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Top 18 Whodunit Movies of All Time

By YPB Team

Country houses, stranded trains and one Korean field where nobody is ever caught. Some solve the case; a couple refuse to.

  1. Murder on the Orient Express — ranked #11
    Murder on the Orient Express
    Sidney Lumet's 1974 all-star adaptation of Christie's train mystery, with Albert Finney as Poirot.
  2. Knives Out — ranked #22
    Knives Out
    Rian Johnson's 2019 country-house mystery that revived the genre for a modern audience.
  3. Clue — ranked #33
    Clue
    The 1985 board-game comedy with three different endings shipped to different cinemas.
  4. Gosford Park — ranked #44
    Gosford Park
    Robert Altman's 2001 upstairs-downstairs murder mystery, written by Julian Fellowes.
  5. The Thin Man — ranked #55
    The Thin Man
    The 1934 comedy that made Nick and Nora Charles the model for the witty detective couple.
  6. Chinatown — ranked #66
    Chinatown
    Roman Polanski's 1974 noir about water, land and a private eye in over his head.
  7. Death on the Nile — ranked #77
    Death on the Nile
    The 1978 Christie adaptation with Peter Ustinov's first outing as Poirot.
  8. Sleuth — ranked #88
    Sleuth
    The 1972 two-hander between Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine, both Oscar-nominated.
  9. Witness for the Prosecution — ranked #99
    Witness for the Prosecution
    Billy Wilder's 1957 courtroom adaptation of Christie's play, with a closing twist.
  10. The Maltese Falcon — ranked #1010
    The Maltese Falcon
    John Huston's 1941 debut, the film that defined the detective picture.
  11. Zodiac — ranked #1111
    Zodiac
    David Fincher's 2007 procedural about the case that was never solved.
  12. Memories of Murder — ranked #1212
    Memories of Murder
    Bong Joon-ho's 2003 film about Korean detectives chasing a serial killer they never catch.
  13. The Last of Sheila — ranked #1313
    The Last of Sheila
    The 1973 puzzle film written by Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins.
  14. Glass Onion — ranked #1414
    Glass Onion
    Rian Johnson's 2022 sequel, moving Benoit Blanc to a tech billionaire's Greek island.
  15. Rear Window — ranked #1515
    Rear Window
    Hitchcock's 1954 thriller in which a housebound photographer works out a murder across the courtyard.
  16. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang — ranked #1616
    Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
    Shane Black's 2005 comic noir with Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer.
  17. Evil Under the Sun — ranked #1717
    Evil Under the Sun
    The 1982 Ustinov Poirot set at an Adriatic resort hotel.
  18. See How They Run — ranked #1818
    See How They Run
    The 2022 comedy set backstage at the West End run of The Mousetrap.

Comments 1

Four of these eighteen films began as her novels, and Rian Johnson has never hidden what the machinery of Knives Out owes them: https://youpick.best/articles/agatha-christie-ranked-many-ways

YP
ypb-team
Aug 21