Movies like The Secret of the Whistler (1946)
The best movies like The Secret of the Whistler (1946) are Each Dawn I Die (1939), Plunder Road (1957) and The Unholy Three (1925). If The Secret of the Whistler hooked you with its crime and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Asphalt Jungle (1950)7.5/10 from 562 votes
- NewestThe Curse of Modigliani (2025)Released 2025
Each Dawn I Die (1939)
A corrupt D.A. with governatorial ambitions is annoyed by an investigative reporter's criticism of his criminal activities and decides to frame the reporter for manslaughter in order to silence him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPlunder Road (1957)
A spectacular heist starts to unravel as the crooks take it on the lam.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Unholy Three (1925)
Three sideshow performers form a conspiracy known as 'The Unholy Three' – a ventriloquist, midget, and strongman working together to commit a series of robberies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThey Made Me a Fugitive (1947)
After being framed for a policeman's murder, a criminal escapes prison and sets out for revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKing Creole (1958)
Delinquent Danny Fisher flunks out of high school, quits his job as a nightclub busboy, and one night gets the chance to perform. Success is imminent and local crime boss Maxie Fields wants to hire him to perform at The Blue Shade. Danny declines, but Fields won't take no for an answer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWitness to Murder (1954)
A woman fights to convince the police that she witnessed a murder while looking out her bedroom window.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHouse of Bamboo (1955)
Eddie Kenner is given a special assignment by the Army to get the inside story on Sandy Dawson, a former GI who has formed a gang of fellow servicemen and Japanese locals.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCigarettes & Coffee (1993)
At a desert diner, the lives of five strangers become linked through a single twenty-dollar bill. Shot for $20,000 and starring Philip Baker Hall, the short premiered at Sundance and later inspired Anderson’s debut feature Hard Eight (1996).
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Quiller Memorandum (1966)
After two British Secret Intelligence Service agents are murdered at the hands of a cryptic neo-Nazi group known as Phoenix, the suave agent Quiller is sent to Berlin to investigate.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisFramed (1947)
Truck driver Mike Lambert is a down-and-out mining engineer searching for a job. When his rig breaks down in a small town, he happens upon a venomous seductress. When her boyfriend robs a bank, they intend to frame Lambert.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this5 Against the House (1955)
Former war-time Army buddies now students in college decide to rip off a Reno casino.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisRedemption: The Stan Tookie Williams Story (2004)
Redemption tells the story of Stan "Tookie" Williams, founder of the Crips L.A. street gang. Story follows his fall into gang-banging, his prison term, and his work writing children's novels encouraging peace and anti-violence resolutions which earned him multiple Nobel Peace Prize nominations. After exhausting all forms of appeal, Tookie was executed by lethal injection.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBubble (2006)
Set against the backdrop of a decaying Midwestern town, a murder becomes the focal point of three people who work in a doll factory.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTime Without Pity (1957)
Alec Graham is sentenced to death for the murder of his girlfriend Jennie, with whom he spent a weekend at the English country home of the parents of his friend Brian Stanford. Alec’s father, David Graham, a not-so-successful writer and alcoholic who has neglected his son in the past, flies in from Canada to visit his son on death row. David then goes on a quest to try and clear his son’s name while battling “the bottle.”
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPerfect Sisters (2014)
Tired of their mother's alcoholism and a string of her abusive boyfriends, two sisters plot to kill her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Asphalt Jungle (1950)
Recently paroled from prison, legendary burglar "Doc" Riedenschneider, with funding from Alonzo Emmerich, a crooked lawyer, gathers a small group of veteran criminals together in the Midwest for a big jewel heist.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Blue Gardenia (1953)
Upon waking up to the news that the man she’d gone on a date with the previous night has been murdered, a young woman with only a faint memory of the night’s events begins to suspect that she murdered him while attempting to resist his advances.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both 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
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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOver-Exposed (1956)
This titillating bit of pulp sensationalism was the last in a string of "B" films that Cleo Moore starred in at Columbia. Moore plays Lila Crane, an ambitious clip-joint floozie turned photographer with flexible morals and a penchant for fast money.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & crime
Real Fiction (2000)
A repressed artist receives ritual abuse from those who pass him as he paints portraits in the park. Gradually becoming more frustrated, anger builds up within the artist, leading him to embark upon a quest to gain revenge on all those who have humiliated him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisBitch Slap (2009)
Three bad girls - a down-and-out stripper, a drug-running killer, and a corporate powerbroker - arrive at a remote desert hideaway to extort and steal $200 million in diamonds from a ruthless underworld kingpin.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Gangster (1947)
Based on the novel Low Company. One of the most peculiar film noirs of the 1940s stars Barry Sullivan as a small-time hood who suffers a mental breakdown as his big plans begin to crumble. Beautiful Belita is his singer girlfriend who only fuels his paranoia.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
The Blue Parrot (1953)
'Rocks' Owen, the well-off owner of a car-hire business, is found murdered; the last place he was seen alive was the Blue Parrot nightclub. Scotland Yard go in to investigate, with the help of a visiting American detective and a nightclub hostess who may not be all she appears to be.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
The Louisiana Hussy (1959)
Cajun newlyweds must deal with the jealousy of his brother, who also loved her, and the arrival of a mysterious seductress in their bayou backwater.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Untitled (Without Sound) (2025)
A highfalutin art movie crumbles into a meta-fictional disaster that betrays its director’s incompetence in real time, and it’s all on film.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Curse of Modigliani (2025)
An American artist in Helsinki discovers an antique diary that belonged to the legendary painter Amedeo Modigliani - unravelling a haunting spiral of love and betrayal that eerily mirrors the fate of the master himself.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Great Expectations (1998)
Loosely based on the Charles Dickens' classic novel, "Great Expectations" is a sensual tale of a young man's unforgettable passage into manhood, and the three individuals who will undeniably change his life forever. Through the surprising interactions of these vivid characters, "Great Expectations" takes a unique and contemporary look at life's great coincidences.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUnconditional Love (1994)
Arthur Egeli directs this multifaceted romance set on the beaches of Cape Cod, the story of young painter Steven Buchanan (Pablo Bryant) and his interactions with three beautiful women vying to be his muse. There's Melissa (Isabelle Dahlin), the student who admires him; Theresa (Jessica Brytn Flannery), the model who inspires him; and Mary (Aleksandra Kaniak), the fellow artist who transforms him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Secret of the Whistler?
The closest matches to The Secret of the Whistler are Each Dawn I Die (1939), Plunder Road (1957) and The Unholy Three (1925). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Secret of the Whistler?
Start with Each Dawn I Die (1939), the closest match to The Secret of the Whistler.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Secret of the Whistler?
The Asphalt Jungle (1950), rated 7.5/10 by 562 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Secret of the Whistler?
The Curse of Modigliani (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Secret of the Whistler?
Yes: Each Dawn I Die (1939), Plunder Road (1957) and The Unholy Three (1925).
How are movies similar to The Secret of the Whistler chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Secret of the Whistler, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.