Movies like The Murderer Lives at Number 21 (1942)
The best movies like The Murderer Lives at Number 21 (1942) are Foul Play (1978), Deathtrap (1982) and The Big Fix (1978). If The Murderer Lives at Number 21 hooked you with its comedy and 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 14,794 votes
- NewestThe Thursday Murder Club (2025)Released 2025
- In FrenchWithout Apparent Motive (1971)Also in French
Foul Play (1978)
A shy San Francisco librarian and a bumbling cop fall in love as they solve a crime involving albinos, dwarves, and the Catholic Church.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeathtrap (1982)
A Broadway playwright puts murder in his plan to take credit for a student's script.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Big Fix (1978)
Private detective Moses Wine is hired by his former college girlfriend to investigate a political smear campaign and he sets out to find out who is responsible, with deadly results.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisWithout Apparent Motive (1971)
A series of murders is committed in Nice on the French riviera. The commissaire Carella is in charge and tries to find a missing link between all these murders.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThree Lives and Only One Death (1996)
Four intertwining stories of bizarre occurrences in Paris featuring a man who was stolen away by fairies, a professor who becomes a tramp, the lovers who inherit a chateau – and the last tale that connects all that has gone before.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 comedy & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOverdrive (2017)
Master car thieves square off against French gangsters in the South of France with money, women and lives all on the line.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Bourne Identity (2002)
Wounded to the brink of death and suffering from amnesia, Jason Bourne is rescued at sea by a fisherman. With nothing to go on but a Swiss bank account number, he starts to reconstruct his life, but finds that many people he encounters want him dead. However, Bourne realizes that he has the combat and mental skills of a world-class spy—but who does he work for?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCop or Hood (1979)
When the local police inspector was found dead in a prostitute's house, police division commissioner Stan Borowitz is sent to investigate the situation. Posing as the prostitute's long-lost brother "Antonio Cerruti," he discovers a mare's nest of police corruption. In fact, in this comedy thriller the whole town is corrupt. If they were closely examined, Stan's methods for pursuing this investigation might embarrass the police. For instance, he drives into a criminal's house in a fancy, expensive race car. In another incident, he callously blows up a casino owned by Musard , one of the town's crime bosses. On that occasion, he first forces Musard to remove his clothes, and the poor criminal watches his casino explode from across the square while standing naked in a phone booth. Meanwhile, Stan seduces the lovely Edmonde.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & thriller
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 & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Thursday Murder Club (2025)
A group of senior sleuths passionate about solving cold cases get plunged into a real-life murder mystery in this comic crime caper.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & 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 thisA Shot in the Dark (1964)
Inspector Jacques Clouseau, smitten with the accused maid Maria Gambrelli, unwittingly turns a straightforward murder investigation into a comedic series of mishaps, testing the patience of his irritable boss Charles Dreyfus as casualties mount.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWoman on the Run (1950)
Frank Johnson, a sole witness to a gangland murder, goes into hiding and is trailed by Police Inspector Ferris, on the theory that Frank is trying to escape from possible retaliation. Frank's wife, Eleanor, suspects he is actually running away from their unsuccessful marriage. Aided by a newspaperman, Danny Leggett, Eleanor sets out to locate her husband. The killer is also looking for him, and keeps close tabs on Eleanor.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisD.O.A. (1949)
Frank Bigelow is about to die, and he knows it. The accountant has been poisoned and has only 24 hours before the lethal concoction kills him. Determined to find out who his murderer is, Frank, with the help of his assistant and girlfriend, Paula, begins to trace back over his last steps. As he frantically tries to unravel the mystery behind his own impending demise, his sleuthing leads him to a group of crooked businessmen and another murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGotcha! (1985)
A student on a trip to France is tricked into smuggling secrets across the Iron Curtain by a sexy spy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & thriller
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 comedy & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Seven-Ups (1973)
A tough detective who is part of an elite New York City unit is trying to find out who killed his partner, but uncovers a plot to kidnap mobsters for money.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMinistry of Fear (1944)
