Mystery film is a sub-genre of the more general category of crime film and at times the thriller genre. It focuses on the efforts of the detective, private investigator or amateur sleuth to solve the mysterious circumstances of a crime by means of clues, investigation, and clever deduction. The plot often centers on the deductive ability, prowess, confidence, or diligence of the detective as they attempt to unravel the crime or situation by piecing together clues and circumstances, seeking evidence, interrogating witnesses, and tracking down a criminal. Suspense is often maintained as an important plot element. This can be done through the use of the soundtrack, camera angles, heavy shadows, and surprising plot twists. Alfred Hitchcock used all of these techniques, but would sometimes allow the audience in on a pending threat then draw out the moment for dramatic effect. With that being said I'm going to bring you my top 10 favorite mystery films of all-time. So without further ado...
10. Memento
Christopher Nolan is one of my favorite directors and I absolutely love the film structure of telling the story in reverse as well as chronologically. Leonard (paled by Guy Pearce) is tracking down the man who raped and murdered his wife (played by Carrie-Anne Moss. The difficulty, however, of locating his wife's killer is compounded by the fact that he suffers from a rare, untreatable form of memory loss. Although he can recall details of life before his accident, Leonard cannot remember what happened fifteen minutes ago, where he's going, or why. Memento was nominated for 2 Academy Awards including Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing and it has a rating of 92% on rottentomatoes.com.
9. Inception
This film had me guessing the entire time and left me speechless. Dom Cobb (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) doesn't steal things, he steals ideas. By projecting himself deep into the subconscious of his targets, he can glean information that even the best computer hackers can't get to. In the world of corporate espionage, Cobb is the ultimate weapon. But even weapons have their weakness, and when Cobb loses everything, he's forced to embark on one final mission in a desperate quest for redemption. This time, Cobb won't be harvesting an idea, but sowing one. Should he and his team of specialists succeed, they will have discovered a new frontier in the art of psychic espionage. They've planned everything to perfection, and they have all the tools to get the job done. Their mission is complicated, however, by the sudden appearance of a malevolent foe that seems to know exactly what they're up to, and precisely how to stop them. Inception was nominated for 8 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Visual Effects while winning 4 (Best Cinematography, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Visual Effects) and it has a rating of 86% on rottentomatoes.com.
8. A Soldiers Story
The film has a lot of suspense and emotion. In the racially-divided 1940s, Fort Neal, Louisiana, is a military base where black soldiers are sent not to fight in WWII but to play baseball against other armed forces teams. The murder of a black sergeant, Waters (played by Adolph Caesar) brings an investigator, Captain Davenport (played by Howard E. Rollins, Jr.) to the base. Davenport, the first black officer that most of the men have ever met, suspects that a pair of white men were responsible for Waters' death, but his probe reveals that nearly everyone, regardless of skin color, had ample reason to kill the loathsome but pitiable Waters. A Soldier's Story was nominated for 3 Academy Awards including Best Supporting Actor, Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay and it has a rating of 89% on rottentomatoes.com.
7. Psycho
This is not one one of my favorite films of all-time but it is my favorite horror film of all-time as well. Marion Crane (played by Janet Leigh) is unhappy in her job at a Phoenix, Arizona real estate office and frustrated in her romance with hardware store manager Sam Loomis (played by John Gavin). One afternoon, Marion is given $40,000 in cash to be deposited in the bank. Minutes later, impulse has taken over and Marion takes off with the cash, hoping to leave Phoenix for good and start a new life with her purloined nest egg. 36 hours later, paranoia and exhaustion have started to set in, and Marion decides to stop for the night at the Bates Motel, where nervous but personable innkeeper Norman Bates (played by Anthony Perkins) cheerfully mentions that she's the first guest in weeks, before he regales her with curious stories about his mother. Psycho was just nominated for 4 Academy Awards including Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Supporting Actress and Best Art Direction and it has a rating of 96% on rottentomatoes.com.
6. Clue
This film is flat out hilarious and it actually does the board game justice. On a dark and stormy night in 1954, six individuals with ties to Washington are assembled for a dinner party at the swanky mansion of one Mr. Boddy (played by Lee Ving). Boddy's butler, Wadsworth (played by Tim Curry), assigns each guest a colorful name: Mr. Green (played by Michael McKean), Col. Mustard (played by Martin Mull), Mrs. Peacock (played by Eileen Brennan), Professor Plum (played by Christopher Lloyd), Miss Scarlet (played by Lesley Ann Warren), and Mrs. White (played by Madeline Kahn). Two additional servants, the Cook (played by Kellye Nakahara) and Yvette, the maid (played by Colleen Camp), assist Wadsworth as he informs the guests that they have been gathered to meet the man who has been blackmailing them: Mr. Boddy. When Boddy turns up dead, however, the guests must try to figure out who killed him so they can protect their own reputations and keep the body count from growing. Clue has a rating of 62% on rottentomatoes.com.
