Mystery film
Encyclopedia
Mystery film is a sub-genre of the more general category of crime film
and at times the thriller genre. It focuses on the efforts of the detective
, private investigator
or amateur sleuth to solve the mysterious circumstances of a crime by means of clues, investigation, and clever deduction.
The successful mystery film adheres to one of two story types, known as Open and Closed. The Closed (or whodunit
) mystery conceals the identity of the perpetrator until late in the story, adding an element of suspense
during the apprehension of the suspect
, as the audience is never quite sure who it is. The Open mystery, in contrast, reveals the identity of the perpetrator at the top of the story, showcasing the "perfect crime
" which the audience then watches the protagonist
unravel, usually at the very end of the story, akin to the unveiling scenes in the Closed style.
Suspense is often maintained as an important plot element. This can be done through the use of the soundtrack
, camera
angles, heavy shadows, and surprising plot twist
s. Alfred Hitchcock
used all of these techniques, but would sometimes allow the audience in on a pending threat
then draw out the moment for dramatic effect.
Mystery novels have proven to be a good medium for translation into film. The sleuth
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
, women in mystery films have often served a dual role, providing a relationship with the detective
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.
. The first detective film is often cited as Sherlock Holmes Baffled
, a very short Mutoscope
reel created between 1900
and 1903
by Arthur Marvin
. It is the earliest-known film to feature the character of detective Sherlock Holmes
, albeit in a barely recognisable form.
The earliest true mystery films include The Gold Bug (1910) from France and The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1914). Both are derived from Edgar Allan Poe
stories, which is appropriate as Poe created detective fiction
as well as the first private detective character, C. Auguste Dupin. In 1932, Universal Pictures
renamed him Pierre Dupin in Murders in the Rue Morgue
, an atmospheric horror-mystery starring Bela Lugosi
. The film was remade twice more in 1953 and 1971. Poe's second Dupin story, The Mystery of Marie Rogêt
, was filmed in 1942.
Charles Dickens
' unfinished 1870 novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood
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
in 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 horror-whodunit hybrid with Night Monster
in 1942.
American author Mary Roberts Rinehart
(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 in 1926 as The Bat
, again in 1930 as The Bat Whispers
, and a third time in the 1959 remake, The Bat
, starring Vincent Price
.
Undoubtedly the most famous of the amateur detectives to reach the silver screen was the archetypal Sherlock Holmes
. He first appeared in 1903, and has been portrayed in scores of films by a multitude of actors. Perhaps the earliest detective comedy is Buster Keaton
's Sherlock, Jr.
from 1924. Until recently, the only American-made series starred Basil Rathbone
and Nigel Bruce
as Holmes and Dr. Watson. Together they made 14 highly popular films between 1939 and 1946. The first two, at 20th Century Fox, were period piece mysteries set in the late-Victorian era of the original stories. By the third film, Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror
(1942), now at Universal Studios, Holmes was updated to the present day. Several films dealt with World War II and thwarting Nazi spies.
Warner Bros. Pictures has introduced a new film series with Sherlock Holmes (2009 film)
and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
(2011) which mark a sharp departure from the original stories as well as the previous film adaptations. Here the cerebral detective, played by Robert Downey Jr.
, has been transformed into an athletic action hero in a steampunk
fantasy version of Victorian England.
Other famous literary sleuths who were brought to the screen include Charlie Chan
, Ellery Queen
, Nancy Drew
, Nero Wolfe
, and Agatha Christie
's Miss Marple
and Hercule Poirot
. To date, 32 films and dozens of television adaptations have been made based on Christie's novels alone. British private detective and adventurer Bulldog Drummond
was featured in no less than 24 films from 1922 to 1969 and was the prototype for Ian Fleming
's James Bond
character.
) began a series of 28 highly popular Charlie Chan films. (Monogram Pictures
continued the series from 1944 to 1949 with 17 more entries.) The success of the Chan films led Fox to hire German actor Peter Lorre
to play Japanese sleuth Mr. Moto
in 8 films from 1937 to 1939. Monogram came back with their own gentlemanly Oriental detective, Mr. Wong, adapted from a Hugh Wiley story. Starting with Mr. Wong, Detective
, Boris Karloff
played Wong in 5 of 6 films produced from 1938 to 1941.
Over at Warner Brothers studios, the Torchy Blane films were notable for featuring one of the few female sleuths in a series. Starting with Smart Blonde, Glenda Farrell
played the brassy, mystery-solving news reporter in 8 of 9 films made between 1936 and 1939.
William Powell
starred in a series of detective films as the suave Philo Vance
— the most successful example being The Kennel Murder Case
(1933). Powell also played the equally debonair "Nick Charles" opposite Myrna Loy
as his carefree wife "Nora" in the hugely popular Thin Man series from 1934 to 1947. Based on The Thin Man
novel by Dashiell Hammett
, these were witty, sophisticated romps that combined elements of the screwball comedy film
within a complex murder mystery plot.
Many of these films 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.
The 1930s was the era of the elegant gentleman-detective 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, "hard boiled" professional private detectives based on the novels of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler
, and an ensuing slew of imitators were adapted to film.
, film noir
came into style and proved a popular medium for darker, more violent stories featuring cynical, trenchcoat-wearing private detectives who were almost as ruthless as the criminals they pursued. The wealthy, aristocratic sleuth of the previous decade was gradually replaced by the rough-edged, working-class gumshoe. Humphrey Bogart
became the definitive cinema shamus as Sam Spade
in Hammett's The Maltese Falcon
(1941) and as Philip Marlowe
in Chandler's The Big Sleep
(1946). Dick Powell
also made an indelible impression as Marlowe in the classic Murder, My Sweet
(1944), adapted from Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely
. The Falcon Takes Over
(1942) was also based on the same novel.
Chandler's The Lady in the Lake
was filmed
in 1947. Robert Montgomery
was the director and star. That same year Chandler's novel The High Window
was made into a film called The Brasher Doubloon
. He also wrote an original screenplay for The Blue Dahlia
(1946) starring Alan Ladd
. The Glass Key
(1942), also starring Ladd, was the second film adaptation of Hammett's novel.
Another standout film of the period is Out of the Past
(1947) starring Robert Mitchum
, who would go on to play Philip Marlowe three decades later. Otto Preminger
's Laura
(1944) is also a classic murder mystery featuring Dana Andrews
as a lone-wolf police detective.
The popular radio show The Whistler
was turned into a series of 8 mystery films from 1944 to 1948. Richard Dix
would introduce the stories and alternate between playing a hero, a villain, or a victim of circumstance. In Mysterious Intruder (1946), he was a private eye. It was one of the few series to gain acceptance with the public and critics alike.
Chester Morris
played Boston Blackie
, a former jewel thief turned detective, in fourteen films from 1941 to 1949. Produced by Columbia Pictures
, many were mysteries laced with comic relief such as Meet Boston Blackie
(1941), Boston Blackie Booked on Suspicion (1945), The Phantom Thief (1945), and Boston Blackie's Chinese Venture (1949). Columbia also turned the Crime Doctor
radio show into a series of mystery films starring Warner Baxter
. 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 (1949).
Another popular series featured George Sanders
as the suave Falcon
. Sixteen films were made from 1941 to 1949. Sanders decided to leave the series during the fourth entry, The Falcon's Brother
. His character was killed off and replaced by his real-life brother, Tom Conway
. Comedian Red Skelton
played inept radio detective "The Fox" in a trio of comedies, Whistling in the Dark
(1941), Whistling in Dixie
(1942), and Whistling in Brooklyn
(1943).
Brett Halliday
's "Michael Shayne
" detective novels were made into a series of 12 B-movies between 1940 and 1947 (starring Lloyd Nolan
and later Hugh Beaumont). Mickey Spillane
's equally rugged Mike Hammer
character was adapted to film with I, the Jury
(1953), My Gun is Quick
(1957), and the influential Kiss Me Deadly
(1955). Spillane even played Hammer once in the 1963 film The Girl Hunters
.
in both The Dark Corner
(1946) and Lured
(1947), Alan Ladd in the aforementioned The Blue Dahlia, George Raft
in Johnny Angel
(1945), and Humphrey Bogart in Dead Reckoning
(1947).
Perhaps the last word in this sub-genre is D.O.A.
(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
.
Also among this group, the issue of racism as motive for murder is central to Crossfire
(1947), Bad Day at Black Rock
(1954), and A Soldier's Story
(1984).
in 1945. Three more films, all titled Ten Little Indians, were released in 1965, 1974, and 1989 along with the 1987 Russian film Desyat Negrityat
.
This premise has been used countless times in other films such as Five Dolls for an August Moon
(1970) directed by Mario Bava
, Mindhunters (2004), made-for-television films (Dead Man's Island
, 1996), a miniseries (Harper's Island, 2009), and episodic television such as The Avengers
("The Superlative Seven"), The Wild Wild West
("The Night of The Tottering Tontine") both from 1967, and Remington Steele
("Steele Trap") in 1982.
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
films set in the '30s and '40s, and new, contemporary detective stories that pay homage to the past.
(based on Chandler's The Little Sister), and in Robert Altman
's revisionist The Long Goodbye
(1973) played by Elliott Gould
. Robert Mitchum
is Marlowe in the 1978 remake of The Big Sleep
set in contemporary London. Paul Newman
portrays a modernized Lew Archer
(changed to Harper) in Harper
(1966) and The Drowning Pool
(1976), based on Ross Macdonald
's 1949-1950 novels.
Gunn
, set in the mod millieu of 1967, is an update of the Peter Gunn
TV series (1958–1961) starring Craig Stevens
. Bulldog Drummond returned as a contemporary sleuth in Deadlier Than the Male
(1967) and Some Girls Do
(1969). And the 1982 remake of I, the Jury
brought back Mike Hammer (revived again in the 1984-1987 television series, Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer
).
The old-fashioned whodunit was given a fresh update in Sleuth (1972), The Last of Sheila
(1973), and the comedy Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?
(1978). And Brian De Palma
's Obsession is a 1976 remake of Hitchcock's 1958 classic Vertigo
.
's classic Chinatown (1974) starring Jack Nicholson
and its belated sequel, The Two Jakes
(1990), which Nicholson also directed. Robert Mitchum played Marlowe once again in Farewell, My Lovely
(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 television film Goodnight, My Love (1972) with Richard Boone
and two short-lived TV series, Banyon
(1972–73) and City of Angels (1976) were also set in the 1930s and pay tribute to the Sam Spade/Phillip Marlowe model. And the 1975 telefilm Who Is the Black Dahlia? recreates the true unsolved murder case from 1947.
Agatha Christie's elegant Murder on the Orient Express
(1974) and Death on the Nile (1978) were colorful, lavish productions rich in '30s period detail. Also a series of lighthearted Miss Marple mysteries were loosely adapted from Christie's novels. Margaret Rutherford
starred in Murder, She Said
(1961), Murder Most Foul
(1964), Murder Ahoy!
(1965), and did a cameo appearance as Marple in The Alphabet Murders
(1965).
And the evergreen Sherlock Holmes was given the first of many revisionist treatments in Billy Wilder
's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
(1970) and The Seven Percent Solution (1976).
'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 and part parody of the detective genre. Frank Sinatra
is a cynical, Bogart-like gumshoe in Tony Rome
(1967) and the sequel Lady in Cement
(1968) — and a tough police investigator in The Detective
(1968). John D. MacDonald
wrote 21 Travis McGee
novels, but only one, Darker Than Amber
(1970) was filmed. George Peppard
is the laconic private eye P.J. (1968). Robert Culp
and Bill Cosby
are hard-luck private eyes in the downbeat Hickey & Boggs
(1972). Burt Reynolds
plays a tongue-in-cheek Shamus
(1973), and Burt Lancaster
is a retired cop turned sleuth in The Midnight Man
(1974). Two of the finest examples star Gene Hackman
in The Conversation
(1974) and Night Moves
(1975).
The blaxploitation
B-movie industry adopted the standard private detective format for several action-mysteries such as Trouble Man
(1972), Black Eye (1974), Sheba, Baby
(1975) starring Pam Grier
, and Velvet Smooth
(1976).
Noteworthy police detective dramas of the period include: In the Heat of the Night (winner of five Academy Awards
, including Best Picture in 1967), Bullitt
, Madigan
(both 1968), Klute
(1971), and two non-mysteries: Dirty Harry
, and The French Connection
(both from 1971).
Rod Steiger
as an ingenious psycho-killer who enjoys taunting the police in No Way to Treat a Lady
(1968), along with Klute, The Cat o' Nine Tails
(1971) from horror director Dario Argento
, and Hitchcock's disturbing Frenzy
(1972) would serve as models for a new genre of increasingly gory serial killer films to come in the following decades.
's provocative Blowup
(1966) is a unique anti-whodunit symbolizing the aimless hedonism of the Sixties. A swinging London
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
remade this as Blow Out
, turning it into a more traditional political thriller. In the DVD audio commentary for The Conversation, director Francis Ford Coppola
revealed that Blowup was a major source of inspiration for that film.
, Angel Heart
, Hollywood Harry, The Two Jakes
, Devil in a Blue Dress
, Pure Luck
, Under Suspicion
, Twilight
with Paul Newman
, and Ben Affleck
's Gone Baby Gone
.
Films with female detectives have not fared well. Kathleen Turner
as private eye V.I. Warshawski (1991), was to be the start of a new franchise based on the book series, but the film was a box-office failure. Plans to turn Honey West
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
(1988), and one with Miss Marple The Mirror Crack'd
(1980). Christie herself became the subject of a mystery film in 1979's Agatha
starring Vanessa Redgrave
. The film was a fictional speculation on her famous 11-day disappearance in 1926.
). The implied sexuality of the vintage films was enhanced and made explicit in a new wave of erotic thriller
s. The most influential of these are Body Heat
(1981), and two from Brian De Palma: Dressed to Kill (1980) and Body Double
(1984).
Many of these films, such as the 1981 remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice
, Angel Heart
(1987), Basic Instinct
(1992), and Sliver
(1993) gained more notoriety for their explicit sex and nude scenes than for anything else. The frontal male nudity in Color of Night
(1994) was controversial, as was Body of Evidence (1993) with Madonna and Meg Ryan
's image-changing nude scene from In the Cut
(2003). None of these films were well-received by the critics.
One of the few noteworthy films to successfully balance sexuality and suspense is the Al Pacino
thriller Sea of Love (1989).
(1947). More recent examples include A Soldier's Story
(1984), No Way Out
, The Presidio (1988), A Few Good Men
(1992), Courage Under Fire
(1996), The General's Daughter
(1999), and Basic
(2003).
The police procedural
film, often with a surprise twist ending, has also remained a vital format with Cruising
(1980), Gorky Park
(1983), Tightrope (1984), The Dead Pool
(1988), Rising Sun
(1993), Striking Distance
(1993), The Usual Suspects
(1995), Lone Star
(1996), Murder at 1600
(1997), Under Suspicion
(2000), Blood Work (2002), Mindhunters
and Righteous Kill
(2008).
Psychological thriller
In the 1990s, a new trend, sometimes called Psycho-noir (psychological thriller and film-noir combined), emerged. This blends mystery, horror and suspense into stories centered around clever, sociopathic serial killers. The Hannibal Lecter
novels by Thomas Harris
have inspired four films, Manhunter
(1986), the Academy Award-winning The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Hannibal (2001), and Red Dragon
(2002).
Other films in this category include Seven
(1995), Kiss the Girls
(1997), The Bone Collector
(1999), Mercy (2000), Along Came a Spider
(2001), Insomnia
(2002), and Taking Lives
(2004).
The 2007 film Zodiac
is an account of the real hunt for a serial killer in the San Francisco area in the late-Sixties and early Seventies. Other real-life serial killings have been portrayed in The Alphabet Killer
, Ed Gein
, Gacy
, Ted Bundy
and Dahmer
.
Recently, there have been films where ordinary characters (as instead of cops or detectives) becoming involved in a mystery. In many modern day mystery-thrillers, everyday characters (such as teens, mothers, fathers, businesspeople, etc.) are dragged into a dangerous conflict or a mysterious situation
, either by fate
or their own curiousness, and they are not prepared to solve
.
Common elements in these type of psychological mysteries include; searching for a missing person
(preferably a loved one) whilst being surrounded by red herrings who kidnapped the person, group of characters trying to find out who is the killer among them (usually turns out to be one of them), character being suspicious of a mysterious neighbour or friend, characters trying to determine what is true and what is not, and characters being confused about who they are and try to discover their true identity
. Movies like that include the Scream franchise (1996-2011), Shutter Island
(2010), Flightplan
(2005), Saw franchise (2004-2010), The Orphanage
(2006), What Lies Beneath
(2000), Cry Wolf (2005), Devil
(2010), Secret Window
(2004), The Ring
(2002), The Machinist
(2004), The Forgotten
(2005), The Number 23
(2006), Identity
(2003), Memento (2000)and The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (2010)
(1996), and L.A. Confidential
(1997) which was nominated for nine Academy Awards
and won two. Both True Confessions
(1981) and De Palma's The Black Dahlia
(2006) are based on an actual unsolved Hollywood murder case from 1947. Hollywoodland
(2006) explores the mysterious 1959 death of actor George Reeves
, who is portrayed by Ben Affleck
.
Raymond Chandler's final unfinished novel, Poodle Springs
, from 1958, was completed by another author and made into an HBO cable film in 1998. Set in 1963, it stars James Caan as Philip Marlowe.
