67 BEST MYSTERY MOVIES OF ALL TIME

I am again unable to rate these films best to worst.  Those near the top of the list are among the best.  Those near the bottom are very worthwhile.  IMDb was used to collect data.

1. The Big Sleep (1946) – Directed by Howard Hawks, starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall – Bogart plays Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlow, called in by a wealthy ex military officer to rid his youngest daughter of extortion brought by her bad behavior. Bogart and Bacall get their steam up along the way.  Chandler’s story is so strong in was remade in 1978 with Robert Mitchum and Sarah Miles.
2. The Maltese Falcon (1941) – Directed by John Huston, screenplay by John Huston and Dashielle Hammett from Hammett’s novel of the same title. Nominated for 3 Oscars.  One of Hammett’s super sleuths, Sam Spade, is hired, layer by layer, crook by crook, to locate a supposed valuable statuette.
3. Chinatown (1975) – Directed by Roman Polanski, screenplay by Robert Towne, staring Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway and John Huston. Nominated for an unprecedented 11 Oscars, this excellent film took home best original screenplay.  Used as a pawn in a bigger game of deception, power and incest, J.J. Gittes, a successful private eye, must open forbidden doors to clear his good name.
4. Sherlock Holmes (2009) – Directed by Guy Ritchie, starring Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, Mark Strong and many other fine actors. Nominated for 2 Oscars.  Director Ritchie brings a slightly different slant to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s masterful detective partnership.  Watson is no bungler as in the Basil Rathbone classics.  Here, Holms unravels a sinister plot that threatens the fabric of British society and the world.
5. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) – Directed by Guy Ritchie, starring Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Noomi Rapace and Jared Harris as the dreaded Prof. James Moriarty. With the help of gypsies, Holmes and Watson unravel Moriarty’s plot to start WWI early.
6. 12 Monkeys (1995) – Directed by Terry Gilliam, starring Bruce Willis, Madelaine Stowe and Brad Pitt. In a future devastated by disease, with the use of a shaky time machine, a man is errantly pulsed into time periods out of synch with his assignment to locate the source of the man-made virus that has destroyed the planet.  Brad Pitt won an Oscar nomination.  In this author’s opinion, Bruce Willis outdid them all as a confused, unwitting servant of the future world which sent him.
7. Fargo (1996) – Written and directed by Joel & Ethan Cohen, starring Frances McDormand, William H. Macey and Steve Buscemi. Nominated for 7 Oscars, won best actress and best screenplay.  In the frozen plains of Minnesota, an unhappy man plans a kidnap for ransom to prove his worth and hires incompetent thugs who bungle his lame plan.  A steadfast, very pregnant sheriff unravels their series of murders and makes arrests but the loot is never found.
8. Absolute Power (1997) – Directed by Clint Eastwood, starting Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman and Ed Harris. Eastwood plays a high end cat burglar who hides when the wealthy targets wife unexpectedly returns home with president of the United States.  He witnesses the attempted rape, struggle and subsequent shooting of the woman by secret service agents.  Pursued by agents and a hired hit-man, he must prove his innocence to the woman’s wealthy and powerful husband.
9. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) – Directed by Jonathan Demme, starring Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins and Scott Glenn. 7 nominations and 5 Oscars for best picture, best director, best actor, best actress and best screenplay from another source.  FBI agent (Foster) uses the psychopathic Dr. Hannibal Lecter to track down another serial killer.  These great characters have spawned numerous sequels.
10. L.A. Confidential (1997) – Directed by Curtis Hanson, starring Guy Pierce, Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey, Kim Basenger and Danny DeVito. 9 Oscar nominations, Basenger won an Oscar for supporting actress, best script from another source.  Three differently motivated cops come together to unravel corruption in 1950s L.A.
11. Mulholland Falls (1996) – Directed by Lee Tamahori, starring Nick Nolte, Melanie Griffith, Jennifer Connelly and a host of others. In 1950s L.A., an anti-gangster unit investigates the brutal killing of a young woman secretly known to the lead investigator.
