A mystery film is a genre of film that revolves around the solution of a problem or a crime. It focuses on the efforts of the
detective
A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads th ...
,
private investigator
A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI and informally called a private eye), a private detective, or inquiry agent is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private investigators of ...
or amateur
sleuth
Sleuth may refer to:
* Detective
*Sleuth, collective noun for a group of bears
Computing
* The Sleuth Kit, a collection of forensic analysis software
*SLEUTH assembler language for the UNIVAC 1107
Entertainment and media
*Cloo
Cloo (stylized ...
to solve the mysterious circumstances of an issue by means of clues, investigation, and clever deduction.
The plot often centers on the deductive ability, prowess, confidence, or diligence of the detective as he attempts to unravel the crime or situation by piecing together clues and circumstances, seeking
evidence
Evidence for a proposition is what supports this proposition. It is usually understood as an indication that the supported proposition is true. What role evidence plays and how it is conceived varies from field to field.
In epistemology, evidenc ...
, interrogating witnesses, and tracking down a criminal.
Suspense is often maintained as an important
plot
Plot or Plotting may refer to:
Art, media and entertainment
* Plot (narrative), the story of a piece of fiction
Music
* ''The Plot'' (album), a 1976 album by jazz trumpeter Enrico Rava
* The Plot (band), a band formed in 2003
Other
* ''Plot' ...
element. This can be done through the use of the
soundtrack
A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...
,
camera angle
The camera angle marks the specific location at which the movie camera or video camera is placed to take a shot. A scene may be shot from several camera angles simultaneously. This will give a different experience and sometimes emotion. The diffe ...
s, heavy
shadow
A shadow is a dark area where light from a light source is blocked by an opaque object. It occupies all of the three-dimensional volume behind an object with light in front of it. The cross section of a shadow is a two-dimensional silhouette, o ...
s, and surprising
plot twist
A plot twist is a literary technique that introduces a radical change in the direction or expected outcome of the plot in a work of fiction. When it happens near the end of a story, it is known as a twist or surprise ending. It may change the aud ...
s.
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...
used all of these techniques, but would sometimes allow the audience in on a pending
threat
A threat is a communication of intent to inflict harm or loss on another person. Intimidation is a tactic used between conflicting parties to make the other timid or psychologically insecure for coercion or control. The act of intimidation for co ...
then draw out the moment for dramatic effect.
This genre has ranged from early mystery tales, fictional or literary detective stories, to classic Hitchcockian suspense-
thrillers
Thriller is a genre of fiction, having numerous, often overlapping subgenres. Thrillers are characterized and defined by the moods they elicit, giving viewers heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety. Suc ...
to classic private detective films. A related film subgenre is
spy film
The spy film, also known as the spy thriller, is a genre of film that deals with the subject of fictional espionage, either in a realistic way (such as the adaptations of John le Carré) or as a basis for fantasy (such as many James Bond films) ...
s.
Definition and characteristics
Mystery films mainly focus on solving a
crime
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definit ...
or a
puzzle
A puzzle is a game, Problem solving, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together (Disentanglement puzzle, or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to arrive at th ...
. The mystery generally revolves around a
murder
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...
which must then be solved by
policemen
A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...
, private
detective
A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads th ...
s, or amateur sleuths. The viewer is presented with a series of likely
suspect
In law enforcement jargon, a suspect is a known person accused or suspected of committing a crime. Police and reporters in the United States often use the word suspect as a jargon when referring to the perpetrator of the offense (perp in dated U ...
s, some of whom are "
red herring
A red herring is a figurative expression referring to a logical fallacy in which a clue or piece of information is or is intended to be misleading, or distracting from the actual question.
Red herring may also refer to: Animals
* Red herring (fis ...
s," –persons who have the motive to commit the crime but did not actually do it–, and attempts to solve the puzzle along with the investigator. At times the viewer is presented with information not available to the main character. The central character usually explores the unsolved crime, unmasks the perpetrator, and puts an end to the effects of the villainy.
The successful mystery film adheres to one of two story types, known as Open and Closed. The Closed (or
whodunit
A ''whodunit'' or ''whodunnit'' (a colloquial elision of "Who asdone it?") is a complex plot-driven variety of detective fiction in which the puzzle regarding who committed the crime is the main focus. The reader or viewer is provided with the cl ...
) mystery conceals the identity of the perpetrator until late in the story, adding an element of
suspense
Suspense is a state of mental uncertainty, anxiety, being undecided, or being doubtful. In a dramatic work, suspense is the anticipation of the outcome of a plot or of the solution to an uncertainty, puzzle, or mystery, particularly as it aff ...
during the apprehension of the
suspect
In law enforcement jargon, a suspect is a known person accused or suspected of committing a crime. Police and reporters in the United States often use the word suspect as a jargon when referring to the perpetrator of the offense (perp in dated U ...
, as the audience is never quite sure who it is. The Open mystery (or
howcatchem
An inverted detective story, also known as a "howcatchem", is a murder mystery fiction structure in which the commission of the crime is shown or described at the beginning, usually including the identity of the perpetrator. The story then describ ...
), in contrast, reveals the identity of the perpetrator at the top of the story, showcasing the "
perfect crime
Perfect crimes are crimes that are undetected, unattributed to an identifiable perpetrator, or otherwise unsolved or unsolvable as a kind of technical achievement on the part of the perpetrator. The term is used colloquially in law and fiction (es ...
" which the audience then watches the
protagonist
A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a st ...
unravel, usually at the very end of the story, akin to the unveiling scenes in the Closed style.
Mystery novels have proven to be a good medium for translation into film. The
sleuth
Sleuth may refer to:
* Detective
*Sleuth, collective noun for a group of bears
Computing
* The Sleuth Kit, a collection of forensic analysis software
*SLEUTH assembler language for the UNIVAC 1107
Entertainment and media
*Cloo
Cloo (stylized ...
often forms a strong leading character, and the plots can include elements of drama, suspense, character development, uncertainty, and surprise twists. The locales of the mystery tale are often of a mundane variety, requiring little in the way of expensive special effects. Successful mystery writers can produce a series of books based on the same sleuth character, providing rich material for sequels.
Until at least the
1980s
File:1980s replacement montage02.PNG, 420px, From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, ''Columbia'', lifts off in 1981; US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev ease tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the ...
, women in mystery films have often served a dual role, providing a relationship with the
detective
A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads th ...
and frequently playing the part of woman-in-peril. The women in these films are often resourceful individuals, being self-reliant, determined and as often duplicitous. They can provide the triggers for the events that follow or serve as an element of suspense as helpless victims.
History
Literary influences
![A Study in Scarlet from Beeton's Christmas Annual 1887](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/A_Study_in_Scarlet_from_Beeton%27s_Christmas_Annual_1887.jpg)
The earliest mystery films reach back to the
silent era
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, wh ...
. The first detective film is often cited as ''
Sherlock Holmes Baffled
''Sherlock Holmes Baffled'' is a very short American silent film created in 1900 with cinematography by Arthur Marvin. It is the earliest known film to feature Arthur Conan Doyle's detective character Sherlock Holmes, albeit in a form unlike th ...
'', a very short
Mutoscope
The Mutoscope is an early motion picture device, invented by W. K. L. Dickson and Herman Casler and later patented by Herman Casler on November 21, 1894. Like Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope, it did not project on a screen and provided viewing to ...
reel created between 1900 and 1903 by
Arthur Marvin
Arthur Weed Marvin (May 26, 1859 – January 18, 1911), was an American cinematographer who worked for the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company in which his brother Harry Marvin was one of the four founders (the others being Herman Casler ...
. It is the
earliest-known film to feature the character of detective
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...
, albeit in a barely recognisable form.
[Jon Tuska, ''The detective in Hollywood'' (Doubleday, 1978), p.1]Jim Harmon
James Judson Harmon (21 April 1933 – 16 February 2010), better known as Jim Harmon, was an American short story author and popular culture historian who wrote extensively about the Golden Age of Radio. He sometimes used the pseudonym Judson Grey ...
, ''Radio Mystery and Adventure and Its Appearances in Film, Television and Other Media'' (McFarland, 2003), p.176
In France, the popular
Nick Carter detective novels inspired the first
film serial
A serial film, film serial (or just serial), movie serial, or chapter play, is a motion picture form popular during the first half of the 20th century, consisting of a series of short subjects exhibited in consecutive order at one theater, gene ...
, ''
Nick Carter, le roi des détectives
''Nick Carter, le roi des détectives'' (1908) is a French silent Serial film, serial film based on the popular American novels featuring master detective Nick Carter (literary character), Nick Carter. It was written by Georges Hatot and directed ...
'' (1908). This six-episode series was followed with ''Nouveaux aventures de Nick Carter'' in 1909.
Louis Feuillade
Louis Feuillade (; 19 February 1873 – 25 February 1925) was a French filmmaker of the silent era. Between 1906 and 1924, he directed over 630 films. He is primarily known for the crime serials '' Fantômas'', '' Les Vampires'' and '' Judex ...
created the highly popular
Fantômas
Fantômas () is a fictional character created by French writers Marcel Allain (1885–1969) and Pierre Souvestre (1874–1914).
One of the most popular characters in the history of French crime fiction, Fantômas was created in 1911 and appear ...
(1913–14) serial based on the best-selling serial novel about a super-criminal pursued by a stubborn inspector Juve.
Dujardin Dujardin is a French surname, meaning "from the garden", and may refer to:
* Charlotte Dujardin, British dressage rider
* Édouard Dujardin, French writer
* Félix Dujardin (1801–1860), French biologist
* Jean Dujardin, French actor and comedia ...
wears a mask and costume similar to Fantomas' in an apparent tribute in ''
The Artist'', a nostalgic 2011 film about silent cinema. Later detective serials by Feuillade include ''
The Vampires'' (1915), ''
Judex
Judex (real name Jacques de Trémeuse) is a fictional French vigilante hero created by Louis Feuillade and Arthur Bernède for the 1916 silent film ''Judex''. Judex (whose name is Latin for "judge") is a mysterious avenger who dresses in black and ...
'' (1916), ''
Tih Minh
''Tih Minh'' is a 1918 French film serial directed by Louis Feuillade.
Plot
''Tih Minh'' tells the story of Jacques d'Athys who returns to his home in Nice after an expedition to Indochina. Tih Minh (Mary Harald), a young woman from Laos, acco ...
'' (1918), and ''
Barrabas'' (1919). Feuillade's films, which combined realism, poetic imagery, and pure fantasy, influenced the American ''
The Perils of Pauline'' (1914), directors such as
René Clair
René Clair (11 November 1898 – 15 March 1981), born René-Lucien Chomette, was a French filmmaker and writer. He first established his reputation in the 1920s as a director of silent films in which comedy was often mingled with fantasy. He wen ...
, and
Surrealists
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...
such as
André Breton
André Robert Breton (; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') o ...
.
The earliest true mystery films include ''The Gold Bug'' (1910), also from France, and ''The Murders in the Rue Morgue'' (1914). Both are derived from stories by
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...
, which is appropriate as Poe is often credited with creating modern
detective fiction
Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as s ...
as well as the first private detective character,
C. Auguste Dupin
''Le Knight, Chevalier'' C. Auguste Dupin is a fictional character created by Edgar Allan Poe. Dupin made his first appearance in Poe's 1841 short story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", widely considered the first detective fiction story. He rea ...
.
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
renamed him Pierre Dupin in ''
Murders in the Rue Morgue
"The Murders in the Rue Morgue" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe published in ''Graham's Magazine'' in 1841. It has been described as the first modern detective story; Poe referred to it as one of his "tales of ratiocination".
C. Auguste Du ...
'' (1932), an atmospheric horror-mystery starring
Bela Lugosi
Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó (; October 20, 1882 – August 16, 1956), known professionally as Bela Lugosi (; ), was a Hungarian and American actor best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the 1931 horror classic ''Dracula'', Ygor in ''S ...
. The film was remade twice more in 1953 and 1971. Poe's second Dupin story, ''
The Mystery of Marie Rogêt
"The Mystery of Marie Rogêt", often subtitled ''A Sequel to "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"'', is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe written in 1842. This is the first murder mystery based on the details of a real crime. It first ...
'', was filmed in 1942. More recently, ''
The Raven
"The Raven" is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. First published in January 1845, the poem is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a distraught lover who is paid a myste ...
'' (2012) presented a fictionalized account of the last days of Poe's life. Here, the author pursues a mysterious serial killer whose murders are directly inspired by his stories.
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
' unfinished novel ''
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
''The Mystery of Edwin Drood'' is the final novel by Charles Dickens, originally published in 1870.
Though the novel is named after the character Edwin Drood, it focuses more on Drood's uncle, John Jasper, a precentor, choirmaster and opium ...
'' (1870) was completed by another author and eventually adapted to the screen. Two films, now believed lost, were made in 1909 and 1914. Universal produced ''
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
''The Mystery of Edwin Drood'' is the final novel by Charles Dickens, originally published in 1870.
Though the novel is named after the character Edwin Drood, it focuses more on Drood's uncle, John Jasper, a precentor, choirmaster and opium ...
'' (1935). The story was remade again in 1993. Universal, known mostly for its long list of classic horror films, also created perhaps the first
supernatural
Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...
horror-whodunit hybrid with ''
Night Monster
''Night Monster'' is a 1942 American black-and-white horror film featuring Bela Lugosi and produced and distributed by Universal Pictures Company. The movie uses an original story and screenplay by Clarence Upson Young and was produced and direc ...
'' (1942).
American author
Mary Roberts Rinehart
Mary Roberts Rinehart (August 12, 1876September 22, 1958) was an American writer, often called the American Agatha Christie.Keating, H.R.F., ''The Bedside Companion to Crime''. New York: Mysterious Press, 1989, p. 170. Rinehart published her fir ...
(1876–1958), is credited with inventing the "
Had-I-But-Known" school of mystery writing (as well as the phrase, "The butler did it"). Her 1920 "old dark house" novel (and play) ''The Bat'' was filmed as ''
The Bat'' (1926), as ''
The Bat Whispers
''The Bat Whispers'' is a 1930 American pre-Code mystery film directed by Roland West, produced by Joseph M. Schenck, and released by United Artists. The film is based on the 1920 mystery play '' The Bat'', written by Mary Roberts Rinehart and ...
'' (1930), and a third time a remake, ''
The Bat'' (1959), starring
Vincent Price
Vincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor, art historian, art collector and gourmet cook. He appeared on stage, television, and radio, and in more than 100 films. Price has two stars on the Hollywood Wal ...
. Another movie based on a play, ''
The Cat and the Canary'' (1927), pioneered the "comedy-mystery" genre. Remade several times, including a version with
Bob Hope
Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in more than 70 short and feature films, with 5 ...
released in 1939.
Undoubtedly the most famous of the amateur detectives to appear on the silver screen is the archetypal
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...
. Since 1903, Holmes has been portrayed by a multitude of actors in over 200 films. Perhaps the earliest detective comedy is
Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is best known for his silent film work, in which his trademark was physical comedy accompanied by a stoic, deadpan expression ...
's ''
Sherlock Jr.
''Sherlock Jr.'' is a 1924 American silent comedy film directed by and starring Buster Keaton and written by Clyde Bruckman, Jean Havez, and Joseph A. Mitchell. It features Kathryn McGuire, Joe Keaton, and Ward Crane.
In 1991, ''Sherlock J ...
'' (1924). Until recently, the only American-made series starred
Basil Rathbone
Philip St. John Basil Rathbone MC (13 June 1892 – 21 July 1967) was a South African-born English actor. He rose to prominence in the United Kingdom as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in more than 70 films, primarily costume ...
and
Nigel Bruce
William Nigel Ernle Bruce (4 February 1895 – 8 October 1953) was a British character actor on stage and screen. He was best known for his portrayal of Dr. Watson in a series of films and in the radio series ''The New Adventures of Sherlock H ...
as Holmes and Dr. Watson. Together they made 14 films between 1939 and 1946. The first two, at
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
, were period piece mysteries set in the late-
Victorian era
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...
of the original stories. By the third film, ''
Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror
''Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror'' is a 1942 American mystery thriller film based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes detective stories. The film combines elements of Doyle's short story " His Last Bow", to which it is credited ...
'' (1942), now taken up by
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
, Holmes was updated to the present day. Several films dealt with World War II and thwarting Nazi spies.
The crime novelist
Dorothy L. Sayers
Dorothy Leigh Sayers (; 13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) was an English crime writer and poet. She was also a student of classical and modern languages.
She is best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories set between th ...
(1893–1957) created the archetypal British aristocratic sleuth
Lord Peter Wimsey
Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey (later 17th Duke of Denver) is the fictional protagonist in a series of detective novels and short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers (and their continuation by Jill Paton Walsh). A dilettante who solves mysteries fo ...
in 1923. Peter Haddon first played Wimsey in ''
The Silent Passenger
''The Silent Passenger'' is a British black-and-white mystery film produced in 1935 at Ealing Studios, London. It is based on an original story written by Sayers specifically for the screen. Her amateur sleuth was portrayed as a somewhat eccentr ...
'' (1935), written by Sayers specifically for the screen. This was followed by ''
Busman's Honeymoon
''Busman's Honeymoon'' is a 1937 novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, her eleventh and last featuring Lord Peter Wimsey, and her fourth and last to feature Harriet Vane.
Plot introduction
Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane marry and go to spend thei ...
'' (1940), also released as ''Haunted Honeymoon'', with
Robert Montgomery as Wimsey. Later, Montgomery would also play
Raymond Chandler
Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive durin ...
's detective
Philip Marlowe
Philip Marlowe () is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler, who was characteristic of the hardboiled crime fiction genre. The hardboiled crime fiction genre originated in the 1920s, notably in ''Black Mask'' magazine, in which Dashiel ...
in ''
The Lady in the Lake
''The Lady in the Lake'' is a 1943 detective novel by Raymond Chandler featuring the Los Angeles private investigator Philip Marlowe. Notable for its removal of Marlowe from his usual Los Angeles environs for much of the book, the novel's com ...
'' (1947).
Doubleday's
The Crime Club
''The Crime Club'' was an imprint of the Doubleday publishing company, which later spawned a 1946-47 anthology radio series, and a 1937-1939 film series.
Literature
Many classic and popular works of detective and mystery fiction had their fir ...
imprint published a variety of mystery novels that also inspired a radio show. Universal Pictures struck a deal to produce a series of 11 Crime Club mystery films released from 1937 to 1939. These include ''The Westlake Case'' (1937) and ''Mystery of the White Room'' (1939).
Other literary sleuths who were brought to the screen include
Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan is a fictional Honolulu police detective created by author Earl Derr Biggers for a series of mystery novels. Biggers loosely based Chan on Hawaiian detective Chang Apana. The benevolent and heroic Chan was conceived as an alter ...
,
Ellery Queen
Ellery Queen is a pseudonym created in 1929 by American crime fiction writers Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee and the name of their main fictional character, a mystery writer in New York City who helps his police inspector father solve ...
