Best movies like Sanctuary of Fear

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Sanctuary of Fear Starring Barnard Hughes, Michael McGuire, George Hearn, Robert Schenkkan, and more. If you liked Sanctuary of Fear then you may also like: The Velvet Touch, Waking the Dead, The Walls Came Tumbling Down, Wise Girl, Q 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.

A Manhattan priest with a penchant for solving crimes goes to the aid of a young actress. She is becoming enmeshed in a series of bizarre incidents she can't explain, and her complaints to the police have gone ignored.

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The Velvet Touch

After accidentally killing her lecherous producer, a famous actress tries to hide her guilt.

Waking the Dead

A congressional candidate questions his sanity after seeing the love of his life, presumed dead, suddenly emerge.

Wise Girl

Snooty heiress decides to track down her dead sister's kids, who are living a Bohemian life with their uncle in Greenwich Village. Once she finds them, she discovers that the Bohemian life is fun and free of the constraints her country-club life places on her. But she decides to take the uncle to court anyway to free him from the kids so he can paint.

Q

New York police are bemused by reports of a giant flying lizard that has been spotted around the rooftops of New York, until the lizard starts to eat people. An out-of-work ex-con is the only person who knows the location of the monster's nest and is determined to turn the knowledge to his advantage, but will his gamble pay off or will he end up as lizard food?

Kidnapped in New York

When a trio of criminals kidnap a rich man's daughter and nurse, a detective goes undercover into the Italian-immigrant ghetto where they're being held.

Angels with Dirty Faces

Childhood chums Rocky Sullivan and Jerry Connelly grow up on opposite sides of the fence: Rocky matures into a prominent gangster, while Jerry becomes a priest, tending to the needs of his old tenement neighborhood.

City Hall

The accidental shooting of a boy in New York leads to an investigation by the Deputy Mayor, and unexpectedly far-reaching consequences.

Shaft

Cool black private eye John Shaft is hired by a crime lord to find and retrieve his kidnapped daughter.

Adventure in Manhattan

The story of an egotistical crime writer who gets involved with the case of a notorious art thief (who is believed to be dead) while at the same time romancing a lovely young actress who's in a play that also happens to be the cover for massive jewel job. Art connoisseur and criminologist George Melville is hired to track down art thieves, assisted by perky Claire Peyton and goaded by Phil Bane, the roaring newspaper editor who has employed him. The mastermind poses as a theatrical impresario and stages a war drama, replete with loud explosions, to divert attention from his band of thieves, who are cracking safes in a bank adjacent to the theater.

The Devil's Party

Adults who grew up as slum kids meet later in life, but murder disrupts their reunion.

Father Brown

Works of art are disappearing, stolen by a master thief, a master of disguise. Father Brown has two goals: to catch the thief and to save his soul.

Last Rites

After witnessing her lover being murdered by his jealous wife, Angela seeks refuge in a church where she encounters a young priest named Michael, who gives her sanctuary. But the killing was not a simple act of passion, as the victim had ties to organized crime, and, surprisingly, so does Michael, whose father is a powerful don. When the priest finds himself falling in love with Angela, his religious vows and family ties are both severely tested.

The Squeeze

Harry Berg is both a con artist and an actual artist -- he constructs large sculptures out of television sets -- but he is not particularly successful in either role. He owes some money, which gets him involved with Rachel Dobs, a police detective who works with a collection agency. When Harry comes into possession of a strange parcel, both the con man and the detective find themselves wrapped up in a sinister corporate plot to fix the lottery.

My Friend Rockefeller

Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter lived a life of deception and crime before settling on his ultimate scam - impersonating a Rockefeller. How was Gerhartsreiter able to dupe so many people from so many walks of life? A story that begins in a Bavarian village, continues in the most exclusive clubs on the American East Coast, - and ends in a Los Angeles court.

Lights of New York

Eddie is conned into fronting a speakeasy for a local gangster who intends to frame him for the murder of a cop.

Angel of Death

The most spectacular Easter celebration in the World. Hosts of hooded Penitents parade through the ancient, narrow streets of the Old Town in time-honored ritual. But for one celebrant this Holy Week is different. For him Semana Santa is a time to kill. As the death toll mounts, it falls to detective Maria Delgado - mistrusted outsider from Madrid - to stop the bizarre killings.

