Sort by Popularity - Most Popular Movies and TV Shows tagged with keyword "private-investigator"
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51. The Big Sleep (1946)
Passed | 114 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by a wealthy family. Before the complex case is over, he's seen murder, blackmail and what might be love.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely, Martha Vickers
Votes: 90,661 | Gross: $6.54M
52. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)
PG-13 | 129 min | Action, Adventure, Mystery
Detective Sherlock Holmes is on the trail of criminal mastermind Professor Moriarty, who is carrying out a string of random crimes across Europe.
Director: Guy Ritchie | Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Jared Harris, Rachel McAdams
Votes: 481,487 | Gross: $186.85M
53. Pushing Daisies (2007–2009)
TV-PG | 44 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A pastry chef with the power to bring dead people back to life solves murder mysteries with his resurrected childhood sweetheart, a cynical private investigator, and a lovesick waitress.
Stars: Lee Pace, Anna Friel, Chi McBride, Jim Dale
Votes: 59,657
54. 8MM (1999)
R | 123 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A private investigator is hired to discover if a "snuff film" is authentic or not.
Director: Joel Schumacher | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Joaquin Phoenix, James Gandolfini, Peter Stormare
Votes: 143,055 | Gross: $36.66M
55. Death Note (I) (2017)
TV-MA | 101 min | Crime, Drama, Fantasy
A high school student named Light Turner discovers a mysterious notebook that has the power to kill anyone whose name is written within its pages, and launches a secret crusade to rid the world of criminals.
Director: Adam Wingard | Stars: Nat Wolff, LaKeith Stanfield, Margaret Qualley, Shea Whigham
Votes: 90,650
56. Odd Thomas (2013)
PG-13 | 97 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
In a California desert town, a short-order cook with clairvoyant abilities encounters a mysterious man with a link to dark, threatening forces.
Director: Stephen Sommers | Stars: Anton Yelchin, Ashley Sommers, Leonor Varela, Matthew Page
Votes: 57,581
57. Greta (2018)
R | 98 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A young woman befriends a lonely widow who's harboring a dark and deadly agenda toward her.
Director: Neil Jordan | Stars: Isabelle Huppert, Chloë Grace Moretz, Maika Monroe, Jane Perry
Votes: 38,218 | Gross: $10.52M
58. Silent Hill: Revelation (2012)
R | 95 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
When her adoptive father disappears, Sharon Da Silva is drawn into a strange and terrifying alternate reality that holds answers to the horrific nightmares that have plagued her since childhood.
Director: M.J. Bassett | Stars: Adelaide Clemens, Kit Harington, Sean Bean, Carrie-Anne Moss
Votes: 66,822 | Gross: $17.53M
59. Remington Steele (1982–1987)
TV-PG | 60 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
The cases of a female private detective partnered with a former thief who assumes the role of a fictitious detective in the business.
Stars: Stephanie Zimbalist, Pierce Brosnan, Doris Roberts, James Read
Votes: 10,008
60. The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)
R | 121 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Samantha Caine lives in a small town with her daughter. Eight years ago she emerged, two months pregnant, from a nearby river with no memory of her past or who she is. However, she's getting closer to finding out about her past.
Director: Renny Harlin | Stars: Geena Davis, Samuel L. Jackson, Yvonne Zima, Craig Bierko
Votes: 85,838 | Gross: $33.33M
61. The Great Gatsby (1974)
PG | 144 min | Drama, Romance
A Midwesterner becomes fascinated with his nouveau riche neighbor, who obsesses over his lost love.
Director: Jack Clayton | Stars: Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, Bruce Dern, Karen Black
Votes: 26,923 | Gross: $6.74M
62. The Long Goodbye (1973)
R | 112 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Private investigator Philip Marlowe helps a friend out of a jam, but in doing so gets implicated in his wife's murder.
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Elliott Gould, Nina van Pallandt, Sterling Hayden, Mark Rydell
Votes: 37,486 | Gross: $0.96M
63. Bride of Chucky (1998)
R | 89 min | Comedy, Horror, Thriller
Chucky, the doll possessed by a serial killer, discovers the perfect mate to kill and revive into the body of another doll.
