Whodunit is a subgenre of crime fiction where characters must figure out who committed a specific crime. Some staple characteristics of a whodunit include wildly complex plots, procedural style investigations where evidence slowly builds over time, and climactic twists that the audience did not see coming.

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The whodunit genre has undergone a revival in recent years with the release of films such as Knives Out, Amsterdam, See How They Run, and the remakes of Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile. Historically, the whodunit genre has accounted for some of cinema's greatest crime films.

10 Witness For The Prosecution (1957)

An Agatha Christie adaptation is always named among cinema's best whodunits. Christie holds the Guinness World Record as the best-selling fiction author of all time with two billion copies sold. Billy Wilder's Witness for the Prosecution, which is based on Christie's play of the same name, is the best cinematic adaptation of a Christie work.

With an all-star cast that includes Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton, and Elsa Lanchester, Witness for the Prosecution tells the story of an ailing barrister who must defend his client in a murder trial that is full of unusual twists and turns. The American Film Institute declared Witness for the Prosecution to be the sixth-greatest courtroom drama of all time.

9 Blow Out (1981)

A pastiche of Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow-up, Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation, and Alfred Hitchcock's movies, Brian De Palma's Blow Out stars John Travolta as a sound effects technician who accidently captures audio evidence of a political assassination. A neo-noir masterwork of postmodern cinema, Blow Out not only operates as an entertaining murder-mystery, but it succeeds at examining the essence of cinema and the relationship between sound and image.

Though it was box office failure upon its initial release, Blow Out has since become regarded as one of the finest representations of post-1960s paranoia. Along with Rio Bravo and Taxi Driver, Quentin Tarantino named Blow Out one of the three films he would take if he were trapped on a desert island.

8 L.A. Confidential (1997)

One of cinema's definitive neo-noirs, L.A. Confidential is set in 1950s Hollywood and stars Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, and Guy Pierce as three cops with very distinct styles and brands of justice. Their investigation into a series of murders leads them to discover the connected corruption between the police force, the criminal underworld, and Hollywood's elite.

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L.A. Confidential has been widely praised for the performances, screenplay, direction, and score. A National Film Registry inductee, L.A. Confidential is one of only three films, along with Schinder's List and The Social Network, to sweep the "Big Four" critics' awards.

7 The Thin Man (1934)

William Powell and Myrna Loy star as the iconic Nick and Nora Charles in The Thin Man, an adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's novel of the same name. Hammett was one of the most prominent authors of hard-boiled crime fiction during the twentieth century. On top of Nick and Nora Charles, Hammett created several other now-famous fictional detectives, including Sam Spade and The Continental Op.

In the crime comedy, Nora convinces Nick to come out of retirement to investigate a murder case involving an inventor accused of killing his mistress. Throughout the hijinks of their investigation, Nick and Nora are joined by their dog Asta, who was played by famed Hollywood canine Skippy. The box office success and critical acclaim of The Thin Man eventually led to five sequels.

6 The Big Sleep (1946)

The second of four collaborations between Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, The Big Sleep immortalized Raymond Chandler's debut novel of the same name on the silver screen. The Big Sleep was the first novel to feature Philip Marlowe, one of pop cultures' most esteemed fictional detectives.

Since his inception, Marlowe has been featured in dozens of short stories, novels, films, television shows, radio programs, plays, and video games. The Big Sleep has become infamous for its convoluted plot, which disregards narrative cohesion and instead puts emphasis on the explosive chemistry between Bogart and Bacall.

5 Laura (1944)

Laura contains one of cinema's most intriguing plotlines. Dana Andrews stars as a detective who slowly begins to fall in love with the woman whose murder he is investigating. Gene Tierney, in a career defining role, stars as the eponymous Laura.

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Laura has become renowned for its Oscar-winning cinematography and its haunting score, which produced the legendary jazz standard "Laura," a song that has been covered by over 400 artists. The American Film Institute named Laura the fourth-greatest mystery film of all time and placed its score seventh on its list of the greatest film scores.

4 The Maltese Falcon (1941)

Another lauded cinematic adaptation of a Dashiell Hammett novel, The Maltese Falcon stars Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade, a private detective who is tasked with investigating a group of individuals who are all after a jewel-encrusted falcon statuette. The film is notable for its cinematography, which utilized expressionistic lighting and severe camera angles to reinforce the psychology of the characters.

One of the first 25 films inducted into the National Film Registry, The Maltese Falcon ranks among the most important whodunits for a multitude of reasons. The film showed Bogart's abilities as a leading man after several years spent as a supporting actor and launched John Houston's career as a director. Above all else, The Maltese Falcon is considered by many to be the first true example of the noir genre in American cinema.

3 The Third Man (1949)

Voted the greatest British film of all time by the British Film Institute, Carol Reed's The Third Man follows an American who is investigating the alleged death of his friend in postwar Vienna. Despite having less than 10 minutes of screen time, Orson Welles' Harry Lime has become one of the most iconic characters in the whodunit genre.

The Third Man features arguably the greatest display of expressionist cinematography in film history. Robert Krasker earned an Oscar in Best Cinematography - Black and White for his brilliant work on the film. The Third Man also contains a memorable score from Anton Karas, whose composition "The Third Man Theme" went on to become a chart topping hit.

2 Rashomon (1950)

The first Japanese film to receive substantial international acclaim, Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon is constructed around the murder of a samurai and the assault of his wife. Several witnesses are brought to trial, each retelling the story with their own versions of the truth.

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Rashomon is a superb exploration of the subjective nature of truth and how innate human bias and ego prevent objectivity from existing. Winner of the Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival, Rashomon opened the floodgates in exposing the West to Japanese cinema in a postwar society.

1 Chinatown (1974)

Roman Polanski's Chinatown stars Jack Nicholson as J.J. Gittes, a private detective who is hired by the enigmatic Evelyn Mulwray to spy on her husband, whom she suspects of infidelity. Gittes' investigation soon proves to be more complex than initially thought, leading him down a rabbit hole of political corruption in 1930s Los Angeles.

The epitome of New Hollywood cinema's bleakness, Chinatown's unforgettable twist offers one of cinema's most disturbing and shocking moments. One of the most satisfying components to the whodunit formula is having the suspect finally revealed and seeing them pay for their crime. Chinatown completely flips this formula on its head, leaving audiences with a sense of somberness.

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