, a resident alien without a job to pay for his adorable little ward Gina's life-saving operation, falls prey to the spy ring, and is swept up in a maelstrom of deceit and danger.

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  • 1935
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    Atlantic Adventure

    Atlantic Adventure

    5.5 1935 HD

    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.

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  • 1938
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    Fast Company

    Fast Company

    5.05 1938 HD

    Married book-dealers Joel & Garda Sloane try to clear a friend in the murder of a rival book-seller.

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  • 1943
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    Hangmen Also Die!

    Hangmen Also Die!

    6.899 1943 HD

    During the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, surgeon Dr. Franticek Svoboda, a Czech patriot, assassinates the brutal "Hangman of Europe", Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich, and is wounded in the process. In his attempt to escape, he is helped by history professor Stephen Novotny and his daughter Mascha.

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  • 1938
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    The Night Hawk

    The Night Hawk

    1 1938 HD

    Gangster Charlie McCormick despairs as his young brother Bobby lays near death and vows to break the quarantine of the ocean liner Pacific Queen in order to retrieve the iron lung Bobby needs. Meanwhile, newspaper editor Lonigan searches for reporter Slim Torrence, because Slim is friends with Tom Niles, the customs officer on the verge of cracking a whiskey smuggling case. Lonigan is about to send another reporter to cover the story when Della Parrish, the publisher's daughter, assures him that she can locate Slim. With the help of Slim's young photographer, Willie Sing, Della finds Slim in a waterfront dive, and Willie and Slim sneak aboard the Pacific Queen to find Niles. Niles hints that McCormick is the head of the smuggling ring and promises Slim an exclusive when he breaks the story the next day.

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  • 1937
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    The Man Who Found Himself

    The Man Who Found Himself

    7 1937 HD

    Young Jim Stanton is a conscientious surgeon, but spends too many off-duty hours pursuing his passion for aviation to suit his stuffy father. When it is discovered that a passenger killed in a plane that Jim crashes was a married woman, the resulting scandal prompts the hospital to put Jim on probation. His pride wounded, Jim takes to the open road and enjoys the simpler life of a vagabond. In Los Angeles--where he is arrested for vagrancy and put to work on a road crew--Jim runs into old pal Dick Miller, who gets him a job as a mechanic for Roberts Aviation. But maintaining his anonymity becomes more difficult, particularly when a pretty nurse, Doris King, decides to make Jim's redemption her personal crusade.

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  • 1936
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    Alibi for Murder

    Alibi for Murder

    5.8 1936 HD

    A radio commentator named Perry Travis fancies himself a brilliant amateur detective. The cops wish he’d stick to his microphone and let them do the detecting. This proves impossible when a famed scientist is murdered in Perry’s studio, right in the middle of the interview. All evidence points to Perry, and he sets out to clear his name before the Shadow-like villain roaming the hallways of the radio station gets away with murder.

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  • 1927
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    Upstream

    Upstream

    5.8 1927 HD

    A silent comedy set in an actor's boardinghouse. Some plot points are seemingly inspired by the Barrymore dynasty.

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  • 1941
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    The Blonde from Singapore

    The Blonde from Singapore

    5 1941 HD

    Fortune hunter Mary Brooks, posing as a missionary's daughter, strives to beat a couple of pilots, Terry Prescott and "Waffles" Billings, (who have turned pearl divers in order to buy a plane and join the Royal Air Force), out of their pearls, while also beating off the advances of Prince Sali who wants to add her to his harem.

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  • 1939
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    The Man in the Iron Mask

    The Man in the Iron Mask

    7.069 1939 HD

    Years have passed since the Three Musketeers, Aramis, Athos and Porthos, have fought together with their friend, D'Artagnan. But with the tyrannical King Louis using his power to wreak havoc in the kingdom while his twin brother, Philippe, remains imprisoned, the Musketeers reunite to abduct Louis and replace him with Philippe.

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  • 1940
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    Drums of Fu Manchu

    Drums of Fu Manchu

    6.1 1940 HD

    The nefarious Dr. Fu Manchu searches for the keys to the tomb of Genghis Khan, in order to fulfill a prophecy that will enable him to conquer the world. His nemesi, Dr. Nayland Smith and his associates fight to keep the evil doctor from getting his hands on the keys. In 1943 the serial was edited together into a feature movie also called Drums of Fu Manchu.