Director: Ronny Yu | Stars: Jennifer Tilly, Brad Dourif, Katherine Heigl, Nick Stabile
Votes: 64,452 | Gross: $32.40M
64. The Ultimate Gift (2006)
PG | 114 min | Drama, Family, Romance
A deceased billionaire leaves his spoiled adult grandson a series of odd tasks to perform in order to receive "the ultimate gift," with the resentful grandson having no idea what that might be.
Director: Michael O. Sajbel | Stars: Drew Fuller, James Garner, Abigail Breslin, Bill Cobbs
Votes: 20,488 | Gross: $3.44M
65. Harper (1966)
Not Rated | 121 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Cool private investigator Lew Harper is hired by a wealthy California matron to locate her kidnapped husband.
Director: Jack Smight | Stars: Paul Newman, Lauren Bacall, Julie Harris, Arthur Hill
Votes: 10,975
66. Synchronic (2019)
R | 102 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
Two New Orleans paramedics' lives are ripped apart after they encounter a series of horrific deaths linked to a designer drug with bizarre, otherworldly effects.
Directors: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead | Stars: Anthony Mackie, Jamie Dornan, Katie Aselton, Ally Ioannides
Votes: 40,377
67. Klute (1971)
R | 114 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
A small-town detective searching for a missing man has only one lead: a connection with a New York prostitute.
Director: Alan J. Pakula | Stars: Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi, Roy Scheider
Votes: 29,722 | Gross: $17.44M
68. The Imposter (2012)
R | 99 min | Documentary, Biography, Crime
A documentary centered on a young man in Spain who claims to a grieving Texas family that he is their 16-year-old son who has been missing for 3 years.
Director: Bart Layton | Stars: Adam O'Brian, Nicholas Barclay, Carey Gibson, Bryan Gibson
Votes: 50,560 | Gross: $0.89M
69. Shaft (2019)
R | 111 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
JJ Shaft, a cyber security expert with a degree from MIT, enlists his family's help to uncover the truth behind his best friend's untimely death.
Director: Tim Story | Stars: Samuel L. Jackson, Jessie T. Usher, Richard Roundtree, Regina Hall
Votes: 58,904 | Gross: $21.36M
70. Unknown (I) (2011)
PG-13 | 113 min | Action, Mystery, Thriller
When a man awakens from a coma only to discover that someone has taken on his identity, he teams up with a young woman to prove who he is.
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra | Stars: Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, January Jones, Aidan Quinn
Votes: 269,597 | Gross: $63.69M
71. Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982)
PG | 88 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
Film noir parody with a detective uncovering a sinister plot. Characters from classic noir films appear as scenes from various movies interjected into the story.
Director: Carl Reiner | Stars: Steve Martin, Rachel Ward, Alan Ladd, Carl Reiner
Votes: 23,862 | Gross: $18.20M
72. Secret Window (2004)
PG-13 | 96 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A successful writer in the midst of a painful divorce is stalked at his remote lake house by a would-be scribe who accuses him of plagiarism.
Director: David Koepp | Stars: Johnny Depp, Maria Bello, John Turturro, Timothy Hutton
Votes: 209,893 | Gross: $48.02M
73. Cape Fear (1962)
Passed | 106 min | Drama, Thriller
A lawyer's family is stalked by a man he once helped put in jail.
Director: J. Lee Thompson | Stars: Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, Polly Bergen, Lori Martin
Votes: 31,958
74. Sinister 2 (2015)
R | 97 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A young mother and her twin sons move into a rural house that's marked for death.
Director: Ciarán Foy | Stars: James Ransone, Shannyn Sossamon, Robert Daniel Sloan, Dartanian Sloan
Votes: 60,766 | Gross: $27.74M
75. Simon & Simon (1981–1989)
TV-PG | 60 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Two brothers of disparate tastes and manners run a private detective agency.
Stars: Jameson Parker, Gerald McRaney, Mary Carver, Tim Reid
Votes: 6,133
76. Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)
R | 127 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
With personal crises and age weighing in on them, LAPD officers Riggs and Murtaugh must contend with deadly Chinese triads that are trying to free their former leaders out of prison and onto American soil.