Coming full circle, Robert Altman
's nostalgic Gosford Park
(2001), set in an English mansion in 1932, is an original story that revives the old-fashioned murder mystery format.
Crime film
Crime films are films which focus on the lives of criminals. The stylistic approach to a crime film varies from realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures, to the far-fetched evil doings of imaginary arch-villains. Criminal acts are almost always glorified in these movies.- Plays and films...
and at times the thriller genre. It focuses on the efforts of the detective
Detective
A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...
, private investigator
Private investigator
A private investigator , private detective or inquiry agent, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private detectives/investigators often work for attorneys in civil cases. Many work for insurance companies to investigate suspicious claims...
or amateur sleuth to solve the mysterious circumstances of a crime by means of clues, investigation, and clever deduction.
The successful mystery film adheres to one of two story types, known as Open and Closed. The Closed (or whodunit
Whodunit
A whodunit or whodunnit is a complex, plot-driven variety of the detective story in which the puzzle is the main feature of interest. The reader or viewer is provided with clues from which the identity of the perpetrator of the crime may be deduced before the solution is revealed in the final...
) mystery conceals the identity of the perpetrator until late in the story, adding an element of suspense
Suspense
Suspense is a feeling of uncertainty and anxiety about the outcome of certain actions, most often referring to an audience's perceptions in a dramatic work. Suspense is not exclusive to fiction, though. Suspense may operate in any situation where there is a lead-up to a big event or dramatic...
during the apprehension of the suspect
Suspect
In the parlance of criminal justice, a suspect is a known person suspected of committing a crime.Police and reporters often incorrectly use the word suspect when referring to the...
, as the audience is never quite sure who it is. The Open mystery, in contrast, reveals the identity of the perpetrator at the top of the story, showcasing the "perfect crime
Perfect crime
Perfect crime is a colloquial term used in law and fiction to characterize crimes that are undetected, unattributed to a perpetrator, or else unsolved as a kind of technical achievement on the part of the perpetrator....
" which the audience then watches the protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
unravel, usually at the very end of the story, akin to the unveiling scenes in the Closed style.
Suspense is often maintained as an important plot element. This can be done through the use of the soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
, camera
Camera
A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...
angles, heavy shadows, and surprising plot twist
Plot twist
A plot twist is a change in the expected direction or outcome of the plot of a film, television series, video game, novel, comic or other fictional work. It is a common practice in narration used to keep the interest of an audience, usually surprising them with a revelation...
s. Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
used all of these techniques, but would sometimes allow the audience in on a pending threat
Threat
Threat of force in public international law is a situation between states described by British lawyer Ian Brownlie as:The 1969 Vienna convention on the Law of Treaties notes in its preamble that both the threat and the use of force are prohibited...
then draw out the moment for dramatic effect.
Mystery novels have proven to be a good medium for translation into film. The sleuth
Sleuth
-Theatre and film:*Sleuth , a 1970 play by Anthony Shaffer*Sleuth , a film adaptation of the Anthony Shaffer play, directed by Joseph L...
often forms a strong leading character, and the plots can include elements of drama, suspense, character development
Character development
Character development may refer to:* The change in characterization of a dynamic character, who changes over the course of a narrative.* Character creation, especially for games...
, 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
1980s in film
The decade of the 1980s in film involved many significant films.----Contents1 Events2 Top Grossing films3 Trends4 List of films: # A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z.-Events:...
, women in mystery films have often served a dual role, providing a relationship with the detective
Detective
A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...
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.
Literary influences
The earliest mystery films reach back to the silent eraSilent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
. The first detective film is often cited as Sherlock Holmes Baffled
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 that of later screen incarnations. The inclusion of the...
, a very short Mutoscope
Mutoscope
frame|right|An 1899 trade advertisementThe Mutoscope was an early motion picture device, patented by Herman Casler on November 21, 1894. Like Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope it did not project on a screen, and provided viewing to only one person at a time...
reel created between 1900
1900 in film
The year 1900 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Reulos, Goudeau & Co. invent Mirographe, a 21 mm amateur format.* The Lumiere Brothers premiere their new Lumiere Wide format for the 1900 World Fair...
and 1903
1903 in film
The year 1903 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Thomas Edison demolishes "America's First Movie Studio", the Black Maria.* The three elder Warner Bros...
by Arthur Marvin
Arthur Marvin
Arthur Marvin , was an American cinematographer who worked for the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company in which his brother Henry Marvin was one of the four founders .He shot 418 films between 1897 and 1911, including The Adventures of Dollie , the...
. It is the earliest-known film to feature the character of detective Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
, albeit in a barely recognisable form.
The earliest true mystery films include The Gold Bug (1910) from France and The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1914). Both are derived from Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
stories, which is appropriate as Poe created detective fiction
Detective fiction
Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...
as well as the first private detective character, C. Auguste Dupin. In 1932, Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
renamed him Pierre Dupin in Murders in the Rue Morgue
Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932 film)
Murders in the Rue Morgue is a 1932 horror film, loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue". Bela Lugosi portrays a lunatic scientist who abducts women and injects them with blood from his ill-tempered caged ape...
, an atmospheric horror-mystery starring Bela Lugosi
Béla Lugosi
Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó , commonly known as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian actor of stage and screen. He was best known for having played Count Dracula in the Broadway play and subsequent film version, as well as having starred in several of Ed Wood's low budget films in the last years of his...
. The film was remade twice more in 1953 and 1971. Poe's second Dupin story, The Mystery of Marie Rogêt
The Mystery of Marie Roget
"The Mystery of Marie Rogêt", often subtitled A Sequel to "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe written in 1842. This is the first murder mystery based on the details of a real crime. It first appeared in Snowden's Ladies' Companion in three installments, November and...
, was filmed in 1942.
Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
' unfinished 1870 novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
The Mystery of Edwin Drood is the final novel by Charles Dickens. The novel was left unfinished at the time of Dickens' death, and his intended ending for it remains unknown. Though the novel is named after the character Edwin Drood, the story focuses on Drood's uncle, choirmaster John Jasper, who...
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 (1935 film)
The Mystery of Edwin Drood was the third film adaptation and first sound film version of Charles Dickens's unfinished novel of the same name. It starred Claude Rains in the role of the villainous John Jasper...
in 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 horror-whodunit hybrid with Night Monster
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 directed by Ford Beebe...
in 1942.
American author Mary Roberts Rinehart
Mary Roberts Rinehart
Mary Roberts Rinehart was an American writer, often called the American Agatha Christie. She is considered the source of the phrase "The butler did it", although she did not actually use the phrase. She is considered to have invented the "Had-I-But-Known" school of mystery writing...
(1876–1958), is credited with inventing the "Had-I-But-Known
Had I but known
"Had I but known" is a form of prolepsis or foreshadowing that hints at some looming disaster in which the first-person narrator laments his or her course of action which precipitates some or other unfortunate series of actions. Classically, the narrator never makes explicit the nature of the...
" 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 in 1926 as The Bat
The Bat (1926 film)
The Bat is a silent film based on the 1920 hit Broadway play by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood, directed by Roland West and starring Jack Pickford and Louise Fazenda...
, again in 1930 as The Bat Whispers
The Bat Whispers
The Bat Whispers is a mystery film directed by Roland West, produced by Joseph M. Schenck, and released by United Artists.-Plot:A mysterious criminal by the name of "The Bat" eludes police and then finally announces his retirement to the country, while a wealthy Cornelia Van Gorder takes up...
, and a third time in the 1959 remake, The Bat
The Bat (1959 film)
The Bat is a mystery film directed by Crane Wilbur, and starring Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead. Its tagline was "When it flies, someone dies!" The film was based on the 1920 Broadway play by Avery Hopwood and Mary Roberts Rinehart, which was previously filmed as The Bat and as The Bat...
, starring Vincent Price
Vincent Price
Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...
.
Undoubtedly the most famous of the amateur detectives to reach the silver screen was the archetypal Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
. He first appeared in 1903, and has been portrayed in scores of films by a multitude of actors. Perhaps the earliest detective comedy is Buster Keaton
Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...
's Sherlock, Jr.
Sherlock, Jr.
Sherlock, Jr. is an American silent comedy film directed by and starring Buster Keaton and written by Clyde Bruckman, Jean Havez and Joseph A. Mitchell...
from 1924. Until recently, the only American-made series starred Basil Rathbone
Basil Rathbone
Sir Basil Rathbone, KBE, MC, Kt was an English actor. He rose to prominence in England as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in over 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers, and, occasionally, horror films...
and Nigel Bruce
Nigel Bruce
William Nigel Ernle Bruce , best known as Nigel Bruce, was a British character actor on stage and screen. He was best known for his portrayal of Doctor Watson in a series of films and in the radio series The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes...
as Holmes and Dr. Watson. Together they made 14 highly popular films between 1939 and 1946. The first two, at 20th Century Fox, were period piece mysteries set in the late-Victorian era of the original stories. By the third film, Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror
Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror
Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror is the third film in the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce series of Sherlock Holmes movies. Made in 1942, the film combines elements of the Arthur Conan Doyle story "His Last Bow" and loosely parallels the real-life activities of Lord Haw-haw...
(1942), now at Universal Studios, Holmes was updated to the present day. Several films dealt with World War II and thwarting Nazi spies.
Warner Bros. Pictures has introduced a new film series with Sherlock Holmes (2009 film)
Sherlock Holmes (2009 film)
Sherlock Holmes is a 2009 action-mystery film based on the character of the same name created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The film was directed by Guy Ritchie and produced by Joel Silver, Lionel Wigram, Susan Downey and Dan Lin. The screenplay by Michael Robert Johnson, Anthony Peckham and Simon...
and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is an upcoming 2011 British-American action mystery film directed by Guy Ritchie and produced by Joel Silver, Lionel Wigram, Susan Downey, and Dan Lin. It is a sequel to the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes, based on the character of the same name created by Sir Arthur...
(2011) which mark a sharp departure from the original stories as well as the previous film adaptations. Here the cerebral detective, played by Robert Downey Jr.
Robert Downey Jr.
Robert John Downey, Jr. is an American actor. Downey made his screen debut in 1970 at the age of five when he appeared in his father's film Pound, and has worked consistently in film and television ever since. During the 1980s he had roles in a series of coming of age films associated with the...
, has been transformed into an athletic action hero in a steampunk
Steampunk
Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually Victorian era Britain or "Wild West"-era United...
fantasy version of Victorian England.
Other famous literary sleuths who were brought to the screen include Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan is a fictional Chinese-American detective created by Earl Derr Biggers in 1919. Loosely based on Honolulu detective Chang Apana, Biggers conceived of the benevolent and heroic Chan as an alternative to Yellow Peril stereotypes, such as villains like Fu Manchu...
, Ellery Queen
Ellery Queen
Ellery Queen is both a fictional character and a pseudonym used by two American cousins from Brooklyn, New York: Daniel Nathan, alias Frederic Dannay and Manford Lepofsky, alias Manfred Bennington Lee , to write, edit, and anthologize detective fiction.The fictional Ellery Queen created by...
, Nancy Drew
Nancy Drew
Nancy Drew is a fictional young amateur detective in various mystery series for all ages. She was created by Edward Stratemeyer, founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate book packaging firm. The character first appeared in 1930. The books have been ghostwritten by a number of authors and are published...
, Nero Wolfe
Nero Wolfe
Nero Wolfe is a fictional detective, created in 1934 by the American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe's confidential assistant Archie Goodwin narrates the cases of the detective genius. Stout wrote 33 novels and 39 short stories from 1934 to 1974, with most of them set in New York City. Wolfe's...
, and Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
's Miss Marple
Miss Marple
Jane Marple, usually referred to as Miss Marple, is a fictional character appearing in twelve of Agatha Christie's crime novels and in twenty short stories. Miss Marple is an elderly spinster who lives in the village of St. Mary Mead and acts as an amateur detective. She is one of the most famous...
and Hercule Poirot
Hercule Poirot
Hercule Poirot is a fictional Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie. Along with Miss Marple, Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-lived characters, appearing in 33 novels and 51 short stories published between 1920 and 1975 and set in the same era.Poirot has been portrayed on...
. To date, 32 films and dozens of television adaptations have been made based on Christie's novels alone. British private detective and adventurer Bulldog Drummond
Bulldog Drummond
Bulldog Drummond is a British fictional character, created by "Sapper", a pseudonym of Herman Cyril McNeile , and the hero of a series of novels published from 1920 to 1954.- Drummond :...
was featured in no less than 24 films from 1922 to 1969 and was the prototype for Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...
's James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
character.
Classic period: the 1930s
A few silent Charlie Chan films, now lost, were produced in the 1920s. Starting in 1929, the B-picture unit at Fox Film Corporation (soon to become 20th Century Fox20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
) began a series of 28 highly popular Charlie Chan films. (Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures Corporation is a Hollywood studio that produced and released films, most on low budgets, between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram is considered a leader among the smaller studios sometimes referred to...
continued the series from 1944 to 1949 with 17 more entries.) The success of the Chan films led Fox to hire German actor Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre was an Austrian-American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner.He caused an international sensation in 1931 with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M...
to play Japanese sleuth Mr. Moto
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, which was seeking stories with an Asian hero after the death...
in 8 films from 1937 to 1939. Monogram came back with their own gentlemanly Oriental detective, Mr. Wong, adapted from a Hugh Wiley story. Starting with Mr. Wong, Detective
Mr. Wong, Detective
Mr. Wong, Detective is a 1938 crime film directed by William Nigh and starring Boris Karloff.-Cast:* Boris Karloff - Mr. James Lee Wong* Grant Withers - Captain Sam Street* Maxine Jennings - Myra Ross, Dayton's Secretary...
, Boris Karloff
Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...
played Wong in 5 of 6 films produced from 1938 to 1941.
Over at Warner Brothers studios, the Torchy Blane films were notable for featuring one of the few female sleuths in a series. Starting with Smart Blonde, Glenda Farrell
Glenda Farrell
-Career:Farrell came to Hollywood towards the end of the silent era. Farrell began her career with a theatrical company at the age of 7. She played Little Eva in Uncle Tom's Cabin...
played the brassy, mystery-solving news reporter in 8 of 9 films made between 1936 and 1939.
William Powell
William Powell
William Horatio Powell was an American actor.A major star at MGM, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the popular Thin Man series in which Powell and Loy played Nick and Nora Charles...
starred in a series of detective films as the suave Philo Vance
Philo Vance
Philo Vance featured in 12 crime novels written by S. S. Van Dine , published in the 1920s and 1930s. During that time, Vance was immensely popular in books, movies, and on the radio. He was portrayed as a stylish, even foppish dandy, a New York bon vivant possessing a highly intellectual bent...
— the most successful example being The Kennel Murder Case
The Kennel Murder Case (film)
The Kennel Murder Case is a 1933 American film directed by Michael Curtiz starring William Powell as Philo Vance, reprising the role for Warner Brothers after appearing as Vance in three films for Paramount.-Plot:...
(1933). Powell also played the equally debonair "Nick Charles" opposite Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy was an American actress. Trained as a dancer, she devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, her career prospects improved following her portrayal of Nora Charles...
as his carefree wife "Nora" in the hugely popular Thin Man series from 1934 to 1947. Based on The Thin Man
The Thin Man
The Thin Man is a detective novel by Dashiell Hammett, originally published in Redbook. Although he never wrote a sequel, the book became the basis for a successful six-part film series which also began in 1934 with The Thin Man and starred William Powell and Myrna Loy...
novel by Dashiell Hammett
Dashiell Hammett
Samuel Dashiell Hammett was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories, and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade , Nick and Nora Charles , and the Continental Op .In addition to the significant influence his novels and stories had on...
, these were witty, sophisticated romps that combined elements of the screwball comedy film
Screwball comedy film
The screwball comedy is a principally American genre of comedy film that became popular during the Great Depression, originating in the early 1930s and thriving until the early 1940s. It is characterized by fast-paced repartee, farcical situations, escapist themes, and plot lines involving...
within a complex murder mystery plot.
Many of these films concluded with an explanatory detective dénouement
Detective denouement
The detective dénouement is a variant on the literary dénouement common to mystery stories. It was first popularised by the Sherlock Holmes novels, but is present in many stories, such as the works of Agatha Christie or in Ellen Raskin's young adult novel The Westing Game.In detective stories, the...
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.
The 1930s was the era of the elegant gentleman-detective 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, "hard boiled" professional private detectives based on the novels of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler
Raymond Chandler
Raymond Thornton Chandler was an American novelist and screenwriter.In 1932, at age forty-five, Raymond Chandler decided to become a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in...
, and an ensuing slew of imitators were adapted to film.
The 1940s-1950s
During World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, film noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
came into style and proved a popular medium for darker, more violent stories featuring cynical, trenchcoat-wearing private detectives who were almost as ruthless as the criminals they pursued. The wealthy, aristocratic sleuth of the previous decade was gradually replaced by the rough-edged, working-class gumshoe. Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....
became the definitive cinema shamus as Sam Spade
Sam Spade
Sam Spade is a fictional character who is the protagonist of Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel The Maltese Falcon and the various films and adaptations based on it, as well as in three lesser known short stories by Hammett....
in Hammett's The Maltese Falcon
The Maltese Falcon (1941 film)
The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 Warner Bros. film based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett and a remake of the 1931 film of the same name...