The Sleeping City

A young doctor taking a break from work is shot in the head, and the police can't find a clue even as to a possible motive. Inspector Al Gordon (John Alexander) decides that he has to put some men on duty at the hospital, and one of them is Fred Rowan (Richard Conte), a detective with experience as an army medic, masquerading as an intern. What Rowan finds is a high-pressure world in which interns are hopelessly squeezed for time, sleep, energy, and -- most of all -- money, and walk a fine line on the edge of personal and professional disaster.

True Confessions

A cop clashes with his priest brother while investigating the brutal murder of a young prostitute.

Bowery at Midnight

A seemingly charitable soup kitchen operator (who moonlights as a criminology professor) uses his Bowery mission as a front for his criminal gang. Police attempt to close in on the gang as they commit a series of robberies, murders and bizarre experiments on corpses.

Forty Naughty Girls

Hildegarde Withers and Inspector Piper try to solve a murder while attending a popular Broadway show.

Say One for Me

Father Conroy has a parish which serves the acting and performance community. When one of his parishioners gets too sick to work, his daughter Holly finds a job working for a dance club of questionable character, which is run by Tony Vincent. Vincent never made the big time, and Father Conroy tries to look after Holly.

The Soul of Broadway

Grace Leonard, a typical woman of the New York stage, beautiful but old in sin, seduces William Craig, who becomes a thief in order to shower luxuries upon her. He is sentenced to prison and emerges five years later as a sad-faced, gray-haired man, entirely cured of his mad passion for La Valencia. But she sees him and her old passion is stirred, meaning nothing to her that since his release from prison, he has fallen in love and married a good woman who knows nothing of his past. When William is not swayed by her fascinations, Grace threatens to expose his past life.

Charlie Chan on Broadway

Returning from European exile where she avoided testifying against her criminal associates, a former singer with a tell-all diary is murdered to insure her silence.

Cry Murder

A young actress has retired from films to marry the son of a prominent and rich politician in New York City. The father objects strongly to the marriage. The actress is being blackmailed by a second-rate artist who has stolen some letters from her that could be misconstrued. During the payoff, she is knocked unconscious, and awakens to find herself involved in a murder and the police have her marked as the number-one suspect.

Smooth as Silk

An attorney enraged over the prosecution of two innocent people goes on a killing spree.

Righteous Kill

Two veteran New York City detectives work to identify the possible connection between a recent murder and a case they believe they solved years ago; is there a serial killer on the loose, and did they perhaps put the wrong person behind bars?

Fear City

Strippers in Manhattan are being stalked and murdered by a psycho. A hard-nosed police detective and a conflicted ex-boxer-turned-private-eye, hired by the strip club owners, set out to find him before he strikes again.

A Twist of Faith

Vancouver Police Detective Henry Smith is one of those investigating the murder of Roman Catholic Father Martin, who was crucified in his own church.

My Buddy

A priest relates the tale of his friend, a WWI veteran, to the Post-War Planning Committee. Unable to get a job upon his return from the war, he puts off his marriage and works for a bootlegger. He is forced to take a rap for his boss, goes to prison, and forms a gang.

Grief Street

A reporter helps the police investigate the murder of a disagreeable and philandering actor who is found strangled to death in his theater dressing room with its door and window locked from the inside.

Pretty Kill

A detective tries to track down a serial killer who is murdering prostitutes while at the same time having to deal with his girlfriend's mental problems, which are gradually deteriorating into a split personality.

Red Hot and Blue

A Broadway director rescues a starlet from mobsters who blame her for a shooting.

The House of Fear

A detective goes undercover as a producer to investigate an actor's murder, which occurred during the performance of a play...

Sophie Lang Goes West

Reformed jewel-thief Sophie Lang, tired of being questioned by the New York City police every time a jewel disappears, decides to head for California only to get into more trouble.

Prescription: Murder

In Columbo's first outing, a psychiatrist uses a patient he is having an affair with to help him kill his wife, but his perfect alibi may come apart at the hands of a seemingly befuddled LAPD lieutenant.

