Alfred Hitchcock's 10 Best Murder Mystery Movies

Alfred Hitchcock was known as the “Master of Suspense,” and his best murder mystery movies make it clear why he earned this title. The British director was an accomplished horror and thriller director, but many of his most memorable films focus on murderers and detectives. He influenced the genre in countless ways, and he was constantly crafting boundary-pushing murder mysteries.

Alfred Hitchcock changed the landscape of cinema, particularly the genres that he loved most. He questioned the rules of traditional murder mysteries repeatedly, and he often told stories from unusual angles. Owing to his fascination with the subject of voyeurism, many of his heroes in murder mysteries aren’t detectives, they’re merely bystanders who are drawn into a complex crime.

10 Murder! (1930)

A young actor is accused of murder

Murder is one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most straightforward and classically styled murder mysteries. The film follows a young actor in a traveling theater company who wakes up to find herself covered in blood and lying next to the body of her colleague, although she professes her innocence. Murder was just Hitchcock’s third “talkie,” so it isn’t as polished as many of his later movies.

Although Murder lacks some of Hitchcock’s signature guile, it’s still a fun mystery with one or two flashes of visual brilliance. The plot is a little too convenient, as the real murderer just happens to write a confession before his death, but this doesn’t affect the joy of the investigation. Altogether, Murder is an enjoyable mystery for fans of the genre, but it isn’t in the same league as some of Alfred Hitchcock’s best movies.

9 Suspicion (1941)

A woman falls for a charming trickster with uncertain motives

Joan Fontaine won an Oscar for Suspicion. Surprisingly, this is the only acting Oscar won by a performer in any of Hitchcock’s films. She plays a woman who is seduced by a con artist, but she only discovers the depth of his deceit after they are married. Cary Grant gets a rare chance to play the villain, and his good looks serve him well as a slimy grifter who manages to charm everyone while lying to their faces.

Suspicion is a compelling mystery that slowly reveals itself layer by layer. It begins with a string of lesser crimes – embezzlement and fraud, mostly – before eventually revealing the potential murderous intent of its villain. By this time, it’s too late for Lina to escape her husband. What makes Suspicion different from other mysteries is that the ending is so ambiguous. Johnnie gives Lina the truth, but it may just be another one of his lies to placate her.

8 Shadow Of A Doubt (1943)

A woman begins to suspect her uncle of murder

Charlie is a bright and optimistic girl, and she’s happy to hear that her uncle Charlie, her namesake, is coming to stay. This all changes when two detectives come poking around, and she begins to suspect that her beloved uncle may be a notorious killer on the loose. Joseph Cotten and Teresa Wright are both superb as their relationship turns from happy familial love into something much darker and more dangerous.

Alfred Hitchcock claimed that Shadow of a Doubt was his favorite among all the movies he directed. Most critics and fans disagree, but it’s clear to see why Hitchcock may have felt this way. Shadow of a Doubt cuts to the heart of one of the director’s favorite ideas, that evil could be lurking around every corner. The younger Charlie suddenly has nowhere to hide as she investigates her own uncle, and this makes the third act incredibly tense.

7 Spellbound (1945)

A man with amnesia suspects that he is repressing his memories of murder

Spellbound is an unusual kind of murder mystery, as one of the main characters is initially convinced that he is the culprit. Only through extensive psychoanalysis can he determine that his uneasy dreams are revealing a different truth to him. Spellbound‘s ideas of dream analysis and the subconscious are rooted in psychology that was deemed cutting-edge at the time, but now seems outdated. Still, this quirk doesn’t impact the compelling narrative.

Seen through a modern lens, Spellbound can be seen as a more fantastical mystery. Alfred Hitchcock teamed up with Salvador Dalí to create the surreal, expressionist dream sequences, and this inadvertently makes the film an even better fit as a fantasy psychodrama. Spellbound still works as a compelling murder mystery, with plenty of twists and turns along the way. Throughout it all, John struggles to separate reality from his own imagination.

6 The Lady Vanishes (1938)

A passenger on a train searches for her elderly traveling companion

The Lady Vanishes is one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most traditional mysteries in some ways. The film follows a woman traveling alone through Europe who wakes up after sustaining a head injury to find that the woman she had been talking to has vanished. The mystery takes a twist as her companions on board the train each have their own reasons for pretending that the woman never existed in the first place.