(1941) and as Philip Marlowe
Philip Marlowe
Philip Marlowe is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler in a series of novels including The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye. Marlowe first appeared under that name in The Big Sleep published in 1939...
in Chandler's The Big Sleep
The Big Sleep
The Big Sleep is a hardboiled crime novel by Raymond Chandler, the first in his acclaimed series about detective Philip Marlowe. The work has been adapted twice into film, once in 1946 and again in 1978...
(1946). Dick Powell
Dick Powell
Richard Ewing "Dick" Powell was an American singer, actor, producer, director and studio boss.Despite the same last name he was not related to William Powell, Eleanor Powell or Jane Powell.-Biography:...
also made an indelible impression as Marlowe in the classic Murder, My Sweet
Murder, My Sweet
Murder, My Sweet is a 1944 American film noir directed by Edward Dmytryk, and starring Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, and Anne Shirley. The film was released in the United Kingdom under the title Farewell, My Lovely, which is the title of the 1940 Raymond Chandler novel it is based on, and also the...
(1944), adapted from Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely
Farewell, My Lovely
Farewell, My Lovely is a 1940 novel by Raymond Chandler, the second novel he wrote featuring Los Angeles private eye Philip Marlowe. It was adapted for the screen three times.-Plot summary:...
. The Falcon Takes Over
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 film was the third, following The Gay Falcon and A Date with the Falcon , to star George Sanders as the character Gay Lawrence, a gentleman detective known by the sobriquet...
(1942) was also based on the same novel.
Chandler's The Lady in the Lake
The Lady in the Lake
The Lady in the Lake is a 1943 detective novel by Raymond Chandler featuring, as do all his major works, the Los Angeles private investigator Philip Marlowe.-Introduction:...
was filmed
Lady in the Lake
Lady in the Lake is a 1947 American film noir that marked the directorial debut of Robert Montgomery, who also stars in the film. The picture also features Audrey Totter, Lloyd Nolan, Tom Tully, Leon Ames and Jayne Meadows...
in 1947. Robert Montgomery
Robert Montgomery (actor)
Robert Montgomery was an American actor and director.- Early life :Montgomery was born Henry Montgomery, Jr. in Beacon, New York, then known as "Fishkill Landing", the son of Mary Weed and Henry Montgomery, Sr. His early childhood was one of privilege, since his father was president of the New...
was the director and star. That same year Chandler's novel The High Window
The High Window
The High Window is a 1942 novel written by Raymond Chandler. It is his third novel to feature Los Angeles private detective Philip Marlowe.-Plot introduction:...
was made into a film called The Brasher Doubloon
The Brasher Doubloon
The Brasher Doubloon is a 1947 film noir based on the novel The High Window by Raymond Chandler....
. He also wrote an original screenplay for The Blue Dahlia
The Blue Dahlia
The Blue Dahlia is a 1946 film noir, directed by George Marshall and written by Raymond Chandler. The film marks the third pairing of stars Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake.-Plot:...
(1946) starring Alan Ladd
Alan Ladd
-Early life:Ladd was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He was the only child of Ina Raleigh Ladd and Alan Ladd, Sr. He was of English ancestry. His father died when he was four, and his mother relocated to Oklahoma City where she married Jim Beavers, a housepainter...
. The Glass Key
The Glass Key (1942 film)
The Glass Key is a 1942 film noir, directed by Stuart Heisler and based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett. The story had previously been adapted for film in 1935.-Plot:...
(1942), also starring Ladd, was the second film adaptation of Hammett's novel.
Another standout film of the period is Out of the Past
Out of the Past
Out of the Past 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 , with uncredited revisions by Frank Fenton and James M...
(1947) starring Robert Mitchum
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...
, who would go on to play Philip Marlowe three decades later. Otto Preminger
Otto Preminger
Otto Ludwig Preminger was an Austro–Hungarian-American theatre and film director.After moving from the theatre to Hollywood, he directed over 35 feature films in a five-decade career. He rose to prominence for stylish film noir mysteries such as Laura and Fallen Angel...
's Laura
Laura (1944 film)
Laura is a 1944 American film noir directed by Otto Preminger. It stars Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews and Clifton Webb. The screenplay by Jay Dratler, Samuel Hoffenstein, and Elizabeth Reinhardt is based on the 1943 novel of the same title by Vera Caspary....
(1944) is also a classic murder mystery featuring Dana Andrews
Dana Andrews
Dana Andrews was an American film actor. He was one of Hollywood's major stars of the 1940s, and continued acting, though generally in less prestigious roles, into the 1980s.-Early life:...
as a lone-wolf police detective.
The popular radio show The Whistler
The Whistler
The Whistler was an American radio mystery drama which ran from May 16, 1942 until September 22, 1955. It was sponsored by the Signal Oil Company: "That whistle is your signal for the Signal Oil program, The Whistler." The program was adapted into a film noir series by Columbia Pictures in...
was turned into a series of 8 mystery films from 1944 to 1948. Richard Dix
Richard Dix
Richard Dix was an American motion picture actor who achieved popularity in both silent and sound film. His standard on-screen image was that of the rugged and stalwart hero.-Early life:...
would introduce the stories and alternate between playing a hero, a villain, or a victim of circumstance. In Mysterious Intruder (1946), he was a private eye. It was one of the few series to gain acceptance with the public and critics alike.
Chester Morris
Chester Morris
Chester Morris was an American actor, who starred in the Boston Blackie detective series of the 1940s.-Career:...
played Boston Blackie
Boston Blackie
Boston Blackie is a fictional character created by author Jack Boyle . Originally a jewel thief and safecracker in Boyle's novels, he became a detective in adaptations for films, radio and television—an "enemy to those who make him an enemy, friend to those who have no friend."-Literature:Jack...
, a former jewel thief turned detective, in fourteen films from 1941 to 1949. Produced by Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
, many were mysteries laced with comic relief such as Meet Boston Blackie
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...
(1941), Boston Blackie Booked on Suspicion (1945), The Phantom Thief (1945), and Boston Blackie's Chinese Venture (1949). Columbia also turned the Crime Doctor
Crime Doctor (character)
The Crime Doctor is a fictional character created by Max Marcin. A crook named Phil Morgan suffers amnesia and becomes criminal psychologist Dr. Robert Ordway....
radio show into a series of mystery films starring Warner Baxter
Warner Baxter
Warner Leroy Baxter was an American actor, known for his role as The Cisco Kid in In Old Arizona , for which he won the second Academy Award for Best Actor in the 1928–1929 Academy Awards. Warner Baxter started his movie career in silent movies...
. Most of them followed the standard whodunit formula. Ten features were produced beginning with Crime Doctor
Crime Doctor (film)
Crime Doctor is a crime film starring Warner Baxter as a man with amnesia determined to remember his past. The film, released by Columbia Pictures, was based on the Crime Doctor radio program and was followed by nine sequels:...
in 1943 and ending with Crime Doctor's Diary (1949).
Another popular series featured George Sanders
George Sanders
George Sanders was a British actor.George Sanders may also refer to:*George Sanders , Victoria Cross recipient in World War I...
as the suave Falcon
The Falcon (literary character)
The character of Gay Stanhope Falcon, also known simply as The Falcon, was created in 1940 by Michael Arlen in his short story, "Gay Falcon", which was first published in 1940 in Town & Country magazine...
. 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
The Falcon's Brother is a 1942 film in which George Sanders, who had been portraying "The Falcon" in a series of movies, appears with his lookalike brother Tom Conway; the brothers play brothers and Sanders hands off the series to Conway, who plays the new Falcon in nine subsequent films...
. His character was killed off and replaced by his real-life brother, Tom Conway
Tom Conway
Tom Conway was a British film and radio actor, and elder brother of actor George Sanders.-Early life:...
. Comedian Red Skelton
Red Skelton
Richard Bernard "Red" Skelton was an American comedian who is best known as a top radio and television star from 1937 to 1971. Skelton's show business career began in his teens as a circus clown and went on to vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, TV, night clubs and casinos, all while pursuing...
played inept radio detective "The Fox" in a trio of comedies, Whistling in the Dark
Whistling in the Dark (1941 film)
Whistling in the Dark is the first of three comedy films starring Red Skelton as Wally "the Fox" Benton, who writes and acts in radio murder mysteries. Wally is kidnapped by a greedy cult leader , who threatens to kill Wally's girlfriend and another young woman unless he concocts a perfect murder...
(1941), Whistling in Dixie
Whistling in Dixie
Whistling in Dixie is a 1942 crime comedy film, the second of three starring Red Skelton as murder mystery writer and amateur crime solver Wally Benton and Ann Rutherford as his girlfriend...
(1942), and Whistling in Brooklyn
Whistling in Brooklyn
Whistling in Brooklyn is the third and last film starring comedian Red Skelton as radio personality and amateur detective Wally "The Fox" Benton. Wally prepares to marry his girlfriend, but gets sidetracked when he is mistaken for a serial murderer...
(1943).
Brett Halliday
Brett Halliday
Brett Halliday , primary pen name of Davis Dresser, was an American mystery writer, best known for the long-lived series of Michael Shayne novels he wrote, and later commissioned others to write...
's "Michael Shayne
Michael Shayne
Michael Shayne is a fictional private detective character created during the late 1930s by writer Brett Halliday. It was the title of a series of 12 films starring Lloyd Nolan, a radio series under a variety of names, between 1944 and 1953, and later in 1960-1961, a 32 episode NBC television series...
" detective novels were made into a series of 12 B-movies between 1940 and 1947 (starring Lloyd Nolan
Lloyd Nolan
Lloyd Benedict Nolan was an American film and television actor.-Biography:Nolan was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Margaret and James Nolan, who was a shoe manufacturer...
and later Hugh Beaumont). Mickey Spillane
Mickey Spillane
Frank Morrison Spillane , better known as Mickey Spillane, was an American author of crime novels, many featuring his signature detective character, Mike Hammer. More than 225 million copies of his books have sold internationally...
's equally rugged Mike Hammer
Mike Hammer
Michael "Mike" Hammer is a fictional detective created by the American author Mickey Spillane in the 1947 book I, the Jury .-Description:...
character was adapted to film with I, the Jury
I, the Jury
I, The Jury is Mickey Spillane's first novel featuring private investigator Mike Hammer.-Plot summary:New York City, summer 1944. Although she runs a successful private psychiatric clinic on New York's Park Avenue, Dr. Charlotte Manning — young, beautiful, blonde, and well-to-do —...
(1953), My Gun is Quick
My Gun Is Quick
My Gun Is Quick is a 1957 mystery film based on the novel My Gun is Quick by Mickey Spillane. Written by Richard M. Powell and directed by Phil Victor and George White, the movie stars Robert Bray as private investigator Mike Hammer, Pamela Duncan as Velda, Hammer's secretary.The story begins when...
(1957), and the influential Kiss Me Deadly
Kiss Me Deadly
Kiss Me Deadly is a 1955 film noir drama produced and directed by Robert Aldrich starring Ralph Meeker. The screenplay was written by A.I. Bezzerides, based on the Mickey Spillane Mike Hammer mystery novel Kiss Me, Deadly. Kiss Me Deadly is often considered a classic of the noir genre. The film...
(1955). Spillane even played Hammer once in the 1963 film The Girl Hunters
The Girl Hunters
The Girl Hunters is a British-made film, adapted from the 1962 Mickey Spillane pulp novel The Girl Hunters.Mickey Spillane played Mike Hammer, one of the few occasions in film history in which an author of a popular literary hero has portrayed his own character. It also starred Bond girl Shirley...
.
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 Lucille BallLucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...
in both The Dark Corner
The Dark Corner
The Dark Corner is a 1946 film noir directed by Henry Hathaway and starring Lucille Ball, Mark Stevens and Clifton Webb. The film is an example of a classic film noir and features a rare dramatic role for Ball.-Plot:...
(1946) and Lured
Lured
Lured is the title of a film noir released by United Artists, directed by Douglas Sirk, and starring Lucille Ball, George Sanders, Boris Karloff, Charles Coburn, and Sir Cedric Hardwicke.-Plot:...
(1947), Alan Ladd in the aforementioned The Blue Dahlia, George Raft
George Raft
George Raft was an American film actor and dancer identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s...
in Johnny Angel
Johnny Angel
Johnny Angel is a film noir directed by Edwin L. Marin, written by Frank Gruber and Steve Fisher from the novel Mr. Angel Comes Aboard by Charles Gordon Booth. The movie features George Raft, Claire Trevor, Signe Hasso, and Hoagy Carmichael....
(1945), and Humphrey Bogart in Dead Reckoning
Dead reckoning
In navigation, dead reckoning is the process of calculating one's current position by using a previously determined position, or fix, and advancing that position based upon known or estimated speeds over elapsed time, and course...
(1947).
Perhaps the last word in this sub-genre is D.O.A.
D.O.A. (1950 film)
D.O.A. , a film noir drama film directed by Rudolph Maté, is considered a classic of the genre. The frantically paced plot revolves around a doomed man's quest to find out who has poisoned him – and why – before he dies.Leo C...
(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
Color Me Dead is a 1969 Australian thriller directed by Eddie Davis. It is a remake of the 1950 film D.O.A..- Cast :* Tom Tryon : Frank Bigelow* Carolyn Jones : Paula Gibson* Rick Jason : Bradley Taylor* Pat Connolly : Marla Rukubian...
.
Also among this group, the issue of racism as motive for murder is central to Crossfire
Crossfire
A crossfire is a military term for the siting of weapons 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
Bad Day at Black Rock is a 1955 thriller film directed by John Sturges that combines elements of Westerns and film noir. It tells the story of a mysterious stranger who arrives at a tiny isolated town in a desert of the southwest United States in search of a man...
(1954), and A Soldier's Story
A Soldier's Story
A Soldier's Story is a 1984 drama film directed by Norman Jewison, based upon Charles Fuller's Pulitzer Prize-winning Off Broadway production A Soldier's Play. A black officer is sent to investigate the murder of a black sergeant in Louisiana near the end of World War II...
(1984).
Ten Little Indians
Agatha Christie's highly influential 1939 novel Ten Little Indians (originally Ten Little Niggers, later changed 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 a classic film And Then There Were NoneAnd Then There Were None (1945 film)
And Then There Were None is a 1945 film adaption of Agatha Christie's best-selling mystery novel And Then There Were None directed by René Clair....
in 1945. Three more films, all titled Ten Little Indians, were released in 1965, 1974, and 1989 along with the 1987 Russian film Desyat Negrityat
Desyat Negrityat
Desyat Negrityat is a 1987 Soviet film adaptation of Agatha Christie's novel And Then There Were None . It was directed by Stanislav Govorukhin, who also penned the script...
.
This premise has been used countless times in other films such as Five Dolls for an August Moon
Five Dolls for an August Moon
Five Dolls for an August Moon is a 1970 Italian thriller film directed by Mario Bava, from a screenplay by Mario di Nardo. The music is written by the Italian film composer Piero Umiliani...
(1970) directed by Mario Bava
Mario Bava
Mario Bava was an Italian director, screenwriter, and cinematographer remembered as one of the greatest names from the "golden age" of Italian horror films.-Biography:Mario Bava was born in San Remo, Liguria, Italy...
, Mindhunters (2004), made-for-television films (Dead Man's Island
Dead Man's Island
Dead Man's Island is a television film made in 1996 starring William Shatner and Barbara Eden. In it, a journalist is called to a mysterious island by her old friend who fears that someone is trying to kill him. It shares similarities with Agatha Christie's famous novel And Then There Were None....
, 1996), a miniseries (Harper's Island, 2009), and episodic television such as The Avengers
The Avengers (TV series)
The Avengers is a spy-fi British television series set in the 1960s Britain. The Avengers initially focused on Dr. David Keel and his assistant John Steed . Hendry left after the first series and Steed became the main character, partnered with a succession of assistants...
("The Superlative Seven"), The Wild Wild West
The Wild Wild West
The Wild Wild West is an American television series that ran on CBS for four seasons from September 17, 1965 to April 4, 1969....
("The Night of The Tottering Tontine") both from 1967, and Remington Steele
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 1982 to 1987. The series blended the genres of romantic...
("Steele Trap") in 1982.
Revival and revisionist era: 1960s-1970s
The Sixties and Seventies saw a neo-noirNeo-noir
Neo-noir is a style often seen in modern motion pictures and other forms that prominently utilize elements of film noir, but with updated themes, content, style, visual elements or media that were absent in films noir of the 1940s and 1950s.-History:The term Film Noir was coined by...
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
Period piece
-Setting:In the performing arts, a period piece is a work set in a particular era. This informal term covers all countries, all periods and all genres...
films set in the '30s and '40s, and new, contemporary detective stories that pay homage to the past.
Classics made contemporary
Philip Marlowe returns as a modern-day sleuth in 1969's Marlowe played by James GarnerJames Garner
James Garner is an American film and television actor, one of the first Hollywood actors to excel in both media. He has starred in several television series spanning a career of more than five decades...
(based on Chandler's The Little Sister), and in Robert Altman
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...
's revisionist The Long Goodbye
The Long Goodbye (film)
The Long Goodbye is a 1973 neo noir, directed by Robert Altman and based on Raymond Chandler's 1953 novel of the same name. The screenplay was written by Leigh Brackett, who co-wrote the screenplay for The Big Sleep in 1946...