,
Nancy Drew
Nancy Drew is a Fictional character, fictional character appearing in several Mystery fiction, mystery book series, movies, and a TV show as a teenage amateur sleuth. The books are ghostwriter, ghostwritten by a number of authors and published ...
,
Nero Wolfe
Nero Wolfe is a brilliant, obese and eccentric fictional armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Montenegro and keeps his past murky. He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in Ne ...
, and
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictiona ...
's
Miss Marple
Miss Marple is a fictional character in Agatha Christie's crime novels and short stories. Jane Marple lives in the village of St. Mary Mead and acts as an amateur consulting detective. Often characterized as an elderly spinster, she is one of Chr ...
and
Hercule Poirot
Hercule Poirot (, ) is a fictional Belgian detective created by British writer Agatha Christie. Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-running characters, appearing in 33 novels, two plays ('' Black Coffee'' and ''Alibi''), and more ...
. To date, 32 films and dozens of television adaptations have been made based
Classic period: the 1930s
A few silent
Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan is a fictional Honolulu police detective created by author Earl Derr Biggers for a series of mystery novels. Biggers loosely based Chan on Hawaiian detective Chang Apana. The benevolent and heroic Chan was conceived as an alter ...
films, now lost, were produced in the 1920s. Starting in 1929, the B-picture unit at
Fox Film Corporation
The Fox Film Corporation (also known as Fox Studios) was an American Independent film production studio formed by William Fox (1879–1952) in 1915, by combining his earlier Greater New York Film Rental Company and Box Office Attractions Film ...
(later part of
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
) began a series of 28 commercially successful Charlie Chan films. (
Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures Corporation was an American film studio that produced mostly low-budget films between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram was among the smaller studios i ...
continued the series from 1944 to 1949 with 17 more entries.) The success of the Chan films led Fox to hire exiled actor
Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre (; born László Löwenstein, ; June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964) was a Hungarian and American actor, first in Europe and later in the United States. He began his stage career in Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, before movin ...
to play Japanese sleuth
Mr. Moto
Mr. Moto is a fictional Japanese secret agent created by the American author John P. Marquand. He appeared in six novels by Marquand published between 1935 and 1957. Marquand initially created the character for the ''Saturday Evening Post'', whi ...
in 8 films from 1937 to 1939. Monogram responded by creating their own gentlemanly Oriental detective, Mr. Wong, adapted from a Hugh Wiley story. Beginning with ''
Mr. Wong, Detective
''Mr. Wong, Detective'' is a 1938 American crime film directed by William Nigh and starring Boris Karloff in his first appearance as Mr. Wong.Stephen Jacobs, ''Boris Karloff: More Than a Monster'', Tomahawk Press 2011 p. 223-224
Plot
Simon D ...
'',
Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), better known by his stage name Boris Karloff (), was an English actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film ''Frankenstein'' (1931) (his 82nd film) established h ...
played Wong in 5 of 6 films produced from 1938 to 1941.
Over at
Warner Brothers
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American Film studio, film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, Califo ...
studios, the
Perry Mason
Perry Mason is a fictional character, an American criminal defense lawyer who is the main character in works of detective fiction written by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason features in 82 novels and 4 short stories, all of which involve a c ...
novels by
Erle Stanley Gardner
Erle Stanley Gardner (July 17, 1889 – March 11, 1970) was an American lawyer and author. He is best known for the Perry Mason series of crime fiction, detective stories, but he wrote numerous other novels and shorter pieces and also a series of ...
were faithfully adapted into a series of six films from 1934 to 1937. Most of these placed the crusading attorney in a standard murder mystery whodunit story. Warner Bros. also created the
Torchy Blane
Torchy Blane is a fictional female reporter, the main character of nine films produced by Warner Bros. between 1937 and 1939. The Torchy Blane series were popular second features during the later 1930s and were mixtures of mystery, action, adve ...
films which were notable for featuring one of the few female sleuths in a series. Starting with ''Smart Blonde'',
Glenda Farrell
Glenda Farrell (June 30, 1904 – May 1, 1971) was an American actress. Farrell personified the smart and sassy, wisecracking blonde of the Classical Hollywood films. Farrell's career spanned more than 50 years, appearing in numerous Broadwa ...
played the brassy, mystery-solving news reporter in 8 of 9 films made between 1936 and 1939. Another novel film is ''
When Were You Born
''When Were You Born'' is a 1938 murder mystery film directed by William C. McGann and starring Anna May Wong as an astrologer who helps the police. Each of the twelve principal characters was born under a different astrological sign.
Plot
On an ...
'' (1938) with Chinese actress
Anna May Wong
Wong Liu Tsong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961), known professionally as Anna May Wong, was an American actress, considered the first Chinese-American movie star in Hollywood, as well as the first Chinese-American actress to gain intern ...
as an astrologer who helps solve a murder using her star-gazing talents.
RKO
RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheu ...
purchased the rights to a
Hildegarde Withers
Hildegarde Withers is a fictional character, an amateur crime-solver, who has appeared in several novels, short stories and films. She was created by American mystery author Stuart Palmer (1905–1968).
Character
Miss Withers "whom the census e ...
story by
Stuart Palmer and launched a six-film series starting with ''
The Penguin Pool Murder
''The Penguin Pool Murder'' is a 1932 American pre-Code comedy/mystery film starring Edna May Oliver as Hildegarde Withers, a witness in a murder case at the New York Aquarium, with James Gleason as the police inspector in charge of the case, ...
'' (1932).
Edna May Oliver
Edna May Oliver (born Edna May Nutter, November 9, 1883 – November 9, 1942) was an American stage and film actress. During the 1930s, she was one of the better-known character actresses in American films, often playing tart-tongued spinsters. ...
played Withers, a schoolteacher with a yen for sleuthing who becomes involved with a police inspector. The last film was released in 1937.
The
Philo Vance
Philo Vance is a fictional amateur detective originally featured in 12 crime novels by S. S. Van Dine in the 1920s and 1930s. During that time, Vance was immensely popular in books, films, and radio. He was portrayed as a stylish—even foppish— ...
detective novels by
S. S. Van Dine
S. S. Van Dine (also styled S.S. Van Dine) is the pseudonym used by American art critic Willard Huntington Wright (October 15, 1888 – April 11, 1939) when he wrote detective novels. Wright was active in avant-garde cultural circles in pre-Worl ...
inspired 15 feature films released from 1929 to 1947. ''
The Canary Murder Case ''For the film adaptation see The Canary Murder Case (film)''
''The Canary Murder Case'' (1927) is a murder mystery novel which deals with the murders of a sexy nightclub singer known as "the Canary," and, eventually, her boyfriend, solved by Ph ...
'' (1929), starring
William Powell
William Horatio Powell (July 29, 1892 – March 5, 1984) was an American actor. A major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the ''The Thin Man (film), Thin Man'' series based on the Nick and Nora Cha ...
as Vance, has been called the first modern detective film. Initially made as a silent movie, it was converted into a talkie halfway through production. (Co-star
Louise Brooks
Mary Louise Brooks (November 14, 1906 – August 8, 1985) was an American film actress and dancer during the 1920s and 1930s. She is regarded today as an icon of the Jazz Age and flapper culture, in part due to the bob hairstyle that she helpe ...
was blacklisted by
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
after famously refusing to return to Hollywood to dub her dialog.) Powell played the suave New York detective in the first three films. A pre-Sherlock Holmes
Basil Rathbone
Philip St. John Basil Rathbone MC (13 June 1892 – 21 July 1967) was a South African-born English actor. He rose to prominence in the United Kingdom as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in more than 70 films, primarily costume ...
played Vance in the 4th movie. Powell returned once more for the fifth feature, the highly regarded ''
The Kennel Murder Case
''The Kennel Murder Case'' is a 1933 murder mystery novel written by S. S. Van Dine with fictional detective Philo Vance investigating a complex locked-room mystery.
Plot summary
One of the Coe brothers is found dead in his bedroom, locked f ...
'' (1933) produced by Warner Brothers.
Powell then landed his signature role playing the equally debonair
Nick Charles opposite
Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy (born Myrna Adele Williams; August 2, 1905 – December 14, 1993) was an American film, television and stage actress. Trained as a dancer, Loy devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. ...
as his carefree wife "Nora" in the ''Thin Man'' series. Six films in all were produced by
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...
from 1934 to 1947. Based on ''
The Thin Man
''The Thin Man'' (1934) is a detective novel by Dashiell Hammett, originally published in a condensed version in the December 1933 issue of ''Redbook''. It appeared in book form the following month. A film series followed, featuring the main cha ...
'' novel by
Dashiell Hammett
Samuel Dashiell Hammett (; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade ('' ...
, these were witty, sophisticated romps that combined elements of the
screwball comedy film
Screwball comedy is a subgenre of the romantic comedy genre that became popular during the Great Depression, beginning in the early 1930s and thriving until the early 1940s, that satirizes the traditional love story. It has secondary characteristi ...
within a complex murder mystery plot. In the middle of this series, RKO hired Powell and
Jean Arthur
Jean Arthur (born Gladys Georgianna Greene; October 17, 1900 – June 19, 1991) was an American Broadway and film actress whose career began in silent films in the early 1920s and lasted until the early 1950s.
Arthur had feature roles in three F ...
for ''
The Ex-Mrs. Bradford'' (1936), a breezy comedy-mystery that successfully replicated MGM's ''Thin Man'' formula. Warner Brothers responded with a similar comedy, ''
Footsteps in the Dark'' (1941), with
Errol Flynn
Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn (20 June 1909 – 14 October 1959) was an Australian-American actor who achieved worldwide fame during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles, frequent partnerships with Olivia ...
playing a married stockbroker who leads a double life as a mystery writer/sleuth.
Many of the films of this period, including the ''Thin Man'' series, concluded with an explanatory
detective dénouement that quickly became a cinematic (and literary) cliche. With the suspects gathered together, the detective would dramatically announce that "The killer is in this very room!" before going over the various clues that revealed the identity of the murderer.
There were also a great many low-budget "old dark house" mysteries based on a standard formula (a dark and stormy night, the reading of a will, secret passageways, a series of bizarre murders, etc.) that were plot- rather than star-driven. Some typical examples are ''
The Cat Creeps'' (1930), a remake of ''
The Cat and the Canary'', ''
The Monster Walks'' (1932), ''
Night of Terror
''Night of Terror'' is a 1933 American pre-Code horror film directed by Benjamin Stoloff, and starring Bela Lugosi, Sally Blane, Wallace Ford, and Tully Marshall. Despite receiving top billing, Bela Lugosi has a relatively small part. The film ...
'' (1933) with
Bela Lugosi
Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó (; October 20, 1882 – August 16, 1956), known professionally as Bela Lugosi (; ), was a Hungarian and American actor best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the 1931 horror classic ''Dracula'', Ygor in ''S ...
, and ''
One Frightened Night
''One Frightened Night'' is a 1935 American comedy mystery film directed by Christy Cabanne and starring Charley Grapewin, Lucien Littlefield and Mary Carlisle. The film has entered the public domain.
Plot
Faced with an upcoming inheritance tax ...
'' (1935).
The 1930s was the era of the elegant
gentleman detective
The gentleman detective, less commonly lady detective, is a type of fictional character. He (or she) has long been a staple of crime fiction, particularly in detective novels and short stories set in the United Kingdom in the Golden Age. The heroe ...
who solved drawing-room whodunit murders using his wits rather than his fists. Most were well-to-do amateur sleuths who solved crimes for their own amusement, carried no weapons, and often had quirky or eccentric personality traits. This type of crime-fighter fell out of fashion in the 1940s as a new breed of tough,
hardboiled
Hardboiled (or hard-boiled) fiction is a literary genre that shares some of its characters and settings with crime fiction (especially detective fiction and noir fiction). The genre's typical protagonist is a detective who battles the violence o ...
professional private detectives based on the novels of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and an ensuing slew of imitators were adapted to film.
The 1940s–1950s
![LonelyPlaceTrailer](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/LonelyPlaceTrailer.jpg)
With the onset of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, crime films and melodramas in particular suddenly took on a dark mood of cynicism and despair that had not existed in the optimistic 1930s. Eventually, this cycle of films (which cuts across several genres) would be called
film noir
Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...
by French film critics. Pessimistic, unheroic stories about greed, lust, and cruelty became central to the mystery genre. Grim, violent films featuring cynical, trenchcoat-wearing private detectives who were almost as ruthless as the criminals they pursued became the industry standard. The wealthy, aristocratic sleuth of the previous decade was replaced by the rough-edged, working-class gumshoe.
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart (; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American film and stage actor. His performances in Classical Hollywood cinema films made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film In ...
became the definitive cinema shamus as
Sam Spade in Hammett's ''
The Maltese Falcon'' (1941) and as
Philip Marlowe
Philip Marlowe () is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler, who was characteristic of the hardboiled crime fiction genre. The hardboiled crime fiction genre originated in the 1920s, notably in ''Black Mask'' magazine, in which Dashiel ...
in Chandler's ''
The Big Sleep
''The Big Sleep'' (1939) is a hardboiled crime novel by American-British writer Raymond Chandler, the first to feature the detective Philip Marlowe. It has been adapted for film twice, The Big Sleep (1946 film), in 1946 and again The Big Sleep ...
'' (1946).
Dick Powell
Richard Ewing Powell (November 14, 1904 – January 2, 1963) was an American actor, musician, producer, director, and studio head. Though he came to stardom as a musical comedy performer, he showed versatility, and successfully transformed into ...
also made an indelible impression as Marlowe in the classic ''
Murder, My Sweet
''Murder, My Sweet'' (released as ''Farewell, My Lovely'' in the United Kingdom) is a 1944 American film noir, directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Dick Powell, Claire Trevor and Anne Shirley (in her final film before retirement). The fil ...
'' (1944), adapted from Chandler's ''
Farewell, My Lovely
''Farewell, My Lovely'' is a novel by Raymond Chandler, published in 1940, the second novel he wrote featuring the Los Angeles private eye Philip Marlowe. It was adapted for the screen three times and was also adapted for the stage and rad ...
''. ''
The Falcon Takes Over
''The Falcon Takes Over'' (also known as ''The Falcon Steps Out''), is a 1942 black-and-white mystery film directed by Irving Reis. The B film was the third, following ''The Gay Falcon'' and '' A Date with the Falcon'' (1941), to star George Sand ...
'' (1942), starring
George Sanders
George Henry Sanders (3 July 1906 – 25 April 1972) was a British actor and singer whose career spanned over 40 years. His heavy, upper-class English accent and smooth, bass voice often led him to be cast as sophisticated but villainous chara ...
, was also based on the same novel.
''
Lady in the Lake
''Lady in the Lake'' is a 1947 American film noir starring Robert Montgomery, Audrey Totter, Lloyd Nolan, Tom Tully, Leon Ames and Jayne Meadows. An adaptation of the 1943 Raymond Chandler murder mystery ''The Lady in the Lake'', the picture ...
'' (1947), from the Raymond Chandler novel, starred
Robert Montgomery, who also directed. This film was filmed entirely from Marlowe's viewpoint. The audience sees only what he does. Montgomery only appears on camera a few times, once in a mirror reflection. Another Chandler novel ''
The High Window
''The High Window'' is a 1942 novel written by Raymond Chandler. It is his third novel featuring the Los Angeles private detective Philip Marlowe.
Plot
Private investigator Philip Marlowe is hired by wealthy widow Elizabeth Bright Murdock to rec ...
'' was made into the film ''
The Brasher Doubloon
''The Brasher Doubloon'' (known in the UK as ''The High Window'') is a 1947 American crime film noir directed by John Brahm and starring George Montgomery and Nancy Guild. It is based on the 1942 novel '' The High Window'' by Raymond Chandler.
...
'' (also 1947) starring
George Montgomery. This was essentially a remake of ''
Time to Kill'' (1942), a Michael Shayne adventure starring
Lloyd Nolan
Lloyd Benedict Nolan (August 11, 1902 – September 27, 1985) was an American film and television actor. Among his many roles, Nolan is remembered for originating the role of private investigator Michael Shayne in a series of 1940s B movies.
Bi ...
. Chandler also wrote an original screenplay for ''
The Blue Dahlia
''The Blue Dahlia'' is a 1946 American crime film and film noir with an original screenplay by Raymond Chandler''Variety'' film review; January 30, 1946, page 12.''Harrison's Reports'' film review; February 2, 1946, page 19. directed by George M ...
'' (1946) starring
Alan Ladd. ''
The Glass Key
''The Glass Key'' is a novel by American writer Dashiell Hammett. First published as a serial in '' Black Mask'' magazine in 1930, it then was collected in 1931 (in London; the American edition followed 3 months later). It tells the story of a ga ...
'' (1942), also starring Ladd, was the second film adaptation of Hammett's novel.
Another standout film of this period is ''
Out of the Past
''Out of the Past'' (billed in the United Kingdom as ''Build My Gallows High'') is a 1947 film noir directed by Jacques Tourneur and starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, and Kirk Douglas. The film was adapted by Daniel Mainwaring (using the pseu ...
'' (1947) starring
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American actor. He rose to prominence with an Academy Award nomination for the Best Supporting Actor for ''The Story of G.I. Joe'' (1945), followed by his starring in ...
, who would go on to play Philip Marlowe three decades later.
Otto Preminger
Otto Ludwig Preminger ( , ; 5 December 1905 – 23 April 1986) was an Austrian-American theatre and film director, film producer, and actor.
He directed more than 35 feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the theatre. He first gai ...
's ''
Laura'' (1944) is also a classic murder mystery featuring
Dana Andrews
Carver Dana Andrews (January 1, 1909 – December 17, 1992) was an American film actor who became a major star in what is now known as film noir. A leading man during the 1940s, he continued acting in less prestigious roles and character parts ...
as a lone-wolf police detective.
Pulp novel
Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 to the late 1950s. The term "pulp" derives from the cheap wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed. In contrast, magazine ...
detective Nick Carter returned in a trilogy of films released by MGM starring
Walter Pidgeon
Walter Davis Pidgeon (September 23, 1897 – September 25, 1984) was a Canadian-American actor. He earned two Academy Award for Best Actor nominations for his roles in ''Mrs. Miniver'' (1942) and ''Madame Curie'' (1943). Pidgeon also starred in ...
: ''
Nick Carter, Master Detective
''Nick Carter, Master Detective'' was a Mutual radio crime drama based on tales of the fictional private detective Nick Carter from Street & Smith's dime novels and pulp magazines. Nick Carter first came to radio as ''The Return of Nick Carte ...
'' (1939), ''
Sky Murder
''Sky Murder'' is a 1940 detective film starring Walter Pidgeon as detective Nick Carter in his third and final outing for MGM as Nick Carter. The film was part of a trilogy based on original screen stories starring the popular literary series ch ...
'' (1940), and ''
Phantom Raiders
''Phantom Raiders'' is a 1940 film, the second in the series starring Walter Pidgeon as detective Nick Carter. The film was part of a movie trilogy based on original stories featuring the character from the long-running ''Nick Carter, Detective'' ...
