Best movies like City in Fear

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like City in Fear Starring David Janssen, Robert Vaughn, Perry King, Mickey Rourke, and more. If you liked City in Fear then you may also like: X Marks the Spot, While the City Sleeps, Winchell, News Is Made at Night, The Night Flier and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.

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X Marks the Spot

The story begins in 1923 where after an accident, a newspaper reporter needs to raise $5,000 to pay for an operation, otherwise his young sister will be crippled for life. The desperate reporter is finally able to get the cash from a shady acquaintance, Riggs. Eight years later in New York, circumstances conspire to place the reporter as the number one suspect in the murder of a showgirl. With no witness or alibi, the reporter devises a plan to smoke out the real culprit. A meeting is arranged under the cover of night and to the surprise of both men, the murderer is Riggs. Out of gratitude for past generosity to his sister, the reporter agrees not to expose Riggs, however unwittingly leads the police to him! Riggs is found guilty, and a dramatic scene in the courthouse ensues.

While the City Sleeps

Newspaper men compete against each other to find a serial killer dubbed "The Lipstick Killer".

Winchell

The true story of the influential and controversial columnist, Walter Winchell.

News Is Made at Night

Newspaper editor (Foster) will do almost anything to increase circulation. He campaigns to free a condemned man while accusing a wealthy ex-criminal of a string of murders.

The Night Flier

Two investigative reporters for a tabloid magazine track down across country "The Night Flier", a serial killer who travels by private plane stalking victims in rural airports. One of the reporters, Richard Dees, begins to suspect that "the Night Flier could perhaps be a vampire"

The Night Strangler

After being run out of Las Vegas, reporter Carl Kolchak heads for Seattle and another reporting job with the local paper. It's not long before he is on the trail of another string of bizarre murders. It seems that every 21 years, for the past century, a killer kills a certain number of people, drains them of their blood and then disappears into the night. Kolchak is on his trail, but can he stop him?

The Norliss Tapes

A newspaper publisher listens to the personal tapes of investigative reporter David Norliss, who has disappeared during an investigation. The tapes tell the story of that investigation, involving a recent widow whose late husband has been seen working in his private studio. As Norliss and the widow investigate, they unravel a plot involving Voodoo and the walking dead.

The Note

Following a tragic plane crash, newspaper columnist Peyton MacGruder happens upon a hastily-written note that was from one of the passengers onboard. She makes it her mission to deliver it to its intended recipient by Christmas, bringing her readers along for the ride.

Ace in the Hole

An arrogant reporter exploits a story about a man trapped in a cave to revitalize his career.

After Office Hours

A managing editor sends a socialite reporter to spy on her boyfriend, mixed up in murder.

House of Horrors

An unsuccessful sculptor saves a madman named "The Creeper" from drowning. Seeing an opportunity for revenge, he tricks the psycho into murdering his critics.

His Girl Friday

Walter Burns is an irresistibly conniving newspaper publisher desperate to woo back his paper’s star reporter, who also happens to be his estranged wife. She’s threatening to quit and settle down with a new beau, but, as Walter knows, she has a weakness: she can’t resist a juicy scoop.

Lonelyhearts

Burdened by a family secret, Adam White lands a job as a newspaper advice columnist. Little does he realize that it's all part of a nasty desire by cynical editor William Shrike to crush the souls of his underlings. Adam feels his readers' pain, and eventually, he takes an assignment to meet with Faye Doyle, who is exasperated by her crippled husband. When Faye tries to seduce Adam, he must choose between his job and his girl.

Five Star Final

Searching for headlines at any cost, an unscrupulous newspaper owner forces his editor to print a serial based on a past murder, tormenting a woman involved.

The Return of Doctor X

When news reporter Walter Garrett arrives at the hotel room of bombshell actress Angela Merrova to conduct an interview, he finds her dead from multiple stab wounds. He returns with the police to find the hotel empty and the body vanished. Garrett writes about the incident but is fired when Merrova, alive and well, goes to the paper to complain. Now his only chance to get his job back is to find the truth, which involves the grisly scheme of a madman.

Hi, Nellie!

Managing Editor Brad Bradshaw refuses to run a story linking the disappearance of Frank Canfield with embezzlement of the bank. He considers Frank a straight shooter and he goes easy on the story. Every other paper goes with the story that Frank took the money and Brad is demoted, by the publisher, to the Heartthrob column - writing advice to the lovelorn. After feeling sorry for himself for two months, he takes the column seriously and makes it the talk of the town. But Brad still wants his old job back so he will have to find Canfield and the missing money.

The House Across the Street

Dave Joslin, the managing editor of a big-city newspaper, is demoted and moved to the Miss Lonely Hearts column-writing department by the newspaper's publisher, J. B. Grennell, because Joslin refuses to desist in printing stories linking a gangster, Matthew Keever, to a murder. But Joslin, aided by Kit Williams, a newspaper woman with whom he is in love, investigate the murder case on their own time.

