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Best Mystery Movies of the 1950s

Mystery films released 1950–1959, ranked by TMDB rating among titles with at least 500 votes.

1. 
   #1 Rear Window (1954) · ★ 8.3 · 7,347 votes · 1h 53m · thriller, drama, mystery

   A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.…

2. 
   #2 Witness for the Prosecution (1957) · ★ 8.2 · 1,759 votes · 1h 56m · drama, crime, mystery

   An ailing barrister is thrust back into the courtroom in what becomes one of the most unusual and eventful murder cases of the lawyer's career when he finds himself defending a man…

3. 
   #3 Vertigo (1958) · ★ 8.1 · 6,517 votes · 2h 8m · thriller, romance, mystery

   A retired San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia investigates the strange activities of an old friend's wife, all the while becoming dangerously obsessed with her.…

4. 
   #4 North by Northwest (1959) · ★ 8.0 · 4,632 votes · 2h 17m · adventure, thriller, mystery

   Advertising man Roger Thornhill is mistaken for a spy, triggering a deadly cross-country chase.…

5. 
   #5 Rashomon (1950) · ★ 8.0 · 2,620 votes · 1h 28m · drama, crime, mystery

   Four people recount different versions of the story of a man's murder and the rape of his wife.…

6. 
   #6 Ugetsu (1953) · ★ 8.0 · 668 votes · 1h 36m · fantasy, drama, mystery

   In 16th century Japan, peasants Genjuro and Tobei sell their earthenware pots to a group of soldiers in a nearby village, in defiance of a local sage's warning against seeking to p…

7. 
   #7 Diabolique (1955) · ★ 7.9 · 1,139 votes · 1h 58m · thriller, drama, horror

   The cruel and abusive headmaster of a boarding school, Michel Delassalle, is murdered by an unlikely duo -- his meek wife and the mistress he brazenly flaunts. The women become inc…

8. 
   #8 Anatomy of a Murder (1959) · ★ 7.8 · 1,221 votes · 2h 41m · drama, crime, mystery

   Semi-retired Michigan lawyer Paul Biegler takes the case of Army Lt. Manion, who murdered a local innkeeper after his wife claimed that he raped her. Over the course of an extensiv…

9. 
   #9 Touch of Evil (1958) · ★ 7.7 · 1,652 votes · 1h 51m · thriller, drama, crime

   A border-town bombing draws Mexican investigator Miguel Vargas into a corruption-ridden police investigation led by crooked captain Hank Quinlan, setting off a deadly struggle over…

10. 
    #10 In a Lonely Place (1950) · ★ 7.6 · 685 votes · 1h 33m · thriller, romance, drama

    A violent screenwriter and a female neighbor fall in love after she clears him of murder, but she begins to have second thoughts.…

11. 
    #11 The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) · ★ 7.4 · 1,608 votes · 2h 1m · thriller, drama, mystery

    An American doctor and his wife, a former singing star, witness a murder while vacationing in Morocco, and are drawn into a twisting plot of international intrigue when their young…

12. 
    #12 To Catch a Thief (1955) · ★ 7.3 · 1,724 votes · 1h 46m · thriller, romance, mystery

    When a string of jewel robberies hits the French Riviera, suspicion falls on retired thief John “The Cat” Robie. To clear his name, he sets out to trap the copycat himself—entangli…

13. 
    #13 The Trouble with Harry (1955) · ★ 7.0 · 932 votes · 1h 39m · comedy, mystery

    In a quiet Vermont village, a corpse creates unexpected chaos as several townspeople each believe they may be to blame.…

14. 
    #14 House on Haunted Hill (1959) · ★ 6.7 · 635 votes · 1h 15m · horror, mystery

    Frederick Loren invites five strangers to the party of a lifetime and offers each of them $10,000 if they can stay the night in the reportedly haunted house. Armed with a gun for p…

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