Sort by Popularity - Most Popular Movies and TV Shows tagged with keyword "private-eye"
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1. So Help Me Todd (2022–2024)
TV-14 | 43 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A talented P.I. agrees to work as the in-house investigator for his mother, who is reeling from the recent dissolution of her marriage.
Stars: Marcia Gay Harden, Skylar Astin, Madeline Wise, Tristen J. Winger
Votes: 6,858
2. The Big Lebowski (1998)
R | 117 min | Comedy, Crime
Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski, mistaken for a millionaire of the same name, seeks restitution for his ruined rug and enlists his bowling buddies to help get it.
Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen | Stars: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi
Votes: 860,626 | Gross: $17.50M
3. Knives Out (2019)
PG-13 | 130 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A detective investigates the death of the patriarch of an eccentric, combative family.
Director: Rian Johnson | Stars: Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis
Votes: 774,095 | Gross: $165.36M
4. Veronica Mars (2004–2019)
TV-14 | 44 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
After her best friend is murdered, and her father is removed as county Sheriff, Veronica Mars dedicates her life to cracking the toughest mysteries in the affluent town of Neptune.
Stars: Kristen Bell, Jason Dohring, Enrico Colantoni, Percy Daggs III
Votes: 78,102
5. Psycho (1960)
R | 109 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin
Votes: 718,540 | Gross: $32.00M
6. Inherent Vice (2014)
R | 148 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
In 1970, drug-fueled Los Angeles private investigator Larry "Doc" Sportello investigates the disappearance of a former girlfriend.
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson | Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Katherine Waterston
Votes: 110,751 | Gross: $8.11M
7. Angel Heart (1987)
X | 113 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A private investigator is hired by a man who calls himself Louis Cyphre to track down a singer named Johnny Favorite. But the investigation takes an unexpected and somber turn.
Director: Alan Parker | Stars: Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro, Lisa Bonet, Charlotte Rampling
Votes: 95,855 | Gross: $17.19M
8. Vertigo (1958)
PG | 128 min | Mystery, Romance, Thriller
A former San Francisco police detective juggles wrestling with his personal demons and becoming obsessed with the hauntingly beautiful woman he has been hired to trail, who may be deeply disturbed.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore
Votes: 427,081 | Gross: $3.20M
9. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)
PG-13 | 86 min | Comedy
A goofy detective specializing in animals goes in search of the missing mascot of the Miami Dolphins.
Director: Tom Shadyac | Stars: Jim Carrey, Courteney Cox, Sean Young, Tone Loc
Votes: 325,248 | Gross: $72.22M
10. Blood Simple (1984)
R | 99 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
The owner of a seedy small-town Texas bar discovers that one of his employees is having an affair with his wife. A chaotic chain of misunderstandings, lies, and mischief ensues after he devises a plot to have them murdered.
Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen | Stars: John Getz, Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya, M. Emmet Walsh
Votes: 105,313 | Gross: $2.15M
11. Marlowe (2022)
R | 109 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
In late 1930s Bay City, a brooding, down on his luck detective is hired to find the ex-lover of a glamorous heiress.
Director: Neil Jordan | Stars: Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, Jessica Lange, Brenda Rawn
Votes: 11,803
12. Moonlighting (1985–1989)
TV-PG | 3,073 min | Comedy, Drama, Mystery
The quirky cases of a former model and a smart aleck detective who manage a private detective agency.
Stars: Cybill Shepherd, Bruce Willis, Allyce Beasley, Curtis Armstrong
Votes: 24,279
13. Lady in the Lake (1946)
Passed | 105 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
The lady editor of a crime magazine hires Phillip Marlowe to find the wife of her boss. The private detective soon finds himself involved in murder.
Director: Robert Montgomery | Stars: Robert Montgomery, Audrey Totter, Lloyd Nolan, Tom Tully
Votes: 6,372
14. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
R | 103 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
After being mistaken for an actor, a New York thief is sent to Hollywood to train under a private eye for a potential movie role, but the duo are thrown together with a struggling actress into a murder mystery.
