We all do it.
When a mystery movie comes on, we sit enraptured,
looking for clues, trying our damnedest to
become the finest real-life Sherlock Holmes
whose butt our couch has ever had the honor
of hosting.
“Oh, I think it’s the boyfriend,” we
might say, or “Well of course the killer
is really the plate of sentient avocados”
we insist, probably while watching a David
Lynch film.
But some of these mysteries – better known
as “whodunits” – manage to fool even
us, the part-time gumshoes who totally knew
the killer was Nic Cage the whole time because
just look at him.
These are some of the best whodunits that’ve
been put on film.
And no, if you haven’t seen these movies,
we’re not going to tell you who, in fact,
done it.
We’ll leave that for you to figure out yourselves.
10.
The Big Sleep
We can’t talk about whodunits and gumshoes
without kicking things off with Philip Marlowe,
right?
Raymond Chandler’s literary detective has
been played by a few different actors over
the years (including, soon enough, Liam Neeson),
but never has he been better than when he’s
played by Humphrey Bogart in the classic murder
mystery The Big Sleep.
The movie, and the novel it’s based on,
tells the story of Marlowe, a private detective
hired by a wealthy and influential general
to resolve some gambling debts of the general’s
youngest daughter.
Naturally, things go awry over the course
of Marlowe’s investigation.
The hard-boiled detective follows the young
daughter to the home of the man she owes money,
only to discover that man’s recently corpse-ified
body waiting inside.
And that’s when the story takes off, with
Marlowe trying to determine whether the general’s
daughter was the murderer, or if it was someone
else for unknown motives.
Not only that, but the general’s driver
is found murdered shortly after – a second
victim of a mysterious sequence of events.
We’re actually going to dance around our
“no spoilers” rule here, because this
one takes an interesting real-life twist:
during the course of adapting the novel to
a screenplay, the writers wired Chandler with
questions about who the killer actually was.
See, the plot was so twisty and confusing
that even they couldn’t figure out who done
it.
Chandler’s response?
“Dammit, I didn’t know either!”
9.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
And now we move from one of the most famous
fictional detectives in history, to a character
that was clearly an homage to not only Philip
Marlowe, but also Jake Gittes of Chinatown
fame: Eddie Valiant, a down-on-his-luck boozehound
who gets hired to take incriminating pictures
of cartoon vixen Jessica Rabbit and the man
she may be cheating on her husband with, Marvin
Acme.
Shortly thereafter, upon revealing the pictures
of Jessica and Acme playing patty-cake (no,
that’s not a euphemism – they’re actually
playing the children’s game) to her husband,
the titular cartoon rabbit, Acme winds up
dead.
Naturally, Roger Rabbit is the prime suspect.
He was the one with the clear motive, and
he was known to be in a drunken rage the night
of the murder – which was also the night
he found out about the patty-cake sessions.
From that point on, it’s up to Valiant to
find out who killed Acme, and just as importantly,
who… well, you know.
Who framed Roger Rabbit?
It’s right there in the title, guys.
While the revelation may not be as shocking
as some of the other films on our list, the
movie still does a stellar job of recreating
the classic noir atmosphere, which blend surprisingly
well with the cartoon mayhem.
8.
A Perfect Getaway
Let’s switch things up from the world of
noir to a more modern take on the whodunit
with the 2009 film A Perfect Getaway.
This is a more under the radar movie than
a lot of the other films on our list, to the
point where, when reviewing it, Roger Ebert
admitted knowing nothing about it and initially
thinking it was a romantic comedy in the film’s
opening minutes.
And why wouldn’t he?
It starts out pleasant enough, with the goofy
and lovable Steve Zahn starring as one half
of a couple (with Milla Jovovich as his better
half) on their honeymoon in Hawaii.
Things take a dark twist early, though, when
a grisly double murder is discovered in Honolulu,
with a man and a woman suspected of committing
the crime.
Naturally, the film introduces us to three
such couples: Zahn and Jovovich, as well as
hitchhiking drifters Chris Hemsworth and Marley
Shelton, and Timothy Olyphant – a former
special forces badass – and his girlfriend,
played by former MTV Wanna Be a VJ finalist
Kiele Sanchez.
The film has fun with some of the genre tropes,
with Zahn’s character Cliff an aspiring
screenwriter, leading to the dialogue literally
bringing up the notion of red herrings in
movies exactly like this one.