'' (1940). Columbia produced a serial, ''
Chick Carter, Detective
''Chick Carter, Detective'' is a 1946 Columbia film serial. Columbia could not afford the rights to produce a Nick Carter serial so they made ''Chick Carter, Detective'' about his son instead. This was based on the radio series '' Chick Carter, ...
'' (1946). The lead character was changed to Nick Carter's son as the studio could not afford the rights to produce a Nick Carter serial. The whodunit novels of
Baynard Kendrick
Baynard Hardwick Kendrick (April 8, 1894 – March 22, 1977) was an American mystery novelist. He wrote whodunit novels about Duncan Maclain, a blind private investigator who worked with his two German shepherds and his household of assistants t ...
about blind private detective Mac Maclain were made into two films starring
Edward Arnold, ''
Eyes in the Night
''Eyes in the Night'' is a 1942 American crime mystery directed by Fred Zinnemann, based on Baynard Kendrick's 1941 novel ''The Odor of Violets'' and starring Edward Arnold, Ann Harding and Donna Reed.
The film was followed by a sequel (also ...
'' (1942) and ''The Hidden Eye'' (1945).
The popular radio show ''
The Whistler
''The Whistler'' is an American radio mystery drama which ran from May 16, 1942, until September 22, 1955, on the west-coast regional CBS radio network. The show was also broadcast in Chicago and over Armed Forces Radio. On the west coast, it w ...
'' was turned into a series of 8 mystery films from 1944 to 1948.
Richard Dix
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong ...
would introduce the stories and alternate between playing a hero, a villain, or a victim of circumstance. In ''
Mysterious Intruder
''Mysterious Intruder'' is a 1946 American mystery film noir based on the radio drama ''The Whistler''. Directed by William Castle, the production features Richard Dix, Barton MacLane and Nina Vale. It is the fifth of Columbia Pictures' eight " ...
'' (1946), he was a private eye. It was one of the few series to gain acceptance with the public and critics alike. Another radio drama,
I Love a Mystery (1939–1944), about a private detective agency, inspired three films starring
Jim Bannon
James Shorttel Bannon (April 9, 1911 – July 28, 1984) was an American actor and radio announcer known for his work on the '' I Love a Mystery'' and ''Red Ryder'' series during the 1940s and 1950s.
Early life
Born in 1911 in Kansas City, Mis ...
.
''I Love A Mystery'' (1945), ''
The Devil's Mask
''The Devil's Mask'' is a 1946 American crime film directed by Henry Levin and starring Anita Louise, Jim Bannon and Michael Duane. The film was the second of three B pictures based on the popular radio series '' I Love a Mystery''. As well a ...
'' and ''
The Unknown'' (both 1946) combined offbeat murder mystery stories with atmospheric horror elements.
Chester Morris
John Chester Brooks Morris (February 16, 1901 – September 11, 1970) was an American stage, film, television, and radio actor. He had some prestigious film roles early in his career, and received an Academy Award nomination for ''Alibi'' ( ...
played
Boston Blackie
Boston Blackie is a fictional character created by author Jack Boyle (1881–1928). Blackie, a jewel thief and safecracker in Boyle's stories, became a detective in adaptations for films, radio and television—an "enemy to those who make him an ...
, a former jewel thief turned detective, in fourteen films from 1941 to 1949. Produced by
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...
, many were mysteries laced with comic relief such as ''
Meet Boston Blackie
''Meet Boston Blackie'' is a 1941 crime film starring Chester Morris as Boston Blackie, a notorious, but honorable jewel thief. Although the character had been the hero of a number of silent films, this was the first talking picture. It proved po ...
'' (1941), ''
Boston Blackie Booked on Suspicion
''Boston Blackie Booked on Suspicion'' (also known as ''Booked on Suspicion'') is the eighth of 14 Columbia Pictures B movies starring Chester Morris as reformed thief Boston Blackie.
Plot
Boston Blackie's (Chester Morris) wealthy friend, Arthu ...
'' (1945), ''
The Phantom Thief
''The Phantom Thief'' is a 1946 American crime film directed by D. Ross Lederman. The film follows detective Boston Blackie as he tries to track down a blackmailer-murderer. As the investigation goes on, a supernatural element becomes clear.
...
'' (1945), and ''
Boston Blackie's Chinese Venture
''Boston Blackie's Chinese Venture'' is a 1949 mystery film directed by Seymour Friedman, starring Chester Morris. This was the last of Columbia's 14 ''Boston Blackie'' pictures (1941–49). Richard Lane, as long-suffering Inspector Farraday, wa ...
'' (1949). Columbia also turned the
Crime Doctor radio show into a series of mystery films starring
Warner Baxter
Warner Leroy Baxter (March 29, 1889 – May 7, 1951) was an American film actor from the 1910s to the 1940s. Baxter is known for his role as the Cisco Kid in the 1928 film ''In Old Arizona'', for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor at ...
. Most of them followed the standard whodunit formula. Ten features were produced beginning with ''
Crime Doctor'' in 1943 and ending with ''
Crime Doctor's Diary
''The Crime Doctor's Diary'' is a 1949 American mystery film directed by Seymour Friedman and starring Warner Baxter, Stephen Dunne and Lois Maxwell. It is the last of the Crime Doctor series of films made by Columbia Pictures.
Plot
Cast
* Wa ...
'' (1949).
Another popular series featured
George Sanders
George Henry Sanders (3 July 1906 – 25 April 1972) was a British actor and singer whose career spanned over 40 years. His heavy, upper-class English accent and smooth, bass voice often led him to be cast as sophisticated but villainous chara ...
as the suave
Falcon
Falcons () are birds of prey in the genus ''Falco'', which includes about 40 species. Falcons are widely distributed on all continents of the world except Antarctica, though closely related raptors did occur there in the Eocene.
Adult falcons ...
. Sixteen films were made from 1941 to 1949. Sanders decided to leave the series during the fourth entry, ''
The Falcon's Brother
''The Falcon's Brother'' is a 1942 American crime drama film in which George Sanders, who had been portraying " The Falcon" in a series of films, appears with his real-life brother Tom Conway; with Sanders handing off the series to Conway, who w ...
''. His character was killed off and replaced by Sanders' real-life brother,
Tom Conway
Tom Conway (born Thomas Charles Sanders, 15 September 1904 – 22 April 1967) was a British film, television, and radio actor remembered for playing private detectives (including The Falcon, Sherlock Holmes, Bulldog Drummond, and The Saint) ...
. Comedian
Red Skelton
Richard Red Skelton (July 18, 1913September 17, 1997) was an American entertainer best known for his national radio and television shows between 1937 and 1971, especially as host of the television program ''The Red Skelton Show''. He has stars ...
played inept radio detective "The Fox" in a trio of comedies, ''
Whistling in the Dark
Whistling without the use of an artificial whistle is achieved by creating a small opening with one's lips, usually after applying moisture (licking one's lips or placing water upon them) and then blowing or sucking air through the space. The a ...
'' (1941), ''
Whistling in Dixie
''Whistling in Dixie'' is a 1942 American crime comedy film, the second of three starring Red Skelton as radio detective and amateur crime solver Wally Benton (also known as The Fox) and Ann Rutherford as his fiancée. The pair are called upon to ...
'' (1942), and ''
Whistling in Brooklyn
''Whistling in Brooklyn'' is a 1943 film directed by S. Sylvan Simon and starring Red Skelton, Ann Rutherford, and Jean Rogers. It is the third and last film starring Skelton as radio personality and amateur detective Wally "The Fox" Benton, fol ...
'' (1943).
Brett Halliday
Brett Halliday (July 31, 1904 – February 4, 1977) is the primary pen name of Davis Dresser, an American mystery and western writer. Halliday is best known for the long-lived series of Michael Shayne mysteries he wrote, and later commission ...
's "
Michael Shayne
Michael "Mike" Shayne is a fictional private detective character created during the late 1930s by writer Brett Halliday, a pseudonym of Davis Dresser. The character appeared in a series of seven films starring Lloyd Nolan for Twentieth Century Fo ...
" detective novels were made into a series of 12 B-movies between 1940 and 1947 (starring
Lloyd Nolan
Lloyd Benedict Nolan (August 11, 1902 – September 27, 1985) was an American film and television actor. Among his many roles, Nolan is remembered for originating the role of private investigator Michael Shayne in a series of 1940s B movies.
Bi ...
and later
Hugh Beaumont
Eugene Hugh Beaumont (February 16, 1909 – May 14, 1982) was an American actor. He was best known for his portrayal of Ward Cleaver on the television series '' Leave It to Beaver'', originally broadcast from 1957 to 1963; and as private detec ...
).
Mickey Spillane
Frank Morrison Spillane (; March 9, 1918July 17, 2006), better known as Mickey Spillane, was an American crime novelist, whose stories often feature his signature detective character, Mike Hammer (character), Mike Hammer. More than 225 million c ...
's equally rugged
Mike Hammer Michael Hammer or Mike Hammer may refer to:
*Michael Armand Hammer (1955–2022), American philanthropist and businessman
*Michael Martin Hammer (1948–2008), engineer and author
*Mike Hammer (character), a fictional hard boiled detective
** ''Mick ...
character was adapted to film with ''
I, the Jury
''I, the Jury'' is the 1947 debut novel of American crime fiction writer Mickey Spillane, the first work to feature private investigator Mike Hammer.
Plot summary
The novel opens as private detective Mike Hammer is called to the apartment of i ...
'' (1953), ''
My Gun is Quick'' (1957), and the influential ''
Kiss Me Deadly
''Kiss Me Deadly'' is a 1955 American film noir produced and directed by Robert Aldrich, starring Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker, Paul Stewart, Juano Hernandez, and Wesley Addy. It also features Maxine Cooper and Cloris Leachman appearing in th ...
'' (1955). Spillane even played Hammer once in the 1963 film ''
The Girl Hunters''.
With ''
Spellbound'' (1945), director
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...
created an early psychological mystery thriller. This film, along with ''
Fear in the Night'' (1947), explores the effects of
amnesia
Amnesia is a deficit in memory caused by brain damage or disease,Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R., & Mangun, G. (2009) Cognitive Neuroscience: The biology of the mind. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. but it can also be caused temporarily by the use ...
,
hypnosis
Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychologica ...
, and
psychoanalysis
PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...
. Both films also feature surreal dream sequences which are essential to the plot.
Provisional detectives
A frequently used variation on the theme involved an average person who is suddenly forced to turn ad hoc detective in order to solve the murder of a friend or clear their own name. Prime examples include
Jack Oakie
Jack Oakie (born Lewis Delaney Offield; November 12, 1903 – January 23, 1978) was an American actor, starring mostly in films, but also working on Theatre, stage, radio and television. He portrayed Napaloni in Charlie Chaplin, Chaplin's ''T ...
in ''
Super-Sleuth
''Super-Sleuth'' is a 1937 comedy film directed by Ben Stoloff. It was an early lead role for Jack Oakie.
''Super Sleuth'' was a remade in 1946 as ''Genius at Work'', with comedy team of Wally Brown and Alan Carney.
Plot
A film detective believ ...
'' (1937),
Ella Raines
Ella Wallace Raines (August 6, 1920 – May 30, 1988) was an American film and television actress.
Early life
Raines was born Ella Wallace Raines on August 6, 1920, in Fall City, Washington. She studied drama at the University of Washingto ...
in ''
Phantom Lady
Phantom Lady is a Fictional character, fictional Superhero#Female superheroes and villains, superheroine, one of the first such characters to debut in the 1940s Golden Age of Comic Books. Originally published by Quality Comics, the character was ...
'' (1944),
Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American actress, comedienne and producer. She was nominated for 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning five times, and was the recipient of several other accolades, such as the Golden ...
in both ''
The Dark Corner
''The Dark Corner'' is a 1946 American crime film noir directed by Henry Hathaway and starring Lucille Ball, Clifton Webb, William Bendix and Mark Stevens.. The film was not a commercial success but has since been described as a "Grade A exampl ...
'' (1946) and ''
Lured
''Lured'' is a 1947 film noir directed by Douglas Sirk and starring George Sanders, Lucille Ball, Charles Coburn, and Boris Karloff. The film is a remake of Robert Siodmak's 1939 French film '' Pièges'' (titled ''Personal Column'' in the U ...
'' (1947), Alan Ladd in the aforementioned ''The Blue Dahlia'' as well as ''
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
'' (1947),
George Raft
George Raft (born George Ranft; September 26, 1901 – November 24, 1980) was an American film actor and dancer identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s. A stylish leading man in dozens of movies, Raft is ...
in ''
Johnny Angel
''Johnny Angel'' is a 1945 American film noir directed by Edwin L. Marin and written by Steve Fisher (adapted by Frank Gruber) from the 1944 novel ''Mr. Angel Comes Aboard'' by Charles Gordon Booth. The movie stars George Raft, Claire Trevor a ...
'' (1945),
June Vincent
June Vincent (born Dorothy June Smith, July 17, 1920 – November 20, 2008) was an American actress.
Life and career
Vincent was born in Harrod, Ohio, the daughter of Sybil Irwin and the Rev. Willis E. Smith.
Stage
Vincent's acting career bega ...
and
Dan Duryea
Dan Duryea ( , January 23, 1907 – June 7, 1968) was an American actor in film, stage, and television. Known for portraying a vast range of character roles as a villain, he nonetheless had a long career in a wide variety of leading and seconda ...
in ''
Black Angel'' (1946), Humphrey Bogart in ''
Dead Reckoning
In navigation, dead reckoning is the process of calculating current position of some moving object by using a previously determined position, or fix, and then incorporating estimates of speed, heading direction, and course over elapsed time. ...
'' (1947), and Dick Powell in ''
Cry Danger'' (1951).
Perhaps the last word in this subgenre is ''
D.O.A.
DOA may refer to:
* Dead on arrival
* Dead or Alive (disambiguation)
Film
* ''D.O.A.'' (1949 film), a ''film noir''
* ''D.O.A.'' (1988 film), a remake of the 1949 film
* '' D.O.A.: A Rite of Passage'' (1980 film), a documentary on the gene ...
'' (1950), where a man dying from a slow-acting poison has to solve his own murder in the hours he has left. This film was remade in 1969 as ''
Color Me Dead
''Color Me Dead'' is a 1969 Australian thriller directed by Eddie Davis, starring American actors Tom Tryon, Carolyn Jones and Rick Jason. It is a remake of the 1950 film '' D.O.A.''. Due to the failure on renewing copyright of ''D.O.A.'', the ...
'' and again as ''
D.O.A.
DOA may refer to:
* Dead on arrival
* Dead or Alive (disambiguation)
Film
* ''D.O.A.'' (1949 film), a ''film noir''
* ''D.O.A.'' (1988 film), a remake of the 1949 film
* '' D.O.A.: A Rite of Passage'' (1980 film), a documentary on the gene ...
'' in 1988.
Also among this group, the issue of racism as motive for murder is central to ''
Crossfire
A crossfire (also known as interlocking fire) is a military term for the siting of weapons (often automatic weapons such as assault rifles or sub-machine guns) so that their arcs of fire overlap. This tactic came to prominence in World War I.
...
'' (1947), ''
Bad Day at Black Rock
''Bad Day at Black Rock'' is a 1955 American neo-Western film directed by John Sturges with screenplay by Millard Kaufman. It stars Spencer Tracy and Robert Ryan with support from Anne Francis, Dean Jagger, Walter Brennan, John Ericson, Ernes ...
'' (1954), and ''
A Soldier's Story'' (1984).
''Ten Little Indians''
Agatha Christie's novel ''
Ten Little Indians
"Ten Little Indians" is a traditional American children's counting out rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 12976. The term "Indians" in this sense refers to Indigenous North American peoples.
In 1868, songwriter Septimus Winner adapt ...
'' (1939, originally ''Ten Little Niggers'', later changed again to ''And Then There Were None'') presented the concept of a mysterious killer preying on a group of strangers trapped at an isolated location (in this case, Indian Island). This was made into ''
And Then There Were None
''And Then There Were None'' is a mystery novel by the English writer Agatha Christie, described by her as the most difficult of her books to write. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 6 November 1939, as ...
'' (1945), directed by the French exile
René Clair
René Clair (11 November 1898 – 15 March 1981), born René-Lucien Chomette, was a French filmmaker and writer. He first established his reputation in the 1920s as a director of silent films in which comedy was often mingled with fantasy. He wen ...
. Three more film versions, all titled ''Ten Little Indians'', were released in 1965, 1974, and 1989 along with the 1987 Russian film ''
Desyat Negrityat
''Desyat Negrityat'' (russian: Десять негритят, 'Ten Little Negroes') is a 1987 Soviet film adaptation of Agatha Christie's 1939 novel of the same name, now known as ''And Then There Were None''. It was directed by Stanislav Govorukh ...
''.
This premise has been used countless times, especially in "old dark house" genre horror films. A few examples include ''
Five Dolls for an August Moon
''Five Dolls for an August Moon'' (Italian: ''5 bambole per la luna d'agosto'') is a 1970 Italian giallo film directed by Mario Bava. It concerns a group of people who have gathered on a remote island for fun and relaxation. One of the guests is ...
'' (1970) directed by
Mario Bava
Mario Bava (31 July 1914 – 27 April 1980) was an Italian filmmaker who worked variously as a director, cinematographer, special effects artist and screenwriter, frequently referred to as the "Master of Italian Horror" and the "Master of the M ...
, ''
Identity
Identity may refer to:
* Identity document
* Identity (philosophy)
* Identity (social science)
* Identity (mathematics)
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''Identity'' (1987 film), an Iranian film
* ''Identity'' (2003 film), ...
'' (2003), ''Mindhunters'' (2004), made-for-television films (''
Dead Man's Island'', 1996), a miniseries (''
Harper's Island
''Harper's Island'' is an American horror mystery limited series created by Ari Schlossberg for CBS. Schlossberg, Jeffrey Jackson Bell and Jon Turteltaub served as executive producers. The series features an ensemble cast led by Elaine Cassidy ...
'', 2009), and episodic television such as ''
The Avengers'' ("The Superlative Seven"), ''
The Wild Wild West
''The Wild Wild West'' is an American Western, espionage, and science fiction television series that ran on the CBS television network for four seasons from September 17, 1965, to April 11, 1969. Two satirical comedy television film sequels w ...
'' ("The Night of The Tottering Tontine") both from 1967, and ''
Remington Steele
''Remington Steele'' is an American television series co-created by Robert Butler and Michael Gleason. The series, starring Stephanie Zimbalist and Pierce Brosnan, was produced by MTM Enterprises and first broadcast on the NBC network from Oc ...
'' ("Steele Trap") in 1982.
Revival and revisionist era: 1960s–1970s
The 1960s and 1970s saw a
neo-noir
Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates literally to English as "black film", indicating ...
resurgence of the hardboiled detective film (and gritty police drama), based on the classic films of the past. These fall into three basic categories: modern updates of old films and novels, atmospheric
period piece
A historical drama (also period drama, costume drama, and period piece) is a work set in a past time period, usually used in the context of film and television. Historical drama includes historical fiction and romances, adventure films, and swas ...
films set in the 1930s and 1940s, and new, contemporary detective stories that pay homage to the past.