12. Se7en (1995) – Directed by David Fincher, starring Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt and Kevin Spacey. One oscar nomination.  A veteran detective (Freeman) and a promising rookie (Pitt) investigate a serial killer filling the seven deadly sins with brutally slain victims.
13. No Country for Old Men (2007) – Written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin. Nominated for 8 Oscars, won best picture, best actor in a supporting role (Bardem), best director (Coen Brothers) and best adapted script (Coen Brothers).  A West Texas county sheriff tracks a cartel enforcer after thieves of $2,000,000 after a drug deal gone bad.
14. The Accountant (2016) – Directed by Gavin O’Conner, starring Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick and J.K. Simmons. An autistic savant accountant unravels cooked books while under investigation by the treasury department.  The savant executes his own form a righteous justice along the way.  I love this underrated film.
15. The Fugitive (1993) – Directed by Andrew Davis, starring Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones and Sela Ward. Nominated for 7 Oscars, Tommy Lee Jones garnered best supporting actor.  Inspired by true events.  Richard Kimble is framed for the murder of his wife and escapes to hunt down the real killer and uncover the reason why.
16. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (2009) – These three are listed as one because they follow the same storyline. Tattoo was directed by Niels Arden Oplev.  The others were directed by Daniel Alfredson, all starring Noomi Rapace and Michael Nyqvist.  Norwegian journalist Steig Larsson wrote all three novels.  The story takes place in Sweden and all three films were shot in Swedish, available with English dubs.  A Swedish Journalist (Nyqvist) teams with a statistician (Rapace) to follow the family lineage of a family formerly involved with Nazi Germany and currently involved with kidnapping, rape, sadomasochistic torture and murder.  Rapace is at her slender best.
17. Murder, My Sweet (1944) – Directed by Edward Dmytryk, starring Dick Powell, Claire Trevor and Anna Shirley. Powell plays Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlow, hired to recover a priceless jade necklace.  After several murders, he finds the necklace to have been taken by its owner for insurance.
18. Kiss of Death (1947) – Directed by Henry Hathaway, starring Victor Mature, Richard Widmark and Brian Donlevy. In his debut performance, Widmark got an Oscar nomination in a supporting role.  A small-time crook decides to work with police in order to take down a sadistic gangster (Widmark).  Widmark’s performance is stunning.
19. The Game (1997) – Directed by David Fincher, starring Michael Douglas, Sean Penn and Deborah Kara Unger. A birthday present from his brother (Penn) invites a hedge-fund manager (Douglas) to play a game which convinces him his wealth and life have been stolen in a scam.  This film is a great ride.
20. The Usual Suspects (1995) – Directed by Bryan Singer, starring Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Spacey, Chazz Palminteri and Steven Baldwin. Nominated for and won best supporing actor and best original screenplay.  Five usual suspects are rounded up, lined up and spend the night in jail.  An unsuspected visit convinces them to join forces with a Serbian gangster who involves them in the slaughter of his foes aboard a cargo ship.
21. The Prestige (2006) – Directed by Christopher Nolan, starring Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman and Michael Caine. Nominated for 2 Oscars.  Two magicians compete in a deadly game of one-upsmanship.
22. The Glass Key (1942) – Directed by Stewart Heisler, starring Alan Ladd, Brian Donlevy and Veronica Lake. When a political boss is accused of murder, his best friend and confidant must figure out who the real killer is and why.  This and the newer version, Miller’s Crossing, were inspired by the Dashielle Hammett novel.
23. The Gunman (2015) – Directed by Pierre Morel, starring Sean Penn, Javier Bardem, Ray Winstone and Jasmine Trinca. After performing his final mission, a political assassin goes into hiding, rebuilds his live and later becomes a target himself.  He must reestablish old relationships to track those responsible.