5. The Usual Suspects
This film is absolutlely amazing and it will keep you guessing til the very end."The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist," says con man Kint (played by Kevin Spacey), drawing a comparison to the most enigmatic criminal of all time, Keyser Soze. Kint attempts to convince the feds that the mythic crime lord not only exists, but is also responsible for drawing Kint and his four partners into a multi-million dollar heist that ended with an explosion in San Pedro Harbor - leaving few survivors. The Usual Suspects was nominated for 2 Academy Awards including Best Supporting Actor and Original Screenplay while winning both and it has a rating of 88% on rottentomatoes.com.
4. Prisoners
This film was one of my top 10 films of 2013 and it completely had me fooled by the end. Keller Dover (Jackman) is facing every parent's worst nightmare. His six-year-old daughter, Anna, is missing, together with her young friend, Joy, and as minutes turn to hours, panic sets in. The only lead is a dilapidated RV that had earlier been parked on their street. Heading the investigation, Detective Loki (Gyllenhaal) arrests its driver, Alex Jones (Paul Dano), but a lack of evidence forces the only suspect's release. Knowing his child's life is at stake, the frantic Dover decides he has no choice but to take matters into his own hands. But just how far will this desperate father go to protect his family? Prisoners was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography and it has a rating of 82% on rottentomatoes.com.
3. The Maltese Falcon
All I can say is that this film is a flat out masterpiece Sam Spade (played by Humphrey Bogart) , a hard-boiled San Francisco private eye who can be as unscrupulous as the next guy but also adheres to his own personal code of honor. Into the offices of the Spade & Archer detective agency sweeps a Miss Wonderly (played by Mary Astor), who offers a large retainer to Sam and his partner Miles Archer (played by Jerome Cowan) if they'll protect her from someone named Floyd Thursby. The detectives believe neither Miss Wonderly nor her story, but they believe her money. Since Archer saw her first, he takes the case -- and later that evening he is shot to death, as is the mysterious Thursby. Miss Wonderly's real name turns out to be Brigid O'Shaughnessey, and, as the story continues, Sam is also introduced to the effeminate Joel Cairo (played by Peter Lorre) and the fat, erudite Kasper Gutman (played by Sydney Greenstreet), . It turns out that Brigid, Cairo and Gutman are all international scoundrels, all involved in the search for a foot-high, jewel-encrusted statuette in the shape of a falcon. Though both Cairo and Gutman offer Spade small fortunes to find the "black bird," they are obviously willing to commit mayhem and murder towards that goal: Gutman, for example, drugs Spade and allows his "gunsel" Wilmer (played by Elisha Cook Jr.) to kick and beat the unconscious detective. The Maltese Falcon was nominated for 3 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Supporting actor and Best adapted Screenplay and it has a rating of 100% on rottentomatoes.com.
2. Who Framed Roger Rabbit
I absolutely loved the film as a kid and I still do as an adult. The Toons are permitted to perform in a Cotton Club-style nightspot but are forbidden to patronize the joint. One of Toontown's leading citizens, whacked-out Roger Rabbit, is framed for the murder of human nightclub owner Marvin Acme (played by Stubby Kaye). Private detective Eddie Valiant (played by Bob Hoskins), whose prejudice against Toons stems from the time that his brother was killed by a falling cartoon piano, reluctantly agrees to clear Roger of the accusation. Who Framed Roger Rabbit was nominated for 6 Academy Awards including Best Sound Editing, Best Visual Effects, Best Art Direction, Best Sound, Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing while inning 3 (Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing and Best Sound Editing) and it has a rating of 98% on rottentomatoes.com.
1. Mystic River
This film has an amazing cast an amazing script and it kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. Set in an Irish neighborhood in Boston, Jimmy, Sean, and Dave are three childhood friends who are reunited after a brutal murder takes place. Reformed convict Jimmy Markum (played by Sean Penn) and his devoted wife Annabeth (played by Laura Linney) find out that their teenage daughter Katie (played by Emmy Rossum) has been beaten and killed. Jimmy's old friend Sean Devine (played by Kevin Bacon) is the homicide detective assigned to the case, along with partner Whitey Powers (played by Laurence Fishburne). Jimmy also gets his relatives, the Savage brothers (played by Adam Nelson and Robert Wahlberg), to conduct an investigation of their own. Jimmy and Sean both start to suspect their old pal, Dave Boyle (played by Tim Robbins), who lives a quiet life with his wife Celeste (played by Marcia Gay Harden) but harbors some disturbing secrets. Mystic River was nominated for 6 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay while winning two (Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor) and it has a rating of 87% on rottentomatoes.com.
