Sort by Popularity - Most Popular Movies and TV Shows tagged with keyword "detective-as-protagonist"
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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: 7,080
2. Shutter Island (2010)
R | 138 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule, two US marshals, are sent to an asylum on a remote island in order to investigate the disappearance of a patient, where Teddy uncovers a shocking truth about the place.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Emily Mortimer, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley
Votes: 1,460,145 | Gross: $128.01M
3. Basic Instinct (1992)
R | 127 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A violent police detective investigates a brutal murder that might involve a manipulative and seductive novelist.
Director: Paul Verhoeven | Stars: Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone, George Dzundza, Jeanne Tripplehorn
Votes: 219,567 | Gross: $117.73M
4. Death on the Nile (2022)
PG-13 | 127 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
While on vacation on the Nile, Hercule Poirot must investigate the murder of a young heiress.
Director: Kenneth Branagh | Stars: Tom Bateman, Annette Bening, Kenneth Branagh, Russell Brand
Votes: 189,173 | Gross: $45.63M
5. Chinatown (1974)
R | 130 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A private detective hired to expose an adulterer in 1930s Los Angeles finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, corruption, and murder.
Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, Perry Lopez
Votes: 350,395
6. Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
PG | 104 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
When a cartoon rabbit is accused of murder, he enlists the help of a burnt out private investigator to prove his innocence.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Joanna Cassidy, Charles Fleischer
Votes: 217,228 | Gross: $156.45M
7. 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: 325,660 | Gross: $72.22M
8. Insomnia (2002)
R | 118 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Two Los Angeles homicide detectives are dispatched to a northern town where the sun doesn't set to investigate the methodical murder of a local teen.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Al Pacino, Robin Williams, Hilary Swank, Martin Donovan
Votes: 319,592 | Gross: $67.36M
9. The Pledge (I) (2001)
R | 124 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A retiring police detective pledges to catch the killer of a young child.
Director: Sean Penn | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Benicio Del Toro, Patricia Clarkson, Beau Daniels
Votes: 67,852 | Gross: $19.72M
10. 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: 72,601
11. 10 to Midnight (1983)
R | 101 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
An LAPD detective and his rookie partner are on the trail of a psychopathic young man who is murdering young women.
Director: J. Lee Thompson | Stars: Charles Bronson, Lisa Eilbacher, Andrew Stevens, Gene Davis
Votes: 9,390 | Gross: $7.10M
12. Prime Suspect (1991)
TV-14 | 104 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A female police detective investigates a series of serial murders while dealing with sexist hostility from her male comrades.
Stars: Helen Mirren, John Benfield, Tom Bell, Craig Fairbrass
Votes: 9,256
13. Frankie Drake Mysteries (2017–2021)
TV-PG | 60 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
The series follows Frankie Drake, a female private detective operating in Toronto in the 1920s.
Stars: Lauren Lee Smith, Chantel Riley, Rebecca Liddiard, Sharron Matthews
Votes: 3,194
14. Beyond Evil (2021)
TV-MA | 70 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
The story of two fearless men who are willing to go through extreme lengths in their pursuit of a returning serial killer. To uncover the murderer's identity, the two are forced to look deeper than what the evidence seems to suggest.
Stars: Shin Ha-kyun, Yeo Jin-goo, Choi Dae-hoon, Choi Sung-eun
Votes: 5,359
15. The Lost Room (2006)
TV-PG | 90 min | Action, Fantasy, Mystery
A detective investigates a mysterious motel room which acts as a portal to anywhere in the world.
Stars: Peter Krause, Julianna Margulies, Peter Jacobson, Dennis Christopher
Votes: 33,114
16. Rush (1991)
R | 120 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Two small-town Texas cops go undercover to catch a major drug dealer and are sucked into the drug culture, compromising their assignment.
Director: Lili Fini Zanuck | Stars: Jason Patric, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Sam Elliott, Max Perlich
Votes: 9,900 | Gross: $7.24M
17. 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: 22,577
18. The Hard Way (1991)
R | 111 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
An action movie star researching a role is allowed to tag along with a hardboiled New York City policeman, who finds him superficial and irritating.
Director: John Badham | Stars: Michael J. Fox, James Woods, Stephen Lang, Annabella Sciorra
Votes: 22,318 | Gross: $25.90M
19. Hollywood Homicide (2003)
PG-13 | 116 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
Two LAPD detectives who moonlight in other fields investigate the murder of an up-and-coming rap group.
Director: Ron Shelton | Stars: Harrison Ford, Josh Hartnett, Isaiah Washington, Lena Olin
Votes: 39,377 | Gross: $30.94M
20. The Maltese Falcon (1931)
Passed | 80 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A lovely dame with dangerous lies employs the services of a private detective, who is quickly caught up in the mystery and intrigue of a statuette known as the Maltese Falcon.
Director: Roy Del Ruth | Stars: Bebe Daniels, Ricardo Cortez, Dudley Digges, Una Merkel
Votes: 3,355
21. What Did Jack Do? (2017)
TV-14 | 17 min | Short, Comedy, Crime
In a locked down train station, a homicide detective conducts an interview with a tormented monkey.