24. The Counselor (2013) Directed by Ridley Scott, starring Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem, Brad Pitt and Cameron Diaz.  A counselor (Fassbender) for a mid-level drug lord (Bardem) buys into a drug transaction that goes bad.  The cartel kills everybody involved and leaves the counselor to wonder when his turn will come.  A brutal look at international drug trafficking.
25. Old Boy (2013) – Directed by Spike Lee, starring Josh Brolin, Samuel L. Jackson and Elizabeth Olsen. A substance abusing adman is framed for the murder of his wife, kidnapped and locked in solitary confinement for 20 years.  Bent of vengeance, he escapes and searches for those responsible.
26. Foreign Correspondent (1940) – Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Joel McCrea, Loraine Day and Herbert Marshall. Nominated for 6 Oscars.  Sent to Europe to report on events leading up to WWII, a rookie New York reporter stumbles onto Nazi espionage.  This is Hitchcock at his best.
27. The Informer (1935) – Directed by John Ford, starring Victor McLoglen, Heather Angel and Preston Foster. Nominated for 6 Oscars, including best picture, McLaglen won best actor, Ford, best director, best screenplay and best musical score.  In depressed Ireland, IRA member (McLaglen) plans to take his lady to America.  After giving up his mate, he drinks away the reward money and is trapped by the IRA.
28. Three Days of the Condor (1975) – Directed by Sydney Pollack, starring Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway and Cliff Robertson. One Oscar nomination.  A CIA analyst goes for coffee and returns to find his coworkers dead.  He must now stay one step in front of pursuit until he knows the reason why.
29. Psycho (1960) – Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh and Vera Miles. Nominated for 4 Oscars.  A working girl in A. steals a lot of money and flees toward Bakersfield.  On the way, she stops in at the Bates Motel where Norman Bates is in charge.  Occasionally possessed by his dead mother, Norma, Bates slashes his guest to death in the shower.  Later, Norman discovers the body, puts it into her car and drives the car into a nearby swamp.  A powerful Hitchcock thriller.
30. Out of the Past (1947) – Directed by Jaquese Tourneur, starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer and Kirk Douglas. In a small town in the mountains, a former private detective owns and operates a gas station.  A customer from his past arrives for a fill-up that leads to renewed acquaintances and death.
31. The Thin Man (1935) – Directed by W.S. Van Dyke, starring William Powell and Myrna Loy. Nominated for 4 Oscars.  Nick and Nora Charles investigate a murder, exchange playful banter and solve the case.  This is from a Dashielle Hammett series, the beginning of a long run of popular sequels.
32. Mystic River (2004) – Directed by Clint Eastwood, starring Sean Penn, Tim Robbins and Kevin Bacon. Nominated for 6 Oscars including best picture and best director (Eastwood).  Sean Penn took best actor and Tim Robbins took best support.  A childhood kidnapping and pedophilia forever change the lives of three friends growing up in Boston.  The victim, Robbins, struggles with the past, Bacon has become a police detective and Penn has turned to organized crime.  After a killing, Penn assumes Robbins to be the guilty party and kills him.  Bacon later discovers the real murderer.  A dark journey.
33. The Fourth Kind (2009) – Directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi, starring Mila Jovovich, Elias Koteas and Will Patton. Inspired by true events.  A small town in Alaska suffers numerous and ongoing disappearances of children over a 40 year period and have come to suspect alien abduction and a federal cover-up.
34. Changeling (2008) – Directed by Clint Eastwood, starring Angelina Jolie, Colm Fiore and Amy Ryan. Nominated for 3 Oscars.  A mother refuses to believe the police when they insist they have found her mission son and bring her an imposter.  Why?
35. Kiss Me Deadly (1955) – Directed by Robert Aldrich, starring Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker and Paul Stewart. Mickey Spillane’s two fisted Mike Hammer fights off gangsters and spies in search of an unknown something.
36. The Salton Sea (2002) – Directed by D.J. Caruso, starring Val Kilmer, Vincent D’Onofrio and Adam Goldberg. Out of luck and out of friends, a down and out drug dealer agrees to work undercover to bring in a crystal meth manufacturer and distributor.
