Movies like The Mad Doctor (1940)
The best movies like The Mad Doctor (1940) are The Mirror Crack'd (1980), The Glass Key (1942) and Indemnity (2022). If The Mad Doctor hooked you with its crime and romance, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedVertigo (1958)8.1/10 from 6,621 votes
- NewestOscar Shaw (2026)Released 2026
The 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 crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Glass Key (1942)
A crooked politician finds himself being accused of murder by a gangster from whom he refused help during a re-election campaign.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIndemnity (2022)
An ex-fireman with PTSD goes on the run when accused of a crime he doesn't even remember committing, leading him down a rabbit hole of conspiracy to the highest degree.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Blueprint for Murder (1953)
Whitney Cameron is in a quandary: he's attracted to his beautiful sister-in-law, Lynn, but also harbors serious suspicions about her. Her husband, Cameron's brother, died under mysterious circumstances, and now that the death of her stepchild, Polly, has been attributed to poisoning, he suspects that Lynn is after his late brother's estate, and killing everyone in her way.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
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 thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlack Angel (1946)
A falsely convicted man's wife, Catherine, and an alcoholic composer and pianist, Martin, team up in an attempt to clear her husband of the murder of a blonde singer, who is Martin's wife.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOscar Shaw (2026)
After retiring from the police force, a relentless detective haunted by the tragic loss of his closest friend sets out on a perilous quest for vengeance, seeking redemption and fighting to restore justice to the streets he once swore to protect.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943)
During WWII several murders occur at a convalescent home where Dr. Watson has volunteered his services. He summons Holmes for help and the master detective proceeds to solve the crime from a long list of suspects including the owners of the home, the staff and the patients recovering there.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe House of Fear (1945)
The Good Comrades are a collection of varied gentlemen who crave one thing - solitude. They reside at Drearcliff House, ancestral home of their eldest member. All seems serene and convivial until one by one the members begin to perish in the most grisly of manners. Foul play is suspected by the Good Comrades' insurance agent, who turns to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson for guidance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMadigan (1968)
NYPD detectives Bonaro and Madigan lose their guns to fugitive Barney Benesch. As compensation, they are given a weekend to bring Benesch to justice. While they follow various leads, Police Commissioner Russell goes about his duties, including attending functions, meeting with aggrieved relatives, and counseling the spouses of fallen officers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Blue Lamp (1950)
P.C. George Dixon is a long-serving traditional copper who is due to retire shortly. He takes a new recruit under his aegis and introduces him to the easy-going night beat. Dixon is a classic ordinary hero but also anachronistic, unprepared and unable to answer the violence of the 1950s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSecret Agent (1936)
During World War I, a novelist declared dead is recruited by British intelligence and sent to Switzerland under a new identity to assassinate a German spy. Teamed with a fellow agent posing as his wife and an eccentric assassin known as “the General,” the trio close in on their target — until two of them grow ambivalent when their duty to the mission clashes with their consciences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Narrow Margin (1952)
A tough cop meets his match when he has to guard a gangster's widow on a train journey from Chicago to Los Angeles.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisYoung and Innocent (1937)
When a young writer is falsely accused of murdering a famous actress, he escapes custody and joins forces with the daughter of a police constable to prove his innocence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Man Who Cheated Himself (1950)
A veteran homicide detective who has witnessed his socialite girlfriend kill her husband sees his inexperienced brother assigned to the case.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPickup on South Street (1953)
In New York City, an insolent pickpocket, Skip McCoy, inadvertently sets off a chain of events when he targets ex-prostitute Candy and steals her wallet. Unaware that she has been making deliveries of highly classified information to the communists, Candy, who has been trailed by FBI agents for months in hopes of nabbing the spy ringleader, is sent by her ex-boyfriend, Joey, to find Skip and retrieve the valuable microfilm he now holds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like this23 Paces to Baker Street (1956)