Director: Shane Black | Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan, Corbin Bernsen
Votes: 237,457 | Gross: $4.24M
15. Murder Mystery 2 (2023)
PG-13 | 90 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
Full-time detectives Nick and Audrey are struggling to get their private eye agency off the ground. They find themselves at the center of international abduction when their friend Maharaja is kidnapped at his own lavish wedding.
Director: Jeremy Garelick | Stars: Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston, Mark Strong, Mélanie Laurent
Votes: 68,907
16. Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)
R | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A Black war hero is hired to find a mysterious woman, and gets mixed up in a murderous political scandal in 1948 Los Angeles.
Director: Carl Franklin | Stars: Denzel Washington, Tom Sizemore, Jennifer Beals, Don Cheadle
Votes: 24,250 | Gross: $16.03M
17. Detective Conan (1996– )
TV-14 | 25 min | Animation, Action, Comedy
The cases of a detective whose physical age was chemically reversed to that of a prepubescent boy but must hide his true mental development.
Stars: Minami Takayama, Wakana Yamazaki, Hoang Khuyet, Akira Kamiya
Votes: 15,274
18. 8MM (1999)
R | 123 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A private investigator is hired to discover if a "snuff film" is authentic or not.
Director: Joel Schumacher | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Joaquin Phoenix, James Gandolfini, Peter Stormare
Votes: 142,769 | Gross: $36.66M
19. The Long Goodbye (1973)
R | 112 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Private investigator Philip Marlowe helps a friend out of a jam, but in doing so gets implicated in his wife's murder.
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Elliott Gould, Nina van Pallandt, Sterling Hayden, Mark Rydell
Votes: 37,300 | Gross: $0.96M
20. The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)
R | 121 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Samantha Caine lives in a small town with her daughter. Eight years ago she emerged, two months pregnant, from a nearby river with no memory of her past or who she is. However, she's getting closer to finding out about her past.
Director: Renny Harlin | Stars: Geena Davis, Samuel L. Jackson, Yvonne Zima, Craig Bierko
Votes: 85,688 | Gross: $33.33M
21. The Big Sleep (1946)
Passed | 114 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by a wealthy family. Before the complex case is over, he's seen murder, blackmail and what might be love.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely, Martha Vickers
Votes: 90,535 | Gross: $6.54M
22. The Body (2012)
Not Rated | 112 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A detective searches for the body of a femme fatale which has gone missing from a morgue.
Director: Oriol Paulo | Stars: Jose Coronado, Hugo Silva, Belén Rueda, Aura Garrido
Votes: 72,489
23. 21 Grams (2003)
R | 124 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A freak accident brings together a critically ill mathematician, a grieving mother, and a born-again ex-con.
Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu | Stars: Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, Naomi Watts, Danny Huston
Votes: 245,891 | Gross: $16.29M
24. Shaft (1971)
R | 100 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A crime lord hires black private eye, John Shaft, to find and retrieve his kidnapped daughter.
Director: Gordon Parks | Stars: Richard Roundtree, Moses Gunn, Charles Cioffi, Christopher St. John
Votes: 21,034 | Gross: $16.69M
25. Klute (1971)
R | 114 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
A small-town detective searching for a missing man has only one lead: a connection with a New York prostitute.
Director: Alan J. Pakula | Stars: Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi, Roy Scheider
Votes: 29,637 | Gross: $17.44M
26. Harper (1966)
Not Rated | 121 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Cool private investigator Lew Harper is hired by a wealthy California matron to locate her kidnapped husband.
Director: Jack Smight | Stars: Paul Newman, Lauren Bacall, Julie Harris, Arthur Hill
Votes: 10,908
27. Cannon (1971–1976)
TV-PG | 60 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Frank Cannon, a husky ex-cop and culinary enthusiast, solves tough cases as a private investigator.