Stephen Neale is released into WWII England after two years in an asylum, but it doesn't seem so sane outside either. On his way back to London to rejoin civilization, he stumbles across a murderous spy ring and doesn't quite know to whom to turn.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMurder Mystery 2 (2023)
After starting their own detective agency, Nick and Audrey Spitz land a career-making case when their billionaire pal is kidnapped from his wedding.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDevil in a Blue Dress (1995)
In late 1940s Los Angeles, Easy Rawlins is an unemployed black World War II veteran with few job prospects. At a bar, Easy meets DeWitt Albright, a mysterious white man looking for someone to investigate the disappearance of a missing white woman named Daphne Monet, who he suspects is hiding out in one of the city's black jazz clubs. Strapped for money and facing house payments, Easy takes the job, but soon finds himself in over his head.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Rabbit Factor (TBA)
In the adaptation of the darkly comic novel by the Finnish author, Carell will play insurance mathematician Henri Koskinen, who knows most of life’s answers because he calculates everything down to the very last decimal. Everything changes when he suddenly loses his job, and other variables enter the fray. Henri inherits an adventure park from his brother – its peculiar employees and troubling financial problems included. Most pressing: big loans were taken from criminal elements, and the lenders are now keen to get their money back. In the adventure park, Henri also crosses paths with Laura, an artist with a checkered past. As the criminals begin to collect their debts and as Henri’s relationship with Laura deepens, he finds himself faced with situations and emotions that simply cannot be quantified on a spread sheet.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & thriller
Seesaw Monster (TBA)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & mystery
Funny Games (2008)
When Ann, husband George, and son Georgie arrive at their holiday home they are visited by a pair of polite and seemingly pleasant young men. Armed with deceptively sweet smiles and some golf clubs, they proceed to terrorize and torture the tight-knit clan, giving them until the next day to survive.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Cutlass (1954)
The teenager Misha Polyakov, being with his mother in a Ukrainian village on vacation with his grandmother and about to return home to Petrograd, offers his best friend Genka to go with him. Suddenly, a white gang of Nikitsky bursts into the village and attacks Misha’s house, where Commissioner Polevoy lives. The purpose of Nikitskiy (aka Nikolskiy) is a dagger located at Polevoy. Saving the commissioner, Misha learns from him the history and secret of the weapon, and receives it for storage with a request to solve the secret. Having returned with adventures to Petrograd, Misha Polyakov with friends begins to unravel the riddle of the dagger, in the handle of which is encrypted text.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Runt (2024)
In the Australian town of Upson Downs, ten-year-old Annie and Runt, her stray dog, attempt to win the Agility Course Championship at the Krumpets Dog Show in London in order to save their family's farm from drought and misery.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Albino Alligator (1997)
While escaping from a foiled robbery attempt, three thieves find themselves surrounded by police at a New Orleans bar--only they're not the people the police are searching for.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisHellraiser: Bloodline (1996)
Three generations of the same family deal with the consequences of unleashing the forces of hell.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisMy Life as a Dog (1985)
A boy, obsessed with comparing himself with those less fortunate, experiences a different life at the home of his aunt and uncle in 1959 Sweden.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like this99 Francs (2007)
Paris, France, 2001. Octave Parango, a young advertiser working at the Ross & Witchcraft advertising agency, lives a suicidal existence, ruled by cynicism, irresponsibility and debauchery. The obstacles he will encounter in developing a campaign for a new yogurt brand will force him to face the meaning of his work and the way he manages his relationship with those who orbit around his egotistic lifestyle.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Murderer Lives at Number 21?
The closest matches to The Murderer Lives at Number 21 are Foul Play (1978), Deathtrap (1982) and The Big Fix (1978). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Murderer Lives at Number 21?
Start with Foul Play (1978), the closest match to The Murderer Lives at Number 21.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Murderer Lives at Number 21?
Knives Out (2019), rated 7.8/10 by 14,794 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Murderer Lives at Number 21?
The Thursday Murder Club (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like The Murderer Lives at Number 21?
Yes: Without Apparent Motive (1971), Three Lives and Only One Death (1996) and Cop or Hood (1979).
How are movies similar to The Murderer Lives at Number 21 chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Murderer Lives at Number 21, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.