37. The Sixth Sense (1999) – Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, starring Bruce Willis, Joel Osment and Toni Collette. Nominated for 6 academy awards.  A boy who speaks to spirits who don’t know they’re dead speaks to a child psychologist about his problem.  Who’s problem?
38. Dark Passage (1947) – Directed by Delmer Daves, starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. A man wrongly convicted of murdering his wife escapes from prison, gets a facelift and tries to clear his name. Shot from character POV adds interest.
39. His Kind of Woman (1951) – Directed by John Farrow and Richard Fleisher, starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell and Vincent Price. A down and out gambler takes a chance on his future and travels to a small island in Mexico where a deported gangster plans to steal his face and make him disappear.
40. Minority Report (2002) – Directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Tom Cruise, Colin Ferrell and Samantha Morton. Nominated for 1 Oscar.  Future police departments employ special units to arrest future criminals through visions by seers.  When a lead detective is fingered, he must go to the seer who saw a different future for her minority report.
41. Gone Girl (2014) – Directed by David Fincher, starring Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike and Neil Patrick Harris. Nominated for 1 Oscar.  A child super star finds ways to keep herself in the spotlight, no matter the cost to others, including her husband.
42. The 39 Steps (1935) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll and Lucie Mannheim. A Londoner tries to help a British agent but when she’s killed, he must go on the run to same himself and to stop the evil plot.  Another great Hitchcock classic.
43. The Wrong Man (1956) – Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Henry Fonda, Vera Miles and Anthony Quaile. Based on a true story, an innocent man is mistakenly identified as a murderer.
44. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) – Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day. Won Oscar for best song.  While in Morocco, a man and his wife stumble into an assassination plot and must stay two steps ahead of death.
45. The Lady Vanishes (1938) – Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave and Paul Lucas. When a sweet old lady disappears from a European train, a young playgirl tries to find out why and searches for ways to report her disappearance.
46. Sabotage (1936) – Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Sylvia Sidney, Oskar Homolka and Desmond Tester. A Scotland Yard detective works undercover to unravel a bomb plot in London.
47. The Omen (1976) – Directed by Richard Donner, starring Gregory Peck, Lee Remick and Harvey Stevens. Won Oscar for musical score.  The child of an American ambassador is switched at birth for the anti-Christ and evil takes control.
48. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) – Directed by Robert Mulligan, starring Gregory Peck, John Megna, Frank Overton and many more, including Robert Duvall’s feature film debut. Nominated for 8 Oscars, winner best actor, best adapted screenplay from the Harper Lee novel of the same title and best production design.  Attorney Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) defends a black man accused of raping a white girl in the depression era, still highly racist south and also must defend his children against his prejudiced neighbors.
49. Mirage (1965) – Directed by Robert Dmytryk, starring Gregory Peck, Lee Remick and Walter Matthou. An amnesiac pieces together bits of memory while under threat from those who can’t allow him to remember.  A moment by moment mystery.
50. Witness for the Prosecution (1957) – Directed by Billy Wilder, starring Charles Laughton, Tyrone Power and Marlene Dietrich. Nominated for 6 Oscars, including best picture, best director and best actor.  A British barrister defends a murder case with too many surprises to count.  Well paced with an extremely surprising final scene.
51. Laura (1944) – Directed by Otto Preminger, starring Gene Tierney, Dana Andrew and Clifton Webb. Nominated for 5 Oscars, winner best cinematography.  A police detective investigates a murder but falls in love with the victim.
52. The Next Three Days (2010) – Directed by Paul Haggis, starring Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks and Liam Neeson. A school teacher struggles to free his wife after her wrongful conviction for murder.
53. I Am Wrath (2016) – Directed by Chuck Russell, starring John Travolta, Christopher Meloni and Amanda Schull. After his wife is murdered and police release the murderer, a man takes matters into his own hands and unravels political corruption in his search for justice.