So ladies and gentlemen what are some of your favorite mystery films and what do you think of my list? Let me know in the comments section below and let your voice be heard.
Jonah Sparks
10. Memento
Christopher Nolan is one of my favorite directors and I absolutely love the film structure of telling the story in reverse as well as chronologically. Leonard (paled by Guy Pearce) is tracking down the man who raped and murdered his wife (played by Carrie-Anne Moss. The difficulty, however, of locating his wife's killer is compounded by the fact that he suffers from a rare, untreatable form of memory loss. Although he can recall details of life before his accident, Leonard cannot remember what happened fifteen minutes ago, where he's going, or why. Memento was nominated for 2 Academy Awards including Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing and it has a rating of 92% on rottentomatoes.com.
9. Inception
This film had me guessing the entire time and left me speechless. Dom Cobb (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) doesn't steal things, he steals ideas. By projecting himself deep into the subconscious of his targets, he can glean information that even the best computer hackers can't get to. In the world of corporate espionage, Cobb is the ultimate weapon. But even weapons have their weakness, and when Cobb loses everything, he's forced to embark on one final mission in a desperate quest for redemption. This time, Cobb won't be harvesting an idea, but sowing one. Should he and his team of specialists succeed, they will have discovered a new frontier in the art of psychic espionage. They've planned everything to perfection, and they have all the tools to get the job done. Their mission is complicated, however, by the sudden appearance of a malevolent foe that seems to know exactly what they're up to, and precisely how to stop them. Inception was nominated for 8 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Visual Effects while winning 4 (Best Cinematography, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Visual Effects) and it has a rating of 86% on rottentomatoes.com.
8. A Soldiers Story
The film has a lot of suspense and emotion. In the racially-divided 1940s, Fort Neal, Louisiana, is a military base where black soldiers are sent not to fight in WWII but to play baseball against other armed forces teams. The murder of a black sergeant, Waters (played by Adolph Caesar) brings an investigator, Captain Davenport (played by Howard E. Rollins, Jr.) to the base. Davenport, the first black officer that most of the men have ever met, suspects that a pair of white men were responsible for Waters' death, but his probe reveals that nearly everyone, regardless of skin color, had ample reason to kill the loathsome but pitiable Waters. A Soldier's Story was nominated for 3 Academy Awards including Best Supporting Actor, Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay and it has a rating of 89% on rottentomatoes.com.
7. Psycho
This is not one one of my favorite films of all-time but it is my favorite horror film of all-time as well. Marion Crane (played by Janet Leigh) is unhappy in her job at a Phoenix, Arizona real estate office and frustrated in her romance with hardware store manager Sam Loomis (played by John Gavin). One afternoon, Marion is given $40,000 in cash to be deposited in the bank. Minutes later, impulse has taken over and Marion takes off with the cash, hoping to leave Phoenix for good and start a new life with her purloined nest egg. 36 hours later, paranoia and exhaustion have started to set in, and Marion decides to stop for the night at the Bates Motel, where nervous but personable innkeeper Norman Bates (played by Anthony Perkins) cheerfully mentions that she's the first guest in weeks, before he regales her with curious stories about his mother. Psycho was just nominated for 4 Academy Awards including Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Supporting Actress and Best Art Direction and it has a rating of 96% on rottentomatoes.com.
6. Clue
This film is flat out hilarious and it actually does the board game justice. On a dark and stormy night in 1954, six individuals with ties to Washington are assembled for a dinner party at the swanky mansion of one Mr. Boddy (played by Lee Ving). Boddy's butler, Wadsworth (played by Tim Curry), assigns each guest a colorful name: Mr. Green (played by Michael McKean), Col. Mustard (played by Martin Mull), Mrs. Peacock (played by Eileen Brennan), Professor Plum (played by Christopher Lloyd), Miss Scarlet (played by Lesley Ann Warren), and Mrs. White (played by Madeline Kahn). Two additional servants, the Cook (played by Kellye Nakahara) and Yvette, the maid (played by Colleen Camp), assist Wadsworth as he informs the guests that they have been gathered to meet the man who has been blackmailing them: Mr. Boddy. When Boddy turns up dead, however, the guests must try to figure out who killed him so they can protect their own reputations and keep the body count from growing. Clue has a rating of 62% on rottentomatoes.com.
