The 40 most popular 1960s mystery movies, ranked. Click any film for ratings, reviews, trailers, and where to watch.


2001: A Space Odyssey
1968 · 2h 29m · UK
Humanity finds a mysterious object buried beneath the lunar surface and sets off to find its origins with the help of HAL 9000, the world's most advanced super computer.


Psycho
1960 · 1h 49m · US
When larcenous real estate clerk Marion Crane goes on the lam with a wad of cash and hopes of starting a new life, she ends up at the notorious Bates Motel, where manager Norman Bates cares for his housebound mother.


High and Low
1963 · 2h 22m · JP
A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but demand the ransom anyway.


Marnie
1964 · 2h 10m · US
Marnie is a beautiful but emotionally withdrawn thief, stealing from employers before disappearing under new identities. When her new boss, Mark Rutland, discovers her secret, his fascination turns to obsession, and he blackmails her into marriage, convinced he can cure her. But as he probes deeper into Marnie’s fractured mind, long-buried fears and compulsions begin to surface.


In the Heat of the Night
1967 · 1h 49m · US
African-American Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs is arrested on suspicion of murder by Bill Gillespie, the racist police chief of tiny Sparta, Mississippi. After Tibbs proves not only his own innocence but that of another man, he joins forces with Gillespie to track down the real killer. Their investigation takes them through every social level of the town, with Tibbs making enemies as well as unlikely friends as he hunts for the truth.


Macabre Serenade
1968 · 1h 29m · MX
Relatives of a recently deceased man meet at his eerie castle for a reading of the will. They encounter a sinister piano player who turns out to be a toy maker, and his toys are imbued with murderous intentions.


Charade
1963 · 1h 53m · US
After Regina Lampert falls for the dashing Peter Joshua on a skiing holiday in the French Alps, she discovers upon her return to Paris that her husband has been murdered. Soon, she and Peter are giving chase to three of her late husband's World War II cronies, Tex, Scobie and Gideon, who are after a quarter of a million dollars the quartet stole while behind enemy lines.


A Shot in the Dark
1964 · 1h 42m · UK
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.


Judex
1963 · 1h 44m · FR
Georges Franju's Judex is an arch, playful tribute to the serials of the influential silent filmmaker Louis Feuillade. Franju shuffles through the plot of Feuillade's lengthy serial of the same name, about an adventurer named Judex whose revenge against the corrupt banker Favraux unleashes a complicated series of schemes.


Harper
1966 · 2h 1m · US
Harper is a cynical private eye in the best tradition of Bogart. He even has Bogie's Baby hiring him to find her missing husband, getting involved along the way with an assortment of unsavory characters and an illegal-alien smuggling ring.


Homicidal
1961 · 1h 27m · US
A woman named Emily checks into a hotel and offers the bellboy $2000 to temporarily marry her. We soon find out Emily is the caretaker of a wheelchair-bound mute named Helga, who was the childhood guardian of a pair of siblings: Miriam Webster and her half-brother, Warren, who is about to inherit the estate of their late father. Who is the mysterious Emily and what are her intentions?


Alphaville
1965 · 1h 39m · FR
Lemmy Caution is on a mission to eliminate Professor Von Braun, the creator of a malevolent computer that rules the city of Alphaville. Befriended by the scientist’s daughter Natasha, Lemmy must unravel the mysteries of the strictly logical Alpha 60 and teach Natasha the meaning of the word “love.”


Fanatic
1965 · 1h 37m · UK
A young woman is terrorized by her former fiance's demented mother who blames her for her son's death. Also known as Die! Die! My Darling!


P.J.
1968 · 1h 49m · US
Reluctant New York City private eye P.J. Detweiler is hired as a bodyguard to protect Maureen Preble, the mistress of shady millionaire William Orbison. In truth, Orbison plans a deadly intrigue in which P.J. is to play a central part. Meanwhile, complications ensue as P.J. gradually falls in love with Maureen.


The Night of the Generals
1967 · 2h 28m · FR
A German intelligence officer investigates a prostitute's killing in Warsaw during World War II. He lands on three major Nazi generals as suspects, two of whom are also involved in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler.


The Prize
1963 · 2h 14m · US
A group of Nobel laureates descends on Stockholm to accept their awards. Among them is American novelist Andrew Craig, a former literary luminary now writing pulp detective stories to earn a living. Craig, who is infamous for his drinking and womanizing, formulates a wild theory that physics prize winner Dr. Max Stratman has been replaced by an impostor, embroiling Craig and his chaperone in a Cold War kidnapping plot.


Blood and Black Lace
1964 · 1h 28m · DE
Isabella, a young model, is murdered by a mysterious masked figure at a fashion house in Rome. When her diary, which details the house employees' many vices, disappears, the masked killer begins killing off all the models in and around the house to find it.
Amsterdam Affair
Amsterdam Affair
1968 · UK
An Englishman in Holland gets involved in a murder case. It looks bad for him, but the wily Inspector Van Der Valk isn't convinced of his guilt.


Blow-Up
1966 · 1h 51m · UK
A successful mod photographer in London whose world is bounded by fashion, pop music, marijuana, and easy sex, feels his life is boring and despairing. But in the course of a single day he unknowingly captures a death on film.