Classics made contemporary
Veteran private eye Philip Marlowe returned as a modern-day sleuth in ''
Marlowe Marlowe may refer to:
Name
* Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593), English dramatist, poet and translator
* Philip Marlowe, fictional hardboiled detective created by author Raymond Chandler
* Marlowe (name), including list of people and characters w ...
'' (1969) played by
James Garner
James Garner (born James Scott Bumgarner; April 7, 1928 – July 19, 2014) was an American actor. He played leading roles in more than 50 theatrical films, including '' The Great Escape'' (1963) with Steve McQueen; Paddy Chayefsky's ''The Ameri ...
(based on Chandler's ''The Little Sister''), and in
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman ( ; February 20, 1925 – November 20, 2006) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He was a five-time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director and is considered an enduring figure from the New H ...
's revisionist ''
The Long Goodbye'' (1973) played by
Elliott Gould
Elliott Gould (; né Goldstein; born August 29, 1938) is an American actor. He began acting in Hollywood films during the 1960s.
Elliott's breakthrough role was in the ''Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice'' (1969), for which he received a nomination f ...
.
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American actor. He rose to prominence with an Academy Award nomination for the Best Supporting Actor for ''The Story of G.I. Joe'' (1945), followed by his starring in ...
played Marlowe in the remake of ''
The Big Sleep
''The Big Sleep'' (1939) is a hardboiled crime novel by American-British writer Raymond Chandler, the first to feature the detective Philip Marlowe. It has been adapted for film twice, The Big Sleep (1946 film), in 1946 and again The Big Sleep ...
'' (1978) set in contemporary London.
Paul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman (January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008) was an American actor, film director, race car driver, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. He was the recipient of numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, three ...
portrays a modernized
Lew Archer
Lew Archer is a fictional character created by American-Canadian writer Ross Macdonald. Archer is a private detective working in Southern California. Between the late 1940s and the early '70s, the character appeared in 18 novels and a handful o ...
(changed to Harper) in ''
Harper
Harper may refer to:
Names
* Harper (name), a surname and given name
Places
;in Canada
* Harper Islands, Nunavut
*Harper, Prince Edward Island
;In the United States
*Harper, former name of Costa Mesa, California in Orange County
* Harper, Il ...
'' (1966) and ''
The Drowning Pool'' (1976), based on
Ross Macdonald's 1949–50 novels.
Craig Stevens reprised his role as suave private eye Peter Gunn in ''
Gunn Gunn may refer to:
Places
* Gunn City, Missouri, a village
* Gunn, Northern Territory, outer suburb of Darwin
* Gunn, Alberta, Canada, a hamlet
* Gunn Valley, a mountain valley in British Columbia, Canada
* Gun Lake (British Columbia), a Canad ...
'' (1967), a sixties-mod update of his atmospheric, film noir ''
Peter Gunn
''Peter Gunn'' is an American private eye television series, starring Craig Stevens as Peter Gunn with Lola Albright as his girlfriend, Edie Hart. The series aired on NBC from September 22, 1958, to 1960 and on ABC in 1960–1961. The seri ...
'' TV series (1958–61). Bulldog Drummond returned as a contemporary sleuth in ''
Deadlier Than the Male
''Deadlier Than the Male'' is a 1967 British adventure crime mystery film. It is one of the many take-offs of James Bond produced during the 1960s, but is based on an already established detective fiction hero, Bulldog Drummond.
Richard Johnso ...
'' (1967) and ''
Some Girls Do
''Some Girls Do'' is a 1969 British comedy spy film directed by Ralph Thomas. It was the second of the revamped Bulldog Drummond films (following 1967's ''Deadlier Than the Male'') starring Richard Johnson as Drummond, made following the success ...
'' (1969). Both films were produced in the extravagant style of a
James Bond
The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...
espionage yarn. The remake of ''
I, the Jury
''I, the Jury'' is the 1947 debut novel of American crime fiction writer Mickey Spillane, the first work to feature private investigator Mike Hammer.
Plot summary
The novel opens as private detective Mike Hammer is called to the apartment of i ...
'' (1982) brought back Mike Hammer (revived again in the 1984–87 television series, ''
Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer''). ''
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
''Kiss Kiss Bang Bang'' is a 2005 American neo-noir black comedy mystery thriller film written and directed by Shane Black (in his directorial debut), and starring Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan, and Corbin Bernsen. The scri ...
'' (2005) is a modernized adaptation of
Brett Halliday
Brett Halliday (July 31, 1904 – February 4, 1977) is the primary pen name of Davis Dresser, an American mystery and western writer. Halliday is best known for the long-lived series of Michael Shayne mysteries he wrote, and later commission ...
's 1941
Michael Shayne
Michael "Mike" Shayne is a fictional private detective character created during the late 1930s by writer Brett Halliday, a pseudonym of Davis Dresser. The character appeared in a series of seven films starring Lloyd Nolan for Twentieth Century Fo ...
novel ''Bodies Are Where You Find Them''.
The old-fashioned whodunit formula from the 1930s was given a fresh update in ''
The List of Adrian Messenger
''The List of Adrian Messenger'' is a 1963 American mystery film directed by John Huston starring Kirk Douglas, George C. Scott, Dana Wynter, Clive Brook, Gladys Cooper and Herbert Marshall. It is based on a 1959 novel of the same name written by ...
'' (1963), ''
Sleuth
Sleuth may refer to:
* Detective
*Sleuth, collective noun for a group of bears
Computing
* The Sleuth Kit, a collection of forensic analysis software
*SLEUTH assembler language for the UNIVAC 1107
Entertainment and media
*Cloo
Cloo (stylized ...
'' (1972), ''
The Last of Sheila
''The Last of Sheila'' is a 1973 American whodunnit mystery film directed by Herbert Ross and written by Anthony Perkins and Stephen Sondheim. It starred Richard Benjamin, Dyan Cannon, James Coburn, Joan Hackett, James Mason, Ian McShane, and ...
'' (1973), and the comedy ''
Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?
''Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?'' (released in the UK as ''Too Many Chefs'') is a 1978 black comedy mystery film directed by Ted Kotcheff and starring George Segal, Jacqueline Bisset and Robert Morley. It is based on the 1976 novel '' ...
'' (1978).
The early films of
Brian De Palma
Brian Russell De Palma (born September 11, 1940) is an American film director and screenwriter. With a career spanning over 50 years, he is best known for his work in the suspense, crime and psychological thriller genres. De Palma was a leading ...
include the slasher comedy ''
Murder a la Mod'' (1968), the Hitchcock-inspired ''
Sisters
A sister is a woman or a girl who shares one or more parents with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to ...
'' (1973), and ''
Obsession'' (1976), a remake of Hitchcock's 1958 classic ''
Vertigo
Vertigo is a condition where a person has the sensation of movement or of surrounding objects moving when they are not. Often it feels like a spinning or swaying movement. This may be associated with nausea, vomiting, sweating, or difficulties w ...
''. The influence of Hitchcock emerged in several French thrillers, especially ''
The Champagne Murders
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
'' (1967) directed by
Claude Chabrol
Claude Henri Jean Chabrol (; 24 June 1930 – 12 September 2010) was a French film director and a member of the French New Wave (''nouvelle vague'') group of filmmakers who first came to prominence at the end of the 1950s. Like his colleagues an ...
and ''
The Bride Wore Black
''The Bride Wore Black'' (french: La Mariée était en noir) is a 1968 French film directed by François Truffaut and based on the novel of the same name by William Irish, a pseudonym for Cornell Woolrich. It stars Jeanne Moreau, Charles Den ...
'' (1968) by
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut ( , ; ; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. After a career of more tha ...
.
Period films
The many period films set in the 1930s and 1940s are led by
Roman Polanski
Raymond Roman Thierry Polański , group=lower-alpha, name=note_a (né Liebling; 18 August 1933) is a French-Polish film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, two ...
's classic ''
Chinatown
A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austra ...
'' (1974) starring
Jack Nicholson
John Joseph Nicholson (born April 22, 1937) is an American retired actor and filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time. In many of his films, he played rebels against the social structure. He received numerous ...
and its belated sequel, ''
The Two Jakes
''The Two Jakes'' is a 1990 American neo-noir mystery crime drama film and the sequel to the 1974 film ''Chinatown''. Directed by and starring Jack Nicholson, it also features Harvey Keitel, Meg Tilly, Madeleine Stowe, Richard Farnsworth, Fre ...
'' (1990), which Nicholson also directed. Robert Mitchum played Marlowe for the first time in ''
Farewell, My Lovely
''Farewell, My Lovely'' is a novel by Raymond Chandler, published in 1940, the second novel he wrote featuring the Los Angeles private eye Philip Marlowe. It was adapted for the screen three times and was also adapted for the stage and rad ...
'' (1975), perhaps the most faithful adaptation of this often-filmed book. The obscure ''Chandler'' (1972) is set in the 1940s but has nothing to do with Raymond Chandler's writings. The lighthearted ''
Peeper'' (1975) is set in 1940s Los Angeles. The television film ''Goodnight, My Love'' (1972) with
Richard Boone
Richard Allen Boone (June 18, 1917 – January 10, 1981) was an American actor who starred in over 50 films and was notable for his roles in Westerns, including his starring role in the television series ''Have Gun – Will Travel''.
Early lif ...
and two short-lived TV series, ''
Banyon
''Banyon'' is a detective series broadcast in the United States by NBC as part of its 1972-73 television schedule, though a standalone two-hour television movie was broadcast first in March 1971. The series was a Quinn Martin Production (in assoc ...
'' (1972–73) and ''
City of Angels'' (1976) were also set in the 1930s and pay tribute to the Sam Spade/Philip Marlowe model. And the television film ''Who Is the Black Dahlia?'' (1975) recreates the true unsolved murder case from 1947.
Agatha Christie's elegant ''
Murder on the Orient Express
''Murder on the Orient Express'' is a work of detective fiction by English writer Agatha Christie featuring the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 1 January 1934. In the U ...
'' (1974) and ''
Death on the Nile
''Death on the Nile'' is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 1 November 1937 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company the following year. The UK edition retailed at s ...
'' (1978) were colorful, lavish productions rich in 1930s period detail. Earlier, a series of lighthearted Miss Marple mysteries were loosely adapted from Christie's novels.
Margaret Rutherford
Dame Margaret Taylor Rutherford, (11 May 1892 – 22 May 1972) was an English actress of stage, television and film.
She came to national attention following World War II in the film adaptations of Noël Coward's '' Blithe Spirit'', and Osca ...
starred in ''
Murder, She Said'' (1961), ''
Murder Most Foul'' (1964), ''
Murder Ahoy!
''Murder Ahoy!'' is the last of four Miss Marple films made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer that starred Margaret Rutherford. As in the previous three, the actress plays Agatha Christie's amateur sleuth Miss Jane Marple, with Charles 'Bud' Tingwell as ...
'' (1965), and did a humorous cameo appearance as Marple in the
Hercule Poirot
Hercule Poirot (, ) is a fictional Belgian detective created by British writer Agatha Christie. Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-running characters, appearing in 33 novels, two plays ('' Black Coffee'' and ''Alibi''), and more ...
mystery ''
The Alphabet Murders
''The Alphabet Murders'' is a 1965 British detective film directed by Frank Tashlin and starring Tony Randall as Hercule Poirot. It is based on the 1936 novel ''The A.B.C. Murders'' by Agatha Christie.
Plot
Albert Aachen, a clown with a unique ...
'' (1965).
The evergreen Sherlock Holmes was given a revisionist treatment in
Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder (; ; born Samuel Wilder; June 22, 1906 – March 27, 2002) was an Austrian-American filmmaker. His career in Hollywood spanned five decades, and he is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Classic Holl ...
's ''
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
''The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes'' is a 1970 DeLuxe Color film in Panavision written and produced by Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond, and directed by Wilder. The film offers an affectionate, slightly parodic look at Sherlock Holmes, an ...
'' (1970). In ''
The Seven Percent Solution
''The Seven-Per-Cent Solution: Being a Reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D.'' is a 1974 novel by American writer Nicholas Meyer. It is written as a pastiche of a Sherlock Holmes adventure, and was made into a film of the same ...
'' (1976), Dr.
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...
himself cures Holmes of his drug addiction. And two films, ''
A Study in Terror'' (1965) and ''
Murder by Decree
''Murder by Decree'' is a 1979 mystery thriller film directed by Bob Clark. It features the Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who are embroiled in the investigation surrounding the real-life 1 ...
'' (1979), which includes scenes of lurid gore, put Holmes in pursuit of the mysterious real-life serial murderer
Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in the autumn of 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer wa ...
. The definitive and most faithful adaptation of the original stories was done by the British TV series
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
''The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes'' is a collection of twelve short stories by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle, first published on 14 October 1892. It contains the earliest short stories featuring the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes, w ...
starring
Jeremy Brett as Holmes and
David Burke as Watson, in 41 episodes which ran from 1984 to 1994.
Later Holmes films are often inventions that have little or nothing to do with the original Arthur Conan Doyle stories, such as ''
Young Sherlock Holmes
''Young Sherlock Holmes'' (also known with the title card name of "''Young Sherlock Holmes and the Pyramid of Fear''") is a 1985 American mystery adventure film directed by Barry Levinson and written by Chris Columbus, based on the characters ...
'' (1985), produced by
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Spie ...
's
Amblin Entertainment
Amblin Entertainment, Inc., formerly named Amblin Productions and Steven Spielberg Productions, is an American film production company founded by director and producer Steven Spielberg, and film producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshal ...
, which puts the teenage sleuth in an action-adventure story replete with computer-generated special effects. The reinvention of Holmes has continued as evidenced by the revamped, big-budget Warner Bros. series directed by
Guy Ritchie
Guy Stuart Ritchie (born 10 September 1968) is an English film director, producer and screenwriter. His work includes British gangster films, and the ''Sherlock Holmes'' films starring Robert Downey Jr.
Ritchie left school at age 15 and wor ...
. In ''
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...
'' (2009) and ''
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows'' (2011), the cerebral detective (played by
Robert Downey Jr.
Robert John Downey Jr. (born April 4, 1965) is an American actor and producer. His career has been characterized by critical and popular success in his youth, followed by a period of substance abuse and legal troubles, before a resurgence of ...
) is transformed into an athletic (and romantic) action hero in a
steampunk
Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates retrofuturistic technology and aesthetics inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. Steampunk works are often set in an alternative history of the Victorian era or ...
fantasy version of
Victorian England.
The New Wave
The New Wave of modern detective films may well begin with
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as Fran ...
's offbeat ''
Alphaville'' (1965) with its traditional, raincoat-and-fedora private eye placed in a futuristic, science fiction-based story. The film is part homage, part parody of the detective genre. Godard followed this with ''
Made in U.S.A.'' (1966), an ironic, unconventional murder mystery of sorts that lightly references the
Howard Hawks
Howard Winchester Hawks (May 30, 1896December 26, 1977) was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era. Critic Leonard Maltin called him "the greatest American director who is not a household name."
A v ...
classic ''
The Big Sleep
''The Big Sleep'' (1939) is a hardboiled crime novel by American-British writer Raymond Chandler, the first to feature the detective Philip Marlowe. It has been adapted for film twice, The Big Sleep (1946 film), in 1946 and again The Big Sleep ...
''.
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...
is a cynical, Bogart-like gumshoe in ''
Tony Rome
''Tony Rome'' is a 1967 American neo-noir mystery crime thriller film directed by Gordon Douglas and starring Frank Sinatra in the title role, alongside Jill St. John, Sue Lyon and Gena Rowlands. It was adapted from Marvin H. Albert's novel '' ...
'' (1967) and its sequel ''
Lady in Cement
''Lady in Cement'' is a 1968 American neo-noir mystery crime comedy thriller film directed by Gordon Douglas, based on the 1961 novel ''The Lady in Cement'' by Marvin H. Albert. The film stars Frank Sinatra, Raquel Welch, Dan Blocker, Richa ...
'' (1968) — and a tough police investigator in ''
The Detective'' (1968).
John D. MacDonald wrote 21
Travis McGee
John Dann MacDonald (July 24, 1916December 28, 1986) was an American writer of novels and short stories. He is known for his thrillers.
MacDonald was a prolific author of crime and suspense novels, many set in his adopted home of Florida. On ...
novels, but only one, ''
Darker than Amber
''Darker than Amber'' (1966) is the seventh novel in the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald
John Dann MacDonald (July 24, 1916December 28, 1986) was an American writer of novels and short stories. He is known for his thrillers.
MacDo ...
'' (1970) was filmed.
George Peppard
George Peppard (; October 1, 1928 – May 8, 1994) was an American actor. He is best remembered for his role as struggling writer Paul Varjak in the 1961 film '' Breakfast at Tiffany's'', and for playing commando leader Col. John "Hannibal ...
is a traditional private detective in ''
P.J.'' (1968).
Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas (born Issur Danielovitch; December 9, 1916 – February 5, 2020) was an American actor and filmmaker. After an impoverished childhood, he made his film debut in ''The Strange Love of Martha Ivers'' (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck. Do ...
is an ex-cop turned private sleuth/body guard in the more light-hearted ''
A Lovely Way to Die
''A Lovely Way to Die'' is a 1968 American crime neo noir directed by David Lowell Rich and starring Kirk Douglas, Sylva Koscina, Eli Wallach and Kenneth Haigh.
A police officer resigns from the force and becomes a bodyguard to the wife of a w ...
'' (1968).
Robert Culp
Robert Martin Culp (August 16, 1930 – March 24, 2010) was an American actor widely known for his work in television. Culp earned an international reputation for his role as Kelly Robinson on ''I Spy'' (1965–1968), the espionage television se ...
and
Bill Cosby
William Henry Cosby Jr. ( ; born July 12, 1937) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and media personality. He made significant contributions to American and African-American culture, and is well known in the United States for his eccentric ...
are hard-luck private eyes in the downbeat and violent ''
Hickey & Boggs
''Hickey & Boggs'' is a 1972 American neo-noir crime film written by Walter Hill and directed by Robert Culp.
Plot
Culp and Bill Cosby, formerly Culp's co-star on '' I Spy'', play weary, hard-luck private eyes Al Hickey and Frank Boggs hir ...
'' (1972).
Burt Reynolds
Burton Leon Reynolds Jr. (February 11, 1936 – September 6, 2018) was an American actor, considered a sex symbol and icon of 1970s American popular culture.
Reynolds first rose to prominence when he starred in television series such as ' ...
plays a tongue-in-cheek ''
Shamus'' (1973), and
Burt Lancaster
Burton Stephen Lancaster (November 2, 1913 – October 20, 1994) was an American actor and producer. Initially known for playing tough guys with a tender heart, he went on to achieve success with more complex and challenging roles over a 45-yea ...
is a retired cop turned sleuth in ''
The Midnight Man'' (1974). Two of the finest examples star
Gene Hackman
Eugene Allen Hackman (born January 30, 1930) is an American retired actor and former novelist. In a career that has spanned more than six decades, Hackman has won two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, one Screen Actors Guild Award, two BAFTAs ...
in ''
The Conversation
''The Conversation'' is a 1974 American mystery thriller film written, produced, and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Cindy Williams, Frederic Forrest, Harrison Ford, Teri Garr, and Rober ...