Director: Richard Donner | Stars: Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Joe Pesci, Rene Russo
Votes: 172,514 | Gross: $130.44M
77. Magpie Murders (2022– )
TV-14 | 45 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Editor Susan Ryeland gets drawn into a web of intrigue and murder when she receives Alan Conway's unfinished manuscript of an Atticus Pünd mystery.
Stars: Conleth Hill, Lesley Manville, Tim McMullan, Ian Lloyd Anderson
Votes: 7,051
78. Dark Places (2015)
R | 113 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Libby Day was only eight years old when her family was brutally murdered in their rural Kansas farmhouse. Almost thirty years later, she reluctantly agrees to revisit the crime and uncovers the wrenching truths that led up to that tragic night.
Director: Gilles Paquet-Brenner | Stars: Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Christina Hendricks, Chloë Grace Moretz
Votes: 47,850
79. The Dresden Files (2007–2008)
TV-14 | 582 min | Crime, Drama, Fantasy
Harry Dresden is a wizard, the only one listed in the Chicago phone book. He's got a handle on the crimes that can't be solved by anyone else. Paranormal? No problem. Dresden deals in all matters of supernatural threats.
Stars: Paul Blackthorne, Valerie Cruz, Terrence Mann, Raoul Bhaneja
Votes: 11,476
80. One for the Money (2012)
PG-13 | 91 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
Unemployed and newly-divorced Stephanie Plum lands a job at her cousin's bail-bond business, where her first assignment puts her on the trail of a wanted local cop from her romantic past.
Director: Julie Anne Robinson | Stars: Katherine Heigl, Jason O'Mara, Daniel Sunjata, John Leguizamo
Votes: 44,160 | Gross: $26.41M
81. Until the End of the World (1991)
R | 158 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
In 1999, Claire Tourneur's life is forever changed after she survives a car crash. She rescues Sam and travels the world with him. Writer Eugene Fitzpatrick follows and writes their story as a method of recording dreams is being developed.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: William Hurt, Solveig Dommartin, Pietro Falcone, Enzo Turrin
Votes: 11,378 | Gross: $0.75M
82. Crooked House (2017)
PG-13 | 115 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
In Agatha Christie's most twisted tale, a spy-turned-private-detective is lured by his former lover to catch her grandfather's murderer before Scotland Yard exposes dark family secrets.
Director: Gilles Paquet-Brenner | Stars: Max Irons, Stefanie Martini, Glenn Close, Honor Kneafsey
Votes: 27,630
83. Stumptown (2019–2020)
TV-14 | 44 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A sharp-witted Marine veteran becomes a private investigator in Portland, Oregon, where she takes care of her brother who has Down syndrome.
Stars: Cobie Smulders, Jake Johnson, Tantoo Cardinal, Cole Sibus
Votes: 13,110
84. Riptide (1984–1986)
TV-14 | 60 min | Action, Crime, Drama
The cases of a private investigations agency run by two Vietnam War veterans and their computer geek friend from high school, armed with toughness, their own helicopter, and the third's technical ability.
Stars: Perry King, Joe Penny, Thom Bray, Jack Ging
Votes: 3,202
85. Matt Houston (1982–1985)
90 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Matt Houston is a wealthy Texan who moves to California to oversee his family's offshore drilling enterprises but spends most of his time dabbling in his private investigator hobby.
Stars: Lee Horsley, Pamela Hensley, Lincoln Kilpatrick, Cis Rundle
Votes: 1,464
86. Vega$ (1978–1981)
60 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Dan Tanna is a private investigator in the gambling town of Las Vegas, Nevada. Vegas can be seedy or glamorous, depending on your point of view.
Stars: Robert Urich, Bart Braverman, Phyllis Davis, Greg Morris
Votes: 2,259
87. Peter Gunn (1958–1961)
TV-14 | 30 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Peter Gunn is a private detective with a knack for finding trouble. His cases often mean he runs into the shadiest characters, most vicious thugs and the most powerful crime bosses. Cool and resourceful, he always gets the guilty party.
Stars: Craig Stevens, Herschel Bernardi, Lola Albright, Bill Chadney
Votes: 1,675
88. The Happytime Murders (2018)
R | 91 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
When the puppet cast of a '90s children's TV show begin to get murdered one by one, a disgraced LAPD detective-turned-private eye puppet takes on the case.