One way that you know a mystery has succeeded
even after revealing the murderer is that,
when you look back over the course of the
film, nothing feels like a cheat.
That’s part of what makes A Perfect Getaway
such a successful whodunit.
As Ebert said in his review, “All’s fair
in love and war, and the plots of thrillers.”
7.
Clue
You can’t talk about whodunits without including
the movie based on the game that is literally
about solving a whodunit… right?
It’d be foolish of us to leave out Clue,
a project that was years ahead of its time
in terms of adapting a board game into a film.
Only in this case, it completely worked.
That’s thanks in no small part to the impeccable
cast, which included Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn,
and Michael McKean, among others.
With tongue planted firmly in cheek, the movie
managed to deliver uproarious madcap comedy
while also delivering a genuinely intriguing
murder mystery.
Of course, the movie bombed hard at the box
office, only to become a cult classic over
the years.
One of the things that threw off audiences
initially was a risky move even by today’s
standards: they filmed three different endings,
and showed them randomly depending on where
you saw the film, and when.
So your friend in Boston might see one ending,
while you got a completely different ending,
no doubt leading to confusing conversations
when discussing the movie.
Ultimately, the movie had all three movies
back-to-back-to-back on eventual video releases
and whenever it airs on TV, with one deemed
the true ending.
Whichever ending you prefer, it doesn’t
really matter; they’re all fun, they’re
all well earned, and they all offer a nice
twist on the whodunit genre.
6.
And Then There Were None
As we’ve mentioned before, Agatha Christie’s
novel And Then There Were None (which originally
boasted an incredibly unfortunate title that
we’d rather not repeat) is among the best-selling
books in history.
It should be no surprise, then, that it was
adapted into one of the most celebrated whodunit
films in history, as well.
The story focuses on 10 strangers brought
to an island for various (and false) reasons.
The plot twist that’s ultimately revealed,
which binds the strangers together, is that
they’ve all been involved in someone else’s
murder but managed to avoid being brought
to justice.
So, you know… they’re not exactly model
citizens.
Once the “guests” discover they don’t
know their host – and he may not actually
exist at all – they try to flee the island,
but are informed the boat won’t return until
Monday.
They’re stuck, and slowly but surely, they
begin getting killed off one by one.
Who will survive until the boat returns?
Who’s killing off each of the guests?
Well, if you’re really curious, you can
watch the entire film for free, since 20th
Century Fox let its copyright lapse and the
movie is now public domain.
5.
Memento
Do you want a mind-bending whodunit?
Well, then Memento is the movie for you.
One of the most confusing mystery movies of
the last few decades – and maybe ever – that
confusion is only heightened by the fact that
the movie unfolds in reverse order.
Adding even more confusion is the inclusion
of flashbacks, which unfold in chronological
order and are interspersed with the scenes
that are telling the story backward.
Got it?
Good.
Now, imagine trying to figure out what the
hell was going on with this film by Christopher
Nolan when it was originally released in 2000.
But anyway, the plot: in short, Guy Pearce
stars as Leonard, who developed short-term
amnesia after being hurt in an attack that
left his wife murdered.
Now, he’s out to find the person responsible…
only he can’t remember anything for longer
than about 15 minutes.
So, he begins tattooing clues on his body
and leaving himself notes, trying to solve
the murder and get his revenge.
As convoluted and mind-bending as the plot
seems, it’s well worth it simply to admire
the artistry on hand by Nolan, the stellar
performances, and an ending that completely
delivers and puts an entirely new spin on
the whodunit genre.
4.
The Nice Guys
While it received plenty of critical acclaim,
Shane Black’s The Nice Guys was generally
overlooked by the general masses when it came
out in 2016.
It’s a classic neo-noir throwback that not
only draws out an intriguing murder mystery,
but is genuinely one of the funniest movies
to have come out that year.
The movie stars Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling
as two extremely bottom of the barrel private
detectives who grudgingly agree to work together
after a porn star is found dead (having crashed
her car through some unfortunate family’s
house), and another girl has gone missing.
As is generally the case in movies like this,
things are more bigger and more dangerous
than they seem, with a web of lies, crime,
and deceit leading to unexpected places.
Gosling plays the drunken buffoon of a detective
who, occasionally, flashes some genuine aptitude
for his profession… but is better off just
letting his brilliant daughter do most of
the thinking.