Stars: William Conrad, Patrick Culliton, Tom Pittman, Charles Bateman
Votes: 3,611
28. Out of the Past (1947)
Approved | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A private eye escapes his past to run a gas station in a small town, but his past catches up with him. Now he must return to the big city world of danger, corruption, double crosses, and duplicitous dames.
Director: Jacques Tourneur | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming
Votes: 40,937
29. Peter Gunn (1958–1961)
TV-14 | 30 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Peter Gunn is a private detective with a knack for finding trouble. His cases often mean he runs into the shadiest characters, most vicious thugs and the most powerful crime bosses. Cool and resourceful, he always gets the guilty party.
Stars: Craig Stevens, Herschel Bernardi, Lola Albright, Bill Chadney
Votes: 1,655
30. The Poison Rose (2019)
R | 98 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Inspired by classic film noir, Carson Phillips, an ex-football star turned PI, has a soft spot for a lady in distress.
Directors: Francesco Cinquemani, George Gallo | Stars: John Travolta, Morgan Freeman, Brendan Fraser, Famke Janssen
Votes: 11,167
31. Spenser: For Hire (1985–1988)
TV-14 | 60 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Mystery and suspense series based on Robert Parker's "Spenser" novels. Spenser, a private investigator living in Boston, gets involved in a new murder mystery each episode.
Stars: Robert Urich, Avery Brooks, Ron McLarty, Richard Jaeckel
Votes: 3,269
32. Tony Rome (1967)
Not Rated | 110 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Tough Miami P.I., Tony Rome's hired by a millionaire to find jewelry stolen from his daughter. In the search, he has several encounters with local hoods as well as the Miami's police.
Director: Gordon Douglas | Stars: Frank Sinatra, Jill St. John, Richard Conte, Gena Rowlands
Votes: 3,233
33. Bored to Death (2009–2011)
TV-MA | 28 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A well-meaning but struggling writer decides to lead a sort of double life by pretending to be a private detective using the methods he read about in old detective novels.
Stars: Jason Schwartzman, Zach Galifianakis, Ted Danson, Heather Burns
Votes: 34,623
34. The Two Jakes (1990)
R | 137 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
The sequel to Chinatown (1974) finds J.J. "Jake" Gittes investigating adultery and murder, and the money that comes from oil.
Director: Jack Nicholson | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Harvey Keitel, Meg Tilly, Madeleine Stowe
Votes: 15,499 | Gross: $10.01M
35. Young Sherlock Holmes (1985)
PG-13 | 109 min | Adventure, Fantasy, Mystery
When assorted people start having inexplicable delusions that lead to their deaths, a teenage Sherlock Holmes decides to investigate.
Director: Barry Levinson | Stars: Nicholas Rowe, Alan Cox, Sophie Ward, Anthony Higgins
Votes: 23,411 | Gross: $19.74M
36. Sherlock Jr. (1924)
Passed | 45 min | Action, Comedy, Romance
A film projectionist longs to be a detective, and puts his meagre skills to work when he is framed by a rival for stealing his girlfriend's father's pocketwatch.
Director: Buster Keaton | Stars: Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire, Joe Keaton, Erwin Connelly
Votes: 57,034 | Gross: $0.98M
37. Hawaiian Eye (1959–1963)
60 min | Action, Adventure, Crime
The cases of Hawaiian Eye Private Investigations and the two handsome, slick, tough-guy detectives who ran the firm, Thomas Jefferson Lopaka, or Tom for short, and Tracy Steele, a Korean War veteran and former city police detective.
Stars: Poncie Ponce, Connie Stevens, Douglas Mossman, Robert Conrad
Votes: 688
38. The Kid Detective (2020)
R | 100 min | Comedy, Drama, Mystery
A once-celebrated kid detective, now 32, continues to solve the same trivial mysteries between hangovers and bouts of self-pity; until a naive client brings him his first 'adult' case to find out who brutally murdered her boyfriend.
