Throughout the entire history of cinema, detective and police movies have remained a staple. No matter the era or even the country, audiences have always been interested in the world of crime, its causes, and those individuals and institutions who obsessively work to solve mysteries and maintain order.

Over the years, detective fiction has taken on many breeds. Most famously in Hollywood as noir in the 1940s, which continues to have an influence today, but also with the grounded, more realist approaches of the 1970s, the sensationalization of the 1990s, and the more introspective view of recent decades. It seems like it will always be a genre that will fascinate audiences and continue to attract the best filmmakers to push it to new places.

10 The French Connection Epitomizes 1970s Grit

William Friedkin's The French Connection is one of the films that completely epitomizes the grounded and realist approach of the 1970s. The film follows NYPD narcotics detectives Popeye Doyle and Cloudy Russo (Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider) as they try to hunt down and catch a wealthy French heroin smuggler.

Due to advancing technology, The French Connection differed from previous detective films by being shot on the streets of New York. Friedkin embraces this layer of authenticity to give the film an edge not really seen up to that point. This extends to its lead detectives, who are not held in a glamorous light as they pursue justice at all costs.

9 M is the Most Influential Serial Killer Film

The German film M remains a tense and thrilling masterpiece 90 years after its release. Directed by the legendary Fritz Lang as his first sound feature, M is one of the earliest examples of a detective film and a major inspiration for the Hollywood noir of the next decade.

It is set in a Berlin community beset by a child killer. Mounting fear pushes the police to shake down every known criminal and gang member in an attempt to find a suspect. This, in turn, pushes the criminals themselves to start hunting for the killer as he's disrupting their business. The film builds to a real moral dilemma of justice as both sides close in on the suspect, creating an ending that still hits hard today.

8 Knives out Reinvented a Genre

Jumping forward in time to the most recent film on this list, Rian Johnson's Knives Out breathed new life into the whodunit genre to become an instant classic upon its release in 2019. It sees gentleman sleuth Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) team up with nurse Marta Cabrera (Ana de Armas) to investigate the apparent suicide of a wealthy author (Christopher Plummer).

The film embraces all the trappings of the whodunit genre, with an eccentric detective, a locked-room mystery, and a colorful list of suspects who all have a motive to be the killer, but it cleverly twists the mechanics to make something new. Revealing the mystery at the end of the first act turns the middle of the film into a Hitchcockian wrong-man thriller, while the ending brings every full circle to that satisfying whodunit ending.

7 Silence of the Lambs Explores the True Horror of Crime

Part horror movie, part psychological thriller, at its heart, The Silence of the Lambs is a detective movie that uses one monstrous serial killer to get into the mind of another. Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) is an FBI trainee assigned to interview cannibal serial killer Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) in order to better understand the psychology of the at-large Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine).

Directed by Jonathan Demme, the film pulls the audience into the mind of Hannibal Lecter, allowing them to become mesmerized by him, just like Clarice. The story is grounded by the mechanics of an FBI procedural, which is what allows it to become all the more haunting during the conversations between Clarice and Lecter.

6 The Maltese Falcon is the Stand Out Classic Noir

Film noirs of the 1940s have an outsized influence on the entire cinematic legacy of detective movies. Of all the classic noirs, John Huston's adaptation of The Maltese Falcon, which sees Humphrey Bogart shine as detective Sam Spade, stands as the most iconic. Spade is a San Francisco private investigator who, after being hired to track down a missing sister, becomes entangled in a plot of conspiracy and murder.

The film is famous for its titular MacGuffin. The falcon's origins and meaning are never explained, but Spade summarizes the scramble for it in one scene as "the stuff that dreams are made of." The Maltese Falcon is the perfect classical noir, embodying all the elements that make the genre so iconic.

5 Touch of Evil Finds Orson Wells at His Best

Considered one of the final classical noir films, Touch of Evil is one of the finest examples of the genre and one of the best films by director Orson Welles. The film is set in a US/Mexico border town; after a car explodes, the ensuing investigation brings together the alcoholic and bigoted police captain Hank Quinlan (Welles) and honeymooning prosecutor Miguel Vargas (Charlton Heston).

Touch of Evil's most referenced moment is its 3-minute-long opening shot, which tracks a car through the town before it explodes, but the whole film is filled with bold and striking cinematography and editing. The story that unfolds is one of corruption, racism, and continual injustice that highlights the struggle of a border town and feels ahead of its time for the 1950s.

4 Zodiac is a Tail of Investigation and Obsession

David Fincher is one of the greatest modern directors, especially in the mystery genre. His calculating and perfectionist style lends itself perfectly to a world where every detail matters. His crowning achievement in this domain is Zodiac, the true crime thriller that depicts the decades-long hunt to catch the infamous serial killer.

Although the film starts with the zodiac killings, it quickly turns into a story more about the reporters and detectives who become obsessed with cracking the mystery. Zodiac doesn't sensationalize; instead, it carefully bleeds out information to its audience at the same rate it does to its characters, letting the investigation fall into dead ends and cul-de-sacs. The film has no concrete answers, only a slow and all-consuming spiral of obsession.

3 Memories of Murder Highlights the Failings