'' (1974) and ''
Night Moves'' (1975).
The
blaxploitation
Blaxploitation is an ethnic subgenre of the exploitation film that emerged in the United States during the early 1970s. The term, a portmanteau of the words "black" and "exploitation", was coined in August 1972 by Junius Griffin, the president o ...
B-movie industry adopted the standard private detective format for several action-mysteries such as ''
Trouble Man'' (1972), ''
Black Eye
A periorbital hematoma, commonly called a black eye or a shiner (associated with boxing or stick sports such as hockey), is bruising around the eye commonly due to an injury to the face rather than to the eye. The name refers to the dark-colo ...
'' (1974), ''
Sheba, Baby
''Sheba, Baby'' is a 1975 American blaxploitation action film directed by William Girdler and starring Pam Grier and Austin Stoker.
Plot
Private investigator Sheba Shayne (Grier) returns from Chicago, Illinois to her hometown of Louisville, K ...
'' (1975) starring
Pam Grier
Pamela Suzette Grier (born May 26, 1949) is an American actress and singer. Described by Quentin Tarantino as cinema's first female action star (although, there are some who dispute that claim and believe Cheng Pei-pei actually holds that distin ...
, and ''
Velvet Smooth
''Velvet Smooth'' is a 1976 American blaxploitation film directed by Michael L. Fink and starring Johnnie Hill. The screenplay concerns a crime lord who hires a female private detective to find out who's stealing his business. This was the only f ...
'' (1976).
''
Brick
A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...
'' (2005), written and directed by
Rian Johnson
Rian Craig Johnson (born December 17, 1973) is an American filmmaker. He made his directorial debut with the neo-noir mystery film '' Brick'' (2005), which received positive reviews and grossed nearly $4 million on a $450,000 budget. Transitio ...
, is a unique homage bordering on parody which brings the terse, slang-filled dialog of Raymond Chandler to a modern-day California high school where a teenage sleuth investigates a murder connected to a drug ring.
Noteworthy police detective dramas of the period include The French film ''
The Sleeping Car Murders
''The Sleeping Car Murders'' (also known as ''The Sleeping Car Murder'', French title: ''Compartiment tueurs'') is a 1965 French mystery film directed by Costa-Gavras from the novel by Sébastien Japrisot. It stars Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, ...
'' (1965), ''
In the Heat of the Night'' (winner of five
Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
, including Best Picture in 1967), ''
Bullitt
''Bullitt'' is a 1968 American neo-noir action thriller film directed by Peter Yates and produced by Philip D'Antoni. The picture stars Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, and Jacqueline Bisset. The screenplay by Alan R. Trustman and Harry Kleine ...
'', ''
Madigan
''Madigan'' is a 1968 American neo-noir crime drama thriller film directed by Don Siegel (as Donald Siegel) and starring Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda and Inger Stevens
The screenplay—originally titled ''Friday, Saturday, Sunday''—wa ...
'' (both 1968), ''
Klute
''Klute'' is a 1971 American neo-noir crime thriller film directed and produced by Alan J. Pakula, written by Andy and Dave Lewis, and starring Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi, and Roy Scheider. The film follows a high-priced call ...
'' (1971), ''
Electra Glide in Blue
''Electra Glide in Blue'' is a 1973 American action film, starring Robert Blake as a motorcycle cop in Arizona and Billy "Green" Bush as his partner. The film was produced and directed by James William Guercio, and is named after the Harley ...
'' (1973), and two non-mysteries: ''
Dirty Harry
''Dirty Harry'' is a 1971 American neo-noir
Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates ...
'', and ''
The French Connection'' (both 1971). ''
The Parallax View
''The Parallax View'' is a 1974 American political thriller film produced and directed by Alan J. Pakula, and starring Warren Beatty, Hume Cronyn, William Daniels and Paula Prentiss. The screenplay by David Giler and Lorenzo Semple Jr. was base ...
'' (1974) is the first murder mystery structured around political assassinations and high-level conspiracies in America.
Memory loss mysteries
Using
amnesia
Amnesia is a deficit in memory caused by brain damage or disease,Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R., & Mangun, G. (2009) Cognitive Neuroscience: The biology of the mind. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. but it can also be caused temporarily by the use ...
as a central plot device in mysteries began in 1936 with ''
Two in the Dark
''Two in the Dark'' is a 1936 American mystery film directed by Benjamin Stoloff and starring Walter Abel, Margot Grahame, Wallace Ford, Gail Patrick, and Alan Hale. The screenplay concerns an amnesiac suspected of murder.
In 1945, Stoloff ...
'' (remade as ''
Two O'Clock Courage
''Two O'Clock Courage'' is a 1945 American film noir directed by Anthony Mann and written by Robert E. Kent, based on novel written by Gelett Burgess. The drama features Tom Conway and Ann Rutherford. It is a remake of ''Two in the Dark'' (1936). ...
'', 1945),
followed by ''
Crossroads
Crossroads, crossroad, cross road or similar may refer to:
* Crossroads (junction), where four roads meet
Film and television Films
* ''Crossroads'' (1928 film), a 1928 Japanese film by Teinosuke Kinugasa
* ''Cross Roads'' (film), a 1930 Brit ...
'' (1942) starring
William Powell
William Horatio Powell (July 29, 1892 – March 5, 1984) was an American actor. A major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the ''The Thin Man (film), Thin Man'' series based on the Nick and Nora Cha ...
, ''
Crime Doctor'' (1943), ''
The Power of the Whistler
''The Power of the Whistler'' is a 1945 film noir thriller film based on the radio drama ''The Whistler''. Directed by Lew Landers, the production features Richard Dix. It is the third of Columbia Pictures' eight " Whistler" films produced in ...
'' (1945), and ''
Somewhere in the Night'' (1946).
In the 1960s, amnesia stories had a resurgence in the mystery-thriller genre. Here, the protagonist loses his pre-existing memories after some mental or physical trauma and embarks on a quest to recover his identity. At the same time, he finds himself at the center of a mysterious conspiracy involving murder, espionage, or both. Films in this category include ''
Mirage
A mirage is a naturally-occurring optical phenomenon in which light rays bend via refraction to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky. The word comes to English via the French ''(se) mirer'', from the Latin ''mirari'', meanin ...
'' with
Gregory Peck
Eldred Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an American actor and one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1970s. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck the 12th-greatest male star of Classic Hollywood ...
, ''
The Third Day
''The Third Day'' is a 1965 suspense thriller film directed by Jack Smight and starring George Peppard and Elizabeth Ashley. It was based on a novel by Joseph Hayes.
Plot
Steve Mallory has been involved in a car crash, and it appears he has k ...
'' starring
George Peppard
George Peppard (; October 1, 1928 – May 8, 1994) was an American actor. He is best remembered for his role as struggling writer Paul Varjak in the 1961 film '' Breakfast at Tiffany's'', and for playing commando leader Col. John "Hannibal ...
, the British film ''
Hysteria
Hysteria is a term used colloquially to mean ungovernable emotional excess and can refer to a temporary state of mind or emotion. In the nineteenth century, hysteria was considered a diagnosable physical illness in women. It is assumed that ...
'' from
Hammer Films
A hammer is a tool, most often a hand tool, consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nails into wood, to shape metal (as wi ...
(all from 1965), ''
Mister Buddwing
''Mister Buddwing'' is a 1966 American film drama directed by Delbert Mann and starring James Garner.
The film depicts a well-dressed man who finds himself on a bench in Central Park with no idea who he is. He proceeds to wander around Manhatta ...
'' (1966) with
James Garner
James Garner (born James Scott Bumgarner; April 7, 1928 – July 19, 2014) was an American actor. He played leading roles in more than 50 theatrical films, including '' The Great Escape'' (1963) with Steve McQueen; Paddy Chayefsky's ''The Ameri ...
, and ''
Jigsaw
Jigsaw may refer to:
* Jigsaw (tool), a tool used for cutting arbitrary curves
* Jigsaw puzzle, a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of interlocking pieces
Arts and media Comics
* Jigsaw (Marvel Comics), a supervillain and arch-enemy of ...
'' (1968), a remake of ''Mirage''.
Concurrently, the hero-gets-amnesia story became a frequently used television cliche. There were two series, the western ''
A Man Called Shenandoah
''A Man Called Shenandoah'' is an American western series that aired Monday evenings on ABC-TV from September 13, 1965 to May 16, 1966. It was produced by MGM Television. Some of the location work for the 34 half-hour black and white episodes we ...
'' (1965–1966), and the contemporary drama ''
Coronet Blue
''Coronet Blue'' is an American adventure drama series that ran on CBS from May 29 until September 4, 1967.
It starred Frank Converse as Michael Alden, an amnesiac in search of his identity. Brian Bedford co-starred. The show's 13 episodes were f ...
'' (filmed 1965, broadcast 1967), both about a man with no memories. Numerous crime-dramas, adventure shows, and comedies featured episodes in which the lead character has temporary amnesia. These include ''
The Addams Family
''The Addams Family'' is a fictional family created by American cartoonist Charles Addams. They originally appeared in a series of 150 unrelated single-panel cartoons, about half of which were originally published in ''The New Yorker'' over a ...
'', ''
The Munsters
''The Munsters'' is an American sitcom depicting the home life of a family of benign monsters. The series starred Fred Gwynne as Frankenstein's monsterEpisodes referring to the fact that Herman is Frankenstein's monster include #55, "Just Anoth ...
'' (both 1965),''
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'' is an American spy fiction television series produced by MGM Television, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television and first broadcast on NBC. The series follows secret agents, played by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, who wo ...
'' (1966), ''
Get Smart
''Get Smart'' is an American comedy television series parodying the secret agent genre that had become widely popular in the first half of the 1960s, with the release of the ''James Bond'' films. It was created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, an ...
'' (1967), ''
The Wild Wild West
''The Wild Wild West'' is an American Western, espionage, and science fiction television series that ran on the CBS television network for four seasons from September 17, 1965, to April 11, 1969. Two satirical comedy television film sequels w ...
'', ''
The Big Valley
''The Big Valley'' is an American Western drama television series that originally aired from September 15, 1965, to May 19, 1969 on ABC. The series is set on the fictional Barkley Ranch in Stockton, California, from 1884 to 1888. The one-hour e ...
'', ''
Star Trek
''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...
'' (all from 1968), ''
It Takes a Thief'' (1969), ''
The Mod Squad
''The Mod Squad'' is an American crime drama series, originally broadcast for five seasons on ABC from September 24, 1968, to March 1, 1973. It starred Michael Cole as Peter "Pete" Cochran, Peggy Lipton as Julie Barnes, Clarence Williams III as ...
'' (1971), ''
Hawaii Five-O
Hawaii Five-O or Hawaii Five-0 may refer to:
* ''Hawaii Five-0'' (2010 TV series), an American action police procedural television series
* ''Hawaii Five-O'' (1968 TV series), an American police procedural drama series produced by CBS Productio ...
'' (1972), ''
Gunsmoke
''Gunsmoke'' is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston. It centers on Dodge City, Kansas, in the 1870s, during the settlement of the American West. The central character ...
'' (1973), and ''
Charlie's Angels
''Charlie's Angels'' is an American crime drama television series that aired on ABC from September 22, 1976, to June 24, 1981, producing five seasons and 115 episodes. The series was created by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts and was produced by Aa ...
'' (1978). By the end of the 1970s, this now shop-worn plot device became dormant once again until resurfacing in a spate of mystery thrillers in the 1990s (see the ''Psychological thriller'' section below).
Italian Giallo thrillers
In Italy, a new type of controversial horror-based thriller called the
Giallo
In Italian cinema, ''Giallo'' (; plural ''gialli'', from ''giallo'', Italian for yellow) is a genre of mystery fiction and thrillers that often contains slasher, crime fiction, psychological thriller, psychological horror, sexploitation, and, ...
film (which began in the 1960s) became a popular and influential genre by the early 1970s. These films, which often contain elements of gothic horror, usually involve ordinary people forced to solve a series of bizarre murders. (Police procedurals generally belong to the sister genre Krimi, a German cycle inspired by
Edgar Wallace
Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace (1 April 1875 – 10 February 1932) was a British writer.
Born into poverty as an illegitimate London child, Wallace left school at the age of 12. He joined the army at age 21 and was a war correspondent during th ...
novels). The stories tend to center around a series of grisly murder sequences with shocking ''
grand guignol
''Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol'' (: "The Theatre of the Great Puppet")—known as the Grand Guignol–was a theatre in the Pigalle district of Paris (7, cité Chaptal). From its opening in 1897 until its closing in 1962, it specialised in natura ...
'' style gore, sometimes mixed with sadistic eroticism (the victims often being beautiful women). The villains are usually mysterious, psychopathic
serial killer
A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A
*
*
*
* with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...
s (often wearing masks or disguises) who are eventually hunted down by the police and/or an average person turned sleuth. The first important film in this genre is ''
Blood and Black Lace
''Blood and Black Lace'' ( it, 6 donne per l'assassino, lit=6 Women for the Murderer) is a 1964 ''giallo'' film directed by Mario Bava and starring Eva Bartok and Cameron Mitchell. The story concerns the brutal murders of a Roman fashion house ...
'' (1964) directed by
Mario Bava
Mario Bava (31 July 1914 – 27 April 1980) was an Italian filmmaker who worked variously as a director, cinematographer, special effects artist and screenwriter, frequently referred to as the "Master of Italian Horror" and the "Master of the M ...
.
Some examples that follow a standard murder mystery format include ''
Five Dolls for an August Moon
''Five Dolls for an August Moon'' (Italian: ''5 bambole per la luna d'agosto'') is a 1970 Italian giallo film directed by Mario Bava. It concerns a group of people who have gathered on a remote island for fun and relaxation. One of the guests is ...
'' (1970) by Mario Bava, three by director
Dario Argento
Dario Argento (; born 7 September 1940) is an Italian film director, producer, screenwriter, actor and film critic, critic. His influential work in the horror film, horror genre during the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in the subgenre known as ...
: ''
The Cat o' Nine Tails
''The Cat o' Nine Tails'' ( it, Il gatto a nove code) is a 1971 ''giallo'' film written and directed by Dario Argento, adapted from a story by Dardano Sacchetti, Luigi Cozzi, and an uncredited Bryan Edgar Wallace. It stars Karl Malden, Jame ...
'', ''
Four Flies on Grey Velvet
''Four Flies on Grey Velvet'' ( it, 4 mosche di velluto grigio) is a 1971 '' giallo'' film written and directed by Dario Argento. The film concerns Roberto Tobias ( Michael Brandon), who accidentally kills a man and is then tormented by someone w ...
'' (both 1971), and ''
Deep Red
''Deep Red'' ( it, Profondo rosso), also known as ''The Hatchet Murders'', is a 1975 Italian Thriller film, thriller- giallo film directed by Dario Argento and co-written by Argento and Bernardino Zapponi. It stars David Hemmings as a musician wh ...
'' (1975) – as well as ''
A Lizard in a Woman's Skin
''A Lizard in a Woman's Skin'' ( it, Una lucertola con la pelle di donna) is a 1971 ''giallo'' film directed by Lucio Fulci and produced by Edmondo Amati and Robert Dorfmann. It stars Florinda Bolkan, Stanley Baker, Jean Sorel, Leo Genn, and Anit ...
'' (1971), ''
The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh
''The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh'' (Italian: ''Lo strano vizio della Signora Wardh'') is a 1971 ''giallo'' mystery film directed by Sergio Martino, and starring Edwige Fenech, George Hilton, Ivan Rassimov, and Alberto de Mendoza. Its plot follo ...
'' (1971), ''
Black Belly of the Tarantula
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...
'' (1971), ''
Who Saw Her Die?'' (1972), ''
What Have You Done to Solange?
''What Have You Done to Solange?'' ( it, Cosa avete fatto a Solange?) is a 1972 '' giallo'' film directed by Massimo Dallamano and starring Fabio Testi, Karin Baal, Joachim Fuchsberger, Cristina Galbó, and Camille Keaton. The plot follows a ser ...
'' (1972), ''
Casa d'appuntamento'' (aka ''The French Sex Murders'', 1972), and ''
The Red Queen Kills Seven Times
''The Red Queen Kills Seven Times'' ( it, La dama rossa uccide sette volte) is a 1972 ''giallo'' film directed by Emilio Miraglia.
Plot
Two sisters, Kitty and Evelyn, are cursed by a family painting depicting a hundred year-cycle in which a Red Q ...
'' (1972).
The Giallo style has had an enduring influence on horror films in general as well as the subgenre
slasher
Slasher may refer to:
* Slasher (basketball), a style of play in basketball
* Slasher film, a subgenre of the horror film
* Slasher (tool), a scrub-clearing implement
* ''Slasher'' (2004 film), a 2004 documentary film
* ''Slasher'' (2007 film) ...
and
splatter film
A splatter film is a subgenre of horror films that deliberately focuses on graphic portrayals of wikt:gore, gore and graphic violence. These films, usually through the use of special effects, display a fascination with the vulnerability of the h ...
s that would soon follow. Early examples of this influence can be seen in the British ''
Circus of Fear
''Circus of Fear'' (german: Das Rätsel des silbernen Dreieck / ''Mystery of the Silver Triangle''), also ''Scotland Yard auf heißer Spur'', also ''Circus of Terror'') is a 1966 Anglo-German international co-production thriller film starring C ...
'' (1966), based on an
Edgar Wallace
Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace (1 April 1875 – 10 February 1932) was a British writer.
Born into poverty as an illegitimate London child, Wallace left school at the age of 12. He joined the army at age 21 and was a war correspondent during th ...
novel, ''
Berserk!
''Berserk!'' is a 1967 British horror-thriller film starring Joan Crawford, Ty Hardin, Diana Dors and Judy Geeson in a macabre mother-daughter tale about a circus plagued with murders. The screenplay was written by Herman Cohen and Aben Kandel ...
'' (1967), and the American mystery-thrillers ''
No Way to Treat a Lady'' (1968), ''
Klute
''Klute'' is a 1971 American neo-noir crime thriller film directed and produced by Alan J. Pakula, written by Andy and Dave Lewis, and starring Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi, and Roy Scheider. The film follows a high-priced call ...
'' (1971), ''
Pretty Maids All in a Row
''Pretty Maids All in a Row'' is a 1971 American sexploitation film that is part black comedy, part sex comedy, and part murder mystery. Starring Rock Hudson, Angie Dickinson, and Telly Savalas, it was released on April 28, 1971. Roger Vadim dire ...
'' (1971), based on an Italian novel, ''
Eyes of Laura Mars
''Eyes of Laura Mars'' is a 1978 American neo noir mystery-thriller film starring Faye Dunaway and Tommy Lee Jones and directed by Irvin Kershner. The screenplay was adapted (in collaboration with David Zelag Goodman) from a spec script titled '' ...