Carnival of Souls
1962 · 1h 18m · US
Mary Henry ends up the sole survivor of a fatal car accident through mysterious circumstances. Trying to put the incident behind her, she moves to Utah and takes a job as a church organist. But her fresh start is interrupted by visions of a fiendish man. As the visions begin to occur more frequently, Mary finds herself drawn to the deserted carnival on the outskirts of town. The strangely alluring carnival may hold the secret to her tragic past.


The Trial
1962 · 1h 59m · FR
Arrested for an unnamed crime, Josef K. is trapped in a surreal bureaucratic maze where justice is unknowable and guilt is assumed.


The Pit and the Pendulum
1961 · 1h 20m · US
In the sixteenth century, Francis Barnard travels to Spain to clarify the strange circumstances of his sister's death after she had married the son of a cruel Spanish Inquisitor.


Night Tide
1961 · 1h 24m · US
A young sailor is enamored with a mysterious woman performing as a mermaid on the local pier. As their existences become entwined, he comes to suspect the woman might be a real mermaid who lures men to a watery death during the full moon.


The Unending Fear
1965 · TR
A young woman studying in Europe returns home to find that her father has been murdered. The perpetrators, in order to seize her inheritance, try to drive her insane.


Liberty Bar
1960 · 1h 34m · FR
Superintendent Maigret is sent to Antibes to elucidate the murder of William Brown, a rich Australian who regularly disappeared to indulge in formidable drinking binges. In his footsteps, Maigret makes the rounds of bars until discovering the Liberty Bar, its welcoming patroness La Grosse Jaja and its equivocal clientele. It is without a doubt here that the key to the murder is to be found.


The Bride Wore Black
1968 · 1h 47m · FR
Julie Kohler is prevented from suicide by her mother. She leaves home with the intent to track down, charm and kill five men who do not know her. What is her goal? What is her purpose?


The Innocents
1961 · 1h 40m · UK
In a mid-19th century Essex country house, a young governess for two children becomes convinced that the house and grounds are haunted by ghosts and that the children are being possessed.


Eye of the Devil
1966 · 1h 36m · UK
A French nobleman deserts his wife because of an ancient family secret.


L'Avventura
1960 · 2h 24m · FR
Claudia and Anna join Anna's lover, Sandro, on a boat trip to a remote volcanic island. When Anna goes missing, a search is launched. In the meantime, Sandro and Claudia become involved in a romance despite Anna's disappearance, though the relationship suffers from guilt and tension.


Fatal Trap
1961 · 1h 27m · MX
Part of a series of films based on portions of the Manuel Payno novel "El fisto del diablo." The others are El fistol del diablo, Juego diabólico and El ataúd infernal. All were directed by Fernando Fernández and star Roberto Cañedo.


Woman Despiser
1967 · 1h 30m · TR
A psychopath serial killer and a necrophiliac rapist wearing a Halloween mask and gloves chooses victims based on the fact that their first initial is the same as the district in which he kills them.


Matango
1963 · 1h 29m · JP
Five vacationers and two crewmen become stranded on a tropical island near the equator. The island has little edible food for them to use as they try to live in a fungus covered hulk while repairing Kessei's yacht. Eventually they struggle over the food rations which were left behind by the former crew. Soon they discover something unfriendly there...


Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte
1964 · 2h 13m · US
An aging, reclusive Southern belle plagued by a horrifying family secret descends into madness after the arrival of a lost relative.


Harbor Lights
1963 · 1h 8m · PR
Professional gambler Dan Crown arrives in San Juan to visit his brother Alex, only to learn from the police that Alex has been found murdered. To Captain Acosta's questioning, Dan answers that he had no knowledge of his brother's affairs. Dan then finds Gina Rosario searching his hotel room, and together they begin to investigate Alex's death.


The Image
1969 · 13m · UK
An artist's painting comes to life, and haunts him.


The Horla
1966 · 38m · FR
A man who lives by himself becomes increasingly concerned that he is not alone. Based on the short story by Guy de Maupassant.


Murder She Said
1961 · 1h 27m · UK
Miss Marple believes she's seen a murder in a passing-by train, yet when the police find no evidence she decides to investigate it on her own.


Maniac
1963 · 1h 26m · UK
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.


The Ghost and Mr. Chicken
1966 · 1h 30m · US
Luther Heggs, a typesetter for the town newspaper, pitches an idea for a story about a local haunted house where a famous murder/suicide occurred 20 years earlier. After the editor assigns Luther to spend one night alone in the mansion, Heggs has a number of supernatural encounters and writes a front page story that makes him a hometown hero...until the nephew of the deceased sues him for libel.


Death Will Return
1961 · 1h 30m · GR
Adapted from Nikos Foskolos’ theatrical play. On a terribly stormy night, in a secluded hotel, the owner, Brigadier Norton, is murdered. Prime suspects: his daughter Elena, his second wife Liza, Liza’s niece and her fiancé, Norton’s physician, and the hotel staff. Inspector Fox and his assistant, policeman Petridis, are assigned the investigation of the crime. While the suspects’ questioning is under way, some more people arrive at the hotel: detective Tilemachos Christofis with his assistant Aliki, and lieutenant Karalis, a sworn enemy of the victim, complicating things even more.
The 1960s broke the old rules everywhere at once — the French New Wave, the collapse of the Hollywood Production Code, and new waves across Europe and Japan reshaping what a film could show and say.
Mystery films are structured around withheld information, trusting the audience to work alongside the investigator. The genre ranges from cozy whodunits to bleak, unresolved character studies.