Director: Brian Henson | Stars: Melissa McCarthy, Elizabeth Banks, Maya Rudolph, Leslie David Baker
Votes: 30,421 | Gross: $20.71M
89. Alone in the Dark (2005)
R | 96 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
A detective of the paranormal slowly unravels mysterious events with deadly results.
Director: Uwe Boll | Stars: Christian Slater, Tara Reid, Stephen Dorff, Frank C. Turner
Votes: 47,049 | Gross: $5.18M
90. Shaft (1971)
R | 100 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A crime lord hires black private eye, John Shaft, to find and retrieve his kidnapped daughter.
Director: Gordon Parks | Stars: Richard Roundtree, Moses Gunn, Charles Cioffi, Christopher St. John
Votes: 21,087 | Gross: $16.69M
91. Hawaiian Eye (1959–1963)
60 min | Action, Adventure, Crime
The cases of Hawaiian Eye Private Investigations and the two handsome, slick, tough-guy detectives who ran the firm, Thomas Jefferson Lopaka, or Tom for short, and Tracy Steele, a Korean War veteran and former city police detective.
Stars: Poncie Ponce, Connie Stevens, Douglas Mossman, Robert Conrad
Votes: 690
92. Broken City (2013)
R | 109 min | Action, Crime, Drama
In a city rife with injustice, ex-cop Billy Taggart seeks redemption and revenge after being double-crossed by its most powerful figure: Mayor Nicholas Hostetler.
Director: Allen Hughes | Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jeffrey Wright
Votes: 83,462 | Gross: $19.70M
93. Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
Not Rated | 106 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
A doomed female hitchhiker pulls Mike Hammer into a deadly whirlpool of intrigue, revolving around a mysterious "great whatsit".
Director: Robert Aldrich | Stars: Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker, Paul Stewart, Juano Hernandez
Votes: 22,147
94. Bored to Death (2009–2011)
TV-MA | 28 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A well-meaning but struggling writer decides to lead a sort of double life by pretending to be a private detective using the methods he read about in old detective novels.
Stars: Jason Schwartzman, Zach Galifianakis, Ted Danson, Heather Burns
Votes: 34,657
95. The Valet (2022)
PG-13 | 124 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A movie star enlists a parking valet at a Beverly Hills restaurant to pose as her lover to cover for her relationship with a married man.
Director: Richard Wong | Stars: Eugenio Derbez, Samara Weaving, Max Greenfield, Betsy Brandt
Votes: 16,093
96. French Exit (2020)
R | 113 min | Comedy, Drama
An aging Manhattan socialite existing on the last of her inheritance moves to a small Paris apartment with her son and cat.
Director: Azazel Jacobs | Stars: Michelle Pfeiffer, Lucas Hedges, Tracy Letts, Valerie Mahaffey
Votes: 8,804
97. The Two Jakes (1990)
R | 137 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
The sequel to Chinatown (1974) finds J.J. "Jake" Gittes investigating adultery and murder, and the money that comes from oil.
Director: Jack Nicholson | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Harvey Keitel, Meg Tilly, Madeleine Stowe
Votes: 15,533 | Gross: $10.01M
98. Blood Ties (2007)
TV-14 | 43 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Vicki Nelson, a former homicide detective turned private investigator, and Henry Fitzroy, a 470-year-old vampire, form a unique team solving cases and dealing with the supernatural world.
Stars: Christina Cox, Dylan Neal, Kyle Schmid, Gina Holden
Votes: 7,093
99. True Justice: Family Ties (2024 TV Movie)
TV-PG | 84 min | Crime, Mystery
A law school student and her friends, set out to prove her brother's innocence but the only way to clear his name is by finding the real killer.
Director: Jonathan Wright | Stars: Katherine McNamara, Markian Tarasiuk, Alexander Nunez, Marisa McIntyre
Votes: 558
100. Wander (I) (2020)
R | 94 min | Thriller
After getting hired to probe a suspicious death in the small town of Wander, a mentally unstable private investigator becomes convinced the case is linked to the same 'conspiracy cover up' that caused the death of his daughter.
Director: April Mullen | Stars: Aaron Eckhart, Tommy Lee Jones, Katheryn Winnick, Heather Graham
Votes: 9,755