Director: Evan Morgan | Stars: Kaitlyn Chalmers-Rizzato, Adam Brody, Kaleb Horn, Wendy Crewson
Votes: 22,527
39. Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
Not Rated | 106 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
A doomed female hitchhiker pulls Mike Hammer into a deadly whirlpool of intrigue, revolving around a mysterious "great whatsit".
Director: Robert Aldrich | Stars: Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker, Paul Stewart, Juano Hernandez
Votes: 22,091
40. The Big Sleep (1978)
R | 99 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Grizzled American private detective in England investigates a complicated case of blackmail turned murder involving a rich but honest elderly general, his two loose socialite daughters, a pornographer and a gangster.
Director: Michael Winner | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Sarah Miles, Richard Boone, Candy Clark
Votes: 5,436
41. The Yakuza (1974)
R | 112 min | Action, Crime, Drama
American private-eye Harry Kilmer returns to Japan to rescue a friend's kidnapped daughter from the clutches of the Yakuza.
Director: Sydney Pollack | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Ken Takakura, Eiji Okada, Herb Edelman
Votes: 10,453
42. The Singing Detective (1986)
70 min | Drama, Musical, Mystery
Tormented and bedridden by a debilitating disease, a mystery writer relives his detective stories through his imagination and hallucinations.
Stars: Michael Gambon, Patrick Malahide, Joanne Whalley, David Ryall
Votes: 4,810
43. Murder, My Sweet (1944)
Approved | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
After being hired to find an ex-con's former girlfriend, Philip Marlowe is drawn into a deeply complex web of mystery and deceit.
Director: Edward Dmytryk | Stars: Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, Anne Shirley, Otto Kruger
Votes: 14,705
44. Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971)
PG | 104 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
A musician is stalked by an unknown homicidal maniac, who blackmails him for the accidental killing of another stalker.
Director: Dario Argento | Stars: Michael Brandon, Mimsy Farmer, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Aldo Bufi Landi
Votes: 9,885
45. The Singing Detective (2003)
R | 109 min | Comedy, Crime, Musical
From his hospital bed, a writer suffering from a skin disease hallucinates musical numbers and paranoid plots.
Director: Keith Gordon | Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Robin Wright, Mel Gibson, Jeremy Northam
Votes: 8,944 | Gross: $0.34M
46. A Prairie Home Companion (2006)
PG-13 | 105 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
A look at what goes on backstage during the last broadcast of America's most celebrated radio show, where singing cowboys Dusty and Lefty, a country music siren, and a host of others hold court.
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Lily Tomlin, Meryl Streep, Woody Harrelson, John C. Reilly
Votes: 23,629 | Gross: $20.34M
47. Love in the Afternoon (1957)
Not Rated | 130 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A middle-aged playboy becomes fascinated by the daughter of a private detective who has been hired to entrap him with the wife of a client.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Gary Cooper, Audrey Hepburn, Maurice Chevalier, John McGiver
Votes: 17,070
48. Mirage (1965)
Approved | 108 min | Mystery, Thriller
An accountant suddenly suffers from amnesia. This appears related to the suicide of his boss. Now some violent thugs are out to get him. They work for a shadowy figure known simply as The Major.
Director: Edward Dmytryk | Stars: Gregory Peck, Diane Baker, Walter Matthau, Kevin McCarthy
Votes: 5,950 | Gross: $3.27M
49. The Drowning Pool (1975)
PG | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Harper's a big-city PI, who travels to Louisiana to help an old girlfriend who's worried her husband will find out she's been cheating on him.
Director: Stuart Rosenberg | Stars: Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Anthony Franciosa, Murray Hamilton
Votes: 6,188
50. Mike Hammer, Private Eye (1997–1998)
TV-14 | 60 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Stacy Keach's original portrayal of the title character is revived with a new Velda and a different cop as his friend. Mike's cases are arranged to reflect the times of the late '90's.
Stars: Stacy Keach, Shane Conrad, Shannon Whirry, Kent Williams
Votes: 712