Top 18 Whodunit Movies of All Time

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

Sidney Lumet's 1974 all-star adaptation of Christie's train mystery, with Albert Finney as Poirot.

2

Knives Out

Rian Johnson's 2019 country-house mystery that revived the genre for a modern audience.

3

Clue

The 1985 board-game comedy with three different endings shipped to different cinemas.

4

Gosford Park

Robert Altman's 2001 upstairs-downstairs murder mystery, written by Julian Fellowes.

5

The Thin Man

The 1934 comedy that made Nick and Nora Charles the model for the witty detective couple.

6

Chinatown

Roman Polanski's 1974 noir about water, land and a private eye in over his head.

7

Death on the Nile

The 1978 Christie adaptation with Peter Ustinov's first outing as Poirot.

8

Sleuth

The 1972 two-hander between Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine, both Oscar-nominated.

9

Witness for the Prosecution

Billy Wilder's 1957 courtroom adaptation of Christie's play, with a closing twist.

10

The Maltese Falcon

John Huston's 1941 debut, the film that defined the detective picture.

11

Zodiac

David Fincher's 2007 procedural about the case that was never solved.

12

Memories of Murder

Bong Joon-ho's 2003 film about Korean detectives chasing a serial killer they never catch.

13

The Last of Sheila

The 1973 puzzle film written by Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins.

14

Glass Onion

Rian Johnson's 2022 sequel, moving Benoit Blanc to a tech billionaire's Greek island.

15

Rear Window

Hitchcock's 1954 thriller in which a housebound photographer works out a murder across the courtyard.

16

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Shane Black's 2005 comic noir with Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer.

17

Evil Under the Sun

The 1982 Ustinov Poirot set at an Adriatic resort hotel.

18

See How They Run

The 2022 comedy set backstage at the West End run of The Mousetrap.