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Best Mystery Movies of the 1970s, Ranked by IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDB
82 mystery films from the 1970s are in our catalog; the 50 best are ranked below. Top of the list is Chinatown (1974), at 8.1 on IMDb. The average IMDb score across this list is 7.2. Biggest split between audiences and critics: The Boys from Brazil, 7.0 on IMDb against 40 on Metacritic.
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| # | Movie | Genre | IMDb | Tomato | Meta | TMDB | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chinatown '1974 | Crime / Mystery / Thriller | 8.1 | 98% | 92 | 7.9 | Roman Polanski |
| 2 | Solaris '1972 | Drama / Sci-Fi / Mystery | 7.9 | 92% | 93 | 7.8 | Andrei Tarkovsky |
| 3 | All the President's Men '1976 | Drama / Mystery / Thriller | 7.9 | 95% | 84 | 7.7 | Alan J. Pakula |
| 4 | Sleuth '1972 | Thriller / Mystery / Crime | 7.9 | 90% | - | 7.7 | Joseph L. Mankiewicz |
| 5 | The Conversation '1974 | Crime / Drama / Mystery | 7.7 | 94% | 88 | 7.5 | Francis Ford Coppola |
| 6 | Hedgehog in the Fog '1975 | Animation / Mystery | 8.1 | - | - | 7.5 | Yuri Norstein |
| 7 | The Long Goodbye '1973 | Mystery / Crime / Comedy | 7.5 | 93% | 87 | 7.4 | Robert Altman |
| 8 | Deep Red '1975 | Horror / Mystery / Thriller | 7.5 | 91% | 89 | 7.7 | Dario Argento |
| 9 | The Tenant '1976 | Thriller / Mystery / Drama | 7.5 | 85% | 71 | 7.6 | Roman Polanski |
| 10 | High Plains Drifter '1973 | Western / Drama / Mystery | 7.4 | 91% | 69 | 7.3 | Clint Eastwood |
| 11 | Three Days of the Condor '1975 | Thriller / Mystery | 7.4 | 88% | 63 | 7.3 | Sydney Pollack |
| 12 | The Passenger '1975 | Drama / Mystery / Thriller | 7.4 | 88% | 90 | 7.2 | Michelangelo Antonioni |
| 13 | Suspiria '1977 | Horror / Mystery | 7.3 | 94% | 79 | 7.5 | Dario Argento |
| 14 | Picnic at Hanging Rock '1975 | Drama / Mystery | 7.3 | 93% | 81 | 7.2 | Peter Weir |
| 15 | Mr. Klein '1976 | Mystery / Drama / Thriller | 7.5 | - | - | 7.2 | Joseph Losey |
| 16 | Murder on the Orient Express '1974 | Drama / Thriller / Mystery | 7.2 | 89% | 62 | 7.1 | Sidney Lumet |
| 17 | The Night Stalker '1972 | Mystery / Horror / Thriller | 7.4 | 88% | - | 6.9 | John Llewellyn Moxey |
| 18 | The Last of Sheila '1973 | Crime / Mystery / Thriller | 7.2 | 90% | - | 7.0 | Herbert Ross |
| 19 | Murder by Death '1976 | Comedy / Crime / Mystery | 7.2 | 63% | 59 | 7.1 | Robert Moore |
| 20 | Death on the Nile '1978 | Mystery | 7.3 | 80% | 59 | 7.2 | John Guillermin |
| 21 | I... for Icarus '1979 | Thriller / Crime / Mystery | 7.8 | - | - | 7.6 | Henri Verneuil |
| 22 | The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe '1972 | Comedy / Mystery | 7.2 | 67% | - | 7.0 | Yves Robert |
| 23 | The Bird with the Crystal Plumage '1970 | Horror / Mystery / Thriller | 7.1 | 85% | - | 7.1 | Dario Argento |
| 24 | Black Christmas '1974 | Horror / Mystery / Crime | 7.1 | 73% | 65 | 6.9 | Bob Clark |
| 25 | The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh '1971 | Horror / Mystery / Crime | 6.9 | - | - | 6.8 | Sergio Martino |
| 26 | Soylent Green '1973 | Sci-Fi / Crime / Mystery | 7.0 | 73% | 66 | 6.9 | Richard Fleischer |
| 27 | The Seven-Ups '1973 | Thriller / Crime / Mystery | 6.8 | 73% | - | 6.3 | Philip D'Antoni |
| 28 | The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes '1970 | Mystery / Crime / Comedy | 7.0 | 87% | 75 | 6.8 | Billy Wilder |
