Murder on the Orient Express (1974) 1974
Sidney Lumet's all-star Poirot. Amanda still rates it a classic; the recent remake didn't do much for her.
The Big Picture · Discussion · Top Five · Interview
Top Five Murder Mysteries. Plus: Rian Johnson on ‘Knives Out’
November 25, 2019/ 61 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
Sean and Amanda run dueling murder-mystery top fives, one a strict Agatha Christie constructionist and one a looser definition, then Rian Johnson explains how he built Knives Out.
26 films across 6 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
Honorable MentionsAmanda's cuts, before the countdown
Laura 1944
Otto Preminger noir Amanda calls a major influence on the 70s films she loves.
Anatomy of a Murder 1959
Preminger again, with Jimmy Stewart. A top-100 pick for Amanda, on the strength of the Duke Ellington score and performances from Lee Remick and Ben Gazzara.
Memories of Murder 2003
Bong Joon-ho's breakthrough, newly relevant since Neon picked up the rights off Parasite's success. A docudrama about Korea's first serial-killer case that Amanda finds clever but never quite satisfying.
Amanda's Top Five Whodunitsbest to worst
No. 1
Death on the Nile 1978
Ustinov's Poirot in Egypt, with a cast stacked to absurdity: Bette Davis, Mia Farrow, Maggie Smith, Angela Lansbury. A childhood favorite; the poster still hangs in her office.
No. 2
Gosford Park 2001
Altman and Julian Fellowes take the country-house whodunit and load real class politics underneath it.
No. 3
Rear Window 1954
Not technically a whodunit, but Hitchcock's photograph-comparison sleuthing is straight out of the Christie playbook.
No. 4
Knives Out 2019
The film they're here to talk about. Amanda breaks her own rule and puts a week-old release on the list.
No. 5
Evil Under the Sun 1982
Ustinov's Poirot again, all cocktail hour and Cole Porter, never too solemn about its own murder.
Clue and the Anti-WhodunitAmanda's coda
Clue 1985
Amanda's honorable mention, tacked on after the countdown: a parody of the genre rather than a real entry in it, carried by Tim Curry.
Sean's Top Five Murder Mysteriesbest to worst. His actual No. 4, the true-crime docuseries The Staircase, is left off this list since it's television, not a film
No. 1
Chinatown 1974
Sean's favorite, freshly relevant with the Fincher/Robert Towne prequel series in development.
No. 2
The Big Sleep 1946
Bogart and Bacall, a plot so tangled even William Faulkner's rewrite didn't fully sort it out, which is the appeal for Sean.
No. 4
The Last of Sheila 1973
Written by Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins, with an all-star 70s cast (James Coburn, James Mason, Dyan Cannon, Raquel Welch) that Sean wishes Hollywood still made.
Murder Mystery, the Netflix Version
Murder Mystery 2019
Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston's Netflix riff on the genre, shot partly in Monaco. Broad, not especially clever, but neither host disliked it.
In conversation
Rian Johnson
Knives Out 2019
Johnson had the shape of the story about a decade before making it. He cast up every role the way the Ustinov-era Christie adaptations did, and gave Benoit Blanc a Southern accent so he'd be a fish out of water in New England.
Rian Johnson
Brick 2006
Johnson's own read: a film-noir detective story, not a whodunit (“the only thing they have in common is the word detective.”)
Rian Johnson
The Brothers Bloom 2008
A con-artist story Johnson frames as its own kind of mystery box: who's really running the scheme.
Rian Johnson
Looper 2012
Fits the same pattern, per Johnson: who's responsible for what's happened to these characters.
Rian Johnson
Star Wars: The Last Jedi 2017
Johnson calls the Rey/Kylo mystery-box angle “a little debatable” but allows the comparison.
Rian Johnson
Murder on the Orient Express (2017) 2017
Branagh's version, one of the recent whodunits Johnson says he “really dug.”
Rian Johnson
Crooked House 2017
A Glenn Close vehicle Johnson name-checks as one of the better recent Christie adaptations.
Rian Johnson
I Knew Her Well 1965
An Italian black-and-white comedy Johnson caught on a friend's recommendation while on his festival run.
Rian Johnson
The Irishman 2019
One of the last great things Johnson had seen on tour with Knives Out.
Rian Johnson
Game Night 2018
Watched it on a plane and loved it: “the energy of that movie is kind of similar” to Knives Out, and both films happen to share the same fluffy white dog, Olivia.
Also mentioned raised along the way
In passing RopeMurder by DeathPacific RimBarton FinkUncut GemsParasiteBridget Jones's Diary8½WidowsDeathtrapThe Mirror Crack'dSleuthLady Bird
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV And Then There Were NoneThe StaircaseThe ABC MurdersThe Morning Show13 Reasons WhyThe Mandalorian
Books Murder on the Orient ExpressThe Mystery of the Blue TrainThe ABC MurdersThe Seven Dials MysteryMurder on the LinksThe Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Promos Binge Mode: Star Wars