Make Haste to Live

A single mother in New Mexico senses her own death in the hands of a mysterious stalker.

The Mean Season

A routine investigation of a shocking murder takes a bizarre twist when the killer contacts the reporter and appoints him his personal spokesman. As the killer's calls and clues increase, the reporter is lured into a deadly trap.

A Stranger is Watching

A twisted man holds a TV newswoman and a girl hostage in the bowels of Grand Central Station.

The Witness Vanishes

In this mystery, a newspaper executive and three of his colleagues conspire to have the owner of the highly-respected London Sun committed to an insane asylum. The hapless publisher manages to escape. Soon after, the four collaborators begin dying one-by-one. Oddly their obituaries appear in a rival publication before they are actually killed.

College Scandal

Julie Fresnel is a co-ed at Redgate University and her father, Dr. Henri Fresnel, is the new French professor. Julie attraction from the make students drops a bit when two of her admirers are found murdered. When an attempt on the life of a third one is made. Seth Dunlap, an instructor at the school, decides to turn detective and find the killer. Assisted by his sister, who is in love with the third student, Dunlap begins to follow the the small trail of clues left by the killer.

Washington Melodrama

An elderly businessman (Frank Morgan) plans what he thinks is an innocent night on the town while his wife is away. Instead, he finds himself involved in a showgirl's murder.

The Famous Ferguson Case

A foreword warns against the peril of yellow journalism, and the story illustrates it by following events in the upstate New York town of Cornwall after prominant financier George Ferguson is killed. Two types of New York City journalists descend on Cornwall, one interested in facts, the other in getting sensational "news". Mrs. Ferguson is known to have been friendly with a local banker. The Fergusons quarrel the evening he is killed (by "burglars", his wife tells the police later), and she is arrested, spurred on by the "bad" journalists, who also manage to badger the banker's wife into the hospital. Meanwhile, young Bruce Foster runs the Cornwall Courier, and shows the big city reporters how to dig out real news while they attempt to subvert justice for their own ends.

Exclusive

The famous TV journalist Marcy Singer receives an anonymous phone call that orders her to the Blue Moon bar. When she arrives, she finds 6 corpses. Urged by her new boss, she investigates the case, and soon learns about evidence against her own husband Reed.

Assault

After one schoolgirl is raped while taking a short cut through the local woods, and another is murdered in the same woods a few days later, the local police are baffled. With the help of a reporter from one of the local papers, and against the wishes of a psychologist at the local hospital, a young teacher at the school the girls attended uses herself as bait to lure the perpetrator out. Could it be the creepy husband of the head mistress at the school, the psychologist who seems to be taking an unusual interest in the case, or something altogether more sinister?

Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence

A female cop is gunned down and wrongly accused of using excessive force in a hostage rescue attempt. Maniac cop returns from the dead once more to seek revenge, destroying everything and anyone that stands in his way.

Night Vision

A psycho serial killer who videotapes each of his bloody conquests is on the loose, and it's up to alcoholic motorcycle cop Dak and his new tough-as-nails partner, Kristen, to bring him to justice. But as the body count increases, so does the danger.

Boston Strangler

Reporters Loretta McLaughlin and Jean Cole bravely pursue the story of the Boston Strangler at great personal risk, putting their own lives on the line in their quest to uncover the truth.

The Innocent Sleep

Inspired by the 1982 Roberto Calvi Affair in which an Italian banker was found hanging from a bridge across the River Thames, the story follows Alan, a man from Northern England who is homeless after the loss of his wife and job. One night while sleeping in a deserted building, Alan witnesses the murder of a high-profile businessman. He attempts to leave the scene unnoticed, but the killers realize that someone has seen them commit the crime. He goes to the police only to discover that one of the killers is leading the case. To stay alive, Alan recruits the help of Billie Hayman, an American journalist, to cover his story.

The Bride Wore Crutches

A cub reporter goes after his story in a big way when he single-handedly exposes a crime ring.

Dimension in Fear

Escaped murderer Cal Lewis wants revenge for those responsible for him being put away. Enroute from Texas to Las Vegas he crosses paths with young TV news reporter Deidre Holland who quickly becomes his target.

The Headline Woman

When the daughter of a newspaper publisher is falsely charged with murder, a reporter on her father's paper goes into hiding with her. At first hoping to get an exclusive story, the reporter eventually finds himself falling in love and trying to find the real killer.

Riding on Air

Smugglers are using a device for controlling airplanes in flight, and newspaper reporters from Chicago are vying for the story. Reporter Elmer Lane is out to scoop rival reporter Betty Harrison, and capture her heart in the process.

Hour of Decision

A reporter tries to prove that his wife is not responsible for the murder of a famous newspaper columnist.

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