(1973) played by Elliott Gould
Elliott Gould
Elliott Gould is an American actor. He began acting in Hollywood films during the 1960s, and has remained prolific ever since. Some of his most notable films include M*A*S*H and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, for which he received an Oscar nomination...
. Robert Mitchum
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...
is Marlowe in the 1978 remake of The Big Sleep
The Big Sleep
The Big Sleep is a hardboiled crime novel by Raymond Chandler, the first in his acclaimed series about detective Philip Marlowe. The work has been adapted twice into film, once in 1946 and again in 1978...
set in contemporary London. Paul Newman
Paul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...
portrays a modernized Lew Archer
Lew Archer
Lew Archer is a fictional character created by Ross Macdonald. Archer is a private detective working in Southern California.-Profile:Initially, Lew Archer was similar to Philip Marlowe. However, he eventually broke from that mold, though some similarities remain...
(changed to Harper) in Harper
Harper (film)
Harper is a 1966 film written by William Goldman from a novel by Ross Macdonald. The movie starred Paul Newman as the eponymous Lew Harper . The original music score was composed by Johnny Mandel. Goldman received a 1967 Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay...
(1966) and The Drowning Pool
The Drowning Pool
The Drowning Pool is a 1950 mystery novel written by Ross Macdonald, his second book in the series revolving around the cases of private detective Lew Archer.-Plot summary:Archer is hired by a woman to investigate a slanderous letter she received...
(1976), based on Ross Macdonald
Ross Macdonald
Not to be confused with John D. MacDonaldRoss Macdonald is the pseudonym of the American-Canadian writer of crime fiction Kenneth Millar...
's 1949-1950 novels.
Gunn
Gunn (film)
Gunn is an American 1967 mystery film directed by Blake Edwards, and starring Craig Stevens. It featured the same lead character from the 1958-1961 television series Peter Gunn, and a Henry Mancini score but the characters of Gunn's singing girlfriend Edie Hart and Police Lieutenant Jacoby were...
, set in the mod millieu of 1967, is an update of the Peter Gunn
Peter Gunn
Peter Gunn is an American private eye television series which aired on the NBC and later ABC television networks from 1958 to 1961. The show's creator was Blake Edwards...
TV series (1958–1961) starring Craig Stevens
Craig Stevens (actor)
Craig Stevens was an American motion picture and television actor.-Early and personal life:Born Gail Shikles, Jr., in Liberty, Missouri, his father was a high school teacher....
. Bulldog Drummond returned as a contemporary sleuth in Deadlier Than the Male
Deadlier Than the Male
Deadlier Than the Male is a 1967 British action film featuring the character of Bulldog Drummond. It is one of the many take-offs of James Bond produced during the 1960s but based on an established detective fiction hero...
(1967) and Some Girls Do
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 made following the success of the James Bond films of the 1960's.-Cast:...
(1969). And the 1982 remake of I, the Jury
I, the Jury
I, The Jury is Mickey Spillane's first novel featuring private investigator Mike Hammer.-Plot summary:New York City, summer 1944. Although she runs a successful private psychiatric clinic on New York's Park Avenue, Dr. Charlotte Manning — young, beautiful, blonde, and well-to-do —...
brought back Mike Hammer (revived again in the 1984-1987 television series, Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer
Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer
Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer is the title used for two syndicated television series that followed the adventures of fictional private detective Mike Hammer...
).
The old-fashioned whodunit was given a fresh update in Sleuth (1972), The Last of Sheila
The Last of Sheila
The Last of Sheila is a 1973 mystery film directed by Herbert Ross, written by Anthony Perkins and Stephen Sondheim, It stars Richard Benjamin, Dyan Cannon, James Coburn, James Mason, Ian McShane, Joan Hackett, and Raquel Welch....
(1973), and the comedy Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?
Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?
Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? is a 1978 comedy mystery film starring George Segal, Jacqueline Bisset, and Robert Morley. It was based on a novel entitled Someone is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe by Nan and Ivan Lyons...
(1978). And Brian De Palma
Brian De Palma
Brian Russell De Palma is an American film director and writer. In a career spanning over 40 years, he is probably best known for his suspense and crime thriller films, including such box office successes as the horror film Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission:...
's Obsession is a 1976 remake of Hitchcock's 1958 classic Vertigo
Vertigo (film)
Vertigo is a 1958 psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring James Stewart, Kim Novak, and Barbara Bel Geddes. The screenplay was written by Alec Coppel and Samuel A...
.
Period piece films
The many period piece films set in the Thirties and Forties are led by Roman PolanskiRoman Polanski
Roman Polanski is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few "truly international filmmakers."...
's classic Chinatown (1974) starring Jack Nicholson
Jack Nicholson
John Joseph "Jack" Nicholson is an American actor, film director, producer and writer. He is renowned for his often dark portrayals of neurotic characters. Nicholson has been nominated for an Academy Award twelve times, and has won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice: for One Flew Over the...
and its belated sequel, The Two Jakes
The Two Jakes
The Two Jakes is a 1990 American mystery film, and a sequel to the 1974 film Chinatown.Directed by and starring Jack Nicholson, it also features Harvey Keitel, Meg Tilly, Madeleine Stowe, Richard Farnsworth, Frederic Forrest, Pia Gronning, David Keith, Rubén Blades, Tracey Walter and Eli Wallach...
(1990), which Nicholson also directed. Robert Mitchum played Marlowe once again in Farewell, My Lovely
Farewell, My Lovely
Farewell, My Lovely is a 1940 novel by Raymond Chandler, the second novel he wrote featuring Los Angeles private eye Philip Marlowe. It was adapted for the screen three times.-Plot summary:...
(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 television film Goodnight, My Love (1972) with Richard Boone
Richard Boone
Richard Allen Boone was an American actor who starred in over 50 films and was notable for his roles in Westerns and for starring in the TV series Have Gun – Will Travel.-Early life:...
and two short-lived TV series, Banyon
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 Banyon is a detective series broadcast in the United States by NBC...
(1972–73) and City of Angels (1976) were also set in the 1930s and pay tribute to the Sam Spade/Phillip Marlowe model. And the 1975 telefilm Who Is the Black Dahlia? recreates the true unsolved murder case from 1947.
Agatha Christie's elegant Murder on the Orient Express
Murder on the Orient Express (1974 film)
Murder on the Orient Express is a 1974 British mystery film directed by Sidney Lumet, starring Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot, and based on the1934 novel Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie.-Overview:...
(1974) and Death on the Nile (1978) were colorful, lavish productions rich in '30s period detail. Also a series of lighthearted Miss Marple mysteries were loosely adapted from Christie's novels. Margaret Rutherford
Margaret Rutherford
Dame Margaret Taylor Rutherford DBE was an English character actress, who first came to prominence following World War II in the film adaptations of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest...
starred in Murder, She Said
Murder, She Said
Murder, She Said is a murder mystery film directed by George Pollock, loosely based on the novel 4.50 from Paddington by Agatha Christie...
(1961), Murder Most Foul
Murder Most Foul
Murder Most Foul is the third of four films made by MGM loosely based on novels by Agatha Christie and starring Margaret Rutherford as Miss Jane Marple, Bud Tingwell as Inspector Craddock, and Stringer Davis as Mr Stringer. The story is ostensibly based on the novel Mrs McGinty's Dead, but notably...
(1964), Murder Ahoy!
Murder Ahoy!
Murder Ahoy! is the last of four Miss Marple films, made by MGM and starring Margaret Rutherford. As in the three previous films, Margaret Rutherford plays Miss Jane Marple, Bud Tingwell is Inspector Craddock and Stringer Davis plays Mr Stringer.The film was made in 1964 and directed by George...
(1965), and did a cameo appearance as Marple in The Alphabet Murders
The Alphabet Murders
The Alphabet Murders is a 1965 British detective film based on the novel The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie, starring Tony Randall as Hercule Poirot. The part of Poirot had originally been intended for Zero Mostel but the film was delayed because Agatha Christie objected to the script. The...
(1965).
And the evergreen Sherlock Holmes was given the first of many revisionist treatments in Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder was an Austro-Hungarian born American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist, and journalist, whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age...
's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes is a 1970 film directed and produced by Billy Wilder; he also shared writing credit with his longtime collaborator I. A. L. Diamond. It starred Robert Stephens as Sherlock Holmes and Colin Blakely as Dr. Watson...
(1970) and The Seven Percent Solution (1976).
The new wave
The New Wave of detective films may well begin with Jean-Luc GodardJean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
'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 and part parody of the detective genre. Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
is a cynical, Bogart-like gumshoe in Tony Rome
Tony Rome
Tony Rome is a 1967 detective film starring Frank Sinatra and directed by Gordon Douglas, adapted from Marvin Albert's novel Miami Mayhem. Filming took place on location in Miami, Florida, with some scenes being shot during the day at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach, where Sinatra was performing in...
(1967) and the sequel Lady in Cement
Lady In Cement
Lady In Cement is a 1968 detective film, directed by Gordon Douglas and starring Frank Sinatra, Raquel Welch, Dan Blocker, Martin Gabel and Richard Conte. A sequel to the 1967 film Tony Rome, and based on the novel by Marvin H...
(1968) — and a tough police investigator in The Detective
The Detective (1968 film)
The Detective is a 1968 film directed by Gordon Douglas, produced by Aaron Rosenberg and starring Frank Sinatra, based on the 1966 novel of the same name by Roderick Thorp.Co-stars include Lee Remick, Jacqueline Bisset, Jack Klugman and Robert Duvall....
(1968). John D. MacDonald
John D. MacDonald
John Dann MacDonald was an American crime and suspense novelist and short story writer.MacDonald was a prolific author of crime and suspense novels, many of them set in his adopted home of Florida...
wrote 21 Travis McGee
Travis McGee
Travis McGee is a fictional character, created by prolific American mystery writer John D. MacDonald. Unlike most detectives in crime fiction, McGee is neither a police officer nor a licensed private investigator; instead, he is a self-described "salvage consultant" who recovers others' property...
novels, but only one, Darker Than Amber
Darker than Amber
Darker than Amber is the seventh novel in the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald. The plot begins with McGee and his close friend Meyer are fishing underneath a bridge and a young woman, bound and weighted, is thrown over the bridge. It was also adapted in to a 1970 film of the same name....
(1970) was filmed. George Peppard
George Peppard
George Peppard, Jr. was an American film and television actor.Peppard secured a major role when he starred alongside Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's , portrayed a character based on Howard Hughes in The Carpetbaggers , and played the title role of the millionaire sleuth Thomas Banacek in...
is the laconic private eye P.J. (1968). Robert Culp
Robert Culp
Robert Martin Culp was an American actor, scriptwriter, voice actor and director, widely known for his work in television. Culp first earned an international reputation for his role as Kelly Robinson on I Spy , the espionage series in which he and co-star Bill Cosby played a pair of secret agents...
and Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby
William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action show, I Spy. He later starred in his own series, the...
are hard-luck private eyes in the downbeat Hickey & Boggs
Hickey & Boggs
Hickey & Boggs is a 1972 neo-noir detective movie written by Walter Hill and directed by Robert Culp. The film marks the first reunion of Culp and Bill Cosby since they starred together in the 1960s television series I Spy.-Plot:...
(1972). Burt Reynolds
Burt Reynolds
Burton Leon "Burt" Reynolds, Jr. is an American actor. Some of his memorable roles include Bo 'Bandit' Darville in Smokey and the Bandit, Lewis Medlock in Deliverance, Bobby "Gator" McCluskey in White Lightning and sequel Gator, Paul Crewe and Coach Nate Scarborough in The Longest Yard and its...
plays a tongue-in-cheek Shamus
Shamus (film)
Shamus is a 1973 American film starring Burt Reynolds and Dyan Cannon. Burt Reynolds plays McCoy, a hard-nosed private detective.-Plot Synopsis:...
(1973), and Burt Lancaster
Burt Lancaster
Burton Stephen "Burt" Lancaster was an American film actor noted for his athletic physique and distinctive smile...
is a retired cop turned sleuth in The Midnight Man
The Midnight Man (1974 film)
The Midnight Man is a 1974 detective film directed by Burt Lancaster, who also starred with Susan Clark.-General information:Burt Lancaster shared directing credit with Roland Kibbee, and shared writing credit with Kibbee and author David Anthony upon whose novel The Midnight Lady and the Morning...
(1974). Two of the finest examples star Gene Hackman
Gene Hackman
Eugene Allen "Gene" Hackman is an American actor and novelist.Nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two, Hackman has also won three Golden Globes and two BAFTAs in a career that spanned five decades. He first came to fame in 1967 with his performance as Buck Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde...
in The Conversation
The Conversation
The Conversation is a 1974 American psychological thriller film written, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Gene Hackman...
(1974) and Night Moves
Night Moves (1975 film)
Night Moves is a 1975 detective film directed by Arthur Penn. The film stars Gene Hackman, Jennifer Warren and Susan Clark, and features very early career appearances by Melanie Griffith and James Woods....
(1975).
The blaxploitation
Blaxploitation
Blaxploitation or blacksploitation is a film genre which emerged in the United States circa 1970. It is considered an ethnic sub-genre of the general category of exploitation films. Blaxploitation films were originally made specifically for an urban black audience, although the genre's audience...
B-movie industry adopted the standard private detective format for several action-mysteries such as Trouble Man
Trouble Man
Trouble Man is a 1972 blaxploitation film produced and released by 20th Century Fox. The film stars Robert Hooks as "Mr. T.", a hard-edged private detective who tends to take justice into his own hands...
(1972), Black Eye (1974), Sheba, Baby
Sheba, Baby
The action movie Sheba, Baby is a 1975 blaxploitation film starring Pam Grier as Sheba Shayne. In the film, Sheba returns to her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, to confront thugs who are trying to intimidate her father into dissolving or handing over his family business...
(1975) starring Pam Grier
Pam Grier
Pamela Suzette "Pam" Grier is an American actress. She became famous in the early 1970s, after starring in a string of moderately successful women in prison and blaxploitation films such as 1974's Foxy Brown. Her career was revitalized in 1997 after her appearance in Quentin Tarantino's film...
, and Velvet Smooth
Velvet Smooth
Velvet Smooth is a 1976 blaxploitation film.Somebody's running a takeover on crime lord King Lathrop's operation using bogarts in Hannibal Lector lookin’-like masks. Clueless, King Lathrop calls private detective Velvet Smooth for help...
(1976).
Noteworthy police detective dramas of the period include: In the Heat of the Night (winner of five Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
, including Best Picture in 1967), Bullitt
Bullitt
Bullitt is a 1968 American police procedural film starring Steve McQueen, Jacqueline Bisset and Robert Vaughn. It was directed by Peter Yates and distributed by Warner Bros. The story was adapted for the screen by Alan Trustman and Harry Kleiner, based on the 1963 novel Mute Witness by Robert L....
, Madigan
Madigan
Madigan is a 1968 American thriller film directed by Don Siegel and starring Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda.The screenplay, originally titled Friday, Saturday, Sunday, was adapted by two writers who had been blacklisted in the 1950s, Abraham Polonsky and Howard Rodman , based on a novel titled The...
(both 1968), Klute
Klute
Klute is a 1971 film which tells the story of a prostitute who assists a detective in solving a missing persons case. It stars Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi and Roy Scheider. The movie was written by Andy Lewis and Dave Lewis and directed by Alan J. Pakula.Klute was the first...
(1971), and two non-mysteries: Dirty Harry
Dirty Harry
Dirty Harry is a 1971 American crime thriller produced and directed by Don Siegel, the first in the Dirty Harry series. Clint Eastwood plays the title role, in his first outing as San Francisco Police Department Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan....
, and The French Connection
The French Connection (film)
This article is about the 1971 film. For the British fashion label, see French Connection .The French Connection is a 1971 American crime film directed by William Friedkin. The film was adapted and fictionalized by Ernest Tidyman from the non-fiction book by Robin Moore...
(both from 1971).
Rod Steiger
Rod Steiger
Rodney Stephen "Rod" Steiger was an Academy Award-winning American actor known for his performances in such films as On the Waterfront, The Big Knife, Oklahoma!, The Harder They Fall, Across the Bridge, The Pawnbroker, Doctor Zhivago, In the Heat of the Night, and Waterloo as well as the...
as an ingenious psycho-killer who enjoys taunting the police in No Way to Treat a Lady
No Way to Treat a Lady
No Way to Treat a Lady is a darkly comic thriller directed by Jack Smight, with a screenplay by John Gay adapted from William Goldman's novel of the same name. The film starred Rod Steiger, Lee Remick, George Segal and Eileen Heckart...
(1968), along with Klute, The Cat o' Nine Tails
The Cat o' Nine Tails
The Cat o' Nine Tails is a 1971 Italian giallo thriller film written and directed by Dario Argento; it was his second film as director....
(1971) from horror director Dario Argento
Dario Argento
Dario Argento is an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in the horror film genre, particularly in the subgenre known as giallo, and for his influence on modern horror and slasher movies....
, and Hitchcock's disturbing Frenzy
Frenzy
Frenzy is a 1972 British thriller film produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and is the penultimate feature film of his extensive career. The film is based upon the novel Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square by Arthur La Bern, and was adapted for the screen by Anthony Shaffer. La Bern...
(1972) would serve as models for a new genre of increasingly gory serial killer films to come in the following decades.
From Blowup to Blow Out
One mystery film stands out in a category by itself. Michelangelo AntonioniMichelangelo Antonioni
Michelangelo Antonioni, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian modernist film director, screenwriter, editor and short story writer.- Personal life :...
