Movies like Private Detective (1939)
The best movies like Private Detective (1939) are Marlowe (1969), The Long Goodbye (1973) and The Interview (1998). If Private Detective hooked you with its mystery, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedKnives Out (2019)7.8/10 from 14,782 votes
- NewestCult Killer (2024)Released 2024
Marlowe (1969)
Mysterious Orfamay Quest hires Los Angeles private investigator Philip Marlowe to find her missing brother. Though the job seems simple enough, it leads Marlowe into the underbelly of the city, turning up leads who are murdered with ice picks, exotic dancers, blackmailed television stars, and self-preserving gangsters. Soon, Marlowe's life is on the line right along with his case.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Long Goodbye (1973)
In 1970s Hollywood, Detective Philip Marlowe tries to help a friend who is accused of murdering his wife.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Interview (1998)
A duel between a suspected murderer and a detective pressed by people who want results. But whose skin is really wanted?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWho's Harry Crumb? (1989)
Harry Crumb is a bumbling and inept private investigator who is hired to solve the kidnapping of a young heiress which he's not expected to solve because his employer is the mastermind behind the kidnapping.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Thin Man (1934)
Former detective Nick Charles has retired from police work, preferring a life of cocktails, parties, and relaxation with his wealthy wife, Nora. Their holiday is interrupted when the daughter of Nick’s former client asks for help finding her missing father, eccentric inventor Clyde Wynant. When Wynant’s body is discovered, Nick is drawn back into the investigation, with Nora eagerly joining him. As the couple questions Wynant’s family, friends, and business associates, a tangled web of greed, deception, and murder begins to unravel.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCult Killer (2024)
A private investigator is forced into a dangerous alliance with a killer in order to uncover a quiet town’s grisly criminal underbelly and clear the name of her mentor, who is implicated in the crimes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRighteous Kill (2008)
Two veteran New York City detectives work to identify the possible connection between a recent murder and a case they believe they solved years ago; is there a serial killer on the loose, and did they perhaps put the wrong person behind bars?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisReptile (2023)
Following the brutal murder of a young real estate agent, a hardened detective attempts to uncover the truth in a case where nothing is as it seems, and by doing so dismantles the illusions in his own life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMcQ (1974)
Police Lieutenant Lon McQ investigates the killing of his best friend and uncovers corrupt elements of the police department dealing in confiscated drugs.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLady in the Lake (1946)
Private eye Phillip Marlowe wants to get out of the detective racket and into crime writing. But when he's called to the office of editor Adrienne Fromsett, it's not to talk about his story ideas — she wants him to locate the missing wife of her boss, Mr. Kingsby. The assignment quickly becomes complicated when bodies start turning up.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Kid Detective (2020)
A once-celebrated kid detective, now 31, 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.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGone Baby Gone (2007)
When 4 year old Amanda McCready disappears from her home and the police make little headway in solving the case, the girl's aunt, Beatrice McCready hires two private detectives, Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro. The detectives freely admit that they have little experience with this type of case, but the family wants them for two reasons—they're not cops and they know the tough neighborhood in which they all live.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSmall Town Crime (2018)
Mike Kendall, a disgraced ex-cop, is fighting a losing battle with the bottle. When he finds a woman left for dead at the side of a road, Kendall turns private eye to track down her killers, taking one last shot at redemption.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisZero Effect (1998)
Daryl Zero is a private investigator and—along with his assistant, Steve Arlo—he solves impossible crimes and puzzles. Although Daryl's a master investigator, he doesn't know what to do with himself when he's not working; he has no social skills, writes bad music and drives Steve crazy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKnives Out (2019)
When renowned crime novelist Harlan Thrombey is found dead at his estate just after his 85th birthday, the inquisitive and debonair Detective Benoit Blanc is mysteriously enlisted to investigate. From Harlan's dysfunctional family to his devoted staff, Blanc sifts through a web of red herrings and self-serving lies to uncover the truth behind Harlan's untimely death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisToo Late (2016)
Private investigator Mel Sampson is tasked with tracking down the whereabouts of a missing woman from his own past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKiss Me Deadly (1955)