Director: David Lynch | Stars: Jack Cruz, David Lynch, Toototabon, Emily Stofle
Votes: 14,887
22. V.I. Warshawski (1991)
R | 89 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
A female PI babysitting for a boyfriend gets stuck with his daughter and the case of her murdered father.
Director: Jeff Kanew | Stars: Kathleen Turner, Jay O. Sanders, Charles Durning, Angela Goethals
Votes: 5,511 | Gross: $11.13M
23. The House of the Dead (1978)
PG | 79 min | Comedy, Crime, Horror
"The House of the Dead" is a 1978 horror anthology movie with "The Mortician" introducing each scary tale.
Director: Sharron Miller | Stars: John Ericson, Ivor Francis, Judith Novgrod, Burr DeBenning
Votes: 1,141
24. Flic Story (1975)
112 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
The hunt for a seasoned killer becomes a matter of life for a policeman. Action-packed drama based on real events.
Director: Jacques Deray | Stars: Alain Delon, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Renato Salvatori, Claudine Auger
Votes: 2,943
25. Dead Mountaineer's Hotel (1979)
84 min | Crime, Drama, Horror
Police gets a call-out to a lonely hotel in the Alps. When an officer gets to the hotel everything seems to be all right. Suddenly, an avalanche cuts them out from the rest of the world, and strange things are going to happen.
Director: Grigori Kromanov | Stars: Uldis Pucitis, Jüri Järvet, Lembit Peterson, Mikk Mikiver
Votes: 1,662
26. Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace (1962)
84 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Sherlock Holmes and Watson do battle with their nemesis, Professor Moriarity, over an ancient necklace attributed to Cleopatra.
Director: Terence Fisher | Stars: Christopher Lee, Hans Söhnker, Hans Nielsen, Senta Berger
Votes: 1,229
27. Byomkesh Bakshi (1993–1997)
40 min | Adventure, Crime, Mystery
An intelligent detective from Kolkata solves, without any weapons, many mysteries that remain unsolved by police.
Stars: Rajit Kapoor, K.K. Raina, Kartik Dutta, Sukanya Kulkarni
Votes: 3,183
28. Inspector Hornleigh (1939)
Not Rated | 76 min | Comedy, Mystery
Inspector Hornleigh and his assistant Sergeant Bingham are called in to investigate a murder that involves the theft of government secrets.
Director: Eugene Forde | Stars: Gordon Harker, Alastair Sim, Miki Hood, Wally Patch
Votes: 304
29. Adela Has Not Had Supper Yet (1978)
102 min | Comedy, Crime, Fantasy
When the famous detective Nick Carter visits Prague, he becomes involved in strange case of a missing dog and even stranger carnivorous plant. He becomes convinced that he is standing ... See full summary »
Director: Oldrich Lipský | Stars: Michal Docolomanský, Rudolf Hrusínský, Milos Kopecký, Václav Lohniský
Votes: 1,995
30. Red Rings of Fear (1978)
Not Rated | 85 min | Crime, Horror, Mystery
A detective investigating the murder of a teenage girl begins to focus his suspicions on the three girlfriends of the victim, who call themselves "The Inseparables."
Director: Alberto Negrin | Stars: Fabio Testi, Christine Kaufmann, Ivan Desny, Jack Taylor
Votes: 824
31. The Washing Machine (1993)
Unrated | 90 min | Crime, Drama, Horror
A police detective investigates the murder of a man found dismembered in a washing machine and is drawn into a web of deceit and murder by the dead man's lover, Vida, and her two sisters, Sissy and Ludmilla,
Director: Ruggero Deodato | Stars: Philippe Caroit, Ilaria Borrelli, Katarzyna Figura, Barbara Ricci
Votes: 889
32. Kamikaze (1986)
90 min | Crime, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A crazy old and bored scientist invents a system which allows him to reach through the airwaves and transform live TV cameras into weapons to kill whoever is being filmed.
Director: Didier Grousset | Stars: Richard Bohringer, Michel Galabru, Dominique Lavanant, Romane Bohringer
Votes: 726
33. Paradox: A Rusty Lake Film (2018)
19 min | Short, Fantasy, Horror
A detective must solve increasingly challenging puzzles as part of a bizarre game orchestrated by an old foe in order to escape the room he's in.
Director: Sean van Leijenhorst | Stars: David Bowles, Elena Kejvalová, Maarten Looise, Bob Rafferty
Votes: 1,182
34. The French Detective (1975)
91 min | Crime, Drama
Two policemen risk of interfering with a corrupt politician.
Director: Pierre Granier-Deferre | Stars: Lino Ventura, Patrick Dewaere, Victor Lanoux, Julien Guiomar
Votes: 1,860
35. Kapitán Exner (2017– )
55 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
Stars: Michal Dlouhý, Jan Vondrácek, David Novotný, Vica Kerekes
Votes: 49
36. Low Profile (1993)
106 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A disillusioned police detective, used as a scapegoat by his corrupted superior, fights back by becoming a competent criminal.
