Best movies like The Great Swindle

A blackmailer tries to stop a woman from revealing evidence that could save a condemned man.

Sherlock Holmes is as dashing as ever, but with a little secret: Dr. Watson is the brains behind the operation. When Reginald Kincaid, the actor he has hired to play Holmes becomes insufferable, Watson fires him and tries to go out on his own, but finds that he has done too good a job building Holmes up in the public's mind.

This one has Nylon, an American dancer fleeing Morocco after her employer gets into trouble with the police, and she stops off at Tangiers on her way to Gibraltar. $50,000, in gold, is stolen from the ship's safe and the captain tells the police that the purser was the thief and that he had to kill him in self defense, but the purser must have hidden the money before he got dead. The purser isn't in any position to make a disclaimer. Everybody buys that with the exception of an insurance detective, Shapley, who, along with the audience, suspects the captain of being the thief shows up to investigate further. Written By Les Adams

Matt Lee Whitlock, respected chief of police in small Banyan Key, Florida, must solve a vicious double homicide before he himself falls under suspicion. Matt Lee has to stay a few steps ahead of his own police force and everyone he's trusted in order to find out the truth.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes - the world's greatest detective - faces a most alluring adversary... Legendary opera star Irene Adler is threatening to destroy the King of Bohemia's reputation with proof of their illicit affair. The evidence? A photograph. Her ransom? The king's hand in marriage. But not only does investigating detective Sherlock Holmes already know Irene from the past, he also knows that the queen of manipulation would never resort to such a common crime. After uncovering her true ambitions, Holmes draws the cunning songstress into a well-matched game of cat and mouse

Private detective Michael Shayne is on the case again, but this time he's stuck on a jury for a murder trial. So, what does he do? Why, he skips out on sequestration in order to solve the case himself!

A mystery novelist devises an insurance scam with his wife's lover – but things aren't exactly as they seem.

If Nick Barrow can stay alive for 21 days, he'll die happy. Everyone Nick knows wants him dead; Mob bosses, contract killers, and dirty cops. Performing the last act of a desperate man, Nick takes out a million dollar insurance policy on himself, payable to his estranged daughter. The problem? The policy doesn't take effect for 21 days. Nick knows they'll be lucky to be alive for twenty-one hours.

Kevin, Sam and Rob have an unusual hobby: planning foolproof heists, without intending to actually perform them. The game goes wrong when their latest plan is stolen and carried out. Things get even worse when a mysterious man approaches them with an offer: plan a heist for him, or go to jail. As the clock ticks, they find that the risk might be higher than just their freedom.

The story gets under way at a weekend house party where a scientist is murdered and his secret papers stolen. Putting his "little grey cells" in action, Belgian detective Hercule Poirot methodically pieces together the clues, revealing the culprit to be -- you guessed it -- the Least Likely Suspect.

The disappearance of people and corpses leads a reporter to a wax museum and a sinister sculptor.

Blackie receives a call from a friend who asks him to retrieve some money from his apartment and deliver it to him in California. Performing this good deed, he is accused of theft, but is allowed to proceed to Hollywood to help the police find a lost diamond.

Special Insurance-Investigator Dan Kennedy and his wonder dog, Tarzan the Police Dog, are called in to investigate the persistent robbing of a shipping-and-storage warehouse in Los Angeles.

Columbia's 12th serial of 57 total (following 1940's "Deadwood Dick" and ahead of 1941's "White Eagle") is another of director's James Horne's "classics" where he evidently figured that the same reactions that served him well in Laurel and Hardy films would work well in action serials where he has all hands, heroes and villains alike, doing some kind of over-the top "take", no matter the situation. This loose adaptation of an Edgar Wallace story finds Michael Bellamy (Kenne Duncan in his Kenneth Duncan period) inheriting Garr Castle, but his brother, Abel Bellamy (James Craven, as usual making Oil-Can Harry look smooth), has him imprisoned unjustly and moves into the castle himself. When Michael's wife, Elaine Bellamy (Dorothy Fay), fails to return after visiting Abel, her sister Valerie Howett (Iris Meredith), accompanied by their father,

Johnny Broderick, arson squad investigator, and his assistant, Ben Howard,, investigate a warehouse fire and find evidence of arson. Lawyer William Yarbo is behind the series of incendiary fires that have been plaguing the city. Keely Hariss, an actress, inherited the warehouse from her father. Yabro calls on her and says that he and her father had heavily insured the building and planned to burn it and collect, and also tells her she must accept half of the insurance money or he will see that she is blamed for the arson. "Pop" Bergen, the father of Marily Bergen, is the torch man hired by Yarbo, and he perishes in one of the conflagrations. Yarbo learns that Keely is cooperating with Broderick and he enters the movie studio where she is working, determined to kill her. Written By Les Adams

Filmmaker Grace Lee leaves her Missouri home to travel the country and talk with an array of women who share her name.