Crowe, on the other hand, is adept at punching
people extremely hard, but is a lot smarter
and more perceptive than he initially seems.
If that sounds like a familiar character for
Russell Crowe… well, we’ll get back to
that later on the list.
Suffice it to say that The Nice Guys weaves
one hell of an intriguing whodunit, while
also delivering some enormous laughs along
the way.
3.
A Shot in the Dark
Let’s stick with comedic whodunits and talk
about the 1964 classic A Shot in the Dark.
These days, we think of the character Inspector
Clouseau as the prototype for a bumbling detective.
Anyway, despite being comically inept in most
incarnations, the character of Jacques Clouseau
was the focus of one of the all-time great
whodunits – even if we find out who done
it through a series of farcical misadventures.
The mystery begins when a millionaire’s
chauffeur is murdered, with Clouseau finding
himself part of the investigation until – and
we’re serious here – the higher ups learn
about his involvement and remove him from
the case because he’s so, so bad at his
job.
Nevertheless, Clouseau winds up back on the
case, stalwartly defending the lead suspect
pretty much entirely because he thinks she’s
one fine looking lady.
Look, it’s a goofy movie, and it’s full
of equally goofy twists, turns, and motivations.
But the actual mystery at the heart of the
plot is so good at making you guess what’s
about to come next, who is involved, and how
Clouseau can possibly solve the case that
you could easily remove the comedy and still
find yourself watching an all-time classic
whodunit.
Unfortunately, some of the other attempts
to recapture the magic of this particular
mystery were… less successful.
2.
The Usual Suspects
As much as we’ve talked about not spoiling
these movies, we think it’s safe to assume
that everyone reading this list – even if
you’ve never even seen The Usual Suspects
– knows exactly who done it.
But the joy of watching the movie, which takes
its name from a line from the movie Casablanca,
is watching the clues reveal themselves as
Kevin Spacey’s character, Verbal Kint, tells
the story of what happened on a shipping pier
that resulted in dozens of grisly deaths.
What makes The Usual Suspects different from
your typical whodunit is that it isn’t so
much a murder mystery, as it’s a wide-ranging
mystery involving the machinations of an entire
mysterious criminal empire.
Five felons find themselves in a criminal
lineup, and wind up working – against their
will – for the notorious Keyser Soze, a
man so mysterious most people don’t believe
he even exists.
The story is told entirely via flashback,
with Spacey relaying what transpired in a
performance that earned him an Academy Award.
If you’ve somehow managed to avoid finding
out who is responsible for the movie’s climactic
carnage for all these years, we’re advising
you to drop everything and watch this movie.
The ending is rightfully considered one of
the most incredible, jaw-dropping climaxes
in movie history.
1.
LA Confidential
We’ve talked about whodunits starring Guy
Pearce, Russell Crowe, and Kevin Spacey.
Heck, The Nice Guys also features Kim Basinger.
Now, we’re going to talk about the movie
that brought them all together: 1997 noir
masterpiece LA Confidential.
It’s the film for which Basinger won her
Oscar, and the one we alluded to in talking
about how Russell Crowe’s character in The
Nice Guys seemed awfully familiar.
Here, too, he plays a guy who’s good at
punching people but is more than just a battering
ram, only this time, he’s playing a cop.
He, Pearce, and Spacey are the focus of the
film, playing three detectives at various
stages and places in their careers.
Pearce is the golden boy, the son of an LAPD
legend.
Crowe is the brute used generally as muscle
to intimidate would-be criminals, who no one
takes particularly seriously when it comes
to actual police work.
Spacey is the celebrity cop who gained fame
for advising on a Dragnet-like show, and sets
up flashy drug busts of actors for a gossip
rag that was basically the TMZ of its day.
But when a brutal mini-massacre takes place
in a coffee shop, with links not only to a
powerful man who runs a high class prostitution
ring, but also the world of organized crime
and drugs, all three detectives find themselves
working their own angles, trying to solve
the case.
Based on the novel by James Ellroy, the movie
was nominated for numerous Academy Awards,
including Best Picture, but found itself in
a crowded field that included Titanic and
Good Will Hunting.
If you’ve never seen it, but love whodunits,
go watch it this instant.
While it’s a neo-noir, it delivers the goods
just as well as those classics in 
the genre from the 1940s and 1950s.
