The 25 best whodunit films

We must start with the movie that revitalized the Whodunit genre, and honestly maybe the best Whodunit film of them all. Rian Johnson was able to craft a hit murder mystery based on an original idea and got an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay too. Plus, we got to see Daniel Craig do a Southern accent as Benoit Blanc, the last of the gentleman sleuths. It's sequel "Glass Onion" is also quite good.

“Clue,” which is indeed based on the board game, is a divisive movie. Some consider it one of the best comedies of the ‘80s. Others consider it highly overrated. Either way, they did something bold by giving the movie three endings. These days, you see them all when you watch it, but in the theaters you only got one of the endings.

There are a couple of Raymond Chandler stories on here, because detective films are often Whodunits. Chandler’s biggest character is Phillip Marlowe, but “The Long Goodbye” recontextualizes him for a modern era. Robert Altman directed this movie starring Elliott Gould as Marlowe, who has basically been dropped in 1970s LA with all his 1940s sensibilities still intact.

There are a whole series of “Thin Man” movies about the detective couple of Nick and Nora Charles, but this is the second of the bunch? Why not just go with the first? It’s a little shaggy, and honestly film production was improving by leaps and bounds year by year back in the ‘30s. “After the Thin Man” is simply a more competently made film with a better story.

Agatha Christie is the queen of the Whodunit. Many of her books and stories have been turned into films, some of them multiple times over. “Murder on the Orient Express” is probably her most-beloved story. The 1974 version can be a little slow, but it has a great cast, and Ingrid Bergman won an Oscar for it. It's definitely better than Kenneth Branagh's version.

Horror movies can be Whodunits as well. “Scream” is probably the most famous of these. It’s a slasher film, a meta commentary on horror, and, yes, a murder mystery. The series has spawned four sequels, with another one coming.

“The Long Goodbye” took a hardboiled detective and dropped him into Malibu. “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” takes a hardboiled detective (played by Bob Hoskins) and drops him into a world of cartoons. Obviously, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” is a little less dark and violent than some of these films. It’s family friendly. However, it is also very much a film noir and a Whodunit.

Alan J. Pakula was the foremost filmmaker of conspiracy stories in the ‘70s, and the first of his films in that decade was “Klute.” At its core, it’s a film about a prostitute helping a detective with his missing person’s case. At its core, though, it’s so much more. Plus, Jane Fonda won an Oscar for it.

This may be the quintessential film noir. Detective Sam Spade’s partner, Miles Archer, is dead. Why? He’s going to find out, and he’s going to find out what a statue of a falcon has to do with it. This is John Huston’s directorial debut, and also one of the early breakout roles of Humphrey Bogart, a legend in the film noir genre.

Of Shane Black’s Whodunits, “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” is generally considered the best. We disagree. “The Nice Guys” is a great throwback film with ‘70s vibes. Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe are both excellent as knockaround guys who find themselves in the middle of a conspiracy while working a missing person’s case. It’s funny, but it doesn’t skimp on the violence.

We came close to putting “The Conversation” on this list, but we weren’t quite sure if it counted as a Whodunit. It’s a lot easier to make the case for “Blow Out.” John Travolta plays a sound engineer who thinks he has recorded proof that a politician did not die in a car accident, but was actually murdered. Who did it? Why did they do it? Can he protect himself, and the woman who survived the accident, from whoever is responsible? A top notch cast delivers in this gripping Brian DePalma directed thriller.

“Chinatown” is basically the “Maltese Falcon” of the ‘70s. Although, it’s also kind of the “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” of the ‘70s. Don’t watch this one with your kids, though. Jack Nicholson is excellent, and John Huston actually has an acting role, but it is bleak film noir you won’t be able to forget.

“Zodiac” is a Whodunit, but it’s also a true crime story. David Fincher’s film is as meticulous as ever, but if you know anything about the actual Zodiac Killer case, this is a rare kind of Whodunit. We suppose it’s a spoiler, even if it’s a true story, but it’s a Whodunit where we never find out for sure who actually did it.