'' (1978), and Hitchcock's ''
Frenzy
''Frenzy'' is a 1972 British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It is the penultimate feature film of his extensive career. The screenplay by Anthony Shaffer was based on the 1966 novel ''Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Squar ...
'' (1972).
From ''Blowup'' to ''Blow Out''
One mystery film stands out in a category by itself.
Michelangelo Antonioni
Michelangelo Antonioni (, ; 29 September 1912 – 30 July 2007) was an Italian filmmaker. He is best known for directing his "trilogy on modernity and its discontents"—''L'Avventura'' (1960), ''La Notte'' (1961), and ''L'Eclisse'' (1962 ...
's provocative ''
Blowup
''Blowup'' (sometimes styled as ''Blow-up'' or ''Blow Up'') is a 1966 mystery drama thriller film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and produced by Carlo Ponti. It was Antonioni's first entirely English-language film, and stars David Hemming ...
'' (1966) is a unique anti-whodunit symbolizing the aimless hedonism of the 1960s. A
swinging London
The Swinging Sixties was a youth-driven cultural revolution that took place in the United Kingdom during the mid-to-late 1960s, emphasising modernity and fun-loving hedonism, with Swinging London as its centre. It saw a flourishing in art, mus ...
photographer uncovers clues to a murder, but solving the crime is rendered irrelevant in a society where no one really cares. This contrasts sharply with the ending of ''The Maltese Falcon'' where Sam Spade solves the murder of his partner, Miles Archer. He sacrifices the woman he's fallen for, not because he was fond of Archer (he wasn't), but because it's the right thing to do.
In 1981,
Brian De Palma
Brian Russell De Palma (born September 11, 1940) is an American film director and screenwriter. With a career spanning over 50 years, he is best known for his work in the suspense, crime and psychological thriller genres. De Palma was a leading ...
remade this as ''
Blow Out
''Blow Out'' is a 1981 American neo-noir mystery thriller film written and directed by Brian De Palma. The film stars John Travolta as Jack Terry, a movie sound effects technician from Philadelphia who, while recording sounds for a low-budget ...
'', turning it into a more traditional political thriller. In the DVD audio commentary for ''The Conversation'', director
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola (; ; born April 7, 1939) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the major figures of the New Hollywood filmmaking movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Coppola is the recipient of five A ...
revealed that ''Blowup'' was a major source of inspiration for that film.
''
Electra Glide in Blue
''Electra Glide in Blue'' is a 1973 American action film, starring Robert Blake as a motorcycle cop in Arizona and Billy "Green" Bush as his partner. The film was produced and directed by James William Guercio, and is named after the Harley ...
'' (1973) is another rare example of a murder-mystery plot used as a vehicle for a story concerning greater issues. In this case, disillusionment and the death of dreams and idealism in a world full of immorality.
The 1980s to the present
Since the mid-1970s, only a handful of films with private detectives have been produced. These include ''
I, the Jury
''I, the Jury'' is the 1947 debut novel of American crime fiction writer Mickey Spillane, the first work to feature private investigator Mike Hammer.
Plot summary
The novel opens as private detective Mike Hammer is called to the apartment of i ...
'', ''
Angel Heart
''Angel Heart'' is a 1987 American neo-noir psychological horror film, an adaptation of William Hjortsberg's 1978 novel ''Falling Angel''. The film was written and directed by Alan Parker, and stars Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro, Lisa Bonet, an ...
'', ''Hollywood Harry'', ''
The Two Jakes
''The Two Jakes'' is a 1990 American neo-noir mystery crime drama film and the sequel to the 1974 film ''Chinatown''. Directed by and starring Jack Nicholson, it also features Harvey Keitel, Meg Tilly, Madeleine Stowe, Richard Farnsworth, Fre ...
'', ''
Devil in a Blue Dress
''Devil in a Blue Dress'' is a 1990 hardboiled mystery novel by Walter Mosley, his first published book.
The text centers on the main character, Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins, and his transformation from a day laborer into a detective.
Plot
Set ...
'', ''
Pure Luck
''Pure Luck'' is a 1991 American comedy film starring Martin Short and Danny Glover. It is a remake of the popular French comedy film '' La Chèvre'' (1981).
Plot
The film opens as the klutzy Valerie Highsmith arrives at an airport in Puerto V ...
'', ''
Under Suspicion'', ''
Twilight
Twilight is light produced by sunlight scattering in the upper atmosphere, when the Sun is below the horizon, which illuminates the lower atmosphere and the Earth's surface. The word twilight can also refer to the periods of time when this il ...
'' with
Paul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman (January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008) was an American actor, film director, race car driver, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. He was the recipient of numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, three ...
, and
Ben Affleck
Benjamin Géza Affleck (born August 15, 1972) is an American actor and filmmaker. His accolades include two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and a Volpi Cup.
Affleck began his career as a child when he starred in the PBS educationa ...
's ''
Gone Baby Gone
''Gone Baby Gone'' is a 2007 American crime thriller film directed by Ben Affleck, in his directorial debut. Affleck co-wrote the screenplay with Aaron Stockard based on the 1998 novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane. The film stars Casey Affl ...
''.
Raymond Chandler's original Philip Marlowe short stories from the '30s (which he later expanded into novels) were adapted by the
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
cable network into eleven one-hour episodes for cable television. The series, ''Philip Marlowe: Private Eye'' (1983–1986), starred
Powers Boothe
Powers Allen Boothe (June 1, 1948 – May 14, 2017) was an American actor. He won an Emmy in 1980 for his portrayal of Jim Jones in '' Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones''. He also played saloon owner Cy Tolliver on '' Deadwood'', "C ...
as the hard-bitten detective.
Films with female detectives have not fared well.
Kathleen Turner
Mary Kathleen Turner (born June 19, 1954) is an American actress. She has received various accolades, including two Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, and two Tony Awards.
Turner became widely k ...
as private eye ''
V.I. Warshawski
Victoria Iphigenia "Vic" "V. I." Warshawski is a fictional character, fictional private investigator from Chicago who is the protagonist featured in a series of Detective fiction, detective novels and short story, short stories written by Chicag ...
'' (1991), was to be the start of a new franchise based on the book series by
Sara Paretsky
Sara Paretsky (born June 8, 1947) is an American author of detective fiction, best known for her novels focused on the protagonist V. I. Warshawski.
Life and career
Paretsky was born in Ames, Iowa. Her father was a microbiologist and moved the ...
, but the film was a box-office failure. Plans to turn the ''
Honey West
Honey West is a fictional character created by the husband and wife writing team Gloria and Forest Fickling under the pseudonym "G.G. Fickling", and appearing in eleven mystery novels by the duo.
The character is notable as being one of the firs ...
'' novels into a film have been in and out of development for over a decade with no film in sight.
Since 1980, ten films based on the ever-popular novels of Agatha Christie have been released. Two with eccentric sleuth Hercule Poirot, ''
Evil Under the Sun'' (1982), ''
Appointment with Death
''Appointment with Death'' is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 2 May 1938 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. The UK edition retai ...
'' (1988), and one with Miss Marple ''
The Mirror Crack'd
''The Mirror Crack'd'' is a 1980 British mystery film directed by Guy Hamilton from a screenplay by Jonathan Hales and Barry Sandler, based on Agatha Christie's Miss Marple novel ''The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side'' (1962). It stars Ange ...
'' (1980). Christie herself became the subject of a mystery film in 1979's ''
Agatha'' starring
Vanessa Redgrave
Dame Vanessa Redgrave (born 30 January 1937) is an English actress and activist. Throughout her career spanning over seven decades, Redgrave has garnered numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Television Award, two ...
. The film was a fictional speculation on her famous 11-day disappearance in 1926.
Military mysteries and police procedurals
Complex murder mysteries related to military men began with ''
Crossfire
A crossfire (also known as interlocking fire) is a military term for the siting of weapons (often automatic weapons such as assault rifles or sub-machine guns) so that their arcs of fire overlap. This tactic came to prominence in World War I.
...
'' (1947). More recent examples include ''
A Soldier's Story'' (1984), ''
No Way Out'' (1987), ''
The Presidio
''The Presidio'' is a 1988 American crime film directed by Peter Hyams and starring Sean Connery and Mark Harmon. Hyams also handled the cinematography and the score was composed by Bruce Broughton.
Plot
At the Presidio Army base in San Franci ...
'' (1988), ''
A Few Good Men
''A Few Good Men'' is a 1992 American legal drama film based on Aaron Sorkin's 1989 play. It was written by Sorkin, directed by Rob Reiner, and produced by Reiner, David Brown and Andrew Scheinman. It stars an ensemble cast including Tom C ...
'' (1992), ''
Courage Under Fire
''Courage Under Fire'' is a 1996 American war film directed by Edward Zwick, and starring Denzel Washington and Meg Ryan. It is the second collaboration between Washington and director Zwick. The film was released in the United States on July ...
'' (1996), ''
The General's Daughter'' (1999), and ''
Basic
BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College ...
'' (2003).
The
police procedural
The police show, or police crime drama, is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasizes the investigative procedure of a police officer or department as the protagonist(s), as contrasted with other genres that focus on eith ...
film, often with a surprise twist ending, has also remained a vital format with ''
Cruising'' (1980), ''
Gorky Park'' (1983), ''
Tightrope
Tightrope walking, also called funambulism, is the skill of walking along a thin wire or rope. It has a long tradition in various countries and is commonly associated with the circus. Other skills similar to tightrope walking include slack rope ...
'' (1984), ''
The Dead Pool
''The Dead Pool'' is a 1988 American neo-noir vigilante action thriller film directed by Buddy Van Horn, written by Steve Sharon, and starring Clint Eastwood as Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan. It is the fifth and final film in the ''Dirty ...
'' (1988), ''
Mississippi Burning
''Mississippi Burning'' is a 1988 American crime thriller film directed by Alan Parker that is loosely based on the 1964 murder investigation of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner in Mississippi. It stars Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe as two FBI ...
'' (1988), ''
Mortal Thoughts
''Mortal Thoughts'' is a 1991 American neo-noir mystery thriller film directed by Alan Rudolph and starring Demi Moore, Glenne Headly, Bruce Willis, John Pankow and Harvey Keitel. Told in narrative flashbacks set in a police interrogation, the f ...
'' (1991), ''
Rising Sun'' (1993), ''
Striking Distance
''Striking Distance'' is a 1993 American action thriller film starring Bruce Willis as Pittsburgh Police homicide detective Thomas Hardy. The film co-stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Dennis Farina, and Tom Sizemore. It was directed by Rowdy Herringto ...
'' (1993), ''
The Usual Suspects
''The Usual Suspects'' is a 1995 neo-noir mystery thriller film directed by Bryan Singer and written by Christopher McQuarrie. It stars Stephen Baldwin, Gabriel Byrne, Benicio del Toro, Kevin Pollak, Chazz Palminteri, Pete Postlethwait ...
'' (1995), ''
Lone Star'' (1996), ''
Under Suspicion'' (2000), ''
Blood Work'' (2002), ''
Mystic River
The Mystic River is a riverU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 in Massachusetts, in the United States. In Massachusett, means "large estuary," alluding to t ...
'' (2003), ''
Mindhunters
''Mindhunters'' is a 2004 crime film, crime slasher film directed by Renny Harlin and starring Kathryn Morris, LL Cool J, Jonny Lee Miller, Patricia Velásquez, Clifton Collins Jr., Christian Slater, and Val Kilmer. It was written by Wayne Krame ...
'' (2004), ''
In the Valley of Elah
''In the Valley of Elah'' is a 2007 American crime drama film written and directed by Paul Haggis. The film stars Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, and Susan Sarandon. Its title refers to the Biblical valley where the battle between David and Go ...
'' (2007), and ''
Righteous Kill
''Righteous Kill'' is a 2008 American action thriller film directed by Jon Avnet and written by Russell Gewirtz. The film stars Robert De Niro and Al Pacino as New York City Police Department detectives on the hunt for a serial killer. It is the ...
'' (2008).
The
political thriller
A political thriller is a thriller that is set against the backdrop of a political power struggle, high stakes and suspense is the core of the story. The genre often forces the audiences to consider and understand the importance of politics. The ...
involving murder, cover-ups, and high-level conspiracies is represented by such films as ''
JFK
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...
'' (1991), ''
Murder at 1600
''Murder at 1600'' is a 1997 American action thriller film directed by Dwight Little and starring Wesley Snipes and Diane Lane.
Plot
In a restroom in the White House, a janitor finds secretary Carla Town dead. Metropolitan Police homicide detect ...
'' (1997), ''
Enemy of the State
An enemy of the state is a person accused of certain crimes against the state such as treason, among other things. Describing individuals in this way is sometimes a manifestation of political repression. For example, a government may purport to m ...
'' (1998), ''
State of Play'' (2009), and ''
Madras Cafe
''Madras Cafe'' is a 2013 Indian Hindi-language political action thriller film directed by Shoojit Sircar and starring John Abraham, Nargis Fakhri with newcomer Raashi Khanna in lead roles. The film is set in the late 1980s and early 1990s, dur ...
'' (2013).
Horror and thriller
In the 1990s and early 2000s, many horror films and thrillers started to blend mystery and suspense into stories centered around clever, sociopathic serial killers or various mysterious supernatural occurrences. The
Hannibal Lecter
Dr. Hannibal Lecter is a Character (arts), fictional character created by the novelist Thomas Harris. Lecter is a serial killer who Human cannibalism, eats his victims. Before his capture, he was a respected Forensic psychiatry, forensic psychi ...
novels by
Thomas Harris
William Thomas Harris III (born 1940/1941) is an American writer, best known for a series of suspense novels about his most famous character, Hannibal Lecter. The majority of his works have been adapted into films and television, the most notab ...
have inspired four films, ''
Manhunter'' (1986), the Academy Award-winning ''
The Silence of the Lambs'' (1991), ''
Hannibal
Hannibal (; xpu, 𐤇𐤍𐤁𐤏𐤋, ''Ḥannibaʿl''; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Puni ...
'' (2001), and ''
Red Dragon'' (2002).
Other films in which this blend occurs include ''
When the Bough Breaks'' (1994), ''
Seven
7 is a number, numeral, and glyph.
7 or seven may also refer to:
* AD 7, the seventh year of the AD era
* 7 BC, the seventh year before the AD era
* The month of
July
Music Artists
* Seven (Swiss singer) (born 1978), a Swiss recording artist ...
'' (1995), ''
Kiss the Girls'' (1997), adapted from the
James Patterson
James Brendan Patterson (born March 22, 1947) is an American author. Among his works are the ''Alex Cross'', '' Michael Bennett'', '' Women's Murder Club'', ''Maximum Ride'', '' Daniel X'', '' NYPD Red'', '' Witch & Wizard'', and ''Private'' se ...
novel, ''
The Bone Collector
''The Bone Collector'' is a 1999 American crime thriller film directed by Phillip Noyce and starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. It was produced by Martin Bregman.
The film is based on the 1997 crime novel of the same name written b ...
'' (1999), ''
Mercy
Mercy (Middle English, from Anglo-French ''merci'', from Medieval Latin ''merced-'', ''merces'', from Latin, "price paid, wages", from ''merc-'', ''merxi'' "merchandise") is benevolence, forgiveness, and kindness in a variety of ethical, relig ...
'' (2000), ''
Along Came a Spider'' (2001), also by Patterson, ''
Insomnia
Insomnia, also known as sleeplessness, is a sleep disorder in which people have trouble sleeping. They may have difficulty falling asleep, or staying asleep as long as desired. Insomnia is typically followed by daytime sleepiness, low energy, ...
'' (2002), and ''
Taking Lives'' (2004).
The 2007 film ''
Zodiac
The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north or south (as measured in celestial latitude) of the ecliptic, the Sun path, apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. ...
'' is an account of the real hunt for a serial killer in the San Francisco area in the late-1960s and early 1970s. Contemporary real-life serial killings have been portrayed in ''
The Alphabet Killer
''The Alphabet Killer'' is a 2008 thriller- horror film, loosely based on the Alphabet murders that took place in Rochester, New York between 1971 and 1973. Eliza Dushku stars alongside Cary Elwes, Michael Ironside, Bill Moseley and Timothy Hu ...
'', ''
Ed Gein
Edward Theodore Gein (; August 27, 1906 – July 26, 1984), also known as the Butcher of Plainfield or the Plainfield Ghoul, was an American murderer and body snatcher. Gein's crimes, committed around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin, ga ...
'', ''
Gacy'', ''
Ted Bundy
Theodore Robert Bundy ( born Cowell; November 24, 1946 – January 24, 1989) was an American serial killer who kidnapped, raped and murdered numerous young women and girls during the 1970s and possibly earlier. After more than a decade ...
'' and ''
Dahmer''. The French period-piece film ''
Brotherhood of the Wolf
''Brotherhood of the Wolf'' (french: Le Pacte des loups) is a 2001 French period action horror film directed by Christophe Gans, co-written by Gans and Stéphane Cabel, and starring Samuel Le Bihan, Mark Dacascos, Émilie Dequenne, Monica Bel ...
'' (2001) examines a series of killings that took place in France in the 18th century.
In many modern day mystery films, everyday characters (such as fathers, mothers, teens, business people, etc.) are dragged into a dangerous conflict or a mysterious situation, either by
fate
Destiny, sometimes referred to as fate (from Latin ''fatum'' "decree, prediction, destiny, fate"), is a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual.
Fate
Although often ...
or their own curiosity. Common elements in these stories include searching for a
missing person
A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown.
A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, de ...
(a friend or family member) as in ''
Flightplan
''Flightplan'' is a 2005 mystery psychological thriller film directed by Robert Schwentke from a screenplay written by Peter A. Dowling and Billy Ray. It stars Jodie Foster as Kyle Pratt, a recently-widowed American aircraft engineer living ...
'' (2005) with
Jodie Foster
Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster (born November 19, 1962) is an American actress and filmmaker. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, three British Academy Film Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and the ho ...
, while being surrounded by
red herring
A red herring is a figurative expression referring to a logical fallacy in which a clue or piece of information is or is intended to be misleading, or distracting from the actual question.
Red herring may also refer to: Animals
* Red herring (fis ...
s, espionage, criminal or political conspiracies, and friends/relatives with a secret past or a double life.
Such films include the horror mysteries
''Scream'' and its sequels (1996–2011),
the ''Saw'' franchise (2004–2010), ''
The Orphanage'' (2006), ''
What Lies Beneath
''What Lies Beneath'' is a 2000 American supernatural horror thriller film directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer as a couple who live in a haunted house. It was the first film by Zemeckis' production comp ...
'' (2000), ''
Cry Wolf'' (2005), ''
Devil
A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of t ...
'' (2010), ''
The Ring'' (2002) and the mystery thrillers ''
Secret Window
''Secret Window'' is a 2004 American psychological thriller film starring Johnny Depp and John Turturro. It was written and directed by David Koepp, based on the novella '' Secret Window, Secret Garden'' by Stephen King, featuring a musical sco ...