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  • 1940
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    Sky Bandits

    Sky Bandits

    5 1940 HD

    Sgt. Renfrew and Constable Kelly go aloft to search for a plane missing with a shipment of gold from the Yukon Mine Company. Inventor Speavy has devised a power ray which disrupts electrical impulses, and Morgan and his gang of crooks has brought in Prof. Lewis to increase the ray's range, telling him he's helping the government develop this new weapon. Speavy spills the beans to Prof. Lewis and his daughter Madeleine,and Morgan threatens to implicate them in his crimes unless they cooperate. Morgan kills Speavy when he tries to warn Renfrew, but when Madeleine stows away on board the doomed plane Renfrew is piloting, will the crooks be able to make Prof. Lewis use the power ray to bring the plane down?

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  • 1941
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    Mystery Ship

    Mystery Ship

    1 1941 HD

    FBI agents Allan Harper and Tommy Baker are in charge of a group of subversives, spies and saboteurs that the US government is deporting to foreign countries aboard a ship. The deportees attempt to take over the ship.

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  • 1938
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    Adventure in Sahara

    Adventure in Sahara

    5.5 1938 HD

    Agadez is a lonely French outpost baking under the desert sun and commanded by the cruel and oppressive Captain Savatt. To it comes, at his own request, Legionnaire Jim Wilson soon followed by his fiancée, Carla Preston, who has been tracing him from post to post. Legionnaires seize the fort and turn Savitt loose in the Arab-haunted desert with only a fraction of the water and food needed to get back to civilization. But Savitt gets through and returns to the fort at the head of an avenging troop of men. But Arabs surround Savitt and his men, and the mutineers, knowing that to leave the fort and aid them means their own death

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  • 1932
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    A Strange Adventure

    A Strange Adventure

    5 1932 HD

    A police lieutenant and a female reporter investigate a series of murders committed by a hooded killer in an old dark house.

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  • 1940
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    Gangs of Chicago

    Gangs of Chicago

    5.3 1940 HD

    A criminal uses his knowledge of the law for his not-very-legal purposes, betraying friends along the way.

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  • 1937
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    Something to Sing About

    Something to Sing About

    6.1 1937 HD

    James Cagney has a rare chance to show his song-and-dance-man roots in this low-budget tale of a New York bandleader struggling with a Hollywood studio boss.

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  • 1935
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    The Crime of Doctor Crespi

    The Crime of Doctor Crespi

    4.7 1935 HD

    A crazed scientist invents a serum that induces a catatonic state in anyone who gets the injection. He uses the serum to paralyze his enemies, in order to bury them alive.

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  • 1940
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    Phantom Raiders

    Phantom Raiders

    6.1 1940 HD

    In this second Carter mystery, a mysterious rash of cargo ships sinking in Panama leads insurers Llewellyns of London to hire vacationer Nick Carter and his eccentric associate Bartholomew to investigate. Nick recognizes influential nightclub owner Al Taurez as a shady operator, but getting the goods on him depends on slick diversions involving the heavyweight champ of the Pacific Tuna Fleet, a Panamanian bombshell armed with American slang, a young couple in love and a whole raft of crooks and cutthroats.

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  • 1926
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    Exit Smiling

    Exit Smiling

    7.9 1926 HD

    The travails of a third-rate traveling theatre company and its wardrobe lady / maid who dreams of stepping in as their melodramatic production's (Flaming Women) female lead.

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  • 1933
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    The Invisible Man

    The Invisible Man

    7.504 1933 HD

    After experimenting on himself and becoming invisible, scientist Jack Griffin, now aggressive due to the drug's effects, seeks a way to reverse the experiment at any cost.

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  • 1938
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    Invisible Enemy

    Invisible Enemy

    6 1938 HD

    Jeffrey Clavering is hired in London by The Great Eastern Oil Corporation to go to Paris to prevent unscrupulous industrialist Nikolai Kamarov from gaining control of their oil fields and turning them over to a foreign power.

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  • 1940
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    The Son of Monte Cristo

    The Son of Monte Cristo

    5.9 1940 HD

    Rightful owner of the kingdom, the Duchess of Zona, is engaged in a power struggle with the evil General Gurko. Edmond, the son of Monte Cristo, dons many disguises to come to the aid of the Duchess.