's provocative Blowup
Blowup
Blowup is a 1966 film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, his first English-language film.It tells of a British photographer's accidental involvement with a murder, inspired by Julio Cortázar's short story, "Las babas del diablo" or "The Devil's Drool" , translated also as Blow-Up, and by the life...
(1966) is a unique anti-whodunit symbolizing the aimless hedonism of the Sixties. A swinging London
Swinging London
Swinging London is a catch-all term applied to the fashion and cultural scene that flourished in London, in the 1960s.It was a youth-oriented phenomenon that emphasised the new and modern. It was a period of optimism and hedonism, and a cultural revolution. One catalyst was the recovery of the...
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 De Palma
Brian Russell De Palma is an American film director and writer. In a career spanning over 40 years, he is probably best known for his suspense and crime thriller films, including such box office successes as the horror film Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission:...
remade this as Blow Out
Blow Out
Blow Out is a 1981 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 slasher film, serendipitously captures audio evidence of an assassination involving a...
, turning it into a more traditional political thriller. In the DVD audio commentary for The Conversation, director Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
revealed that Blowup was a major source of inspiration for that film.
The 1980s to the present
Since the mid-Seventies, only a handful of films with private detectives have been produced. These include I, the JuryI, the Jury (1982 film)
I, the Jury is a 1982 film based on the best selling detective novel of the same name by Mickey Spillane. The story was previously filmed in 3D in 1953. Larry Cohen wrote the screenplay and was first hired to direct the film, but was replaced when the film's budget was already out of control after...
, Angel Heart
Angel Heart
Angel Heart is a 1987 North American/British mystery-thriller film written and directed by Alan Parker, and starring Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro, and Lisa Bonet...
, Hollywood Harry, The Two Jakes
The Two Jakes
The Two Jakes is a 1990 American mystery film, and a sequel to the 1974 film Chinatown.Directed by and starring Jack Nicholson, it also features Harvey Keitel, Meg Tilly, Madeleine Stowe, Richard Farnsworth, Frederic Forrest, Pia Gronning, David Keith, Rubén Blades, Tracey Walter and Eli Wallach...
, Devil in a Blue Dress
Devil in a Blue Dress (film)
Devil in a Blue Dress is a 1995 American neo-noir film directed by Carl Franklin and photographed by Tak Fujimoto.The film was based on Walter Mosley's novel of the same name, was executive produced by Jonathan Demme, and starred Denzel Washington, Tom Sizemore, Jennifer Beals, and Don Cheadle.In...
, Pure Luck
Pure Luck
Pure Luck is a 1991 American comedy film starring Martin Short and Danny Glover. It is remake of the popular French comedy film La Chèvre .- Plot :...
, Under Suspicion
Under Suspicion (2000 film)
Under Suspicion is a 2000 American film directed by Stephen Hopkins. It stars Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Monica Bellucci and Thomas Jane. The film is based on the 1981 French film Garde à vue and the 1970s British novel Brainwash, written by John Wainwright...
, Twilight
Twilight (1998 film)
Twilight is a 1998 thriller/Neo-noir film directed by Robert Benton. It stars Paul Newman, Susan Sarandon, Gene Hackman, Reese Witherspoon, Stockard Channing, and James Garner...
with Paul Newman
Paul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...
, and Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck
Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt , better known as Ben Affleck, is an American actor, film director, writer, and producer. He became known with his performances in Kevin Smith's films such as Mallrats and Chasing Amy...
's Gone Baby Gone
Gone Baby Gone
Gone Baby Gone is a 2007 American crime drama-mystery film directed by Ben Affleck and starring his brother Casey Affleck. The screenplay by Ben Affleck and Aaron Stockard is based on the novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane, author of Mystic River and Shutter Island...
.
Films with female detectives have not fared well. Kathleen Turner
Kathleen Turner
Mary Kathleen Turner is an American actress. She came to fame during the 1980s, after roles in the Hollywood films Body Heat, Peggy Sue Got Married, Romancing the Stone, The War of the Roses, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Prizzi's Honor...
as private eye V.I. Warshawski (1991), was to be the start of a new franchise based on the book series, but the film was a box-office failure. Plans to turn Honey West
Honey West (TV series)
Honey West is an American crime drama television series that aired on ABC during the 1965-1966 television season. The series stars Anne Francis as female private detective Honey West and John Ericson as her partner Sam Bolt....
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
Evil Under the Sun
Evil Under the Sun is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in June 1941 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in October of the same year...
(1982), Appointment with Death
Appointment with Death
Appointment with Death is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on May 2, 1938 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year...
(1988), and one with Miss Marple The Mirror Crack'd
The Mirror Crack'd
The Mirror Crack'd is a 1980 film British mystery film based on Agatha Christie's Miss Marple novel The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side...
(1980). Christie herself became the subject of a mystery film in 1979's Agatha
Agatha (film)
Agatha is a 1979 drama thriller film directed by Michael Apted, starring Vanessa Redgrave, Dustin Hoffman and Timothy Dalton, and written by Kathleen Tynan...
starring Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave, CBE is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and Broadway, winning...
. The film was a fictional speculation on her famous 11-day disappearance in 1926.
Neo-noir erotic thrillers
In the Eighties, filmmakers began to take a revisionist approach toward 1940s film noir (aka neo-noirNeo-noir
Neo-noir is a style often seen in modern motion pictures and other forms that prominently utilize elements of film noir, but with updated themes, content, style, visual elements or media that were absent in films noir of the 1940s and 1950s.-History:The term Film Noir was coined by...
). The implied sexuality of the vintage films was enhanced and made explicit in a new wave of erotic thriller
Erotic thriller
The erotic thriller is a film and literary sub-genre which consists of a mixture between erotica and thriller. The genre increased in North American popularity from the mid-1980s through the early 1990s, before declining in marketability.-1980s:...
s. The most influential of these are Body Heat
Body Heat
Body Heat is a 1981 American neo-noir film written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan. It stars William Hurt, Kathleen Turner, Richard Crenna, Ted Danson, J.A. Preston, and Mickey Rourke. The film is inspired by Double Indemnity....
(1981), and two from Brian De Palma: Dressed to Kill (1980) and Body Double
Body Double
Body Double is a 1984 American thriller film directed by Brian De Palma starring Craig Wasson, Melanie Griffith, and Gregg Henry. The film is an homage to Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, Rear Window, and Dial M for Murder. The original musical score was composed by Pino Donaggio...
(1984).
Many of these films, such as the 1981 remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946 film)
The Postman Always Rings Twice is a 1946 drama-film noir based on the 1934 novel of the same name by James M. Cain. This adaptation of the novel is the best known, featuring Lana Turner, John Garfield, Cecil Kellaway, Hume Cronyn, Leon Ames, and Audrey Totter...
, Angel Heart
Angel Heart
Angel Heart is a 1987 North American/British mystery-thriller film written and directed by Alan Parker, and starring Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro, and Lisa Bonet...
(1987), Basic Instinct
Basic Instinct
Basic Instinct is a 1992 erotic thriller directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Joe Eszterhas, and starring Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone....
(1992), and Sliver
Sliver (film)
Sliver is a 1993 film based on the Ira Levin novel of the same name about the mysterious occurrences in a privately owned New York highrise apartment building. Phillip Noyce directed the film, from a screenplay by Joe Eszterhas...
(1993) gained more notoriety for their explicit sex and nude scenes than for anything else. The frontal male nudity in Color of Night
Color of Night
Color of Night is a 1994 American erotic mystery thriller film produced by Cinergi Pictures and released in the United States by Hollywood Pictures. Directed by Richard Rush, the film stars Bruce Willis, Jane March, Ruben Blades, Lesley Ann Warren, and Scott Bakula...
(1994) was controversial, as was Body of Evidence (1993) with Madonna and Meg Ryan
Meg Ryan
Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra , professionally known as Meg Ryan, is an American actress and producer. Raised in Bethel, Connecticut, Ryan began her acting career in 1981 in minor roles, before joining the cast of the CBS soap opera As the World Turns in 1982...
's image-changing nude scene from In the Cut
In the Cut
In the Cut is a 2003 American erotic thriller and mystery film, written and directed by Jane Campion and starring Meg Ryan, Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Campion's screenplay is an adaption of the novel of the same name by Susanna Moore...
(2003). None of these films were well-received by the critics.
One of the few noteworthy films to successfully balance sexuality and suspense is the Al Pacino
Al Pacino
Alfredo James "Al" Pacino is an American film and stage actor and director. He is famous for playing mobsters, including Michael Corleone in The Godfather trilogy, Tony Montana in Scarface, Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice in Dick Tracy and Carlito Brigante in Carlito's Way, though he has also appeared...
thriller Sea of Love (1989).
Military mysteries and police procedurals
Complex murder mysteries related to military men began with CrossfireCrossfire
A crossfire is a military term for the siting of weapons 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
A Soldier's Story
A Soldier's Story is a 1984 drama film directed by Norman Jewison, based upon Charles Fuller's Pulitzer Prize-winning Off Broadway production A Soldier's Play. A black officer is sent to investigate the murder of a black sergeant in Louisiana near the end of World War II...
(1984), No Way Out
No Way Out (1987 film)
No Way Out is a 1987 thriller film about a U.S. Naval officer investigating a Washington, D.C. murder. It stars Kevin Costner, Gene Hackman and Sean Young...
, The Presidio (1988), A Few Good Men
A Few Good Men (film)
A Few Good Men is a 1992 drama film directed by Rob Reiner and starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, and Demi Moore. It was adapted for the screen by Aaron Sorkin from his play of the same name. A courtroom drama, the film revolves around the trial of two U.S...
(1992), Courage Under Fire
Courage Under Fire
Courage Under Fire is a 1996 film directed by Edward Zwick, and starring Denzel Washington, Meg Ryan, Lou Diamond Phillips and Matt Damon. It is one of the first films to depict the 1991 Gulf War.-Plot:...
(1996), The General's Daughter
The General's Daughter
The General's Daughter is a 1999 murder mystery film starring John Travolta. The plot concerns the mysterious death of the daughter of a prominent general. The movie is based on the novel by the same name written in 1992 by Nelson DeMille, and was directed by Simon West...
(1999), and Basic
Basic (film)
Basic is a 2003 American/German thriller film directed by John McTiernan and starring John Travolta, Connie Nielsen and Samuel L. Jackson.-Plot:...
(2003).
The police procedural
Police procedural
The police procedural is a subgenre of detective fiction which attempts to convincingly depict the activities of a police force as they investigate crimes. While traditional detective novels usually concentrate on a single crime, police procedurals frequently depict investigations into several...
film, often with a surprise twist ending, has also remained a vital format with Cruising
Cruising (film)
Cruising is a 1980 film directed by William Friedkin and starring Al Pacino. The film is loosely based on the novel of the same name, by New York Times reporter Gerald Walker, about a serial killer targeting gay men, in particular those associated with the S&M scene.Poorly reviewed by critics,...
(1980), Gorky Park
Gorky Park (film)
Gorky Park is a 1983 film based on the novel Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith. It was directed by Michael Apted from a screenplay by Dennis Potter ....
(1983), Tightrope (1984), The Dead Pool
The Dead Pool
The Dead Pool is a 1988 American action thriller film about the manipulation of a "dead pool" game by a serial killer, whose efforts are foiled by a hardened detective. It is the fifth and final film in the Dirty Harry series, set in San Francisco, California and starring Clint Eastwood as...
(1988), Rising Sun
Rising Sun (film)
Rising Sun is a [1993 film directed by Philip Kaufman, starring Sean Connery , Wesley Snipes, Harvey Keitel, and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa...
(1993), Striking Distance
Striking Distance
Striking Distance is a 1993 thriller starring Bruce Willis, Sarah Jessica Parker, Dennis Farina, and Tom Sizemore as Pittsburgh Police officers pursuing a serial killer. It was directed by Rowdy Herrington and written by Herrington and Marty Kaplan...
(1993), The Usual Suspects
The Usual Suspects
The Usual Suspects is a 1995 American neo-noir film written by Christopher McQuarrie and directed by Bryan Singer. It stars Stephen Baldwin, Gabriel Byrne, Benicio del Toro, Chazz Palminteri, Kevin Pollak, Kevin Spacey and Pete Postlethwaite....
(1995), Lone Star
Lone Star (1996 film)
Lone Star is an American mystery film written and directed by John Sayles and set in a small town in Texas. It features Chris Cooper, Elizabeth Peña, Kris Kristofferson and Matthew McConaughey and deals with a sheriff's investigation into who murdered one of his predecessors.-Plot:In this ensemble...
(1996), Murder at 1600
Murder at 1600
Murder at 1600 is a 1997 thriller film starring Wesley Snipes, Diane Lane, Dennis Miller, Ronny Cox, Daniel Benzali, and Alan Alda. The 1600 in the title refers to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the address of the White House. The film is based on the novel Murder in the White House by Margaret Truman,...
(1997), Under Suspicion
Under Suspicion (2000 film)
Under Suspicion is a 2000 American film directed by Stephen Hopkins. It stars Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Monica Bellucci and Thomas Jane. The film is based on the 1981 French film Garde à vue and the 1970s British novel Brainwash, written by John Wainwright...
(2000), Blood Work (2002), Mindhunters
Mindhunters
Mindhunters is a 2004 thriller film directed by Renny Harlin and written by Wayne Kramer and Kevin Brodbin...
and Righteous Kill
Righteous Kill
Righteous Kill is a 2008 crime thriller film with elements of a buddy cop film directed by Jon Avnet, and starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. Righteous Kill also features John Leguizamo, Carla Gugino, Donnie Wahlberg, Brian Dennehy, and Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson...
(2008).
Psychological thrillerPsychological thrillerPsychological thriller is a specific sub-genre of the broad ranged thriller with heavy focus on characters. However, it often incorporates elements from the mystery and drama genre, along with the typical traits of the thriller genre...
In the 1990s, a new trend, sometimes called Psycho-noir (psychological thriller and film-noir combined), emerged. This blends mystery, horror and suspense into stories centered around clever, sociopathic serial killers. The Hannibal LecterHannibal Lecter
Hannibal Lecter M.D. is a fictional character in a series of horror novels by Thomas Harris and in the films adapted from them.Lecter was introduced in the 1981 thriller novel Red Dragon as a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer...
novels by Thomas Harris
Thomas Harris
Thomas Harris is an American author and screenwriter, best known for a series of suspense novels about his most famous character, Hannibal Lecter...
have inspired four films, Manhunter
Manhunter (film)
Manhunter is a 1986 American thriller film based on Thomas Harris's novel Red Dragon. Written and directed by Michael Mann, it stars William Petersen as Will Graham and features Brian Cox as Hannibal Lecktor...
(1986), the Academy Award-winning The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Hannibal (2001), and Red Dragon
Red Dragon (film)
Red Dragon is a 2002 thriller film based on Thomas Harris' novel of the same name and featuring psychiatrist and serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter. It is a prequel to The Silence of the Lambs....
(2002).
Other films in this category include Seven
Seven (film)
Seven is a 1995 American thriller film, which also contains horror and neo-noir elements, directed by David Fincher and written by Andrew Kevin Walker. It was distributed by New Line Cinema and stars Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, R...
(1995), Kiss the Girls
Kiss the Girls (film)
Kiss the Girls is a 1997 American thriller film directed by Gary Fleder and starring Morgan Freeman, Cary Elwes and Ashley Judd. The screenplay by David Klass is based on the best-selling novel Kiss the Girls by James Patterson.-Plot:Washington, D.C...
(1997), The Bone Collector
The Bone Collector
The Bone Collector is a 1999 thriller film starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie, directed by Phillip Noyce and produced by Martin Bregman....
(1999), Mercy (2000), Along Came a Spider
Along Came a Spider (film)
Along Came a Spider is a 2001 American mystery film directed by Lee Tamahori. The screenplay by Marc Moss was adapted from the 1993 novel of the same title by James Patterson, but many of the key plot elements of the book were eliminated...
(2001), Insomnia
Insomnia (2002 film)
Insomnia is an American psychological thriller film directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hilary Swank. The film, released on 24 May 2002, is a remake of the 1997 Norwegian film of the same name.-Plot:...
(2002), and Taking Lives
Taking Lives
Taking Lives is a 1999 thriller novel by Michael Pye about an FBI profiler in search of a serial killer who assumes the identities of his victims...
(2004).
The 2007 film Zodiac
Zodiac (film)
Zodiac is a 2007 American mystery-thriller film directed by David Fincher and based on Robert Graysmith's non-fiction book of the same name. The Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros...
is an account of the real hunt for a serial killer in the San Francisco area in the late-Sixties and early Seventies. Other real-life serial killings have been portrayed in The Alphabet Killer
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 as the main character, alongside Cary Elwes, Michael Ironside, Bill Moseley and Timothy Hutton...
, Ed Gein
Ed Gein
Edward Theodore "Ed" Gein - July 26, 1984) was an American murderer and body snatcher. His crimes, committed around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin, gathered widespread notoriety after authorities discovered Gein had exhumed corpses from local graveyards and fashioned trophies and keepsakes...
, Gacy
Gacy (film)
Gacy is a 2003 direct-to-video biographical-drama film directed by Clive Saunders and written by Saunders and David Birke. The story revolves around the life of serial killer John Wayne Gacy.-Plot:...