'' (2004), ''
The Machinist
''The Machinist'' is a 2004 psychological thriller film directed by Brad Anderson and written by Scott Kosar. It stars Christian Bale as the title character, a machinist struggling with guilt, paranoia, and delusion after being unable to sleep ...
'' (2004), ''
The Forgotten'' (2005), ''
The Number 23
''The Number 23'' is a 2007 American thriller film written by Fernley Phillips and directed by Joel Schumacher. Jim Carrey stars as a man who becomes obsessed with the 23 enigma once he reads about it in a strange book that seemingly mirrors his ...
'' (2006), and ''
Identity
Identity may refer to:
* Identity document
* Identity (philosophy)
* Identity (social science)
* Identity (mathematics)
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''Identity'' (1987 film), an Iranian film
* ''Identity'' (2003 film), ...
'' (2003).
The
retrograde amnesia
In neurology, retrograde amnesia (RA) is a loss of memory-access to events that occurred or information that was learned in the past. It is caused by an injury or the onset of a disease. It tends to negatively affect episodic, autobiographical, ...
plot also resurfaced in a new wave of mysteries where discovering the lead character's true identity and/or history forms the core of the story. Main examples include: ''
The Morning After'' (1986), ''
Shattered
Shattered may refer to:
Books
* ''Shattered'' (Casey book), a 2010 non-fiction book: true-crime account of pregnant mother's murder
* ''Shattered'' (Francis novel), a 2000 novel by Dick Francis: glassblower seeks videotape following death of j ...
'' (1991), ''
The Long Kiss Goodnight
''The Long Kiss Goodnight'' is a 1996 American action thriller film co-produced and directed by Renny Harlin, and produced by Shane Black and Stephanie Austin with screenplay written by Black. It stars Geena Davis, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Amand ...
'' (1996), ''
Memento'' (2000),
the
''Bourne'' film series (2002–2012), and ''
Shutter Island
''Shutter Island'' is a novel by American writer Dennis Lehane, published by HarperCollins in April 2003. It is about a U.S. Marshal who goes to an isolated hospital for the criminally insane to investigate the disappearance of a patient who is ...
'' (2010).
Kenneth Branagh
Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh (; born 10 December 1960) is a British actor and filmmaker. Branagh trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and has served as its president since 2015. He has won an Academy Award, four BAFTAs (plus t ...
's highly stylized ''
Dead Again
''Dead Again'' is a 1991 neo-noir romantic thriller film directed by Kenneth Branagh and written by Scott Frank. It stars Branagh and Emma Thompson, with Andy García, Derek Jacobi, Hanna Schygulla, Wayne Knight, and Robin Williams appearing i ...
'' (1991) pays homage to Hitchcock and
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
in a complex story of amnesia, hypnosis, and reincarnation. There are also science fiction thrillers such as ''
Total Recall'' (1990),
remade in 2012, and ''
Paycheck
A paycheck, also spelled paycheque, pay check or pay cheque, is traditionally a paper document (a cheque) issued by an employer to pay an employee for services rendered. In recent times, the physical paycheck has been increasingly replaced by ...
'' (2003) which center around technology-induced memory loss.
Revisionist period piece films
Period-piece L.A. police detective stories set in the 1940s and 1950s returned — with a harder edge and occasional parallels to contemporary issues — in ''
Mulholland Falls
''Mulholland Falls'' is a 1996 American neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Lee Tamahori, written by Pete Dexter, and starring an ensemble cast featuring Nick Nolte, Jennifer Connelly, Chazz Palminteri, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, Melanie ...
'' (1996), and ''
L.A. Confidential
''L.A. Confidential'' (1990) is a neo-noir novel by James Ellroy and the third of his L.A. Quartet series. It is dedicated to Mary Doherty Ellroy. The epigraph is "A glory that costs everything and means nothing"— Steve Erickson.
Plot
The s ...
'' (1997) which was nominated for nine
Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
and won two. Both ''
True Confessions'' (1981) and De Palma's ''
The Black Dahlia
Elizabeth Short (July 29, 1924 – January 14–15, 1947), known posthumously as the Black Dahlia, was an American woman found murdered in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles on January 15, 1947. Her case became highly publicized ow ...
'' (2006) are based on an actual unsolved Hollywood murder case from 1947. ''
Hollywoodland
''Hollywoodland'' is a 2006 American film directed by Allen Coulter and written by Paul Bernbaum. The story presents a fictionalized account of the circumstances surrounding the death of actor George Reeves (played by Ben Affleck), the star of the ...
'' (2006) explores the mysterious 1959 death of actor
George Reeves
George Reeves (born George Keefer Brewer; January 5, 1914 – June 16, 1959) was an American actor. He is best known for portraying Superman in the television series '' Adventures of Superman'' (1952–1958).
His death at age 45 from a g ...
, who is portrayed by
Ben Affleck
Benjamin Géza Affleck (born August 15, 1972) is an American actor and filmmaker. His accolades include two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and a Volpi Cup.
Affleck began his career as a child when he starred in the PBS educationa ...
.
Raymond Chandler's final unfinished novel, ''
Poodle Springs
''Poodle Springs'' is the eighth Philip Marlowe novel. It was started in 1958 by Raymond Chandler, who left it unfinished at his death in 1959. The four chapters he had completed, which bore the working title ''The Poodle Springs Story'', were ...
'', from 1958, was completed by another author and made into an HBO cable film in 1998. Set in 1963, it stars
James Caan
James Edmund Caan ( ; March 26, 1940 – July 6, 2022) was an American actor. He came to prominence playing Sonny Corleone in ''The Godfather'' (1972) – a performance which earned him Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Academy Award an ...
as Philip Marlowe.
Among the few nostalgia-based comedy-mysteries are the board game-inspired ''
Clue
Clue may refer to:
People with the name
* DJ Clue (born 1975), mixtape DJ
* Arthur Clues (1924–1998), Australian rugby league footballer
* Ivan Clues
* Tim Cluess
Arts, entertainment, and media ''Clue'' entertainment franchise
* ''Cluedo ...
'' (1985), set in 1954, and ''
Radioland Murders
''Radioland Murders'' is a 1994 American comedy thriller film directed by Mel Smith and executive produced by George Lucas. ''Radioland Murders'' is set in the 1939 atmosphere of old-time radio and pays homage to the screwball comedy films of the ...
'' (1994), which recreates the era of old-time radio programs and pays homage to 1930s screwball comedies.
Larry Blamire
Larry Blamire is an American filmmaker, writer and artist best known for the independent film ''The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra''.
Biography
Blamire was raised in Massachusetts and studied illustration at the Art Institute of Boston under Norman Ba ...
's ''
Dark and Stormy Night
''Dark and Stormy Night'' is a 2009 independent film spoofing the haunted house and murder mystery films produced by Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s. Larry Blamire directed and acted in the film and wrote the screenplay. The film also include ...
'' (2009), set in 1930, spoofs the clichéd characters and plot elements of vintage "old dark house" murder mysteries.
''
Devil in a Blue Dress
''Devil in a Blue Dress'' is a 1990 hardboiled mystery novel by Walter Mosley, his first published book.
The text centers on the main character, Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins, and his transformation from a day laborer into a detective.
Plot
Set ...
'' (1995), set in Los Angeles c. 1948, features an African-American private eye. The film captures the atmosphere of the hard-boiled detective stories of the past as well as the racial climate of the times.
Coming full circle,
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman ( ; February 20, 1925 – November 20, 2006) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He was a five-time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director and is considered an enduring figure from the New H ...
's nostalgic ''
Gosford Park
''Gosford Park'' is a 2001 satirical black comedy mystery film directed by Robert Altman and written by Julian Fellowes. It was influenced by Jean Renoir's French classic ''La Règle du jeu'' ('' The Rules of the Game'').
The film stars ...
'' (2001), set in an English mansion in 1932, is an original story that revives the old-fashioned murder mystery format.
Notable mystery films
In 2008, the
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees.
Leade ...
ranked the top 10 mystery films of all time:
Genre blends: horror, fantasy, science fiction, historical
By the 1970s and 1980s, detective and mystery stories began to appear in other genres, sometimes as the framing device for a horror, fantasy or science fiction film or placed in an earlier, nontraditional time period.
* ''
Hec Ramsey'', a 1972–74 television series starred
Richard Boone
Richard Allen Boone (June 18, 1917 – January 10, 1981) was an American actor who starred in over 50 films and was notable for his roles in Westerns, including his starring role in the television series ''Have Gun – Will Travel''.
Early lif ...
as a Sherlock Holmes-type detective in the Old West at the turn of the 20th century.
* The science fiction films ''
Soylent Green
''Soylent Green'' is a 1973 American Environmental film, ecological dystopian thriller film directed by Richard Fleischer, and starring Charlton Heston, Leigh Taylor-Young, and Edward G. Robinson in his final film role. It is loosely based on t ...
'' (1973), ''
Outland'' (1981), ''
Minority Report
Minority Report may refer to:
* Minority report (Poor Law), published by the UK Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress 1905–09
* "Minority Report", a 1949 science fiction short story by Theodore Sturgeon
* "The Minority Report ...
'' (2002), and ''
I, Robot
''I, Robot'' is a fixup (compilation) novel of science fiction short stories or essays by American writer Isaac Asimov. The stories originally appeared in the American magazines ''Super Science Stories'' and ''Astounding Science Fiction'' betw ...
'' (2004) all involve futuristic police detectives solving a murder that leads to a larger conspiracy.
* ''
Escape to Witch Mountain
''Escape to Witch Mountain'' is a science fiction novel written by Alexander Key in 1968. It was adapted for film by Disney as '' Escape to Witch Mountain'' in 1975 which spawned the ''Witch Mountain'' franchise. The novel was illustrated by ...
'' (1975), ''
Return from Witch Mountain
''Return from Witch Mountain'' is a 1978 American science fiction–adventure film and a sequel to '' Escape to Witch Mountain'' (1975) and the second film in the ''Witch Mountain'' franchise. It was produced by Walt Disney Productions. It was w ...
'' (1978) and ''
Race to Witch Mountain
''Race to Witch Mountain'' is a 2009 American science fiction adventure thriller film directed by Andy Fickman, starring Dwayne Johnson in the lead role, with AnnaSophia Robb, Alexander Ludwig, Ciarán Hinds, and Carla Gugino. The latest in a se ...
'' (2009), created by
Alexander Key
Alexander Hill Key (September 21, 1904 – July 25, 1979) was an American science fiction writer who primarily wrote children's literature.
Early life
Key was born in 1904 in LaPlatte, Maryland. His parents, Alexander Hill and Charlotte ...
and produced by
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
are about two children from another world searching for their origins.
* ''
The Reincarnation of Peter Proud
''The Reincarnation of Peter Proud'' is a 1975 American psychological horror film directed by J. Lee Thompson, and starring Michael Sarrazin, Margot Kidder, and Jennifer O'Neill. It follows a university professor who, after experiencing a seri ...
'' (1975),
supernatural
Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...
detective story about a man who solves his own murder from a previous life.
* ''
Eyes of Laura Mars
''Eyes of Laura Mars'' is a 1978 American neo noir mystery-thriller film starring Faye Dunaway and Tommy Lee Jones and directed by Irvin Kershner. The screenplay was adapted (in collaboration with David Zelag Goodman) from a spec script titled '' ...
'' (1978) is a
Giallo
In Italian cinema, ''Giallo'' (; plural ''gialli'', from ''giallo'', Italian for yellow) is a genre of mystery fiction and thrillers that often contains slasher, crime fiction, psychological thriller, psychological horror, sexploitation, and, ...
-inspired murder mystery thriller that involves the paranormal.
* ''
Looker
''Looker'' is a 1981 American science fiction film written and directed by Michael Crichton and starring Albert Finney, Susan Dey, and James Coburn. The film is a suspense/science-fiction piece that comments upon and satirizes media, advertisin ...
'' (1981), a science fiction murder mystery film involving futuristic computer technology.
* ''
Blade Runner
''Blade Runner'' is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott, and written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Dick' ...
'' (1982), a neo-noir science fiction classic set in the future. This comes closest to capturing the spirit of Raymond Chandler's Marlowe with
Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford (born July 13, 1942) is an American actor. His films have grossed more than $5.4billion in North America and more than $9.3billion worldwide, making him the seventh-highest-grossing actor in North America. He is the recipient o ...
's sardonic, voice-over narration.
* ''
The Name of the Rose
''The Name of the Rose'' ( it, Il nome della rosa ) is the 1980 debut novel by Italian author Umberto Eco. It is a historical murder mystery set in an Italian monastery in the year 1327, and an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, ...
'' (1986), from the
Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco (5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016) was an Italian medievalist, philosopher, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. In English, he is best known for his popular 1980 novel ''The Name of the ...
novel, features a 13th-century Sherlock Holmsian monk. The medieval era
Cadfael
Brother Cadfael is the main fictional character in a series of historical murder mysteries written between 1977 and 1994 by the linguist-scholar Edith Pargeter under the name "Ellis Peters". The character of Cadfael himself is a Welsh Benedic ...
series of television mysteries also took the form of historical fiction.
* ''
Angel Heart
''Angel Heart'' is a 1987 American neo-noir psychological horror film, an adaptation of William Hjortsberg's 1978 novel ''Falling Angel''. The film was written and directed by Alan Parker, and stars Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro, Lisa Bonet, an ...
'' (1987), set in 1948, begins as a retro detective yarn but soon becomes a supernatural horror shocker. ''
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me'' (1992), and the cult TV series of which this is a prequel, also blends murder-mystery forensic work with supernatural horror.
* ''
Alien Nation
''Alien Nation'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Rockne S. O'Bannon (later known for ''Farscape''), comprising film, television, and other media productions about alien refugees living on Earth. The series began with the ...
'' (1988), a murder-mystery police procedural in a science fiction setting. A race of stranded aliens must co-exist with humans on Earth in the near future. The story uses aliens to explore the issues of
xenophobia
Xenophobia () is the fear or dislike of anything which is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression of perceived conflict between an in-group and out-group and may manifest in suspicion by the one of the other's activities, a ...
,
exploitation
Exploitation may refer to:
*Exploitation of natural resources
*Exploitation of labour
** Forced labour
*Exploitation colonialism
*Slavery
** Sexual slavery and other forms
*Oppression
*Psychological manipulation
In arts and entertainment
*Exploi ...
, and
racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...
.
* ''
Faceless'' (1988) is a gory
Jess Franco
Jess is a unisex given name, often a short form (hypocorism) of Jessica, Jesse, Jessie, etc., and a surname. It may refer to:
Given name
* Jess Atkinson (born 1961), American football player
* Jess Cain (1926–2008), American radio host
* J ...
private-eye horror-mystery.
* ''
Cast a Deadly Spell'' (1991) is a cable film with gumshoe Harry P. Lovecraft (a reference to horror/fantasy author
H. P. Lovecraft) set in a fantasy version of 1948 Los Angeles where sorcery and voodoo abound. This was followed by ''
Witch Hunt
A witch-hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. The classical period of witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America took place in the Early Modern perio ...
'' in 1994, a mock fantasy/mystery set in 1953. Private eye Lovecraft (
Dennis Hopper
Dennis Lee Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010) was an American actor, filmmaker and photographer. He attended the Actors Studio, made his first television appearance in 1954, and soon after appeared in ''Giant'' (1956). In the next ten years ...
) uncovers witchcraft and murder in Hollywood.
* ''
Lord of Illusions
''Lord of Illusions'' is a 1995 American neo-noir supernatural horror film written and directed by Clive Barker, based on his own short story "The Last Illusion" published in 1985 in the anthology '' Books of Blood'' Volume 6. The same story introd ...
'' (1995),
Clive Barker
Clive Barker (born 5 October 1952) is an English novelist, playwright, author, film director, and visual artist who came to prominence in the mid-1980s with a series of short stories, the ''Books of Blood'', which established him as a leading h ...
story of supernatural horror with New York P.I. Harry D'Amour, who has an affinity for the occult.
* ''
Sleepy Hollow'' (1999), set in 1799, this features a constable who uses Holmsian scientific methods and forensic science to solve a series of murders in this horror-fantasy film from
Tim Burton
Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and animator. He is known for his gothic fantasy and horror films such as ''Beetlejuice'' (1988), ''Edward Scissorhands'' (1990), ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (1993), ...
.
* The
Harry Potter films
''Harry Potter'' is a film series based on the eponymous novels by J. K. Rowling. The series is produced and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures and consists of eight fantasy films, beginning with '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's St ...
(2001–2011) are
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...
stories that contain many mysteries concerning the main characters, especially in the first three entries: ''
The Philosopher's Stone'' (2001), ''
The Chamber of Secrets'' (2002) and ''
The Prisoner of Azkaban'' (2004).
*
''The Ring'' (2002) is a horror mystery in which a reporter named Rachel Keller investigates the origins of a cursed videotape which threatens to take her life.
* ''
The Reckoning'' (2003), a murder-mystery set in medieval England.
* ''
Someone Behind You
''Someone Behind You'' is a 2007 South Korean psychological horror film written, directed and co-produced by Oh Ki-hwan, based on the manhwa ''It's Two People'' by Kang Kyung-ok. In this movie, a young woman tries to escape what seems to be a fami ...
'' (2007), is a South Korean supernatural thriller/murder mystery based on a comic book.
* ''
Yesterday Was a Lie
''Yesterday Was a Lie'' is a 2008 neo-noir film written and directed by James Kerwin and starring Kipleigh Brown, Chase Masterson, John Newton, and Mik Scriba. In publicity materials, the film has been described as a combination of science fanta ...
'' (2008),
neo-noir
Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates literally to English as "black film", indicating ...
black-and-white detective mystery combines science fantasy and film noir.
* ''
The Wisdom Tree'' (2013), is an
independent film
An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is produced outside the major film studio system, in addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies (or, i ...
that blends science fiction with mystery and mysticism, art and music.
* ''
Friend of the World
''Friend of the World'' is a 2020 American independent black-and-white film written and directed by Brian Patrick Butler in his feature film debut, starring Nick Young and Alexandra Slade. The surreal experimental film takes place post-apocalyp ...
'' (2020), is an
art film
An art film (or arthouse film) is typically an independent film, aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience. It is "intended to be a serious, artistic work, often experimental and not designed for mass appeal", "made primarily f ...
that merges dark comedy with science fiction, mystery and horror.
Parodies and homages
* ''
Who Done It?'' (1942), an
Abbott and Costello
Abbott may refer to:
People
*Abbott (surname)
*Abbott Handerson Thayer (1849–1921), American painter and naturalist
* Abbott and Costello, famous American vaudeville act
Places Argentina
* Abbott, Buenos Aires United States
* Abbott, Arkansas ...
comedy, is one of the first film spoofs of the genre.
* ''
Lady on a Train
''Lady on a Train'' is a 1945 American film noir crime film directed by Charles David and starring Deanna Durbin, Ralph Bellamy, and David Bruce.