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  • 1932
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    Attorney for the Defense

    Attorney for the Defense

    6 1932 HD

    A lawyer is haunted by a previous case in which he manipulated evidence and convicted an innocent man.

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  • 1943
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    Dangerous Blondes

    Dangerous Blondes

    6 1943 HD

    Mystery writer Barry Craig (Allyn Joslyn) and his wife Jane (Evelyn Keyes), prefer solving crimes rather than writing about them. They get a chance when killings plague the fashion photography studio of Ralph McCormick (Edmund Lowe). After his secretary, Julie Taylor(Anita Louise) reports an attempt to murder her there, Erika McCormick's (Ann Savage) Aunt Isabel Fleming (Mary Forbes) is stabbed and the evidence points to Madge Lawrence (Bess Flowers) an older model and an apparent suicide. Police Inspector Joseph Clinton (Frank Craven) declares the case closed...but then Erika is murdered.

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  • 1941
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    Flying Blind

    Flying Blind

    3.25 1941 HD

    A spy steals a secret military device, then hijacks an airliner to get away. The airliner crashes in the wilderness & the survivors are threatened by a raging forest fire.

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  • 1932
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    The Western Code

    The Western Code

    1 1932 HD

    When Tim Barrett rides into Carabinas, his reputation as a lawman precedes him. Rescuing Polly Loomis from the unwanted attentions of a saloon ruffian, he learns her mother married ranch foreman Nick Grindel shortly before her death, and left everything to him in her will. Nick has proposed marriage to his stepdaughter, and she fears violence if her hot-blooded brother Dick finds out. When a body is found at the Bow Knot, Tim barely rescues Dick from a necktie party and is deputized to investigate when Dick confesses to a crime he didn't commit.

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  • 1941
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    Devil Pays Off

    Devil Pays Off

    3.444 1941 HD

    A former Navy man attempts to redeem his honor by exposing a shipping tycoon's dealings with the enemy.

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  • 1936
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    Florida Special

    Florida Special

    6 1936 HD

    A Florida-bound train is filled with romance and intrigue when one of the passengers disappears while carrying $11-million in unset jewels.

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  • 1935
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    The Great Impersonation

    The Great Impersonation

    8 1935 HD

    The second of the three film versions of the E. Phillips Oppenheim espionage thriller set largely in an old dark house where a tremulous wife wonders if her husband is really his double, a dastardly German spy.

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  • 1931
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    Drácula

    Drácula

    6.8 1931 HD

    A British estate agent travels to Transylvania to meet the mysterious Count Dracula, who is interested in leasing a London castle. After Dracula enslaves the agent and drives him to insanity, the pair return to London together, where Dracula, a secret bloodsucker, begins preying on socialites.

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  • 1931
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    The Black Camel

    The Black Camel

    6.069 1931 HD

    Movie star Shelah Fane is seeing wealthy Alan Jaynes while filming in Honolulu, Hawaii, but won't marry him without consulting famed psychic Tarneverro first. Enter inspector Charlie Chan of the Honolulu Police, investigating the unsolved murder, three years earlier, of a Hollywood actor.

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  • 1942
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    Don't Talk

    Don't Talk

    5.9 1942 HD

    This Crime Does Not Pay series entry dramatizes the idea that during wartime, people should not discuss anything related to their work when in public. A casual remark can be overheard by an enemy agent and used to sabotage the war effort. In this short, the story involves shipments of parts to a defense plant.

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  • 1998
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    Universal Horror

    Universal Horror

    7.1 1998 HD

    A documentary about the era of classic monster movies that were made at Universal Studios during the 1930s and 1940s.

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  • 1932
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    By Whose Hand?

    By Whose Hand?

    6 1932 HD

    On the night express train from Los Angeles to San Francisco everyone’s a suspect when a jewelry magnate is found stabbed to death and an escaped killer is feared on board. It’s up to newspaper reporter Jimmy Hawley (Ben Lyon) to unravel the secrets of the motley group of passengers and find the killer before he strikes again in this tense and atmospheric whodunit.

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  • 2025
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    Legacy of Screams: The Evolution of Horror Movies

    Legacy of Screams: The Evolution of Horror Movies

    1 2025 HD

    Dive into 60 minutes of blood, bravado and brilliant scares as we trace the evolution of horror cinema from Dracula (1931) to today.

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