Movies like The Thirty Nine Steps (1978)
The best movies like The Thirty Nine Steps (1978) are Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943), The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927) and 23 Paces to Baker Street (1956). If The Thirty Nine Steps hooked you with its mystery and thriller, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedEyes Wide Shut (1999)7.5/10 from 7,464 votes
- NewestUntil You're Alone (2026)Released 2026
Sherlock 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 mystery & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927)
London. A mysterious serial killer brutally murders young blond women by stalking them in the night fog. One foggy, sinister night, a young man who claims his name is Jonathan Drew arrives at the guest house run by the Bunting family and rents a room.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & mystery
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 mystery & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Lady Vanishes (2013)
Young socialite Iris Carr befriends an older woman while traveling solo by train. When Iris wakes from a nap, the woman is gone and other passengers claim she never existed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMidnight Lace (1960)
Kit Preston begins to unravel when she receives threatening telephone calls informing her she's soon to be murdered.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe 39 Steps (1935)
Richard Hanney has a rude awakening when a glamorous female spy falls into his bed - with a knife in her back. Having a bit of trouble explaining it all to Scotland Yard, he heads for the hills of Scotland to try to clear his name by locating the spy ring known as The 39 Steps.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & thriller
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 & mystery
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 mystery & 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 mystery & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRide the Pink Horse (1947)
A con man tries to blackmail a Mexican gangster.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisManiac (1963)
When a stranger enters a quiet, country town and is seduced by a sensuous married woman he unwittingly finds himself at the centre of a storm of sexual guilt and murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBunny Lake Is Missing (1965)
A woman reports that her young daughter is missing, but there seems to be no evidence that she ever existed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Assassination Bureau (1969)
In 1908 London, a women's rights campaigner discovers the Assassination Bureau Limited, an organization that kills for justice. When its motives are called into question, she commissions the assassination of its chairman. Knowing that his colleagues have recently become more motivated by greed than morality, he turns the situation into a challenge for his board members: kill him or be killed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNo Name on the Bullet (1959)
When hired killer John Gant rides into Lordsburg, the town's folk become paranoid as each leading citizen has enemies capable of using the services of a professional killer for personal revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFootsteps in the Fog (1955)
A Victorian-era murder mystery about a parlour maid who discovers that her employer may have killed his first wife.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFigures in a Landscape (1970)
Two escaped convicts are on the run in an unnamed Latin American country. But everywhere they go, they are followed and hounded by a menacing black helicopter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMurder in Three Acts (1986)
In Acapulco, Hercule Poirot attends a dinner party in which one of the guests clutches his throat and suddenly dies. The causes seem to be natural until another party with most of the same guests produces another corpse.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Old Dark House (1932)
In a remote region of Wales, five travelers beset by a relentless storm find shelter in an old mansion.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOn Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
With the help of Marc-Ange Draco, head of the Unione Corse crime syndicate, and Draco's troubled daughter Tracy, James Bond tracks his archnemesis, Ernst Stravro Blofeld, to a mountaintop retreat in the Swiss Alps, where he is training an army of beautiful, lethal women.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEyes Wide Shut (1999)
After Dr. Bill Harford's wife, Alice, admits to having sexual fantasies about a man she met, Bill becomes obsessed with having a sexual encounter. He discovers an underground sexual group and attends one of their meetings -- and quickly discovers that he is in over his head.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCube Zero (2004)
A young programmer whose job is to watch over the reality-warping Cube defies orders to rescue an innocent mother trapped in one of its rooms.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisUntil You're Alone (2026)
After becoming the lead suspect in a series of brutal slayings, a close-minded architect must team up with a free-spirited sex worker in order to clear his name and solve the crimes before they become the killer's next victims in this suspenseful, stylish, and hilarious queer love letter to Hitchcock, De Palma, and the Italian giallo.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & mystery
Lemming (2005)
After the death of his boss's wife, a young engineer faces the sudden psychological metamorphosis of his own wife, seemingly possessed by the soul of the deceased...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Net (1995)
Angela Bennett is a freelance computer systems analyst who tracks down software viruses. At night, she hooks up to the internet and chats to others 'surfing the net'. While de-bugging a new high-tech game for a cyber friend, she comes across a top secret program and becomes the target of a mysterious organization, who will stop at nothing to erase her identity and her existence in order to protect the project.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShaft (2000)
New York police detective John Shaft arrests Walter Wade Jr. for a racially motivated slaying. But the only eyewitness disappears, and Wade jumps bail for Switzerland. Two years later Wade returns to face trial, confident his money and influence will get him acquitted -- especially since he's paid a drug kingpin to kill the witness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWild at Heart (1990)
Young lovers Sailor and Lula hit the road to start a new life together away from the wrath of Lula’s deranged, disapproving mother, who has hired a team of hitmen to cut the lovers’ surreal honeymoon short.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTough Enough (2006)
From the youth directed novel of the same name by Greogor Tressnow comes a film by Detlev Buck that is a realistic portrait of life in the section of Berlin called Neukölln. It’s about power and weakness, delinquents and victims, and the difficulties a 15-year-old faces in a poor and criminal environment.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Day After Tomorrow (2004)
After paleoclimatologist Jack Hall is largely ignored by UN officials when presenting his environmental concerns about the beginning of a new Ice Age, his research proves true when a superstorm develops, setting off catastrophic natural disasters throughout the world. Trying to get to his son, Sam, who is trapped in New York City with his friend Laura and others, Jack and his crew must travel to get to Sam before it's too late.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKilling Zoe (1993)
Zed is an American vault-cracker who travels to Paris to meet up with his old friend Eric. Eric and his gang have planned to raid the only bank in the city which is open on Bastille day. After offering his services, Zed soon finds himself trapped in a situation beyond his control when heroin abuse, poor planning and a call-girl named Zoe all conspire to turn the robbery into a very bloody siege.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Thirty Nine Steps?
The closest matches to The Thirty Nine Steps are Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943), The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927) and 23 Paces to Baker Street (1956). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Thirty Nine Steps?
Start with Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943), the closest match to The Thirty Nine Steps.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Thirty Nine Steps?
Eyes Wide Shut (1999), rated 7.5/10 by 7,464 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Thirty Nine Steps?
Until You're Alone (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Thirty Nine Steps?
Yes: Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943), The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927) and 23 Paces to Baker Street (1956).
How are movies similar to The Thirty Nine Steps chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Thirty Nine Steps, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.