, Ted Bundy
Ted Bundy (film)
Ted Bundy is a 2002 film by American film director and writer Matthew Bright. The film dramatizes the crimes of serial killer Ted Bundy. It stars Michael Reilly Burke in the title role, and Boti Bliss as Bundy's girlfriend, Lee .-Cast:*Michael Reilly Burke as Ted Bundy*Boti Bliss as Lee...
and Dahmer
Dahmer (film)
Dahmer is a 2002 American biopic about the American serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Jeremy Renner stars in the title role.There are two timelines in the film: The "present" of the film runs in ordinary chronological order covering the period of one-to-two days; the flashbacks go in reverse order, so...
.
Recently, there have been films where ordinary characters (as instead of cops or detectives) becoming involved in a mystery. In many modern day mystery-thrillers, everyday characters (such as teens, mothers, fathers, businesspeople, etc.) are dragged into a dangerous conflict or a mysterious situation
Situation
Situation is a Juno-nominated album by Buck 65 released on October 30, 2007.-1957:The song "1957" makes reference to various events in the year 1957, including the birth of punk rocker Sid Vicious, the relocation of the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles, the apprehension of serial killer Ed Gein, the...
, either by fate
Destiny
Destiny or fate refers to a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual...
or their own curiousness, and they are not prepared to solve
Sölve
Sölve was a sea-king who conquered Sweden by burning the Swedish king Östen to death inside his hall.The Heimskringla relates that he was the son Högne of Nærøy, and that he had his home in Jutland...
.
Common elements in these type of psychological mysteries include; searching for a missing person
Missing person
A missing person is a person who has disappeared for usually unknown reasons.Missing persons' photographs may be posted on bulletin boards, milk cartons, postcards, and websites, along with a phone number to be contacted if a sighting has been made....
(preferably a loved one) whilst being surrounded by red herrings who kidnapped the person, group of characters trying to find out who is the killer among them (usually turns out to be one of them), character being suspicious of a mysterious neighbour or friend, characters trying to determine what is true and what is not, and characters being confused about who they are and try to discover their true identity
Identity
-Philosophical topics:* Identity , also called sameness, is whatever makes an entity definable and recognizable* Law of identity, principle of logic stating that an object is the same as itself...
. Movies like that include the Scream franchise (1996-2011), Shutter Island
Shutter Island
Shutter Island is a best-selling novel by Dennis Lehane, published by Harper Collins in April 2003. A film adaptation was released in February 2010. Lehane has said he sought to write a novel that would be an homage to Gothic settings, B movies, and pulp. He described the novel as a hybrid of the...
(2010), Flightplan
Flightplan
Flightplan is a 2005 thriller film directed by Robert Schwentke and starring Jodie Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, Erika Christensen, Kate Beahan, Greta Scacchi, and Sean Bean. It was released in North America on September 23, 2005...
(2005), Saw franchise (2004-2010), The Orphanage
The Orphanage (film)
The Orphanage is a 2007 Spanish-Mexican horror film and the debut feature of Spanish filmmaker J.A. Bayona. The film stars Belén Rueda as Laura, Fernando Cayo as her husband, Carlos, and Roger Príncep as their adopted son Simón. The plot centers on Laura, who returns to her childhood home, an...
(2006), What Lies Beneath
What Lies Beneath
What Lies Beneath is a 2000 American supernatural horror-thriller film directed by Robert Zemeckis. It stars veteran actors Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer as a well-to-do couple who experience a strange haunting that uncovers secrets about their past....
(2000), Cry Wolf (2005), Devil
Devil (film)
Devil is a 2010 American supernatural horror film directed by John Erick Dowdle and written by Brian Nelson based on a story by M. Night Shyamalan. The film stars Chris Messina, Bojana Novakovic, Bokeem Woodbine, Logan Marshall-Green, Jenny O'Hara and Geoffrey Arend...
(2010), Secret Window
Secret Window
Secret Window is a 2004 psychological horror 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 score by Philip Glass and Geoff Zanelli. The story appeared in King's...
(2004), The Ring
The Ring (2002 film)
The Ring is a 2002 American psychological horror film directed by Gore Verbinski and starring Naomi Watts and Martin Henderson. It is a remake of the 1998 Japanese horror film Ring....
(2002), The Machinist
The Machinist
The Machinist is a 2004 English-language Spanish psychological thriller film directed by Brad Anderson and written by Scott Kosar....
(2004), The Forgotten
The Forgotten
Forgotten or The Forgotten may refer to:In film:* The Forgotten , a psychological horror film* The Forgotten , a Korean War film* The Forgotten , a psychological thrillerIn literature:...
(2005), The Number 23
The Number 23
The Number 23 is a 2007 American psychological thriller film written by Fernley Phillips and directed by Joel Schumacher. The film starred Jim Carrey, Virginia Madsen, Danny Huston, and Logan Lerman. It was subsequently released on DVD on July 24, 2007 , and premiered on HBO on Saturday April 19,...
(2006), Identity
Identity (film)
Identity is a 2003 American thriller-mystery film, directed by James Mangold and written by Michael Cooney. The film stars John Cusack, Ray Liotta, John C. McGinley and Amanda Peet. The plot was inspired by Agatha Christie's novel And Then There Were None.-Plot:Malcolm Rivers is awaiting...
(2003), Memento (2000)and The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (2010)
Revisionist period piece films
Period-piece L.A. police detective stories (set in the 1940s and '50s) returned — with a harder edge and a contemporary sensibility — in Mulholland FallsMulholland Falls
Mulholland Falls is a 1996 American neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Lee Tamahori and written by Pete Dexter. The drama features Andrew McCarthy, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Connelly, Chazz Palminteri, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, Melanie Griffith, Treat Williams, and John Malkovich.Nolte plays the...
(1996), and L.A. Confidential
L.A. Confidential (film)
L.A. Confidential is a 1997 American film based on James Ellroy's 1990 novel of the same title, the third book in his L.A. Quartet. Both the book and the film tell the story of a group of LAPD officers in the 1950s, and the intersection of police corruption and Hollywood celebrity...
(1997) which was nominated for nine Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
and won two. Both True Confessions
True Confessions (film)
True Confessions is a 1981 film directed by Ulu Grosbard, loosely based on the Black Dahlia murder case of 1947. The film stars Robert De Niro and Robert Duvall, was produced by Chartoff-Winkler Productions and is adapted from the novel of the same name by John Gregory Dunne.-Plot summary:In the...
(1981) and De Palma's The Black Dahlia
The Black Dahlia (film)
The Black Dahlia is a 2006 neo noir crime film directed by Brian De Palma. It is based on the novel of the same name by James Ellroy, writer of L.A. Confidential and starred Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson, Aaron Eckhart and Hilary Swank. The story is based on the murder of Elizabeth Short...
(2006) are based on an actual unsolved Hollywood murder case from 1947. Hollywoodland
Hollywoodland
Hollywoodland is a 2006 American biographical docudrama film directed by Allen Coulter in his feature directorial debut. The film documents a fictional account of the investigation surrounding the death of actor George Reeves , the star of the 1950s television series Adventures of Superman. Adrien...
(2006) explores the mysterious 1959 death of actor George Reeves
George Reeves
George Reeves was an American actor best known for his role as Superman in the 1950s television program Adventures of Superman....
, who is portrayed by Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck
Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt , better known as Ben Affleck, is an American actor, film director, writer, and producer. He became known with his performances in Kevin Smith's films such as Mallrats and Chasing Amy...
.
Raymond Chandler's final unfinished novel, Poodle Springs
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 subsequently published in Raymond Chandler Speaking , a...
, from 1958, was completed by another author and made into an HBO cable film in 1998. Set in 1963, it stars James Caan as Philip Marlowe.
Coming full circle, Robert Altman
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...
's nostalgic Gosford Park
Gosford Park
Gosford Park is a 2001 British-American mystery comedy-drama film directed by Robert Altman and written by Julian Fellowes. The film stars an ensemble cast, which includes Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith, Eileen Atkins, Alan Bates, and Michael Gambon...
(2001), set in an English mansion in 1932, is an original story that revives the old-fashioned murder mystery format.
Genre blends: horror, fantasy, science fiction, historical
By the Seventies and Eighties, 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.- Escape to Witch MountainEscape to Witch Mountain (1975 film)Escape to Witch Mountain is a 1975 film based on the novel Escape to Witch Mountain by Alexander Key. It was produced by Walt Disney Productions, released by Buena Vista Distribution Company and directed by John Hough.- Plot :...
(1975), Return from Witch MountainReturn from Witch MountainReturn from Witch Mountain is the 1978 sequel to Walt Disney Productions' 1975 film, Escape to Witch Mountain. It was written by Malcolm Marmorstein and is based on the novel by Alexander Key. Ike Eisenmann, Kim Richards, and Denver Pyle reprise their roles as Tony, Tia, and Uncle Bené—humanoid...
(1978) and Race to Witch MountainRace to Witch MountainRace to Witch Mountain is a 2009 science fiction/thriller film and a remake of the original 1975 fantasy film, Escape to Witch Mountain. Both versions of the film are based on the 1968 novel Escape to Witch Mountain by Alexander Key...
(2009), created by Alexander KeyAlexander KeyAlexander Hill Key was an American science fiction writer, most of whose books were aimed at a juvenile audience. He became a nationally known illustrator before he became an author...
and produced by The Walt Disney CompanyThe Walt Disney CompanyThe Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
are about two children from another world searching for their origins.
- Angel HeartAngel HeartAngel Heart is a 1987 North American/British mystery-thriller film written and directed by Alan Parker, and starring Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro, and Lisa Bonet...
(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.
- Faceless (1988) is a gory Jess Franco private-eye horror-mystery.
- Lord of IllusionsLord of IllusionsLord of Illusions is a 1995 American horror film, written and directed by the British author, filmmaker and artist Clive Barker. The film is based on his earlier short story, The Last Illusion , and it presents Barker's signature character Harry D'Amour onscreen for the first time. It stars Scott...
(1995), Clive BarkerClive BarkerClive Barker is an English author, film director and visual artist best known for his work in both fantasy and horror fiction. Barker came to prominence in the mid-1980s with a series of short stories which established him as a leading young horror writer...
story of supernatural horror with New York P.I. Harry D'Amour, who has an affinity for the occult.
- Cast a Deadly Spell (1991) is a cable film with gumshoe Harry P. Lovecraft (a reference to horror/fantasy author H. P. LovecraftH. P. LovecraftHoward Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
) set in a fantasy version of 1948 Los Angeles where sorcery and voodoo abound. This was followed by Witch Hunt in 1994, a mock fantasy/mystery set in 1953. Private eye Lovecraft (Dennis HopperDennis HopperDennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954 and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant...
) uncovers witchcraft and murder in Hollywood.
- Hec RamseyHec RamseyHec Ramsey is a television Western, a production of Jack Webb's production company, Mark VII Limited, in association with Universal Studios, broadcast in the United States by NBC as part of the NBC Mystery Movie wheel show during the 1972-73 and 1973-74 seasons.-Overview:This series was...
, a 1972-74 television series starred Richard BooneRichard BooneRichard Allen Boone was an American actor who starred in over 50 films and was notable for his roles in Westerns and for starring in the TV series Have Gun – Will Travel.-Early life:...
as a Sherlock Holmes-type detective in the Old West at the turn-of-the-century.
- The Name of the RoseThe Name of the RoseThe Name of the Rose is the first novel by Italian author Umberto Eco. It is a historical murder mystery set in an Italian monastery in the year 1327, an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory...
(1986), from the Umberto EcoUmberto EcoUmberto Eco Knight Grand Cross is an Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose , an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory...
novel, features a 13th century Sherlock Holmsian monk. The medieval era Brother Cadfael series of television mysteries also took the form of historical fiction.
- Sleepy HollowSleepy Hollow (film)Sleepy Hollow is a 1999 American period horror film directed by Tim Burton. It is a film adaptation loosely inspired by the 1820 short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving and stars Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Miranda Richardson, Marc Pickering, Michael Gambon, Jeffrey Jones,...
(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 BurtonTim BurtonTimothy William "Tim" Burton is an American film director, film producer, writer and artist. He is famous for dark, quirky-themed movies such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet...
.
- The science fiction films Soylent GreenSoylent GreenSoylent Green is a 1973 American science fiction film directed by Richard Fleischer. Starring Charlton Heston, the film overlays the police procedural and science fiction genres as it depicts the investigation into the murder of a wealthy businessman in a dystopian future suffering from pollution,...
(1973), OutlandOutland (film)Outland is a 1981 British science fiction thriller film written and directed by Peter Hyams.Set on Jupiter's moon Io, it has been described as a space Western, and bears thematic resemblances to High Noon....
(1981), Minority ReportMinority Report (film)Minority Report is a 2002 American neo-noir science fiction film directed by Steven Spielberg and loosely based on the short story "The Minority Report" by Philip K. Dick. It is set primarily in Washington, D.C...
(2002), and I, RobotI, Robot (film)I, Robot is a 2004 science-fiction action film directed by Alex Proyas. The screenplay was written by Jeff Vintar, Akiva Goldsman and Hillary Seitz, and is very loosely based on Isaac Asimov's short-story collection of the same name. Will Smith stars in the lead role of the film as Detective Del...
(2004) all involve futuristic police detectives solving a murder that leads to a larger conspiracy.
- The Harry Potter filmsHarry Potter (film series)The Harry Potter film series is a British-American film series based on the Harry Potter novels by the British author J. K. Rowling...
(2001-2011), a fantasy series, have a considerable amount of mystery in them that follow to a plot twist. Mysteries include the main characters trying to solve the clues and backgrounds of their main threats and obstacles. The most mystery-ridden Harry Potter films are the first three - The Philosopher's StoneHarry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film)Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, released in the United States and India as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, is a 2001 fantasy film directed by Chris Columbus and based on the novel of the same name by J. K. Rowling. The film is the first instalment in the Harry Potter film series,...
(2001), The Chamber of SecretsHarry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is a 2002 fantasy film directed by Chris Columbus and based on the novel of the same name by J. K. Rowling. It is the second instalment in the Harry Potter film series, written by Steve Kloves and produced by David Heyman...
(2002) and The Prisoner of AzkabanHarry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is a 2004 fantasy film directed by Alfonso Cuarón and based on the novel of the same name by J. K. Rowling. It is the third instalment in the Harry Potter film series, written by Steve Kloves and produced by Chris Columbus, David Heyman and Mark Radcliffe...
(2004).
- Blade RunnerBlade RunnerBlade Runner is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K...
(1982) is a neo-noir science fiction classic set in the future. This comes closest to capturing the spirit of Chandler's Marlowe with Harrison FordHarrison FordHarrison Ford is an American film actor and producer. He is famous for his performances as Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy and as the title character of the Indiana Jones film series. Ford is also known for his roles as Rick Deckard in Blade Runner, John Book in Witness and Jack Ryan in...
's sardonic, voice-over narration.
Parodies and homages
- Who Done It? (1942), an Abbott and CostelloAbbott and CostelloWilliam "Bud" Abbott and Lou Costello performed together as Abbott and Costello, an American comedy duo whose work on stage, radio, film and television made them the most popular comedy team during the 1940s and 1950s...
comedy, is one of the first film spoofs of the genre.
- Lady on a TrainLady on a TrainLady on a Train is a 1945 comedy film noir, starring Deanna Durbin and based on a story by Leslie Charteris.-Plot:Debutante Nikki Collins, an enthusiastic reader of detective stories, witnesses a murder in a building while passing by on a train entering New York's Grand Central Station. She goes to...
(1945) is a murder mystery comedy starring Deanna DurbinDeanna DurbinDeanna Durbin is a Canadian-born, Southern California-raised retired singer and actress, who appeared in a number of musical films in the 1930s and 1940s singing standards as well as operatic arias....
that also satirizes film noir.
- In My Favorite BrunetteMy Favorite BrunetteMy Favorite Brunette is a 1947 movie spoofing movie detectives and the film noir style. Starring Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour, it also features Lon Chaney, Jr...
(1947), Bob HopeBob HopeBob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
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 BoysThe Bowery BoysThe Bowery Boys were fictional New York City characters who were the subject of feature films released by Monogram Pictures from 1946 through 1958....
released Hard Boiled Mahoney with the same mistaken-identity plot.
- Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible ManAbbott and Costello Meet the Invisible ManAbbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man is a 1951 comedy horror film directed by Charles Lamont and starring the team of Abbott and Costello alongside Nancy Guild.The film depicts the misadventures of Lou Francis and Bud Alexander, two private detectives investigating the murder of a...
(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.
- Underground sexploitationSexploitationSexploitation, or "sex-exploitation", describes a class of independently produced, low-budget feature films generally associated with the 1960s and serving largely as a vehicle for the exhibition of non-explicit sexual situations and gratuitous nudity. The genre is a subgenre of exploitation films...
filmmakers also spoofed the genre. Nature's Playmates (1962) is one of exploitationExploitationThis article discusses the term exploitation in the meaning of using something in an unjust or cruel manner.- As unjust benefit :In political economy, economics, and sociology, exploitation involves a persistent social relationship in which certain persons are being mistreated or unfairly used for...
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. Take It Out In Trade (1970) is Ed Wood's softcore porn take on the Philip Marlowe films. Cry Uncle!Cry Uncle!Cry Uncle! is a 1971 film in the Troma library. It is directed by John G. Avildsen and stars Allen Garfield. The story, based on the Michael Brett novel Lie A Little, Die A Little, follows the misadventures of a slobbish private detective who is hired by a millionaire to investigate a murder...