Based on a story by Leslie Charteris, the film is about a woman who witnesses a murder in a nea ...
'' (1945) is a murder mystery comedy starring
Deanna Durbin
Edna Mae Durbin (December 4, 1921 – April 17, 2013), known professionally as Deanna Durbin, was a Canadian-born actress and singer, who moved to the USA with her family in infancy. She appeared in musical films in the 1930s and 1940s. With t ...
that also satirizes film noir.
* In ''
My Favorite Brunette
''My Favorite Brunette'' is a 1947 American romantic comedy film and film noir parody, directed by Elliott Nugent and starring Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour. Written by Edmund Beloin and Jack Rose, the film is about a baby photographer on death r ...
'' (1947),
Bob Hope
Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in more than 70 short and feature films, with 5 ...
is a cowardly baby photographer who is mistaken for a private detective (played by Alan Ladd in a brief cameo). Later that year,
The Bowery Boys
The Bowery Boys are fictional New York City characters, portrayed by a company of New York actors, who were the subject of 48 feature films released by Monogram Pictures and its successor Allied Artists Pictures Corporation from 1946 through 195 ...
released ''
Hard Boiled Mahoney
''Hard Boiled Mahoney'' is a 1947 film starring the comedy team of The Bowery Boys. It is the sixth film in the series.
Plot
Sach just lost his job as an assistant to a private detective, but he wasn't paid. Slip goes with him down to the dete ...
'' with the same mistaken-identity plot.
* ''
Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man'' (1951), A&C are detectives out to save a man framed by mobsters.
* ''
Private Eyes'' (1953), The Bowery Boys open up a detective agency after Sach develops the ability to read minds.
*
Grindhouse
A grindhouse or action house is an American term for a theatre that mainly shows low-budget horror, splatter and exploitation films for adults. According to historian David Church, this theater type was named after the "grind policy", a film ...
sexploitation
A sexploitation film (or sex-exploitation film) is a class of independently produced, low-budget feature film that is generally associated with the 1960s and early 1970s, and that serves largely as a vehicle for the exhibition of non-explicit s ...
filmmakers also spoofed the genre. ''Nature's Playmates'' (1962) is one of
exploitation
Exploitation may refer to:
*Exploitation of natural resources
*Exploitation of labour
** Forced labour
*Exploitation colonialism
*Slavery
** Sexual slavery and other forms
*Oppression
*Psychological manipulation
In arts and entertainment
*Exploi ...
producer
H.G. Lewis' many "nudie-cutie" flicks. A beautiful female private eye tours Florida
nudist camps in search of a missing man with a distinctive tattoo. ''
Surftide 77'' (1962) parodied TV detective series ''
Surfside 6
''Surfside 6'' is an ABC television series which aired from 1960 to 1962. The show centered on a Miami Beach detective agency set on a houseboat and featured Troy Donahue as Sandy Winfield II; Van Williams as Kenny Madison (a character recycled ...
'' (1960–1962). ''Take It Out In Trade'' (1970) is
Ed Wood
Edward Davis Wood Jr. (October 10, 1924 – December 10, 1978) was an American filmmaker,
actor, and pulp novel author.
In the 1950s, Wood directed several low-budget science fiction, crime and horror films that later became cult cla ...
's softcore porn take on the Philip Marlowe films. ''
Cry Uncle!
''Cry Uncle!'', released in the UK as ''Super Dick'' (theatrical title) and ''American Oddballs'' (video title), is a 1971 American film in the Troma Entertainment library. It is directed by John G. Avildsen and stars Allen Garfield. The story, b ...
'' (1971) is another sex comedy inspired by vintage private eye films. ''Ginger'' (1971), ''The Abductors'' (1972), and ''Girls Are for Loving'' (1973) are softcore sexploitation comedies featuring
Cheri Caffaro
Cheri Caffaro is an American actress who appeared mainly in low-budget exploitation films in the 1970s. A fifteen-year-old Pasadena resident, she won a ''Life''-magazine-reported Brigitte Bardot look-alike contest, beating a twelve-year-old Por ...
as tough private-eye Ginger. England also produced the sex comedy ''
Adventures of a Private Eye
''Adventures of a Private Eye'' is a 1977 British sex comedy film directed by Stanley Long and starring Christopher Neil, Suzy Kendall, Harry H. Corbett and Liz Fraser. It followed the 1976 film ''Adventures of a Taxi Driver'' and was followed ...
'' (1977).
* ''
The Pink Panther
''The Pink Panther'' is an American media franchise primarily focusing on a series of comedy-mystery films featuring an inept French police detective, Inspector Jacques Clouseau. The franchise began with the release of the classic film '' The Pi ...
'' (1964) is the first in a series of comedies featuring
Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers (born Richard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English actor and comedian. He first came to prominence performing in the BBC Radio comedy series ''The Goon Show'', featured on a number of hit comic songs ...
as the bumbling
Inspector Clouseau
Inspector Jacques Clouseau (), later granted the rank of Chief Inspector, is a fictional character in Blake Edwards' farcical ''The Pink Panther'' series. He is portrayed by Peter Sellers in the original series, and also by Alan Arkin in the ...
.
* ''
They Might be Giants
They Might Be Giants (often abbreviated as TMBG) is an American alternative rock band formed in 1982 by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. During TMBG's early years, Flansburgh and Linnell frequently performed as a duo, often accompanied by a d ...
'' (1971) stars
George C. Scott
George Campbell Scott (October 18, 1927 – September 22, 1999) was an American actor, director, and producer who had a celebrated career on both stage and screen. With a gruff demeanor and commanding presence, Scott became known for his port ...
as a mental patient who believes he is Sherlock Holmes. He and his female psychiatrist (Dr. Watson) go on a
Don Quixote
is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, its full title is ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' or, in Spanish, (changing in Part 2 to ). A founding work of Wester ...
-type odyssey through New York.
* ''
Gumshoe'' (1971) is a crime comedy about a man so inspired by Bogart's films he decides to play private eye.
* ''
The Black Bird
''The Black Bird'' is a 1975 comedy film written and directed by David Giler and starring George Segal and Stéphane Audran. It is a comedic sequel to the John Huston film version of ''The Maltese Falcon'' (1941) with Segal playing Sam Spade's ...
'' (1975), critically panned comedy sequel to ''The Maltese Falcon'' starring
George Segal
George Segal Jr. (February 13, 1934 – March 23, 2021) was an American actor. He became popular in the 1960s and 1970s for playing both dramatic and comedic roles. After first rising to prominence with roles in acclaimed films such as ''Ship o ...
as Sam Spade Jr. and
Elisha Cook Jr.
Elisha Vanslyck Cook Jr. (December 26, 1903 – May 18, 1995) was an American character actor famed for his work in films noir. According to Bill Georgaris of TSPDT: They Shoot Pictures, Don't They, Cook appeared in a total of 21 film ...
reprising his role of Wilmer Cook.
* ''
The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother
''The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother'' is a 1975 American musical comedy film with Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman, Madeline Kahn, Dom DeLuise, Roy Kinnear, and Leo McKern.''Variety'' film review; December 3, 1975, page 22. The film was ...
'' (1975), a
Gene Wilder
Jerome Silberman (June 11, 1933 – August 29, 2016), known professionally as Gene Wilder, was an American actor, comedian, writer and filmmaker. He is known mainly for his comedic roles, but also for his portrayal of Willy Wonka in ''Willy Won ...
comedy.
* ''
Murder by Death
''Murder by Death'' is a 1976 American comedy mystery film directed by Robert Moore and written by Neil Simon. The film stars Eileen Brennan, Truman Capote, James Coco, Peter Falk, Alec Guinness, Elsa Lanchester, David Niven, Peter Sellers, M ...
'' (1976) is
Neil Simon
Marvin Neil Simon (July 4, 1927 – August 26, 2018) was an American playwright, screenwriter and author. He wrote more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays, mostly film adaptations of his plays. He has received mo ...
's broad spoof of mystery films and Sam Spade, Charlie Chan, and Miss Marple. This was followed by ''
The Cheap Detective
''The Cheap Detective'' is a 1978 American mystery comedy film written by Neil Simon and directed by Robert Moore.
It stars Peter Falk as Lou Peckinpaugh, a parody of Humphrey Bogart. The film is a parody of Bogart films such as '' Casablan ...
'' (1978), an even broader spoof starring
Peter Falk
Peter Michael Falk (September 16, 1927 – June 23, 2011) was an American film and television actor. He is best known for his role as Lieutenant Columbo in the long-running television series ''Columbo'' (1968–1978, 1989–2003), for which he ...
as a Bogart-like private eye.
* ''
The Late Show The Late Show may refer to:
Books
* ''The Late Show'' (book), a 2017 book by Michael Connelly
Film
* ''The Late Show'' (film), a 1977 film
* ''Late Show'', a 1999 German film by director Helmut Dietl
Music
* ''The Late Show'' (Eddie "Loc ...
'' (1977), quirky, contemporary detective story is largely an affectionate tribute to the classic Hammett/Chandler era.
* A trio of
Chevy Chase
Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase (; born October 8, 1943) is an American comedian, actor and writer. He became a key cast member in the first season of ''Saturday Night Live'', where his recurring ''Weekend Update'' segment became a staple of the ...
comedies, ''
Foul Play'' (1978), ''
Fletch'' (1985), and ''
Fletch Lives
''Fletch Lives'' is a 1989 American comedy mystery film starring Chevy Chase and the sequel to '' Fletch'' (1985), directed by Michael Ritchie from a screenplay by Leon Capetanos based on the character created by Gregory Mcdonald.
Plot
Fletch ...
'' pays homage to vintage detective films and Hitchcock.
* ''
The Man with Bogart's Face
''The Man with Bogart's Face'' (also called ''Sam Marlowe, Private Eye'') is a 1980 American comedy film, released by 20th Century Fox and based on a novel of the same name. Andrew J. Fenady, author of the novel, produced the film and wrote the s ...
'' (1980), a detective has his face changed and becomes involved in a mystery that resembles ''The Maltese Falcon''.
* ''
The Private Eyes'' (1980) is a detective comedy with
Tim Conway
Thomas Daniel "Tim" Conway (December 15, 1933 – May 14, 2019) was an American actor, comedian, writer, and director. From 1966 to 2012 he appeared in more than 100 TV shows, TV series and films. Among his more notable roles, he portrayed the ...
and
Don Knotts.
* ''
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
''Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid'' is a 1982 American neo-noir mystery comedy film directed, co-written by, and co-starring Carl Reiner and co-written by and starring Steve Martin. Co-starring Rachel Ward, the film is both a parody of and a homage to ...
'' (1982), set in the 1940s and filmed in black and white,
Steve Martin
Stephen Glenn Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician. He has won five Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 2013. Additionally, he was nominated ...
plays a traditional hard-boiled detective who interacts with vintage film clips in
Carl Reiner
Carl Reiner (March 20, 1922 – June 29, 2020) was an American actor, stand-up comedian, director, screenwriter, and author whose career spanned seven decades. He was the recipient of many awards and honors, including 11 Primetime Emmy Awards, ...
's cut-and-paste film noir farce.
* ''
Hammett'' (1982), fictional account of Dashiell Hammett involved in actual mysteries that inspired his novels.
* ''
Trenchcoat
A trench coat or trenchcoat is a variety of coat made of waterproof heavy-duty fabric, originally developed for British Army officers before the First World War, and becoming popular while used in the trenches.
Originally made from gabardine, ...
'' (1983), comedy about a female mystery writer who has to solve a real crime.
* ''
Clue
Clue may refer to:
People with the name
* DJ Clue (born 1975), mixtape DJ
* Arthur Clues (1924–1998), Australian rugby league footballer
* Ivan Clues
* Tim Cluess
Arts, entertainment, and media ''Clue'' entertainment franchise
* ''Cluedo ...
'' (1985), set in 1956, a period-piece whodunit spoof based on the popular board game.
* ''
The Singing Detective
''The Singing Detective'' is a BBC television serial drama, written by Dennis Potter, starring Michael Gambon and directed by Jon Amiel. Its six episodes are "Skin", "Heat", "Lovely Days", "Clues", "Pitter Patter" and "Who Done It".
The ser ...
'' (1986), a British miniseries about a mystery writer named Philip Marlow who is confined to a hospital bed. There his vivid fantasies of being an old-fashioned gumshoe are brought to life. Later remade as a feature film ''
The Singing Detective
''The Singing Detective'' is a BBC television serial drama, written by Dennis Potter, starring Michael Gambon and directed by Jon Amiel. Its six episodes are "Skin", "Heat", "Lovely Days", "Clues", "Pitter Patter" and "Who Done It".
The ser ...
'' in 2003.
* In 1987 Robert Mitchum was the guest host on ''
Saturday Night Live
''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...
'' where he played Philip Marlowe for the last time in the parody sketch, "Death Be Not Deadly". The show also ran a short film he made called ''Out of Gas'', a mock sequel to his 1947 classic ''Out of the Past''.
Jane Greer
Jane Greer (born Bettejane Greer; September 9, 1924 – August 24, 2001) was an American film and television actress best known for her role as ''femme fatale'' Kathie Moffat in the 1947 film noir ''Out of the Past''. In 2009, ''The Guardian'' n ...
reprised her role from the original film.
* ''
Without a Clue
''Without a Clue'' is a 1988 British comedy film directed by Thom Eberhardt and starring Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley. It is based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's characters from the Sherlock Holmes stories but, in this version, the roles are rev ...
'' (1988) comedy about an actor (
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite; 14 March 1933) is an English actor. Known for his distinctive Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films in a career spanning seven decades, and is considered a British film ico ...
) hired to impersonate Sherlock Holmes.
* ''
The Naked Gun
''The Naked Gun'' media franchise, also known as ''Police Squad!'', consists of several American crime spoof-comedies, based on an original story written by the comedy filmmaking trio Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker. The installments include one ...
'' (1988) and its sequels features
Leslie Nielsen
Leslie William Nielsen (11 February 192628 November 2010) was a Canadian actor and comedian. With a career spanning 60 years, he appeared in more than 100 films and 150 television programs, portraying more than 220 characters.
Nielsen was bo ...
as an inept police lieutenant. Based on the short-lived ''
Police Squad!
''Police Squad!'' is an American television crime comedy series that was broadcast on the ABC network in 1982. It was created by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker, starring Leslie Nielsen as Frank Drebin. A spoof of police procedu ...
'' TV series.
* ''The Gumshoe Kid'' (1990), an adolescent obsessed with Bogart gets his chance to be a detective in this R-rated comedy with
Tracy Scoggins
Tracy Dawn Scoggins (born in 1953 in Dickinson, Texas or November 13, 1959, in Galveston, Texas) is an American actress known for her roles as Monica Colby in the 1980s primetime soap opera ''Dynasty'' and its spin-off series ''The Colbys'', ...
.
* ''
A Low Down Dirty Shame
''A Low Down Dirty Shame'' is a 1994 American action comedy film written, directed by, and starring Keenen Ivory Wayans. The film also stars Charles S. Dutton, Jada Pinkett, and Salli Richardson.
Plot
Former LAPD detective Andre Shame is a pri ...
'' (1994), comedy with
Keenen Ivory Wayans
Keenen Ivory Desuma Wayans (born June 8, 1958) is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is a member of the Wayans family of entertainers. Wayans first came to prominence as the host and the creator of the 1990–1994 Fox sketch comedy ...
as a private detective.
* ''The Naked Detective'' (1996), an R-rated softcore parody of film noir with fetish model/actress Julia Parton.
* ''
The Scream franchise'' (1996-), which is a satire of the horror genre, has heavy elements of the detective, mystery and crime fiction genres, and is often
self-referential
Self-reference occurs in natural or formal languages when a sentence, idea or formula refers to itself. The reference may be expressed either directly—through some intermediate sentence or formula—or by means of some encoding. In philoso ...
.
* ''A Gun, a Car, a Blonde'' (1997), a paraplegic's fantasy (filmed in black and white) of being a tough private eye in a 1950s film noir world.
* ''
Brown's Requiem'' (1998), detective story based on
James Ellroy
Lee Earle "James" Ellroy (born March 4, 1948) is an American crime fiction writer and essayist. Ellroy has become known for a telegrammatic prose style in his most recent work, wherein he frequently omits connecting words and uses only short, sta ...
's Chandleresque first novel.
* ''
Zero Effect
''Zero Effect'' is a 1998 American mystery comedy film written and directed by Jake Kasdan in his feature directional debut. Starring Bill Pullman as "the world's most private detective", Daryl Zero, and Ben Stiller as his assistant Steve Arlo, ...
'' (1998) updates the Sherlock Holmes concept with a detective who is brilliant when working on a case but an obnoxious cretin when off duty.
* ''Where's Marlowe?'' (1998) drama about film makers following a low-level L.A. private detective.
* Woody Allen's nostalgia for film noir, mysteries, and Bogart's tough-guy persona is evident in ''Play It Again, Sam (1972 film), Play it Again, Sam'' (1972), ''Manhattan Murder Mystery'' (1993), ''The Curse of the Jade Scorpion'' (2001) and ''Irrational Man (film), Irrational Man'' (2015).
* ''
Twilight
Twilight is light produced by sunlight scattering in the upper atmosphere, when the Sun is below the horizon, which illuminates the lower atmosphere and the Earth's surface. The word twilight can also refer to the periods of time when this il ...
'' (1998), Paul Newman stars in this old-fashioned private eye yarn that's reminiscent of earlier films in the genre as well as his two Lew Harper films.
* ''I Heart Huckabees'' (2004) offbeat philosophical comedy involves two "existential detectives" (Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin) hired to uncover the meaning of life.
* Broken Lizard's ''Club Dread'' (2004) is a murder mystery film that spoofs slasher films.
* ''
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
''Kiss Kiss Bang Bang'' is a 2005 American neo-noir black comedy mystery thriller film written and directed by Shane Black (in his directorial debut), and starring Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan, and Corbin Bernsen. The scri ...
'' (2005), crime-noir comedy inspired by hardboiled detective fiction and vapid L.A. culture.
* ''A Prairie Home Companion (film), A Prairie Home Companion'' (2006), film of Garrison Keillor's radio show features the recurring character Guy Noir, a Chandler-esque hardboiled detective whose adventures always wander into farce.
* In the season 6, episode 11 of ''Married... with Children'', Al Bundy dreams he's a private detective who's being framed for the murder of a rich woman's father.
* ''Dark and Stormy Night (film)'' (2009), affectionate "old dark house" spoof set in the 1930s.
Movie sleuths
Mystery films have portrayed a number of notable fiction sleuths. Most of these characters first appeared in serialized novels.
See also
* List of mystery films
* List of film noir
* List of female detective characters
References
Citations
Sources
; Books
* Michael R. Pitts, ''Famous Movie Detectives'', 1979 in literature, 1979, Scarecrow Press, .
* Ted Sennett, ''Great Hollywood Movies'', 1986 in literature, 1986, .
{{Authority control
Film genres
Mystery films,
Mystery fiction, Film
Thrillers