5. The Usual Suspects
This film is absolutlely amazing and it will keep you guessing til the very end."The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist," says con man Kint (played by Kevin Spacey), drawing a comparison to the most enigmatic criminal of all time, Keyser Soze. Kint attempts to convince the feds that the mythic crime lord not only exists, but is also responsible for drawing Kint and his four partners into a multi-million dollar heist that ended with an explosion in San Pedro Harbor - leaving few survivors. The Usual Suspects was nominated for 2 Academy Awards including Best Supporting Actor and Original Screenplay while winning both and it has a rating of 88% on rottentomatoes.com.
4. Prisoners
This film was one of my top 10 films of 2013 and it completely had me fooled by the end. Keller Dover (Jackman) is facing every parent's worst nightmare. His six-year-old daughter, Anna, is missing, together with her young friend, Joy, and as minutes turn to hours, panic sets in. The only lead is a dilapidated RV that had earlier been parked on their street. Heading the investigation, Detective Loki (Gyllenhaal) arrests its driver, Alex Jones (Paul Dano), but a lack of evidence forces the only suspect's release. Knowing his child's life is at stake, the frantic Dover decides he has no choice but to take matters into his own hands. But just how far will this desperate father go to protect his family? Prisoners was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography and it has a rating of 82% on rottentomatoes.com.
3. The Maltese Falcon
All I can say is that this film is a flat out masterpiece Sam Spade (played by Humphrey Bogart) , a hard-boiled San Francisco private eye who can be as unscrupulous as the next guy but also adheres to his own personal code of honor. Into the offices of the Spade & Archer detective agency sweeps a Miss Wonderly (played by Mary Astor), who offers a large retainer to Sam and his partner Miles Archer (played by Jerome Cowan) if they'll protect her from someone named Floyd Thursby. The detectives believe neither Miss Wonderly nor her story, but they believe her money. Since Archer saw her first, he takes the case -- and later that evening he is shot to death, as is the mysterious Thursby. Miss Wonderly's real name turns out to be Brigid O'Shaughnessey, and, as the story continues, Sam is also introduced to the effeminate Joel Cairo (played by Peter Lorre) and the fat, erudite Kasper Gutman (played by Sydney Greenstreet), . It turns out that Brigid, Cairo and Gutman are all international scoundrels, all involved in the search for a foot-high, jewel-encrusted statuette in the shape of a falcon. Though both Cairo and Gutman offer Spade small fortunes to find the "black bird," they are obviously willing to commit mayhem and murder towards that goal: Gutman, for example, drugs Spade and allows his "gunsel" Wilmer (played by Elisha Cook Jr.) to kick and beat the unconscious detective. The Maltese Falcon was nominated for 3 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Supporting actor and Best adapted Screenplay and it has a rating of 100% on rottentomatoes.com.
2. Who Framed Roger Rabbit
I absolutely loved the film as a kid and I still do as an adult. The Toons are permitted to perform in a Cotton Club-style nightspot but are forbidden to patronize the joint. One of Toontown's leading citizens, whacked-out Roger Rabbit, is framed for the murder of human nightclub owner Marvin Acme (played by Stubby Kaye). Private detective Eddie Valiant (played by Bob Hoskins), whose prejudice against Toons stems from the time that his brother was killed by a falling cartoon piano, reluctantly agrees to clear Roger of the accusation. Who Framed Roger Rabbit was nominated for 6 Academy Awards including Best Sound Editing, Best Visual Effects, Best Art Direction, Best Sound, Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing while inning 3 (Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing and Best Sound Editing) and it has a rating of 98% on rottentomatoes.com.
1. Mystic River
This film has an amazing cast an amazing script and it kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. Set in an Irish neighborhood in Boston, Jimmy, Sean, and Dave are three childhood friends who are reunited after a brutal murder takes place. Reformed convict Jimmy Markum (played by Sean Penn) and his devoted wife Annabeth (played by Laura Linney) find out that their teenage daughter Katie (played by Emmy Rossum) has been beaten and killed. Jimmy's old friend Sean Devine (played by Kevin Bacon) is the homicide detective assigned to the case, along with partner Whitey Powers (played by Laurence Fishburne). Jimmy also gets his relatives, the Savage brothers (played by Adam Nelson and Robert Wahlberg), to conduct an investigation of their own. Jimmy and Sean both start to suspect their old pal, Dave Boyle (played by Tim Robbins), who lives a quiet life with his wife Celeste (played by Marcia Gay Harden) but harbors some disturbing secrets. Mystic River was nominated for 6 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay while winning two (Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor) and it has a rating of 87% on rottentomatoes.com.
So ladies and gentlemen what are some of your favorite mystery films and what do you think of my list? Let me know in the comments section below and let your voice be heard.
Jonah Sparks
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