(1971) is another sex comedy inspired by vintage private eye films. And Ginger (1971), The Abductors (1972), and Girls Are for Loving (1973) are softcore sexploitation comedies featuring Cheri CaffaroCheri CaffaroCheri Caffaro is an American actress who appeared mainly in low-budget exploitation films in the 1970s. She first came to fame as a teenager when she won a Life magazine Brigitte Bardot look-alike contest.-Career:...
as tough private-eye Ginger.
- The Pink PantherThe Pink PantherThe Pink Panther is a series of comedy films featuring the bungling French police detective Jacques Clouseau that began in 1963 with the release of the film of the same name. The role was originated by, and is most closely associated with, Peter Sellers...
(1964) is the first in a series of comedies featuring Peter SellersPeter SellersRichard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr...
as the bumbling Inspector ClouseauInspector ClouseauChief Inspector Jacques Clouseau is a fictional character in Blake Edwards' The Pink Panther series. In most of the films, he was played by Peter Sellers, with one film in which he was played by Alan Arkin and one in which he was played by an uncredited Roger Moore...
.
- They Might be GiantsThey Might Be GiantsThey Might Be Giants is an American alternative rock band formed in 1982 by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. During TMBG's early years Flansburgh and Linnell were frequently accompanied by a drum machine. In the early 1990s, TMBG became a full band. Currently, the members of TMBG are...
(1971) stars George C. ScottGeorge C. ScottGeorge Campbell Scott was an American stage and film actor, director and producer. He was best known for his stage work, as well as his portrayal of General George S. Patton in the film Patton, and as General Buck Turgidson in Stanley Kubrick's Dr...
as a mental patient who believes he is Sherlock Holmes. He and his female psychiatrist (Dr. Watson) go on a Don Quixote-type odyssey through New York.
- GumshoeGumshoe (film)Gumshoe is a 1971 film, and was the directorial debut of British director Stephen Frears.Written by local author Neville Smith, the film is set in Liverpool with Albert Finney playing the role of Eddie Ginley. Ginley is a bingo-caller and occasional club comedian who dreams of being a private eye...
(1971) is a crime comedy about a man so inspired by Bogart's films he decides to play private eye.
- The Black BirdThe Black BirdThe Black Bird is a 1975 film released December 25, 1975 starring George Segal and Stephane Audran. It is a comedy sequel to the well-regarded 1941 film version of The Maltese Falcon with Segal playing Sam Spade's son, Sam Spade Jr and Elisha Cook Jr...
(1975), critically panned comedy sequel to The Maltese Falcon starring George SegalGeorge SegalGeorge Segal is an American film, stage and television actor.-Early life:George Segal, Jr. was born in 1934 Great Neck, Long Island, New York, the son of Fannie Blanche and George Segal, Sr. He was educated at George School, a private Quaker preparatory boarding school near Newtown, Bucks County,...
as Sam Spade Jr. and Elisha Cook Jr.Elisha Cook Jr.Elisha Vanslyck Cook, Jr. was an American character actor who made a career out of playing cowardly villains and weedy neurotics in dozens of films...
reprising his role of Wilmer Cook.
- The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter BrotherThe Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter BrotherThe Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother is a 1975 English/American comedy film with Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman, Madeline Kahn, Dom DeLuise, Roy Kinnear and Leo McKern. The film was Wilder's directorial debut....
(1975), a Gene WilderGene WilderGene Wilder is an American stage and screen actor, director, screenwriter, and author.Wilder began his career on stage, making his screen debut in the film Bonnie and Clyde in 1967. His first major role was as Leopold Bloom in the 1968 film The Producers...
comedy.
- Murder by DeathMurder by DeathMurder by Death is a 1976 comedy film with a cast featuring Eileen Brennan, Truman Capote, James Coco, Peter Falk, Alec Guinness, Elsa Lanchester, David Niven, Peter Sellers, Maggie Smith, Nancy Walker, and Estelle Winwood, written by Neil Simon and directed by Robert Moore.The plot is a spoof of...
(1976) is Neil SimonNeil SimonNeil Simon is an American playwright and screenwriter. He has written numerous Broadway plays, including Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, and The Odd Couple. He won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Lost In Yonkers. He has written the screenplays for several of his plays that...
's broad spoof of mystery films and Sam Spade, Charlie Chan, and Miss Marple. This was followed by The Cheap DetectiveThe Cheap DetectiveThe Cheap Detective is a 1978 American satirical comedy film written by Neil Simon and directed by Robert Moore as a follow-up to their successful Murder by Death ....
(1978), an even broader spoof starring Peter FalkPeter FalkPeter Michael Falk was an American actor, best known for his role as Lieutenant Columbo in the television series Columbo...
as a Bogart-like private eye.
- The Late ShowThe Late Show (film)The Late Show is a 1977 comedy, neo-noir, romance, mystery film written and directed by Robert Benton and produced by Robert Altman. It stars Art Carney, Lily Tomlin, Bill Macy, Eugene Roche, and Joanna Cassidy...
(1977), quirky, contemporary detective story is largely an affectionate tribute to the classic Hammett/Chandler era.
- A trio of Chevy ChaseChevy ChaseCornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase is an American comedian, writer, and television and film actor, born into a prominent entertainment industry family. Chase worked a plethora of odd jobs before moving into comedy acting with National Lampoon...
comedies, Foul PlayFoul PlayFoul Play is a 1978 American comic mystery/thriller film written and directed by Colin Higgins. In it, a recently divorced librarian is drawn into a mystery when a stranger hides a roll of film in a pack of cigarettes and gives it to her for safekeeping....
(1978), FletchFletch (film)Fletch is a 1985 comedy film about a wisecracking investigative newspaper reporter, Irwin M. Fletcher , who writes under the name of Jane Doe...
(1985), and Fletch LivesFletch LivesFletch Lives is a 1989 comedy film starring Chevy Chase. It was directed by Michael Ritchie with a screenplay by Leon Capetanos based on the character created by Gregory Mcdonald. Fletch Lives was released by Universal Pictures. It is a sequel to the 1985 film Fletch.- Plot :Chevy Chase once again...
pays homage to vintage detective films and Hitchcock.
- The Man with Bogart's FaceThe Man with Bogart's FaceThe Man with Bogart's Face is a 1980 comedy film, released by 20th Century Fox and based on a novel of the same name. Andrew J...
(1980), a detective has his face changed and becomes involved in a mystery that resembles The Maltese Falcon.
- The Private Eyes (1981) is a detective comedy with Tim ConwayTim ConwayThomas Daniel "Tim" Conway is an American comedian and actor, primarily known for his roles in sitcoms, films and television. Conway is best known for his role as the inept second-in-command officer, Ensign Charles Parker, to Lt...
and Don KnottsDon KnottsJesse Donald "Don" Knotts was an American comedic actor best known for his portrayal of Barney Fife on the 1960s television sitcom The Andy Griffith Show, a role which earned him five Emmy Awards...
.
- Dead Men Don't Wear PlaidDead Men Don't Wear PlaidDead Men Don't Wear Plaid is a 1982 comedy film directed by Carl Reiner and starring Steve Martin and Rachel Ward. It is both a parody of, and an homage to, film noir and the pulp detective movies of the 1940s....
(1982), set in the 1940s and filmed in black and white, Steve MartinSteve MartinStephen Glenn "Steve" Martin is an American actor, comedian, writer, playwright, producer, musician and composer....
plays a traditional hard-boiled detective who interacts with vintage film clips in Carl ReinerCarl ReinerCarl Reiner is an American actor, film director, producer, writer and comedian. He has won nine Emmy Awards and one Grammy Award during this career...
's cut-and-paste film noir farce.
- Hammett (1982), fictional account of Dashiell Hammett involved in actual mysteries that inspired his novels.
- TrenchcoatTrenchcoat (film)Trenchcoat is a live-action film produced by Walt Disney Productions in 1983 and starring Margot Kidder as court stenographer Mickey Raymond...
(1983), comedy about a female mystery writer who has to solve a real crime.
- ClueClue (film)Clue is a 1985 comedy mystery film based on the board game of the same name . The film is a murder mystery set in a Gothic Revival mansion, and is styled after Murder by Death and other various murder/dinner parties of mystery...
(1985), set in 1956, a period-piece whodunit spoof based on the popular board game.
- The Singing DetectiveThe Singing DetectiveThe Singing Detective is a BBC television miniseries written by Dennis Potter, which stars Michael Gambon, and was directed by Jon Amiel. The six episodes were "Skin", "Heat", "Lovely Days", "Clues", "Pitter Patter" and "Who Done It"....
(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 (film)The Singing Detective (film)The Singing Detective is a 2003 film based on the BBC serial The Singing Detective, a work by Dennis Potter. It stars Robert Downey, Jr...
in 2003.
- In 1987 Robert Mitchum was the guest host on Saturday Night LiveSaturday Night LiveSaturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
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 GreerJane GreerJane Greer was a film and television actress who was perhaps best known for her role as femme fatale Kathie Moffat in the 1947 film noir Out of the Past.-Career:...
reprised her role from the original film.
- Without a ClueWithout a ClueWithout a Clue is a 1988 British comedy film directed by Thom Eberhardt and starring Michael Caine, Ben Kingsley and Lysette Anthony.-Plot:...
(1988) comedy about an actor (Michael CaineMichael CaineSir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor. He won Academy Awards for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules ....
) hired to impersonate Sherlock Holmes.
- The Naked GunThe Naked GunThe Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! is a 1988 American comedy film that is the first in a The Naked Gun series of films starring Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley, George Kennedy, and O. J. Simpson...
(1988) and its sequels features Leslie NielsenLeslie NielsenLeslie William Nielsen, OC was a Canadian and naturalized American actor and comedian. Nielsen appeared in more than one hundred films and 1,500 television programs over the span of his career, portraying more than 220 characters...
as an inept police lieutenant. Based on the short-lived Police Squad!Police Squad!Police Squad! is a television comedy series first broadcast in 1982, created by Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker and starring Leslie Nielsen. A spoof of police procedurals, the series was packed with ZAZ's usual sight gags, wordplay and non sequiturs...
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 ScogginsTracy ScogginsTracy Dawn Scoggins is an American actress known for her roles as Cat Grant in the television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and Monica Colby in the 1980s prime time soap opera Dynasty, and its spin-off series The Colbys...
.
- A Low Down Dirty Shame (1994), comedy with Keenen Ivory WayansKeenen Ivory WayansKeenen Ivory Wayans is an American actor, comedian, director and writer known as the host and creator of the FOX sketch comedy series In Living Color, which also starred Jim Carrey, Jamie Foxx, brothers Damon Wayans, Shawn Wayans and Marlon Wayans, sister Kim Wayans, David Alan Grier, Tommy...
as a private detective.
- The Naked Detective (1996), an R-rated softcore parody of film noir with fetish model/actress Julia PartonJulia PartonJulia Parton is an American bondage model, B-movie actress, television sitcom bit player, and pornographic actress, who promoted herself as Dolly Parton's cousin.-Career:...
.
- The Scream franchise (1996)-(2011), which is a satire of the horror genre, has heavy elements of the detective, mystery and crime fiction genres, and is often self-referential.
- A Gun, a Car, a Blonde (1997), a paraplegic's fantasy (filmed in black and white) of being a tough private eye in a '50s film noir world.
- Brown's Requiem (1998), detective story based on James EllroyJames EllroyLee Earle "James" Ellroy is an American crime fiction writer and essayist. Ellroy has become known for a so-called "telegraphic" prose style in his most recent work, wherein he frequently omits connecting words and uses only short, staccato sentences, and in particular for the novels The Black...
's Chandleresque first novel.
- Zero EffectZero EffectZero Effect is a 1998 mystery film written and directed by Jake Kasdan . It stars 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?Where's Marlowe?Where's Marlowe? is a 1998 indie comedy/mystery written by Daniel Pyne and John Mankiewicz. Daniel Pyne also directed the film.-Plot summary:...
(1998) drama about film makers following a low-level L.A. private detective.
- Camouflage (2000), private-eye comedy with Leslie Nielsen.
- Woody AllenWoody AllenWoody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
's nostalgia for film noir, mysteries, and Bogart's tough-guy persona is evident in Play it Again, Sam (1972), Manhattan Murder MysteryManhattan Murder MysteryManhattan Murder Mystery is a comedic murder mystery film directed by and starring Woody Allen and written by Marshall Brickman and Woody Allen.-Plot:...
(1993), and The Curse of the Jade ScorpionThe Curse of the Jade ScorpionThe Curse of the Jade Scorpion is a 2001 American film written, directed by, and starring Woody Allen. The cast also features Dan Aykroyd, Elizabeth Berkley, Helen Hunt, John Schuck, Wallace Shawn, David Ogden Stiers, and Charlize Theron. The plot concerns an insurance investigator and an...
(2001).
- TwilightTwilight (1998 film)Twilight is a 1998 thriller/Neo-noir film directed by Robert Benton. It stars Paul Newman, Susan Sarandon, Gene Hackman, Reese Witherspoon, Stockard Channing, and James Garner...
(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 HoffmanDustin HoffmanDustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
and Lily TomlinLily TomlinMary Jean "Lily" Tomlin is an American actress, comedienne, writer, and producer. Tomlin has been a major force in American comedy since the late 1960's when she began a career as a stand up comedian and became a featured performer on television's Laugh-in...
) hired to uncover the meaning of life.
- Broken Lizard'sBroken LizardBroken Lizard is an American comedy troupe, consisting of five friends, best known for its films, including Super Troopers and Beerfest. Its five members are Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, and Erik Stolhanske. They collaborate on the screen-writing, acting and...
Club DreadClub DreadClub Dread is a 2004 comedy horror film written by the comedy group Broken Lizard, who also created Super Troopers...
(2004) is a murder mystery film that spoofs slasher filmSlasher filmA slasher film is a type of horror film typically involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, often with a cutting tool such as a knife or axe...
s.
- Kiss Kiss Bang BangKiss Kiss Bang BangKiss Kiss Bang Bang is a 2005 crime/dark comedy film, which engages many conventions of the classic film noir genre in a tongue-in-cheek fashion. It is based, in part, on the novel Bodies Are Where You Find Them by Brett Halliday. The cast includes Robert Downey, Jr., Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan...
(2005), crime-noir comedy inspired by hardboiled detective fiction and vapid L.A. culture.
- A Prairie Home CompanionA Prairie Home Companion (film)A Prairie Home Companion is a 2006 ensemble comedy elegy directed by Robert Altman, and was his final film, released just five months before his death...
(2006), film of Garrison KeillorGarrison KeillorGary Edward "Garrison" Keillor is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio personality. He is known as host of the Minnesota Public Radio show A Prairie Home Companion Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor (born August 7, 1942) is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio...
's radio show features the recurring character Guy Noir, a hardboiled detective whose adventures always wander into farce.
- In the season 6, episode 11 of Married... with ChildrenMarried... with ChildrenMarried... with Children is an American surrealistic sitcom that aired for 11 seasons that featured a dysfunctional family living in Chicago, Illinois. The show, notable for being the first prime time television series to air on Fox, ran from April 5, 1987, to June 9, 1997. The series was created...
, Al Bundy dreams he's a private detective who's being framed for the murder of a rich woman's father.
