Rear Window (1954), Sherlock Jr. (1924), Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Blue Velvet (1986), Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! (2015), Sherlock Holmes (2009), Murder by Death (1976), Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Amateur Detective movies.
Storyline: Miss Jane Marple (Dame Margaret Rutherford) investigates the murder of one of her fellow trustees of a fund which rehabilitates young criminals. To investigate she goes aboard the ship used to train the juveniles, much to the distress of Captain Sydney De Courcy Rhumstone (Lionel Jeffries). She soon stumbles onto more murders, and a ring of thieves.—<hatchetts13@webtv.net>
Plot Keywords: investigation, spinster, two word title, amateur detective, breaking and entering, seasickness, whodunit ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Relations between Dr. 'Brad' Bradford and ex-wife Paula are surprisingly romantic. They divorced because Brad hated being dragged into murder mysteries, to which mystery writer Paula is addicted. But through horse trainer Mike North, Brad is embroiled in the case of a jockey who died of "heart failure" during a race. As they pursue clues, Paula pursues Brad for remarriage, and assorted hoods pursue the Bradfords.—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>
Plot Keywords: character name in title, murphy bed, ex convict, whodunit, gong, amateur detective, champagne ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Waldo and Irene have been living with Margit for the four years that they have been engaged. Margit has planned the wedding and the honeymoon - in fact, Margit plans everything down to what they will have for breakfast every day. The only problem is that Waldo is a milquetoast and Irene does not want to be married to a milquetoast. So she says she is in love with Charlie, a bohemian artist/producer who lives in a trailer behind Spike's Place. When Margit confronts Charlie about giving up Irene, Charlie sees that she is the one for him. To make everyone happy, Charlie will have to help Waldo get a backbone.—Tony Fontana <tony.fontana@spacebbs.com>
Plot Keywords: screwball comedy, ex husband ex wife relationship, radio broadcast, sister sister relationship, aspiring actress, aspiring writer, portrait painting ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A young doctor at a hospital, Susan Wheeler (played by Geneviève Bujold), starts noticing a pattern of strange occurrences with patients. Healthy patients are suddenly developing complications and ending up in comas. She starts investigating and what she reveals is astonishing.
Plot Keywords: conspiracy, title spoken by character, based on novel, black market, amateur detective, investigation, coma ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: The Staten Island apartment of lovely model Danielle becomes the scene of a grisly murder that is witnessed by her neighbor, Grace, a reporter. But the police don't believe her story, so it's up to Grace to solve the murder mystery on her own.
Plot Keywords: surprise ending, cake, hypnotism, new york city, nudity, telephone, female nudity ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A once-celebrated kid detective, now 32, continues to solve the same trivial mysteries between hangovers and bouts of self-pity. Until a naive client brings him his first 'adult' case, to find out who brutally murdered her boyfriend.
Plot Keywords: neo noir, traumatized protagonist, small town, private detective, kidnapping, apology, hiding in a closet ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A high-society gent has a secret life - he writes murder mysteries and hangs out with the police attempting to solve crimes. This causes him no end of problems when his wife wants to know about his little disappearances and exceptionally late nights out.—John Vogel <jlvogel@comcast.net>
Plot Keywords: murder mystery, false accusation, chorus girl, mother in law, double life, smuggling, private detective ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Sherlock Holmes (Nicholas Rowe) and John Watson (Alan Cox) meet as boys in an English Boarding school. Holmes is known for his deductive ability even as a youth, amazing his classmates with his abilities. When they discover a plot to murder a series of British business men by an Egyptian cult, they move to stop it.
