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Best Mystery Movies of the 1970s
#1 Chinatown (1974) · ★ 7.9 · 4,427 votes · 2h 10m · thriller, drama, crimePrivate eye Jake Gittes lives off of the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-World War II Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite to investigate her husband's extra-ma…
#2 Solaris (1972) · ★ 7.8 · 1,894 votes · 2h 47m · drama, science-fiction, mysteryA psychologist is sent to a space station orbiting a planet called Solaris to investigate the death of a doctor and the mental problems of cosmonauts on the station. He soon discov…
#3 All the President's Men (1976) · ★ 7.7 · 2,160 votes · 2h 18m · thriller, drama, historyDuring the 1972 elections, two reporters' investigation sheds light on the controversial Watergate scandal that compels President Nixon to resign from his post.…
#4 Deep Red (1975) · ★ 7.7 · 1,630 votes · 2h 7m · thriller, horror, mysteryAn English pianist living in Rome witnesses the brutal murder of his psychic neighbor. With the help of a tenacious young reporter, he tries to discover the killer using very uncon…
#5 Sleuth (1972) · ★ 7.7 · 749 votes · 2h 18m · comedy, thriller, crimeA man who loves games and theatre invites his wife's lover to meet, setting up a battle of wits with potentially deadly results.…
#6 The Tenant (1976) · ★ 7.6 · 1,265 votes · 2h 6m · thriller, drama, horrorA quiet and inconspicuous man rents an apartment in Paris where he finds himself drawn into a rabbit hole of dangerous paranoia.…
#7 The Conversation (1974) · ★ 7.5 · 2,122 votes · 1h 55m · drama, crime, mysteryA paranoid, secretive surveillance expert has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that the couple he is spying on will be murdered.…
#8 The Long Goodbye (1973) · ★ 7.4 · 776 votes · 1h 52m · comedy, thriller, dramaIn 1970s Hollywood, Detective Philip Marlowe tries to help a friend who is accused of murdering his wife.…
#9 Three Days of the Condor (1975) · ★ 7.3 · 1,423 votes · 1h 57m · thriller, mysteryWhen bookish CIA researcher Joe Turner finds all his co-workers dead, he, together with a woman he has kidnapped, must work together to outwit those responsible until he determines…
#10 High Plains Drifter (1973) · ★ 7.3 · 1,392 votes · 1h 46m · drama, western, mysteryA gunfighting stranger comes to the small settlement of Lago. After gunning down three gunmen who tried to kill him, the townsfolk decide to hire the Stranger to hold off three out…
#11 Death on the Nile (1978) · ★ 7.2 · 954 votes · 2h 20m · mysteryAs Hercule Poirot enjoys a luxurious cruise down the Nile, a newlywed heiress is found murdered on board and every elegant passenger becomes a prime suspect.…
#12 Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) · ★ 7.2 · 919 votes · 1h 47m · drama, mysteryIn the early 1900s, Miranda attends a girls boarding school in Australia. One Valentine's Day, the school's typically strict headmistress treats the girls to a picnic field trip to…
#13 The Passenger (1975) · ★ 7.2 · 564 votes · 2h 6m · thriller, drama, mysteryDavid Locke is a world-weary American journalist who has been sent to cover a conflict in northern Africa, but he makes little progress with the story. When he discovers the body o…
#14 Murder on the Orient Express (1974) · ★ 7.1 · 1,626 votes · 2h 8m · thriller, drama, mysteryIn 1935, when his train is stopped by deep snow, detective Hercule Poirot is called on to solve a murder that occurred in his car the night before.…
#15 Murder by Death (1976) · ★ 7.1 · 934 votes · 1h 34m · comedy, thriller, crimeLionel Twain invites the world's five greatest detectives to a 'dinner and murder'. Included are a blind butler, a deaf-mute maid, screams, spinning rooms, secret passages, false i…
#16 The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) · ★ 7.1 · 862 votes · 1h 36m · thriller, horror, mysteryAn American writer living in Rome witnesses an attempted murder that is connected to an ongoing killing spree in the city and conducts his own investigation, despite him and his gi…
#17 Black Christmas (1974) · ★ 7.0 · 983 votes · 1h 38m · thriller, horror, crimeAs the residents of the Pi Kappa Sigma sorority house prepare for the festive season, a stranger begins to harass them with a series of obscene phone calls.…
#18 Soylent Green (1973) · ★ 6.9 · 1,477 votes · 1h 37m · thriller, science-fiction, crimeIn the year 2022, overcrowding, pollution, and resource depletion have reduced society’s leaders to finding food for the teeming masses. The answer is Soylent Green.…
#19 The Return of the Pink Panther (1975) · ★ 6.8 · 715 votes · 1h 53m · comedy, crime, mysteryThe famous Pink Panther jewel has once again been stolen and Inspector Clouseau is called in to catch the thief. The Inspector is convinced that 'The Phantom' has returned and util…
#20 Klute (1971) · ★ 6.8 · 541 votes · 1h 54m · thriller, drama, crimeA high-priced call girl is forced to depend on a reluctant private eye when she is stalked by a psychopath.…
#21 Family Plot (1976) · ★ 6.8 · 524 votes · 2h 0m · comedy, thriller, crimeSpiritualist Blanche Tyler and her cab-driving boyfriend encounter a pair of serial kidnappers while trailing a missing heir in California.…
#22 Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) · ★ 6.5 · 2,015 votes · 2h 11m · adventure, science-fiction, mysteryWhen an unidentified alien destroys three powerful Klingon cruisers, Captain James T. Kirk returns to the newly transformed U.S.S. Enterprise to take command.…
#23 Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978) · ★ 6.4 · 501 votes · 1h 39m · comedy, crime, mysteryChief Inspector Jacques Clouseau is dead. At least that is what the world—and Charles Dreyfus—believe when a dead body is discovered in Clouseau's car after being shot off the road…
#24 Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) · ★ 6.2 · 1,527 votes · 1h 35m · adventure, science-fiction, mysteryThe sole survivor of an interplanetary rescue mission lands on the planet of the apes, and uncovers a horrible secret beneath the surface.…