A collection from The Prudent Merchant
After dark, the classics come out.Crime. Noir. Mystery.
Hard-boiled detectives, shadowy noir, gangsters, prison pictures and old dark-house mysteries from the 1920s to the 1960s, with the stories behind them. The collection is being restored now.
- Feature films
- Detectives & noir
- Every title rights-checked
The collections
Pick your poison
Every title lives inside a curated collection, so you can go straight to the kind of story you want tonight.
Film Noir
Shadows, rain-slicked streets and doomed choices: the dark crime dramas of the 1940s and 1950s.
Detectives & Sleuths
Great fictional detectives on the case, from Baker Street to Chinatown.
Gangsters & G-Men
Racketeers, rackets and the agents sent to bring them down.
Prison Pictures
Life behind the walls: big-house dramas, breakouts and second chances.
Old Dark House Mysteries
A will, a storm, a house full of suspects and the lights go out.
Scare & Exploitation Films
The lurid warning films of the 1930s to 1950s, with the history of how they were made and shown.
Race Films & Black Cinema
Crime and drama from Black filmmakers and casts, made outside the studio system.
Silent & Early Crime
Where screen crime began: silent and early sound thrillers from 1909 to 1930.
How it works
Built like a film archive
Every title is checked
Before a film, episode or image goes into the vault, we confirm its rights or public-domain status. If we can't confirm it, it stays out.
Organized like an archive
Browse by collection, decade or detective, with production notes beside each title.
Watch, read, collect
Watch the free titles, read the case notes behind each film, and find collectibles at The Prudent Merchant.
Opening night is coming
We're restoring titles one collection at a time. In the meantime, browse the rest of The Prudent Merchant family.
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