Movies like The Ringer (1952)
The best movies like The Ringer (1952) are The Limits of Control (2009), Who's Harry Crumb? (1989) and Marlowe (1969). If The Ringer hooked you with its mystery and crime, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedAnatomy of a Murder (1959)7.8/10 from 1,244 votes
- NewestBlackwater Lane (2024)Released 2024
The Limits of Control (2009)
A mysterious stranger works outside the law and keeps his objectives hidden, trusting no one. While his demeanor is paradoxically focused and dreamlike all at once, he embarks on a journey that not only takes him across Spain, but also through his own consciousness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & 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 crime & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMarlowe (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 crime & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisClosed Circuit (2013)
A high-profile terrorism case unexpectedly binds together two ex-lovers on the defense team - testing the limits of their loyalties and placing their lives in jeopardy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & crime
SnoozefestMovies 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 & crime
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 crime & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCrooked House (2017)
A private investigator helps a former flame solve the murder of her wealthy grandfather, who lived in a sprawling estate surrounded by his idiosyncratic family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThey Call Me Mister Tibbs! (1970)
A police detective's investigation of a prostitute's murder points to his best friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Night Strangler (1973)
After being run out of Las Vegas, reporter Carl Kolchak heads for Seattle and another reporting job with the local paper. It's not long before he’s on the trail of another string of bizarre murders. It seems that every 21 years, for the past century, a killer murders a certain number of people, drains them of their blood, and then disappears into the night. Kolchak is on his trail, but can he stop him?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & crime
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 & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Late Show (1977)
An over-the-hill gumshoe in Los Angeles seeks to avenge the killing of an old pal, another detective who was involved in a case concerning a murdered broad, stolen stamps, a nickel-plated handgun, a cheating dolly, and a kidnapped pussycat.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlackwater Lane (2024)
An American school teacher in England drives past an abandoned car late one night, unaware that the driver was the victim of a murder. As she comes to terms with the realization, seemingly supernatural events start to affect the gothic manor she lives in with her husband.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThirteen at Dinner (1985)
Actress Jane Wilkinson wants a divorce, but her husband, Lord Edgware, refuses. She convinces Hercule Poirot to use his famed tact and logic to make her case. Lord Edgware turns up murdered, a well-placed knife wound at the base of his neck. It will take the precise Poirot to sort out the lies from the alibis - and find the criminal before another victim dies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & mystery
SnoozefestMovies 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 & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeception (2008)
As a corporate auditor who works in a number of different offices, Jonathan McQuarry wanders without an anchor among New York's power brokers. A chance meeting with charismatic lawyer Wyatt Bose leads to Jonathan's introduction to The List, an underground sex club. Jonathan begins an affair with a woman known only as S, who introduces Jonathan to a world of treachery and murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHit Man (2024)
A mild-mannered professor moonlighting as a fake hit man in police stings ignites a chain reaction of trouble when he falls for a potential client.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDead Man Down (2013)
In New York City, a crime lord's right-hand man is seduced by a woman seeking retribution.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn Too Deep (1999)
Drug lord Dwayne Gittens rules Cincinnati with an iron fist. No wonder he's known as "God" on the streets. Determined to break Gittens' stranglehold on the city is undercover cop Jeffrey Cole. But as Cole takes on an assumed identity to penetrate Gittens' criminal empire, he makes a disturbing discovery -- he kind of likes being a gangster.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFamily Plot (1976)
Spiritualist Blanche Tyler and her cab-driving boyfriend encounter a pair of serial kidnappers while trailing a missing heir in California.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Night Stalker (1972)
Wisecracking reporter Carl Kolchak investigates a string of murders in Las Vegas and suspects the culprit is a vampire. His editor thinks he's crazy and the police think he's a nuisance, so Kolchak takes matters into his own hands.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThanthram (1988)
A wealthy businessman James (Ratheesh) gets killed in a dubious car accident, leaving behind his grieving wife Sussanna (Urvashi) and a young son. Sussanna is an orphan and James was estranged from his family when he was alive. However after his death, James' father Kurien (Jagannatha Varma) feigns friendship with Sussanna and tries to trick her into giving control of James' businesses to him. When Sussanna refuses, the family files a lawsuit questioning the legality of her marriage to James. Helpless and isolated, she approaches George Korah (Mammotty), a struggling lawyer to fight her case.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & mystery
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
Semi-retired Michigan lawyer Paul Biegler takes the case of Army Lt. Manion, who murdered a local innkeeper after his wife claimed that he raped her. Over the course of an extensive trial, Biegler parries with District Attorney Lodwick and out-of-town prosecutor Claude Dancer to set his client free, but his case rests on the victim's mysterious business partner, who's hiding a dark secret.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMr. Moto Takes a Vacation (1939)
Mr. Moto is in Egypt to thwart a criminal mastermind determined to steal the priceless crown of the Queen of Sheba. When the precious treasure is transported to America, Mr. Moto must race against time to unmask the cunning thief who will stop at nothing—not even murder—to get what he wants.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & mystery
3000 Miles to Graceland (2001)
It was an ingenious enough plan: rob the Riviera Casino's count room during an Elvis impersonator convention. But Thomas Murphy decided to keep all the money for himself and shot all his partners, including recently-freed ex-con Michael Zane. With $3.2 million at stake, the Marshals Service closing in, Michael must track down Murphy.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisSuspect (1987)
When a Supreme Court judge commits suicide and his secretary is found murdered, all fingers point to Carl Anderson, a homeless veteran who's deaf and mute. But when public defender Kathleen Riley is assigned to his case, she begins to believe that Anderson may actually be innocent. Juror Eddie Sanger, a Washington lobbyist, agrees, and together the pair begins their own investigation of events.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMurder in the First (1995)
A young, inexperienced public defender is assigned to defend an inmate accused of committing murder while behind bars.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCherish (2002)
After a martini-induced rampage, a fantasy-prone young woman is placed under house arrest.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Sentinel (1977)
As a young girl, Alison Parker attempted suicide after being traumatized by her father's sexual exploits. Now an elite fashion model, she moves to a Brooklyn Heights apartment building where she encounters a number of bizarre, eccentric tenants and attempts to uncover the building's sinister secret.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Case for Murder (1993)
Jack Hammett is an aggressive young defence attorney on the rise up the corporate ladder. In the courtroom he's known as the "Hail Mary Kid" for his ability to win the unwinnable cases. When one of the firm's lawyers, Darren Gaines, is murdered and Gaines' wife is charged, Hammett is assigned as her attorney. Hammett asks Kate Weldon, a recently hired lawyer, to assist him. Together they discover some inconsistencies in the case as well as a possible connection to the recent murder of a judge.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
Class Action (1991)
A liberal activist lawyer alienated his daughter Maggie years ago when she discovered his many affairs. Now a conservative corporate lawyer, Maggie agrees to go up against her father in court. To gain promotion, she must defend an auto manufacturer against charges that their explosion-prone station wagons are unsafe. As her mother begs for peace, Maggie takes on her dad in a trial that turns increasingly personal and nasty.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Ringer?
The closest matches to The Ringer are The Limits of Control (2009), Who's Harry Crumb? (1989) and Marlowe (1969). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Ringer?
Start with The Limits of Control (2009), the closest match to The Ringer.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Ringer?
Anatomy of a Murder (1959), rated 7.8/10 by 1,244 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Ringer?
Blackwater Lane (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Ringer?
Yes: The Limits of Control (2009), Who's Harry Crumb? (1989) and Marlowe (1969).
How are movies similar to The Ringer chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Ringer, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.