Stranger on the Third Floor

Aug 16, 1940

1h 4m

★ 6.5

Overview

Newspaper reporter Michael Ward plunges into a nightmare of guilt, fearing that his "evidence" has sentenced the wrong man to death.

Genres

Mystery

Thriller

Production Companies

RKO Radio Pictures

Stranger on the Third Floor Trailers

No Trailers found.

Cast

The Stranger

Peter Lorre

Michael Ward

John McGuire

Jane

Margaret Tallichet

District Attorney

Charles Waldron

Joe Briggs

Elisha Cook Jr.

Albert Meng

Charles Halton

Mrs. Kane

Ethel Griffies

Martin

Cliff Clark

The Judge

Oscar O'Shea

Briggs' Defense Attorney

Alec Craig

Charles Evans

Otto Hoffman

Giuseppe, the Italian Grocer (uncredited)

Bobby Barber

When a car bomb explodes on the American side of the U.S./Mexico border, Mexican drug enforcement agent Miguel Vargas begins his investigation, along with American police captain Hank Quinlan. When Vargas begins to suspect that Quinlan and his shady partner, Menzies, are planting evidence to frame an innocent man, his investigations into their possible corruption quickly put himself and his new bride, Susie, in jeopardy.

6.0

The Brasher Doubloon

Feb 6, 1947

Mrs. Elizabeth Bright Murdock hires Marlowe to find an old rare coin, the Brasher Doubloon, that belonged in her deceased husband's collection. Marlowe begins investigating, but quickly finds himself entangled in a series of unexplained murders.

6.0

Lady in the Lake

Dec 19, 1946

Private eye Phillip Marlowe wants to get out of the detective racket and into crime writing. But when he's called to the office of editor Adrienne Fromsett, it's not to talk about his story ideas — she wants him to locate the missing wife of her boss, Mr. Kingsby. The assignment quickly becomes complicated when bodies start turning up.

6.2

Crime of Passion

Dec 28, 1956

Kathy leaves the newspaper business to marry homicide detective Bill, but is frustrated by his lack of ambition and the banality of life in the suburbs. Her drive to advance Bill's career soon takes her down a dangerous path.

7.2

Murder, My Sweet

Dec 14, 1944

After being hired to find an ex-con's former girlfriend, Philip Marlowe is drawn into a deeply complex web of mystery and deceit.

7.6

Laura

Oct 11, 1944

A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he's investigating.

5.2

Black Crown

May 23, 1951

A woman suffers from amnesia after killing her husband, who was just about to demand a divorce for having found her engaging in an affair with a lover, who is only interested in her to find where some precious jewels are hidden.

8.2

Vertigo

May 28, 1958

A retired San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia investigates the strange activities of an old friend's wife, all the while becoming dangerously obsessed with her.

6.4

Secret Beyond the Door

Dec 24, 1947

After a whirlwind romance in Mexico, a beautiful heiress marries a man she barely knows with hardly a second thought. She finds his New York home full of his strange relations, and macabre rooms that are replicas of famous murder sites. One locked room contains the secret to her husband's obsession, and the truth about what happened to his first wife.

4.6

The Hot Month of August

Feb 9, 1966

A young man, Jason, is on his way home and meets two beautiful women, Hope and Alexis. He falls for Hope, but has sex with Alexis. He doesn't know that Alexis' husband has hired a private detective to trail her, and the man reports back to Alexis' husband about her affair with Jason. The husband kills Alexis but the police suspect Jason. He and Hope have to clear his name and find enough evidence to prove the husband is the killer.

4.7

May Morning

Aug 2, 1970

A dramatic and penetrating examination of the intellectual and moral standards existing at Oxford University, England, in the early 1970s.

7.3

The 39 Steps

Jun 6, 1935

Richard Hanney has a rude awakening when a glamorous female spy falls into his bed - with a knife in her back. Having a bit of trouble explaining it all to Scotland Yard, he heads for the hills of Scotland to try to clear his name by locating the spy ring known as The 39 Steps.

8.1

Double Indemnity

Jul 6, 1944

A seductive housewife draws an insurance salesman into a plot of adultery and crime to collect on her husband's life insurance.

7.9

The Third Man

Aug 31, 1949

In postwar Vienna, Austria, Holly Martins, a writer of pulp Westerns, arrives penniless as a guest of his childhood chum Harry Lime, only to learn he has died. Martins develops a conspiracy theory after learning of a "third man" present at the time of Harry's death, running into interference from British officer Major Calloway, and falling head-over-heels for Harry's grief-stricken lover, Anna.

7.6

Elevator to the Gallows

Jan 29, 1958

A self-assured businessman murders his employer, the husband of his mistress, which unintentionally provokes an ill-fated chain of events.

5.4

Death Goes to School

May 1, 1953

Detective Inspector Campbell (Gordon Jackson) looks into the murder of a teacher at a girls school where there are a number of suspects, including her colleagues and the married man she had been seeing.

7.6

Out of the Past

Nov 25, 1947

The peaceful life of a gas station owner is disrupted when a man from his past arrives in town and forces him to return to the dark world he had tried to escape.

7.7

Notorious

Aug 21, 1946

In order to help bring Nazis to justice, U.S. government agent T.R. Devlin recruits Alicia Huberman, the American daughter of a convicted German war criminal, as a spy. As they begin to fall for one another, Alicia is instructed to win the affections of Alexander Sebastian, a Nazi hiding out in Brazil. When Sebastian becomes serious about his relationship with Alicia, the stakes get higher, and Devlin must watch her slip further undercover.