Mortal Sins

A thriller directed by Bradford May focusing on a catholic priest dealing with a serial killer's confession and a murder investigation.

Angels' Alley

Slip invites his cousin Jimmy to stay with his family after he is released from prison. However, Jimmy soon gets mixed up with an auto-theft ring.

The Tattooed Stranger

Detectives investigate the Central Park murder of a young woman with a Marine Corps tattoo.

36 Saints

When New York Police Headquarters is confronted with the horror of a serial murderer loose on the streets of Manhattan, two detectives (Franky G and Jeffrey De Serrano) are tasked with bringing order to the chaos. Oblivious to the danger, six students from all over the world, who now attend school together in New York, are planning a memorial to celebrate the lives of their 30 lost “brothers and sisters” who died suddenly in a tragic plane crash a year prior.

Death Flies East

Evelyn Vail (Florence Rice) is a nurse convicted of poisoning a patient. Out on parole, Evelyn decides to fly to Sing-Sing and confront death row inmate who accused her of the deed in the first place. On board the airliner, Evelyn makes the acquaintance of John Robinson Gordon (Nagel), who is transporting a revolutionary munitions formula to Washington, D.C. Another passenger, Baker (Robert Allen), complains of having been poisoned and leaves the plane during a stopover in Dallas. Back in the air, Gordon's bodyguard, Lieutenant O'Brien (Fred Kelsey), suffers the same fate, but this time the poison proves fatal. The plane returns to Dallas, where Police Captain Barrie (William B. Davidson) accused poor Evelyn of the crime. Happily, Gordon can prove otherwise and the real culprit is unmasked.

Lady Scarface

A Chicago gang led by Slade carries out an audacious brokerage robbery. Lieutenant Bill Mason takes the case, continuing his friendly-enemy relationship with crime reporter Ann Rogers. One gang member is caught; eventually, others follow. But Mason hasn't a clue to Slade, principally because he's unaware she's a woman.

Time of Fear

Time of Fear is a taut psychological thriller thrusting an FBI agent and a grieving father into the dark world of a demented killer. FBI Agent Cheryl Hammer, arrives in a small California town to catch an elusive killer. Seeing no help forthcoming from the Sheriff, she turns to the only other person who can help her, Jack Barone, a grieving father whose daughter, Lisa, was the victim of a similar slaying ten years prior. The killer's clues are a perversion of Biblical punishments for sins: stoning, burning, decapitation. Jack and Agent Hammer turn to Father Patrick, a Catholic priest, for help. As the clock ticks down, a young female friend of Jack's is kidnapped and may become the next casualty. The harrowing rescue of the young woman opens the door to a dark history hidden below the surface, revealing the true identity of the killer and answering the mystery of who killed Jack's daughter.

NYPD Mounted

New York City cop becomes partners with a rodeo cowboy from Montana on the City's Mounted Police Department.

Alias Boston Blackie

It is the Christmas Holidays and reformed thief, Boston Blackie goes to Castle Theater to pick up players who will perform for prisoners that are still in prison. He takes a girl with him who has a brother already in prison. She has visited the prison twice in the month, so is not suppose to visit again. However when the group is completed the girl is included as well as Inspector Farrady. One of the clowns in the show is kidnapped and replaced by a con who wants to get even with two ex-partners. Boston Blackie figures out that a con has replaced one of his clowns but is unable to stop him. Blackie's clothes are stolen and a murder is committed. Of course, the Inspector immediately suspects Blackie of being involved. Now it is Blackie's job to find the killer, exonerate himself and help the girl free her brother.

San Francisco Docks

Longshoreman Johnny Barnes is in love with Kitty Tracy, barmaid at her father's waterfront saloon, and he beats up Cassidy, a crooked politician who has been annoying her. Cassidy is murdered that night and Johnny is jailed for the crime. Kitty, her father Andy Tracy, and waterfront-priest Father Cameron believe Johnny is innocent but all evidence points to his guilt.

The Devil and Father Amorth

William Friedkin attends an exorcism with Father Gabriele Amorth, as he treats an Italian woman named Cristina for the ninth time. Prior to filming, Cristina had purportedly been experiencing behavioural changes and “fits” that could not be explained by psychiatry, and which became worse during Christian holidays.

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