Plot Keywords: cult film, grief, scare, fear, fright, clue, friend ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A gang of street boys foil a master crook who sends commands for robberies by cunningly altering a comic strip's wording each week, unknown to writer and printer. The first of the Ealing comedies.—Michael Crew <m.crew@bbcnc.org.uk>
Plot Keywords: secretary, dictaphone, apartment building, printing press, sewer, flashlight, tied to a chair ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Madcap debutante Melsa Manton finds a body in a deserted house. Of course, the police don't believe her. Stung by Peter Ames's front page editorial decrying her "prank," Melsa enlists seven fellow debs to help her investigate. The wisecracking young ladies proceed to run circles around the police, the suspects, and the press.—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>
Plot Keywords: ex convict, reference to snow white, manhattan new york city, whodunit, subway tunnel, nightclub, mink coat ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: The operators of 'Silver Haven', a cultish group bilking gullible rich people out of money, is set to inherit a large sum after the deceased woman's heir also dies. Leader Joesph Jones decides to hurry the process along and kidnaps Wally Benton, his fiance and a friend to further this goal. Wally is "The Fox", a radio sleuth who solves murders on the air. Jones wants him to devise a perfect murder and isn't above killing others sloppily along the way to get his foolproof murder plot.—Ron Kerrigan <mvg@whidbey.com>
Plot Keywords: screwball comedy, airplane pilot, secret passage, romantic rivalry, radio broadcasting, long island new york, father daughter relationship ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: In New York, the money-driven dealer Dean Corso is a rare-books expert and partner of Bernie, who owns a bookstore. He is contacted by the renowned collector of books about the devil Boris Balkan, who has just acquired the rare The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows from the collector Andrew Telfer, to verify whether his book is authentic or a forgery. Balkan explains that the book was written by the writer Aristide Torchia, in 1666, with Lucifer and he was burned at the stake with his entire work. There are only three exemplars of The Nine Gates and in accordance with the legend, its nine engravings form a riddle to conjure the devil. The skeptical Corso accepts the assignment and has to fly to Sintra, Portugal, and Paris, France, to contact the owners Victor Fargas and Baroness Kessler and find the genuine exemplar for Balkan. Meanwhile, he asks Bernie to hide the rare book. Before traveling to Europe, the widow Liana Telfer wants to retrieve the book and has sex with Corso, but ...
Plot Keywords: neo noir, devil worship, new york city, suicide, wheelchair, puzzle, ambiguous ending ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: The Saint plays a "modern-day Robin Hood" in order to clear his friend, Henry Fernack, who was framed by mobsters. They run into a series of murders.—SM <smortens@ix.netcom.com>
Plot Keywords: character name in title, nightclub, playing card, police inspector, police, racketeer, revenge ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: When a dead newborn is found, wrapped in bloody sheets, in the bedroom wastebasket of a young novitiate, psychiatrist Martha Livingston is called in to determine if the seemingly innocent novice, who knows nothing of sex or birth, is competent enough to stand trial for the murder of the baby. While searching for the answer that her supervisors want, Dr. Livingston finds herself inevitably drawn into searching for the truth about the baby's conception and death. Despite the lack of cooperation that she receives from her own organization and the church itself, she eventually discovers more than she may have bargained for.—brado.3
Plot Keywords: reporter, blood, newspaper article, interview, siren, prayer, female protagonist ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Ginley (Albert Finney) is a nightclub bingo caller eager for a career change. On his thirty-first birthday, he advertises himself as a private eye in the newspaper. He dons a trench coat, and begins engaging others in rapid-fire dialogue as if he were Humphrey Bogart, or some Dashiell Hammett creation. Soon after, Ginley is phoned by a fat man, who gives him a package containing a gun, a photograph, and a large sum of money. Eventually Ginley is investigating a case involving smuggling of weapons as well as drugs. Ginley also finds himself at odds with his unsupportive brother, who offers Ginley payment to break off his investigations. Eventually Ginley learns of his brother-in-law's involvement in the crimes at hand. Ginley faces a series of daunting tasks: solving the crimes, bringing justice to the smugglers (and a murderer), as well as maintaining his safety and sanity in the process.—veloc <velo_00@yahoo.com>
Plot Keywords: murder, newspaper ad, reference to world war two, kidnapped woman, british intelligence, villainess, amateur detective ...
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