Despite its familiar setting, The Lady Vanishes is quite unlike Murder on the Orient Express and other classic mysteries. Set in Europe shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, the film is loaded with sly political commentary. There are characters who simply want to ignore all the fuss and keep the train moving, which mirrors the failed British policy of appeasement in the 1930s.

5 Rope (1948)

Two friends believe they can commit the perfect murder

Rope is under 90 minutes long, and it all takes place within a single room. This taut thriller is one of Alfred Hitchcock’s bravest narrative stunts, but he executes it tremendously. Hitchcock constantly finds new ways of moving his characters and positioning the camera to keep the film as visually interesting as possible without ever being too gimmicky for the sake of it.

Alfred Hitchcock and James Stewart made several classics together, and their understanding makes Rope tick. Stewart plays the one guest at the dinner party who manages to piece together the facts of the murder. The two men who commit the crime are inspired by their aesthetic values, and they see murder as their art form. Gradually, the cracks in their relationship begin to show, and this sets the scene for a fascinating personal drama.

4 Dial M For Murder (1954)

A man conspires to have his wife killed, but he is forced to frame her for murder instead

There is one scene in particular which showcases the brilliance of Dial M for Murder, and it has become one of Hitchcock’s most unforgettable images. Margot casually walks around her apartment, completely unaware that a man is waiting behind the curtains to strangle her to death. She kills the intruder in the ensuing struggle, and her husband swiftly pivots from trying to kill her to trying to frame her for murder.

Hitchcock pushes dramatic irony to its limits in Dial M for Murder. Unlike most murder mysteries, he shows the audience precisely who is guilty and what their motives are in the opening few scenes. The rest of the film is about watching the detectives creep closer to discovering the truth. The entire case against Margot hinges on the whereabouts of a key. It’s immensely frustrating that a woman’s life hangs in the balance due to such a seemingly innocuous detail, but this makes the conclusion even more satisfying, as logic and justice prevail.

3 Rear Window (1954)

A man suspects his neighbor of murdering his wife

James Stewart and Alfred Hitchcock reunited once again for Rear Window. Stewart plays Jeff, a man temporarily confined to his own apartment after breaking his leg, and he passes the time by watching his neighbors from a distance. He becomes a reluctant detective when he begins to suspect his neighbor of murdering his wife. Much like the audience, Jeff is forced to allow others to do most of the work.

Since Jeff often acts as a conduit for the audience, gazing at events through a window, Hitchcock can weaponize this association. He breaks the fourth wall as the murderer spots Jeff and stares menacingly down the lens of his camera. This is just one of many bold touches which make Rear Window so compelling. It isn’t the most difficult mystery, but few murder mysteries are able to make the stakes feel so urgent.

2 Psycho (1960)

A detective traces some stolen money to a mysterious roadside hotel

The first half of Psycho is a remarkable horror film, loaded with tension and unsettling imagery. Not content with this, Hitchcock pivots halfway through and unravels one of the greatest mystery films of all time too. As a woman comes searching for her missing sister, and a detective looks for the money she stole, Norman Bates has to lie to protect his mother, a mysterious figure watching over him from the house.

Norman Bates is one of Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest villains, and he has provided the template for countless movie villains since Psycho. The film’s twist may be common knowledge by now, but it’s still worth rewatching to see Norman’s duplicitous tactics, and the few moments when his cool demeanor slips to reveal the true depth of his murderous rage. The only thing which holds Psycho back is the overly didactic voiceover at the end, which Hitchcock was against, but the producers insisted upon.

1 Vertigo (1958)

A disgraced police detective investigates a friend’s wife

Vertigo is one of Alfred Hitchcock’s best movies, and it’s certainly his strongest mystery. James Stewart plays Scottie, a San Francisco-based detective who retires after developing an intense fear of heights and vertigo. He is soon hired as a private eye to investigate the suspicious movements of his client’s wife, but the case is far more complex than it first appears. Scottie is determined to pursue leads into Madeleine Elster’s death long after authorities consider the case closed.

Like many of Hitchcock’s most compelling works, Vertigo is about obsession. Scottie is steadfast in his commitment to solving Madeleine’s supposed murder, thinking somehow that the investigation may cure him of his ailments. Vertigo‘s dramatic ending proves that the physical and the psychological are tangled up. This connection between Scottie’s internal state and his external reality is also emphasized by Hitchcock’s focus on the dramatic hills of San Francisco, and the quiet moments of solace amid some of its most iconic landmarks.