One evening, Hammer gives a ride to Christina, an attractive hitchhiker on a lonely country road, who has escaped from the nearby lunatic asylum. Thugs waylay them and force his car to crash. When Hammer returns to semi-consciousness, he hears Christina being tortured until she dies. Hammer, both for vengeance and in hopes that "something big" is behind it all, decides to pursue the case.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJesse Stone: No Remorse (2010)
Police Chief Jesse Stone, who was suspended by the Paradise, Mass. Town Council, begins moonlighting for his friend, State Homicide Commander Healy, by investigating a series of murders in Boston, leaving Rose and Suitcase to handle a crime spree in Paradise on their own. Jesse pours his energy into his work in an effort to push away his twin demons: booze and women. When his investigation leads to notorious mob boss Gino Fish, Jesse's pursuit becomes hazardous.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Mirror Crack'd (1980)
Jane Marple solves the mystery when a local woman is poisoned and a visiting movie star seems to have been the intended victim.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFarewell, My Lovely (1975)
Private eye Philip Marlowe is hired by ex-con Moose Malloy to find his girlfriend, a former lounge dancer. While also investigating the murder of a client and the theft of a jade necklace, Marlowe becomes entangled with seductress Helen Grayle and discovers a web of dark secrets that are better left hidden.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Gift (2000)
Annie Wilson, young widow and mother of three, makes her living foretelling others' futures—though her own has become cloudier than even she can see. Threatened by a client's violent husband and plagued by visions of a missing local woman, Annie finds herself pulled into a thicket of lies and deception in which her extraordinary gift may ultimately get her killed.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMusic Box (1989)
A lawyer defends her father accused of war crimes, but there is more to the case than she suspects.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAlphaville (1965)
Lemmy Caution is on a mission to eliminate Professor Von Braun, the creator of a malevolent computer that rules the city of Alphaville. Befriended by the scientist’s daughter Natasha, Lemmy must unravel the mysteries of the strictly logical Alpha 60 and teach Natasha the meaning of the word “love.”
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Patient Vanishes (1941)
Action and excitement beckon as popular sleuth Mick Cardby goes on the trail of a missing girl, and finds himself in the clutches of a gang of blackmailers.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
The Missing Person (2009)
John Rosow drinks to forget. He is a former New York City cop turned Chicago-based private investigator. At the last minute, he is hired by someone he's never met to follow a middle-aged male subject on the soon-departing California Zephyr train to Los Angeles.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Drowning Pool (1975)
Harper is brought to Louisiana to investigate an attempted blackmail scheme. He soon finds out that it involves an old flame of his and her daughter. He eventually finds himself caught in a power struggle between the matriarch of the family and a greedy oil baron, who wants their property. Poor Harper! Things are not as straight-forward as they initially appeared.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Two Jakes (1990)
Real estate developer Jake Berman hires private investigator and war veteran Jake Gittes for some run-of-the-mill matrimonial work. After Berman shoots his wife's lover, who happens to be his business partner, Gittes is drawn into a web of conspiracy and deceit involving the oil reserves beneath Los Angeles. While investigating, Gittes hears a voice from his past that causes him to revisit a traumatic case in Chinatown.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOne Shoe Makes it Murder (1982)
Robert Mitchum stars as a down-and-out ex-cop whose entanglement with a shady casino owner leaves him one step behind a killer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Dancing Man (1934)
A dancing gigolo gets involved with a wealthy lady and her young step-daughter, and murder is the result.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Lesbionage (1988)
In this romantic thriller, blackmail, kidnapping, and fraud combine to give two lesbian private detectives (and lovers) their toughest case. Will their relationship survive? Produced by women for women.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Like Private Detective and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Private Detective?
The closest matches to Private Detective are Marlowe (1969), The Long Goodbye (1973) and The Interview (1998). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Private Detective?
Start with Marlowe (1969), the closest match to Private Detective.
What is the highest-rated movie like Private Detective?
Knives Out (2019), rated 7.8/10 by 14,782 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Private Detective?
Cult Killer (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Private Detective?
Yes: Marlowe (1969), The Long Goodbye (1973) and The Interview (1998).
How are movies similar to Private Detective chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Private Detective, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.