Detective Philo Vance is in charge of the investigation of several mysterious murders. Things take a turn when he gathers evidence against Major Fenwicke-Ralston.

Convinced that she has what it takes to be a detective, inquisitive secretary Kitty O'Day gets her chance to put her sleuthing skills to the test when her investment broker boss is mysteriously murdered. But Kitty's investigation hits a snag when Inspector Miles Clancy begins to suspect that she's the culprit.

Reporter Brenda Starr (Joan Woodbury) and her photographer Chuck Allen (Syd Saylor) get involved in a search for the loot from a payroll robbery. Cliffhanging action and adventure and a fair amount of comic relief follow them at every turn.

A detective (Edmund Lowe) trails a professor (Henry Daniell) who stole credit for his wife's research, then killed her.

A female police detective (Marsha Hunt) enters jail to gain the confidence of a shoplifter and learn the identity of the leader of a stolen goods racket.

Captain Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond is called in to solve the murder of a man from whom two lead soldiers were stolen. Drummond learns that the two soldiers were part of a set of thirteen which formed the key to a hidden vault of treasure. Following some clever sleuthing and set-up on Drummond's part, the guilty man is trapped in the vault,which is hidden behind the fireplace.

A recently retired fire captain suffers from boredom, until one of his friends is killed battling an arson fire. It becomes his purpose in life to track down the arsonist. As he gets closer to finding the killer, things become dangerous for him and his family.

Just as her life is coming together, Allison experiences a terrible tragedy when her boyfriend is murdered by an intruder from whom the woman herself barely escapes. The police capture a man they believe to be the killer, but Allison, still unsettled, has her doubts. Things take a frightening turn when she meets her friend's new boyfriend and suspects him to be the killer.

A woman and a man vying for a woman's affection: the usual love trio? Not quite so since the belle in question is Lorraine de Grissac, a very wealthy and alluring society woman, while one of the two rivals is none other than Arsène Lupin, the notorious jewel thief everybody thought dead, now living under the assumed name of René Farrand. As for the other suitor he is an American, a former F.B.I. sleuth turned private eye by the name of Steve Emerson. Steve not only suspects Farrand of being Lupin but when someone attempts to steal a precious emerald necklace from Lorraine's uncle, Count de Brissac, he is persuaded Lupin is the culprit. Is Emerson right or wrong? Which of the two men will win over Lorraine's heart?

Detective Chick Carter (Lyle Talbot)finds himself on his most exciting case when Sherry Martin (Julie Gibson), a singer at the Century Club, reports the robbery of the famous Blue Diamond, owned by Joe Carney (Charles King), the owner of the nightclub.

A (rather shady?) private detective specializing in recovering highly insured items gets involved in recovering a stolen necklace. In the process also gets involved with a secretary at the insurance company.

When a photograph is taken at the scene of a murder, the camera is tossed out of a castle window to destroy the evidence and lands in the back of a passing car belonging to chemist John Gray who becomes amateur sleuth after developing the film and goes in search of the woman captured by the photograph. When the camera is stolen from his laboratory, Gray's suspicions are further aroused.

Detective Harvey Price has been transferred over to a new unit, where he is to befriend his new and intelligent partner Alexander Boston , together, both Alex and Harvey must put their differences to the side so they can tackle a new threat, with very limited help from the corrupt police service they work for. Price is to be challenged both mentally and physically when he is face to face with his cities newest and greatest wanted criminal, known as The Arsonist.

A Stumped insurance company is forced to re-hire the most expensive, most big-headed, but best arson investigator to solve a string of major losses.

An experienced arson investigator takes along his young associate as they try to find an arsonist who is burning down movie sets.

A physically small police psychologist and a physically large insurance detective team up on an arson case.

Insurance investigator must find out who is setting fires. Along the way he meets and works with a beautiful newspaper reporter and falls in love.

Set in Brittany, a detective called Nicolas Luhel is asked to unravel the circumstances of a teenage boy's death. The main suspect is the boy's father. Shattered by the suicide of the main witness, Nicolas lets himself get snared by the strange and fascinating influence that the father exerts on everyone around him. Eventually, Luhel discovers the truth about the murder and feels that the law is inadequate to deal with it. As a consequence, he decides to destroy the evidence and keep it a secret.

Jim Bronton is an insurance investigator, but he's unhappy with his work and gets involved with a gang of arsonists. His conscience is troubling him ...