Let me be very clear that this is about mystery movies. It is not about thrillers or action movies with a mystery plot-ette to hang the action on or slasher movies, etc. I mean full blown, classic, there’s a sleuth who has to figure things out (without having a time bomb ticking down to zero all the while), etc.
The movie stores around here have a mystery section and it is full of everything but just a good mystery. I watch and enjoy the old black and white, classic stuff but would like to see some more modern examples.
Murder On the Orient Express (1974 edition) was on TV a month or so ago, and I really enjoyed that. I guess it’s somewhat of a classic, but not black and white, so hopefully it fits your criteria.
A lot of the detective movies that first come to mind are really more action oriented, eg. Seven, Kiss the Girls, and Rising Sun. Here are a few slower moving mysteries that you might enjoy:
Zero effect - You’ve got a detective and not a ton of action or suspense. Not a fantastic movie, but worth seeing.
Usual Suspects - Not a ton of action and a sort of detective story. Not sure it fits with what you want.
Memento - Certainly not a traditional detective story, with more style over substance, but it is a guy trying to solve a mystery. I absolutely loved this movie.
The Bone Collector - Pretty decent movie with some serious suspense. Corny ending, if you ask me.
My all-time favorite (as I’ve said on this Board many times) is The Trouble with Sheila, an absolutely wonderful mystery with many twists, but it plays fair – you get all the clues, and the end result flows naturally, rather than being contrived. I guarantee you won’t get the real ending. Written by Stephen Sondheim (! THe songwriter) and Anthony Perkins (!! Norman Bates from Psycho), and starring, among others, Richard Benjamin, James Mason, Racquel Welch, and Dyan Cannon. With the closing song by a then littlw-known Bette Midler. The film bears a weird relationship to Anthony Schaeffer’s Sleuth, which I also recommend.
If you can find it, I also recommend Judge Dee and the Haunted Monastery. My copy of this was taped off the TV, but in a fair universe it would be available on DVD by now. Done by Nicholas Meyer, the god of good TV Movies (and who wrote The Seven Per Cent Solution, and who wrote or directed the best of the Star Trek movies) and starring an all-Asian descended cast. Based on a book by Robert H. Van Gulik, and intended to be a pilot for a TV series that never was, sadly. (There was a British Judge Dee series, which I would dearly love to see sometime.) Again, a wonderfully bizarre mystery, set in 7th century China.
IMDB lists:
Last of Sheila, The (which appears to the movie you mean, given the uinque writing team) available only on VHS.
Judge Dee and the Monastery Murders (also called Haunted Monastery, The) which apparently is not available at all.
Dang…Ms. NCUN and I are always up for a good mystery.
We particularly enjoy the David Suchet Hercule Poirot episodes. They are available on DVD if you have not seen them on TV.
here’s a good example of a terrible mystery movie. when they made “sliver” they filmed two endings, one where the killer was revealed to be tom berenger and one where it was william baldwin. then the tested it with an audience and chose the ending based on that.
so all the clues that went before meant absolutely nothing! could this be dumber?
I’d recommend The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. It’s an engaging mystery with a little humor, wonderful acting and nice Victorian atmospherics. I’ve watched this movie about a dozen times - it’s on my list of all time favorites.
Another good one is Gosford Park - more of a parlor who-done-it, with a great cast.
Geez – my hands must’ve typed that automatically. I know the title is The Last of Sheila. In fact, the exact title is arguably an important part of the picture.
I’d also recommend Peter Stone’s two mystery movies – Mirage and Charade. Both ewell done. The former is played straight. The second is a romantic comedy, and is virtually a textbook on the art of revelation. See the original with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, not the recent remake. Stone went on to write 1776 and the musical Titanic, but he returned to mysteries for the lower-tier Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe.
I’ll have to second Memento. I loved it, and the first time I saw it I was always guessing what was going to happen next (or rather, what just happened to cause the current scene).
I’d like to put in a vote for The Name of the Rose.
It’s set in a 14th century monastery, and all these monks
keep dying/getting killed… and William of Baskerville and his young apprentice, Adso, must track down the killer.
