Allen Jenkins

Real-life conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton star as a vaudeville singing act whose act is failing until their manager stages a publicity romance between Dorothy and a sharpshooter in the show. The sham engagement turns real, the marriage ends in murder, and the film frames its story as a courtroom problem no jury was built to answer: how do you punish one sister when the other is innocent and cannot be separated from her? The Hiltons, famous from the sideshow circuit since childhood and later seen in Freaks, sing several numbers and get the rarest thing exploitation cinema offered them, a story told from their own point of view. Directed by Harry L. Fraser for producer George Weiss's Classic Pictures, it is in the public domain.

Drama

Edward Arnold stars as Duncan "Mac" Maclain, a blind detective who refuses to let his disability slow him down, relying on his guide dog Friday and his heightened remaining senses. When old friend Norma Lawry (Ann Harding) asks him to scare off a scheming actor courting her teenage stepdaughter (Donna Reed, in one of her earliest roles), Mac walks into a case that quickly turns to espionage and murder. Directed by Fred Zinnemann near the start of his Hollywood career, this lean MGM programmer spins Baynard Kendrick's novels into a tight, atmospheric thriller — the first of only two Maclain films. Its copyright was never renewed, placing it in the public domain.

Noir · Mystery · Crime