| 29 | One Way or Another '1976 | Drama / Thriller / Mystery | 7.5 | - | - | 7.7 | Elio Petri |
| 30 | A Lizard in a Woman's Skin '1971 | Horror / Thriller / Mystery | 6.8 | 100% | - | 6.5 | Lucio Fulci |
| 31 | The Return of the Pink Panther '1975 | Comedy / Crime / Mystery | 7.0 | 79% | 61 | 6.8 | Blake Edwards |
| 32 | The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane '1976 | Drama / Mystery / Thriller | 7.0 | 93% | 53 | 7.0 | Nicolas Gessner |
| 33 | Images '1972 | Thriller / Mystery / Drama / Horror | 7.0 | 71% | - | 6.8 | Robert Altman |
| 34 | The House with Laughing Windows '1976 | Mystery / Thriller / Horror | 7.0 | - | - | 7.2 | Pupi Avati |
| 35 | Farewell, My Lovely '1975 | Crime / Mystery / Thriller / Drama | 7.0 | 76% | 70 | 6.7 | Dick Richards |
| 36 | Equus '1977 | Drama / Mystery / Thriller | 7.1 | 70% | - | 7.0 | Sidney Lumet |
| 37 | What Have You Done to Solange? '1972 | Mystery / Thriller / Horror | 6.9 | 71% | - | 6.7 | Massimo Dallamano |
| 38 | And Soon the Darkness '1970 | Thriller / Mystery / Crime / Horror | 6.6 | 38% | - | 6.5 | Robert Fuest |
| 39 | Torso '1973 | Horror / Thriller / Mystery | 6.5 | 60% | - | 6.6 | Sergio Martino |
| 40 | The Boys from Brazil '1978 | Drama / Mystery / Sci-Fi | 7.0 | 72% | 40 | 6.7 | Franklin J. Schaffner |
| 41 | The Body of My Enemy '1976 | Crime / Drama / Mystery / Thriller | 6.6 | - | - | 6.4 | Henri Verneuil |
| 42 | The Legend of Hell House '1973 | Horror / Mystery | 6.6 | 72% | 56 | 6.7 | John Hough |
| 43 | The Other '1972 | Drama / Horror / Mystery | 6.8 | 83% | 65 | 6.5 | Robert Mulligan |
| 44 | The House That Dripped Blood '1971 | Horror / Mystery | 6.5 | 92% | 55 | 6.4 | Peter Duffell |
| 45 | The Last Wave '1977 | Drama / Mystery / Fantasy | 6.9 | 78% | 85 | 6.7 | Peter Weir |
| 46 | Murder by Decree '1979 | Crime / Mystery / Thriller | 6.8 | 81% | 68 | 6.3 | Bob Clark |
| 47 | Four Flies on Grey Velvet '1971 | Horror / Mystery / Thriller | 6.5 | 67% | - | 6.5 | Dario Argento |
| 48 | The Cat o' Nine Tails '1971 | Horror / Mystery / Thriller | 6.6 | 81% | 63 | 6.7 | Dario Argento |
| 49 | Obsession '1976 | Thriller / Mystery / Drama | 6.7 | 77% | 59 | 6.7 | Brian De Palma |
| 50 | All the Colours of the Dark '1972 | Horror / Mystery / Thriller | 6.6 | - | - | 6.6 | Sergio Martino |
Our catalog covers roughly the 8,800 most-rated films on TMDB, so lesser-known titles may be missing. Order uses a confidence-weighted IMDb score so a perfect score from a handful of votes does not beat a well-established classic; the scores shown are the raw ones.
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Other genres in the 1970s
Action of the 1970s Animation of the 1970s Comedy of the 1970s Crime of the 1970s Drama of the 1970s Fantasy of the 1970s Horror of the 1970s Romance of the 1970s Sci-Fi of the 1970s Thriller of the 1970s War of the 1970s Western of the 1970s
Directors on this list
Roman Polanski Andrei Tarkovsky Alan J. Pakula Joseph L. Mankiewicz Francis Ford Coppola Robert Altman Dario Argento Clint Eastwood Sydney Pollack Michelangelo Antonioni Peter Weir Joseph Losey
Actors on this list
Jack Nicholson Faye Dunaway Dustin Hoffman Robert Redford Laurence Olivier Michael Caine Gene Hackman Clint Eastwood Alain Delon Jeanne Moreau Albert Finney Lauren Bacall