
Computer programmer Angela Bennett (Sandra Bullock) starts a new freelance gig and, strangely, all her colleagues start dying. Does it have something to do with the mysterious disc she was given? Her suspicions are raised when, during a trip to Mexico, she’s seduced by a handsome stranger (Jeremy Northam) intent on locating the same disc. Soon Angela is tangled up in a far-reaching conspiracy that leads to her identity being erased. Can she stop the same thing from happening to her life?
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Crime
Women Behind Bars / Des diamants pour l’enfer (1975) Jesús Franco, Lina Romay, Martine Stedil, Nathalie Chape, Crime, Romance, Thriller, Erotic

A small-time hood brings the attention of the law with an insurance scam and diamond theft, but things become even more interesting when his moll murders him and is slammed behind bars where she faces all manner of electric shock treatments to various parts of her anatomy.
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Man in the Shadow (1957) Jack Arnold, Jeff Chandler, Orson Welles, Colleen Miller, Crime, Drama, Thriller

In effect, modern cow town Spurline is run by Virgil Renchler, owner of the Golden Empire Ranch. One night, two of Virgil’s henchmen go a little too far and beat a “bracero” ranch hand to death. Faced with an obvious cover-up and opposition on every hand, sheriff Ben Sadler is goaded into investigating. His unlikely ally: Renchler’s lovely, self-willed and overprotected daughter. Will Ben survive Renchler’s wrath?
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Night People (1954) Nunnally Johnson, Gregory Peck, Broderick Crawford, Anita Björk, Adventure, Crime, Mystery

Post WWII yarn about a young GI abducted by the Soviets in West Berlin and hauled off to the East. His recovery gets complicated as Colonel Steve Van Dyke (Peck) tries to sort out the usefulness of informants, spies, bureaucrats, and the abductee’s influential father (Crawford)!
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Dasso yugi / Jail Breakers (1976) Kôsaku Yamashita, Shin’ichi Chiba, Haruko Wanibuchi, Eitarô Ozawa, Action, Crime

The film is packed with nice stunts throughout, but the screenplay could be better. After escaping the prison Chiba teams up with a bunch of thugs, who design prison escapes for money. Unfortunately trust and loyalty are unknown concepts to these men who take turns deceiving each other. The endless “who’s-cheating-who” game has been done better in other films, and sometimes the writing is downright sloppy: when a carefully planned escape operation fails, Chiba simply steals a fire engine and drives away without anyone noticing! It also feels that director Kosaku Yamashita, who made his name with yakuza films, was a bit out of his element here. However, even with these weaknesses it’s an entertaining action comedy which compares favourably against some of the later, similar Yasaku Matsuda films like Execution Game (1978) and No Grave for Us (1979). The focus is on stunts and comedy.
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Having Wonderful Crime (1945) A. Edward Sutherland, Pat O’Brien, George Murphy, Carole Landis, Comedy, Crime, Mystery

Having Wonderful Crime spotlights Michael J. Malone, the murder-solving attorney created by author Craig Rice. The film is also ostensibly based on a novel by Rice, though precious little of the original actually made it to the screen. The story begins as Malone (Pat O’Brien) brusquely informs his newlywed friends Jake and Helene Justus (George Murphy and Carole Landis) that he’s not going to allow them to suck him into another murder mystery. Unfortunately for the attorney, Jake and Helene shortly afterward attend a stage magic show wherein the star magician (George Zucco) disappears for real! Their investigation leads to a resort hotel literally packed with murder suspects. When the newlyweds learn too much for their own good, it’s up to Malone to come to the rescue and nab the killer. One of the suspects is played by an actress named Anje Berens, who as “Gloria Holden” previously starred in Dracula’s Daughter (1936).
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The Houston Story (1956) William Castle, Gene Barry, Barbara Hale, Edward Arnold, Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

In Houston, a man working as an oil driller comes up with a scheme for stealing millions of dollars worth of oil from the fields. He insinuates himself with a local mobster in order to get financing for his scheme.
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Das Geheimnis der Gelben Narzissen / The Devil’s Daffodil (1961) Ákos Ráthonyi, Joachim Fuchsberger, William Lucas, Sabine Sesselmann, Crime, Mystery

A Chinese detective breaks up a drug smuggling ring and tries to find the “Daffodil Killer.” The drug smugglers had devised the ingenious method of smuggling heroin from Hong Kong in the stems of daffodils.
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Cool! (2004) Theo van Gogh, Fouad Mourigh, Farhane El Hamchaoui, Jones Kruijne, Crime, Drama

Five friends take their hours with petty crimes. Are persuaded by a tough gangster and his seductive girlfriend to rob a bank. When they are caught, they are condemned to spend a year and a half in Glen Mills, an experimental reformatory.
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Strangers on a Train (1951) Alfred Hitchcock, Farley Granger, Robert Walker, Ruth Roman, Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller

In Alfred Hitchcock’s adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s thriller, tennis star Guy Haines (Farley Granger) is enraged by his trampy wife’s refusal to finalize their divorce so he can wed senator’s daughter Anne (Ruth Roman). He strikes up a conversation with a stranger, Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker), and unwittingly sets in motion a deadly chain of events. Psychopathic Bruno kills Guy’s wife, then urges Guy to reciprocate by killing Bruno’s father. Meanwhile, Guy is murder suspect number one.
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