Movie sleuths
Mystery films have portrayed a number of notable fiction sleuths. Most of these characters first appeared in serialized novels.| Sleuth(s) | Author/Creator | First film |
|---|---|---|
| Lew Archer Lew Archer Lew Archer is a fictional character created by Ross Macdonald. Archer is a private detective working in Southern California.-Profile:Initially, Lew Archer was similar to Philip Marlowe. However, he eventually broke from that mold, though some similarities remain... |
Ross Macdonald Ross Macdonald Not to be confused with John D. MacDonaldRoss Macdonald is the pseudonym of the American-Canadian writer of crime fiction Kenneth Millar... |
Harper Harper (film) Harper is a 1966 film written by William Goldman from a novel by Ross Macdonald. The movie starred Paul Newman as the eponymous Lew Harper . The original music score was composed by Johnny Mandel. Goldman received a 1967 Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay... (1966 1966 in film The year 1966 in film involved some significant events.-Events:Animation legend Walter Disney, well known for his creation of Mickey Mouse, died in 15 December 1966 of acute circulatory collapse following a diagnosis of, and surgery for, lung cancer... ) |
| Boston Blackie Boston Blackie Boston Blackie is a fictional character created by author Jack Boyle . Originally a jewel thief and safecracker in Boyle's novels, he became a detective in adaptations for films, radio and television—an "enemy to those who make him an enemy, friend to those who have no friend."-Literature:Jack... |
Jack Boyle Jack Boyle John Anthony Boyle , nicknamed "Honest Jack", was an American catcher and first baseman in Major League Baseball... |
Boston Blackie's Little Pal (1918 1918 in film The year 1918 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*Following litigation for anti-trust activities, the US Supreme Court orders the Motion Picture Patents Company to disband.... ) |
| Torchy Blaine Torchy Blaine Torchy Blane is a fictional female reporter who appeared in a series of light "B" films during the late 1930s, which were mixtures of mystery, action, adventure and fun.... |
Louis Frederick Nebel | Smart Blonde (1937 1937 in film The year 1937 in film involved some significant events, including the Walt Disney production of the first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.- Events :*April 16 - Way Out West premieres in the US.... ) |
| Charlie Chan Charlie Chan Charlie Chan is a fictional Chinese-American detective created by Earl Derr Biggers in 1919. Loosely based on Honolulu detective Chang Apana, Biggers conceived of the benevolent and heroic Chan as an alternative to Yellow Peril stereotypes, such as villains like Fu Manchu... |
Earl Derr Biggers Earl Derr Biggers Earl Derr Biggers was an American novelist and playwright. He is remembered primarily for adaptations of his novels, especially those featuring the Chinese-American detective Charlie Chan.-Biography:... |
The House Without a Key The House Without a Key (serial) The House Without a Key is a 1926 mystery film serial directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet. It is based on the novel of the same name and is the first onscreen appearance of the fictional detective Charlie Chan, although the main stars are Allene Ray and Walter Miller. The film is now considered to be... (1926 1926 in film -Events:*August - Warner Brothers debuts the first Vitaphone film, Don Juan. The Vitaphone system used multiple 33⅓ rpm disc records developed by Bell Telephone Laboratories and Western Electric to play back audio synchronized with film.... ) |
| Nick and Nora Charles Nick and Nora Charles Nick and Nora Charles are fictional characters created by Dashiell Hammett in his novel The Thin Man. The characters were later adapted for film in a series of movies between 1934 and 1947; for radio from 1941 to 1950; for television from 1957 through 1959; as a Broadway musical in 1991; and as a... |
Dashiell Hammett Dashiell Hammett Samuel Dashiell Hammett was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories, and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade , Nick and Nora Charles , and the Continental Op .In addition to the significant influence his novels and stories had on... |
The Thin Man The Thin Man (film) The Thin Man is a 1934 American comic detective film starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles, a flirtatious married couple who banter wittily as they solve crimes with ease. Nick is a hard drinking retired detective and Nora a wealthy heiress... (1934 1934 in film -Events:*January 26 - Samuel Goldwyn purchases the film rights to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from the L. Frank Baum estate for $40,000.*February 19 - Bob Hope marries Dolores Reade... ) |
| Hugh Drummond | Herman Cyril McNeile | Bulldog Drummond Bulldog Drummond (1923 film) Bulldog Drummond was the first film adaptation of the Bulldog Drummond fictional character, starring Carlyle Blackwell Sr. and Evelyn Greeley, and directed by Oscar Apfel. The story was adapted by B.E... (1922 1922 in film -Events:* June 11 - United States première of Robert J. Flaherty's Nanook of the North, the first commercially successful feature length documentary film.... ) |
| Mike Hammer Mike Hammer Michael "Mike" Hammer is a fictional detective created by the American author Mickey Spillane in the 1947 book I, the Jury .-Description:... |
Mickey Spillane Mickey Spillane Frank Morrison Spillane , better known as Mickey Spillane, was an American author of crime novels, many featuring his signature detective character, Mike Hammer. More than 225 million copies of his books have sold internationally... |
I, the Jury I, the Jury (1953 film) I, the Jury is a mystery-thriller film from 1953, based on the novel I, the Jury by Mickey Spillane. It was directed by Harry Essex, produced by Victor Saville's company, Parklane Pictures and released through United Artists.... (1953 1953 in film The year 1953 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*September 16 — The Robe debuts as the first anamorphic, widescreen CinemaScope film.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:A... ) |
| Nancy Drew Nancy Drew Nancy Drew is a fictional young amateur detective in various mystery series for all ages. She was created by Edward Stratemeyer, founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate book packaging firm. The character first appeared in 1930. The books have been ghostwritten by a number of authors and are published... |
Carolyn Keene Nancy Drew Nancy Drew is a fictional young amateur detective in various mystery series for all ages. She was created by Edward Stratemeyer, founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate book packaging firm. The character first appeared in 1930. The books have been ghostwritten by a number of authors and are published... |
Nancy Drew, Detective (1938 1938 in film The year 1938 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*January — MGM announces that Judy Garland would be cast in the role of "Dorothy" in the upcoming Wizard of Oz motion picture. Ray Bolger is cast as the "Tinman" and Buddy Ebsen is cast as the "Scarecrow". At Bolger's insistence,... ) |
| Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve... |
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger... |
Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve... (1908 1908 in film The year 1908 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*Thomas Edison formed the Motion Picture Patents Company, with goals of controlling production and distribution, raising theater admission prices, cooperating with censorship bodies, and preventing film stock from getting into the hands... ) |
| Michael Lanyard Lone Wolf (fictional detective) The Lone Wolf is the nickname of the fictional character Michael Lanyard, a jewel thief turned private detective in a series of novels written by Louis Joseph Vance . A large number of movies based on and inspired by the books have been made... |
Louis Joseph Vance Louis Joseph Vance Louis Joseph Vance was an American novelist, born in Washington, D. C., and educated in the preparatory department of the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute. He wrote short stories and verse after 1901, then composed many popular novels... |
The Lone Wolf (1917 1917 in film The year 1917 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*Foundation of Universum Film AG , as a propaganda film company, in Berlin.*Technicolor System 1, a two-color process, is introduced... ) |
| Philip Marlowe Philip Marlowe Philip Marlowe is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler in a series of novels including The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye. Marlowe first appeared under that name in The Big Sleep published in 1939... |
Raymond Chandler Raymond Chandler Raymond Thornton Chandler was an American novelist and screenwriter.In 1932, at age forty-five, Raymond Chandler decided to become a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in... |
Murder My Sweet (1944 1944 in film The year 1944 in film involved some significant events, including the wholesome, award-winning Going My Way plus popular murder mysteries such as Double Indemnity, Gaslight and Laura.-Events:*July 20 - Since You Went Away is released.... ) |
| Miss Marple Miss Marple Jane Marple, usually referred to as Miss Marple, is a fictional character appearing in twelve of Agatha Christie's crime novels and in twenty short stories. Miss Marple is an elderly spinster who lives in the village of St. Mary Mead and acts as an amateur detective. She is one of the most famous... |
Agatha Christie Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to... |
Murder, She Said Murder, She Said Murder, She Said is a murder mystery film directed by George Pollock, loosely based on the novel 4.50 from Paddington by Agatha Christie... (1961 1961 in film The year 1961 in film involved some significant events, with West Side Story winning 10 Academy Awards.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:* Atlantis, the Lost ContinentB... ) |
| Mr. Moto 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, which was seeking stories with an Asian hero after the death... |
John Phillips Marquand | Think Fast, Mr. Moto Think Fast, Mr. Moto Think Fast, Mr. Moto is a 1937 film about a mysterious Japanese detective named Mr. Moto. It is the first of eight films in the Mr. Moto series, which are all based on Mr. Moto novels written by John P. Marquand. The film stars Peter Lorre as the title character, as well as Virginia Field and... (1937 1937 in film The year 1937 in film involved some significant events, including the Walt Disney production of the first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.- Events :*April 16 - Way Out West premieres in the US.... ) |
| Hercule Poirot Hercule Poirot Hercule Poirot is a fictional Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie. Along with Miss Marple, Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-lived characters, appearing in 33 novels and 51 short stories published between 1920 and 1975 and set in the same era.Poirot has been portrayed on... |
Agatha Christie Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to... |
Alibi Alibi (1931 film) Alibi is a British mystery detective film directed by Leslie S. Hiscott and starring Austin Trevor, Franklin Dyall, and Elizabeth Allen.... (1931 1931 in film -Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:*Best Picture: Cimarron - MGM*Best Actor: Lionel Barrymore - A Free Soul*Best Actor: Wallace Beery - The Champ*Best Actor: Fredric March - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde... ) |
| Ellery Queen Ellery Queen Ellery Queen is both a fictional character and a pseudonym used by two American cousins from Brooklyn, New York: Daniel Nathan, alias Frederic Dannay and Manford Lepofsky, alias Manfred Bennington Lee , to write, edit, and anthologize detective fiction.The fictional Ellery Queen created by... |
Frederick Dannay and Manfred B. Lee Ellery Queen Ellery Queen is both a fictional character and a pseudonym used by two American cousins from Brooklyn, New York: Daniel Nathan, alias Frederic Dannay and Manford Lepofsky, alias Manfred Bennington Lee , to write, edit, and anthologize detective fiction.The fictional Ellery Queen created by... |
The Spanish Cape Mystery The Spanish Cape Mystery The Spanish Cape Mystery is a novel that was written in by Ellery Queen as the ninth book of the Ellery Queen mysteries. The same month of 1935 hardcover publication by Frederick A... (1935 1935 in film -Events:*Judy Garland signs a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer .*Seven year old Shirley Temple wins a special Academy Award.*The Bantu Educational Kinema Experiment started in order to educate the Bantu peoples.-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:... ) |
| Easy Rawlins | Walter Mosley Walter Mosley Walter Ellis Mosley is an American novelist, most widely recognized for his crime fiction. He has written a series of best-selling historical mysteries featuring the hard-boiled detective Easy Rawlins, a black private investigator and World War II veteran living in the Watts neighborhood of Los... |
Devil in a Blue Dress Devil in a Blue Dress (film) Devil in a Blue Dress is a 1995 American neo-noir film directed by Carl Franklin and photographed by Tak Fujimoto.The film was based on Walter Mosley's novel of the same name, was executive produced by Jonathan Demme, and starred Denzel Washington, Tom Sizemore, Jennifer Beals, and Don Cheadle.In... (1995 1995 in film -Top grossing films:-Events:* March 22 - The Dogme 95 movement is officially announced in Paris by Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg.* March 28 - Actress Julia Roberts and singer Lyle Lovett announce their plans for separation.... ) |
| Michael Shayne Michael Shayne Michael Shayne is a fictional private detective character created during the late 1930s by writer Brett Halliday. It was the title of a series of 12 films starring Lloyd Nolan, a radio series under a variety of names, between 1944 and 1953, and later in 1960-1961, a 32 episode NBC television series... |
Brett Halliday Brett Halliday Brett Halliday , primary pen name of Davis Dresser, was an American mystery writer, best known for the long-lived series of Michael Shayne novels he wrote, and later commissioned others to write... |
Michael Shayne, Private Detective (1940 1940 in film The year 1940 in film involved some significant events, including the premieres of the Walt Disney classics Pinocchio and Fantasia.-Events:*February 7 - Walt Disney's animated film Pinocchio is released.... ) |
| Sam Spade Sam Spade Sam Spade is a fictional character who is the protagonist of Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel The Maltese Falcon and the various films and adaptations based on it, as well as in three lesser known short stories by Hammett.... |
Dashiell Hammett Dashiell Hammett Samuel Dashiell Hammett was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories, and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade , Nick and Nora Charles , and the Continental Op .In addition to the significant influence his novels and stories had on... |
The Maltese Falcon The Maltese Falcon (1931 film) The Maltese Falcon is a 1931 American Warner Bros. Pre-Code crime film based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett. The movie was directed by Roy Del Ruth and stars Bebe Daniels in the role of Ruth Wonderly and Ricardo Cortez as private detective Sam Spade.Maude Fulton, Brown Holmes,... (1931 1931 in film -Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:*Best Picture: Cimarron - MGM*Best Actor: Lionel Barrymore - A Free Soul*Best Actor: Wallace Beery - The Champ*Best Actor: Fredric March - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde... ) |
| Simon Templar Simon Templar Simon Templar is a British fictional character known as The Saint featured in a long-running series of books by Leslie Charteris published between 1928 and 1963. After that date, other authors collaborated with Charteris on books until 1983; two additional works produced without Charteris’s... |
Leslie Charteris Leslie Charteris Leslie Charteris , born Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin, was a half-Chinese, half English author of primarily mystery fiction, as well as a screenwriter. He was best known for his many books chronicling the adventures of Simon Templar, alias "The Saint."-Early life:Charteris was born to a Chinese father... |
The Saint in New York The Saint in New York (film) The Saint in New York is a 1938 crime film, based on Leslie Charteris's novel of the same name. Released by RKO Pictures, The Saint in New York marks the first screen appearance of Simon Templar - "the Saint"... (1938 1938 in film The year 1938 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*January — MGM announces that Judy Garland would be cast in the role of "Dorothy" in the upcoming Wizard of Oz motion picture. Ray Bolger is cast as the "Tinman" and Buddy Ebsen is cast as the "Scarecrow". At Bolger's insistence,... ) |
| Dick Tracy Dick Tracy Dick Tracy is a comic strip featuring Dick Tracy, a hard-hitting, fast-shooting and intelligent police detective. Created by Chester Gould, the strip made its debut on October 4, 1931, in the Detroit Mirror. It was distributed by the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate... |
Chester Gould | Dick Tracy Dick Tracy (serial) Dick Tracy is a 15-Chapter Republic movie serial starring Ralph Byrd based on the Dick Tracy comic strip by Chester Gould. It was directed by Alan James and Ray Taylor.-Synopsis:... (1937 1937 in film The year 1937 in film involved some significant events, including the Walt Disney production of the first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.- Events :*April 16 - Way Out West premieres in the US.... ) |
| Philo Vance Philo Vance Philo Vance featured in 12 crime novels written by S. S. Van Dine , published in the 1920s and 1930s. During that time, Vance was immensely popular in books, movies, and on the radio. He was portrayed as a stylish, even foppish dandy, a New York bon vivant possessing a highly intellectual bent... |
S. S. Van Dine S. S. Van Dine S. S. Van Dine was the pseudonym of Willard Huntington Wright , a U.S art critic and author. He created the once immensely popular fictional detective Philo Vance, who first appeared in books in the 1920s, then in movies and on the radio.-Early life and career:Willard Huntington Wright was born... |
The Canary Murder Case The Canary Murder Case The Canary Murder Case is a murder mystery novel which deals with the murders of a sexy nightclub singer known as "the Canary," and eventually, that of her boyfriend, solved by Philo Vance. S. S. Van Dine's classic whodunnit, second in the Philo Vance series, is said by Howard Haycraft to have... (1929 1929 in film -Events:The days of the silent film are numbered. A mad scramble to provide synchronized sound is on.*January 20 - The movie In Old Arizona is released. The film is the first full-length talking film to be filmed outdoors.... ) |
| Hildegarde Withers Hildegarde Withers Hildegarde Withers is a fictional character who appeared in several films and novels. She was created by Stuart Palmer.Miss Withers "whom the census enumerator had recently listed as 'spinster, born Boston, age thirty-nine, occupation school teacher'" becomes an amateur sleuthin the first book of... |
Stuart Palmer Stuart Palmer Stuart Palmer was a popular mystery novel author and screenwriter, best known for his character Hildegarde Withers.Palmer was born in Baraboo, Wisconsin... |
Penguin Pool Murder Penguin Pool Murder Penguin Pool Murder is a comedy/mystery film starring Edna May Oliver as Hildegarde Withers, a witness in a murder case at the New York Aquarium, James Gleason as the police inspector in charge of the case, who investigates with her unwanted help, and Robert Armstrong as an attorney representing... (1932 1932 in film -Events:*Cary Grant's film career begins*Katharine Hepburn's film career begins*Shirley Temple's film career begins*Disney released Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon in three-strip Technicolor film.*Santa, first sound film made in Mexico released.... ) |
| Nero Wolfe Nero Wolfe Nero Wolfe is a fictional detective, created in 1934 by the American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe's confidential assistant Archie Goodwin narrates the cases of the detective genius. Stout wrote 33 novels and 39 short stories from 1934 to 1974, with most of them set in New York City. Wolfe's... |
Rex Stout Rex Stout Rex Todhunter Stout was an American writer noted for his detective fiction. Stout is best known as the creator of the larger-than-life fictional detective Nero Wolfe, described by reviewer Will Cuppy as "that Falstaff of detectives." Wolfe's assistant Archie Goodwin recorded the cases of the... |
Meet Nero Wolfe Meet Nero Wolfe Meet Nero Wolfe is a 1936 mystery film based on the 1934 novel Fer-de-Lance, written by Rex Stout. Set in New York, the story introduced the detective genius Nero Wolfe and his assistant Archie Goodwin... (1936 1936 in film The year 1936 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May 29 - Fritz Lang's first Hollywood film Fury, starring Spencer Tracy and Bruce Cabot, is released.*November 6 - first Porky Pig animated cartoon... ) |
| James Lee Wong | Hugh Wiley | Mr. Wong, Detective Mr. Wong, Detective Mr. Wong, Detective is a 1938 crime film directed by William Nigh and starring Boris Karloff.-Cast:* Boris Karloff - Mr. James Lee Wong* Grant Withers - Captain Sam Street* Maxine Jennings - Myra Ross, Dayton's Secretary... (1938 1938 in film The year 1938 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*January — MGM announces that Judy Garland would be cast in the role of "Dorothy" in the upcoming Wizard of Oz motion picture. Ray Bolger is cast as the "Tinman" and Buddy Ebsen is cast as the "Scarecrow". At Bolger's insistence,... ) |
See also
- List of mystery films
- Conspiracy thriller
- Crime fictionCrime fictionCrime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...
- Film noirFilm noirFilm noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
- List of film noir
- List of female detective characters
- Thriller film
- Neo-noirNeo-noirNeo-noir is a style often seen in modern motion pictures and other forms that prominently utilize elements of film noir, but with updated themes, content, style, visual elements or media that were absent in films noir of the 1940s and 1950s.-History:The term Film Noir was coined by...