Director: Claude Zidi | Stars: Patrick Bruel, Sandra Speichert, Didier Bezace, Jean Yanne
Votes: 305
37. The Fury (2016– )
TV-14 | Action, Crime, Drama
Detective Kunes has a problem once again: he's lambasted the boyfriend of his ex-wife, and is threatened with dismissal from the police service. His high-ranking (female) boss has a ... See full summary »
Stars: Hynek Cermák, Lukás Príkazký, Alexej Pysko, Lucie Zácková
Votes: 256
38. Major Case Squad (2014– )
64 min | Crime, Drama
A criminal series set in Czech Republic, where a group of top class detectives are solving cases based on a true stories.
Stars: Ondrej Vetchý, Filip Blazek, Petr Stach, Miroslav Vladyka
Votes: 277
39. Inspector Hornleigh on Holiday (1939)
77 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
It comes as no surprise when Inspector Hornleigh and his assistant, Sergeant Bingham, go to enjoy the winds and rains on their annual seaside vacation, when they run into a "busman's ... See full summary »
Director: Walter Forde | Stars: Gordon Harker, Alastair Sim, Linden Travers, Wally Patch
Votes: 241
40. Merchant of Death (1997)
R | 96 min | Action, Drama
Jim Rendall (Michael Pare) is 6 when his family gets killed. 25 years later he finds out why.
Director: Yossi Wein | Stars: Michael Paré, Linda Hoffman, John Simon Jones, Justin Illusion
Votes: 294
41. Nightwalker: Midnight Detective (1998)
Not Rated | 25 min | Animation, Action, Comedy
Shido Tatsuhiko is not only a private eye, he is also a vampire with no real memory of his past. Joined by a female government agent, Shido must face demonic creatures known as Nightbreed.
Stars: Takumi Yamazaki, Maaya Sakamoto, Richard Cansino, Mari Devon
Votes: 220
42. Inspector Hornleigh Goes to It (1941)
Not Rated | 87 min | Crime, Drama
The plot pits Hornleigh and Bingham against a clever gang of Nazi espionage agents. Most of the action takes place aboard a speeding train, with our heroes never quite certain who can be ... See full summary »
Director: Walter Forde | Stars: Gordon Harker, Alastair Sim, Phyllis Calvert, Edward Chapman
Votes: 293
43. Cop in Drag (1984)
96 min | Comedy, Crime
During a show held at Blue Gay, drag queen cabaret in the center of Rome, an artist of the restaurant is found dead. The investigations are entrusted to Inspector Giraldi.
Director: Bruno Corbucci | Stars: Tomas Milian, Bombolo, Olimpia Di Nardo, Paco Fabrini
Votes: 305
44. Eat and Run (1986)
R | 85 min | Comedy, Crime, Horror
A 1940s-style detective traces missing persons to a tubby, man-eating alien who likes spicy food.
Director: Christopher Hart | Stars: Ron Silver, Sharon Sharth, Pat Ryan, John J. Fleming
Votes: 385
45. Stíny v mlze (2021–2024)
Crime, Drama
Stars: Petra Spalková, Jirí Vyorálek, Tomás Mrvík, Petr Panzenberger
Votes: 42
46. Third Man Out (2005 TV Movie)
TV-MA | 99 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
A gay detective is hired to find who has been been threatening a notorious member of the gay community noted for outing people.
Director: Ron Oliver | Stars: Chad Allen, Sebastian Spence, Jack Wetherall, Woody Jeffreys
Votes: 1,221
47. Maigret and the St. Fiacre Case (1959)
101 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
The Countess de Saint-Fiacre, having received a terrible anonymous letter predicting her imminent death, summons Commissioner Maigret in the hope that he can protect her and save her from a secret ill-wisher.
Director: Jean Delannoy | Stars: Jean Gabin, Michel Auclair, Valentine Tessier, Jacques Morel
Votes: 1,512
48. Reel Hard
Not Rated | 81 min | Comedy | Completed
Cade Huntley, cinema sleuth, specializes in cases within the film industry. When a mythical artifact from an old film goes missing, he must prove he has the skills to crack the case. A laugh-out-loud, fun-filled homage to 90s comedies.
Director: Jon Mancinetti | Stars: Lance Allen, Vancie Vega, Osmara Rojas, Matt Standley
49. Ve stínu (2012)
106 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
In the former Czechoslovakia, 1950s, police captain Hakl investigates a jewelery robbery. An opened safe deposit leads to a known burglar. What seems an easy case soon starts to tangle. ... See full summary »
Director: David Ondricek | Stars: Ivan Trojan, Sebastian Koch, Sona Norisová, Jirí Stepnicka
Votes: 1,880
50. Smart Philip (2003)
95 min | Comedy, Crime
Inspired by the stories of the American writer Raymond Chandler, the classical hero is private detective Phil Marlowe, a romantic cowboy, who takes the law into his own hands in the rough ... See full summary »
Director: Václav Marhoul | Stars: Tomás Hanák, Vilma Cibulková, Pavel Liska, Bohumil Klepl
Votes: 517