54. In a Lonely Place (1950) – Directed by Nicholas Ray, starring Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame and Frank Lovejoy. A brilliant, intense, sometimes violent screenwriter is a murder suspect who falls in love.  When his new love doubts his innocence, their relationship is broken.
55. In the Electric Mist (2009) – Directed by Bertrand Tavernier, starring Tommy Lee Jones, John Goodman and Peter Sarsgaard. Rural Louisiana sheriff, Dave Robicheaux, investigates the grizzly, serial murders of local prostitutes, solves a crime he witnessed as a child and exposes corrupt business practices.  Great Cajun-Zydeco music.
56. Heaven’s Prisoners (1996) – Directed by Phil Joanou, starring Alec Baldwin, Kelly Lynch and Mary Stuart Masterson. Dave Robicheaux, a hardnosed ex New Orleans detective rescues a child from an airplane crash, takes her home, witnesses the murder of his wife and traces down the killers.
57. Mississippi Burning (1988) – Directed by Alan Parker, starring Gene Hackman, Willem Defoe and Frances McDormand. Nominated for 7 Oscars, winner best cinematography.  Two FBI agents investigate the disappearance of three civil right volunteers.  Gene Hackman is at his best, as always.
58. Enemy of the State (1998) – Directed by Tony Scott, starring Will Smith, Gene Hackman and John Voight. A labor lawyer receives evidence of a serious political crime and joins with an ex CIA operative to unravel the crime and clear his name.  Fast paced entertainment, Tony Scott style.
59. Training Day (2001) – Directed by Antoine Fuqua, starring Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke and John Glenn. Nominated for 2 Oscars, winner best actor.  A cop assigned to narcotics undergoes 24 hours of training with a smart, ruthless, self interested senior detective.
60. Rosemary’s Baby (1968) – Directed by Roman Polanski, starring Mia Farrow, John Cassavedes and Ruth Gordon. Nominated for 2 Oscars, won best supporting actress.  A woman and her husband move into an apartment house filled with strange neighbors and occurrences where she is unknowingly impregnated by Lucifer.
61. Vertigo (1958) – Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Jimmy Stewart, Kim Novak and Barbara Bell Geddes. Nominated for 2 Oscars.  After witnessing his girlfriend’s fall from a high tower, a San Francisco detective develops vertigo, finds a look-a-like, molds her to look like the lady lost and watches her fall again from the same place.  A tale of destructive obsession.
62. Blood Simple (1984) Written and directed by Joel and Ethan Cohen, starring John Getz, Frances McDormand and Dan Hedaya. A jealous husband hires a private detective to kill his cheating wife and her boyfriend.  Typical Coen Brothers’ twisted suspense and humor.
63. Cold in July (2014) – Directed by Jim Mickle, starring Michael C. Hall, Sam Shepard and Don Johnson. A man shoots an intruder who police deliberately and wrongly identify as a man under witness protection.  The father of the presumed deceased threatens the home defender’s family and things turn raw, unfolding deep criminal activity by the witness being protected.  A very rewarding watch.
64. The Tall Target (1951) – Directed by Anthony Mann, starring Dick Powell and Adolph Menjou. A New York cop unravels a plot to assassinate the newly elected Abraham Lincoln before his inauguration.  A real train ride.
65. Cornered (1945) – Directed by Edward Dmytryk, starring Dick Powell, Walter Slezak and Micheline Cheirel. Post WWII, a Canadian flier tracks the French Vichy who murdered his wife to Argentina.
66. Cry Danger (1951) – Directed by Robert Perrish, starring Dick Powell, Rhonda Fleming and Richard Erdman. A pardoned ex-con tracks down the real culprits for the crime he’d been convicted of.
67. Gorky Park (1983) – Directed by Michael Apted, starring William Hurt, Brian Dennehy and Lee Marvin. A Russian cop joins with an American cop to solve a triple murder in a small park in Russia involving corruption with an American businessman.  Hurt’s usual great acting.