We return to Raymond Chandler, and also Phillip Marlowe. Oh, and also Humphrey Bogart, who played the detective this time. The film version of “The Big Sleep” is famously hard to follow plot-wise, but it’s still a satisfying Whodunit. It also served as the inspiration for the Coen Brothers’ classic comedy “The Big Lebowski.”

Speaking of the Coens, we could have probably put “The Big Lebowski” on here as a Whodunit, but it would have been a stretch. “Hail, Caesar!” works a bit better, though only one of the stories is of the Whodunit variety. Hollywood studio fixer Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) is trying to figure out who kidnapped star Baird Whitlock, and who is the communist agent working within the Hollywood system. The film is a silly showbiz satire in a lot of ways, but there is this storyline in it so we’re happy to count it.

Some call “Charade” the best Hitchcock movie that Alfred Hitchcock didn’t actually make. It does feature a couple of Hitchcock alums in Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. It also has an excellent turn from Walter Matthau, who did not act for Hitchcock that we can recall. The story has many twists and turns, but Grant and Hepburn will keep you centered, and enjoying it.

“Knives Out” is a kind of Whodunit that is called a “closed room mystery,” which involve the detective getting all the suspects into a single location as they try and parse who is responsible. “Gosford Park” is such a closed room mystery, but it takes place at a luxurious country house in 1930s England. Who committed the murder? A high society type? A member of the house’s put-upon staff? If you watch it you’ll find out.

Going back to the “Knives Out” well again, “The Last of Sheila” is one of the films that Johnson indicated as an influence on his movie. That helped put the somewhat forgotten ‘70s Whodunit back on the radar. Part of what makes the movie so interesting is that it was cowritten by legendary composer Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins, best known for playing Norman Bates in “Psycho.”

Speaking of “Psycho,” some people consider it a Whodunit, but we feel it doesn’t make the cut. Sure, you don’t know the twist until the end, but there’s not the same level of mystery to who has done it. The same goes for “Rear Window.” And yet, Hitchcock has to be represented. So we’re going with “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” featuring his regular collaborator Jimmy Stewart alongside Doris Day.

If you only know Bill Pullman as the president from “Independence Day,” you really need to see the underrated gem “Zero Effect.” It is a bit of a Sherlock Holmes style story, but Pullman’s Darryl Zero is far less functional than Holmes even at his worst. And yet, he’s maybe the most brilliant mystery solver in the world. Ben Stiller is along as the Watson to Pullman’s Sherlock in a film that is funny, fresh, but also works as a mystery.

Sorry, it’s another Chandler story turned into a movie. It’s not that we don’t recognize Christie’s contribution to the genre, but the adaptations of her books tend to be a little less successful than Chandler’s. “Lady in the Lake” is also interesting as a film because the entire thing is shot from the point of view of the main character, once again Phillip Marlowe.

The film noir genre was really hitting its stride in the ‘40s, and “Laura” is one of the films that gets the most love from that decade. We can understand why. Directed by Otto Preminger, you will think that you’ve figured out the crime, but don’t get too cocky. The film may just have a trick or two up its sleeve.

OK, we could have probably found another old film noir or a closed room mystery from the ‘50s to put on this list. There are films left from those categories a bit better than “Detective Pikachu.” That being said, “Detective Pikachu” is genuinely a good movie, better than it has any right to be. It’s about Pikachu as a detective, after all. Mostly, though, we wanted to include another Whodunit you could watch with the family.

When it comes to mysteries, and Whodunits, Sherlock Holmes rises above the rest. No character is more iconic in the mystery genre. Admitted, the 2009 “Sherlock Holmes” is as much a “How was it done?” as a Whodunit, but we had to recognize Sherlock on this list, and after the Basil Rathbone movies from the early days of film there weren’t many good Sherlock movies made.

We started with a Rian Johnson film, and we’re ending with one as well. His debut feature is also a Whodunit, and it’s just as clever as “Knives Out.” Johnson took the hardboiled film noir genre and placed it in a high school setting. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is brilliant as a teenager trying to figure out why killed his estranged ex-girlfriend. If you liked “Knives Out,” you absolutely need to see “Brick.”