Philip Hannon, a blind playwright living in London, overhears part of a conversation , that leads him into a desperate race, to find a kidnapped child. When he gets no help from the police, he along with his butler, and his ex fiancée, attempt to track down the crooks.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRebecca (1940)
Story of a young woman who marries a fascinating widower only to find out that she must live in the shadow of his former wife, Rebecca, who died mysteriously several years earlier. The young wife must come to grips with the terrible secret of her handsome, cold husband, Max De Winter. She must also deal with the jealous, obsessed Mrs. Danvers, the housekeeper, who will not accept her as the mistress of the house.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & thriller
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisVertigo (1958)
A retired San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia investigates the strange activities of an old friend's wife, all the while becoming dangerously obsessed with her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & thriller
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Scarlet Claw (1944)
When a woman is found dead with her throat torn out, the local villagers blame a supernatural monster. But Sherlock Holmes, who gets drawn into the case from nearby Quebec, suspects a human murderer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStolen Face (1952)
A plastic surgeon changes the face of a female convict to match that of the beautiful woman who broke his heart and left him. He marries the convict but trouble starts when his true love returns.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & crime
Shake, Rattle & Roll II (1990)
Three terrifying tales follow a young groom in Baguio for his honeymoon is possessed by a homicidal spirit when he discovers a cursed ring and decides to wear it; in the eerie halls of a mysterious hospital, a doctor practices voodoo and dead bodies wander in the night; and a student who learns, while a guest at a town fiesta in a remote province, that the locals' hospitable ways leave her clueless about a mysterious nightly ritual.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Grotesque (2009)
An unnamed doctor has always had everything he's ever wanted, but that has only made him develop more extreme and depraved needs. He kidnaps a young couple in the prime of their life together and forces them into a game of torment that slowly extinguishes their hopes for survival.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisMad Love (1935)
An insane surgeon's obsession with an actress leads him to replace her wounded pianist husband's hands with those of a knife-throwing murderer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEdge of Sanity (1989)
When his experiments into a powerful new anesthetic go hideously awry, respected physician Dr. Jekyll transforms into the hideous Jack Hyde. As his wife Elisabeth passes her time in charitable work, rehabilitating the district's fallen women, Hyde is drawn into an escalating cycle of lust and murder that seems to know no bounds.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Dinner Party (2020)
A budding playwright and his wife attend a dinner party hosted by wealthy, cultural elites, who have promised to bankroll the writer's latest play to Broadway, but, in fact, have darker designs in mind for the couple.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisDonovan's Brain (1953)
A scientist takes the brain of dead man and revives it via electrodes as it lays suspended in a tank of liquid. Soon, the brain grows to possess enormous psychic powers and inflicts its personality upon the doctor who saved it, creating a "Jekyll and Hyde" paradigm.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Doll (2017)
When Chris and Andy order a model from an escort service, they find that something is unnaturally wrong with Natasha, something deadly wrong.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
The Raven (1935)
A brilliant but deranged neurosurgeon becomes obsessively fixated on a judge's daughter. With the help of an escaped criminal whose face he has surgically deformed, the mad man lures her, her father, and her fiancé to his isolated, castle-like home.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBundy Manor (2022)
When a family moves to a small town they discover an extreme haunted house run by a charming retired surgeon. Things start getting out of hand when they realize he is going too far.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Mad Doctor?
The closest matches to The Mad Doctor are The Mirror Crack'd (1980), The Glass Key (1942) and Indemnity (2022). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Mad Doctor?
Start with The Mirror Crack'd (1980), the closest match to The Mad Doctor.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Mad Doctor?
Vertigo (1958), rated 8.1/10 by 6,621 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Mad Doctor?
Oscar Shaw (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Mad Doctor?
Yes: The Mirror Crack'd (1980), The Glass Key (1942) and Indemnity (2022).
How are movies similar to The Mad Doctor chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Mad Doctor, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.