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The Killers poster

Movies that feel likeThe Killers (1946)

Two hit men walk into a diner asking for a man called "the Swede". When the killers find the Swede, he's expecting them and doesn't put up a fight. Since the Swede had a life insurance policy, an investigator, on a hunch, decides to look into the murder. As the Swede's past is laid bare, it comes to light that he was in love with a beautiful woman who may have lured him into pulling off a bank robbery overseen by another man.

If you loved The Killers, the closest films we have are Criss Cross (1949), The Naked City (1948) and Stray Dog (1949). All three share The Killers' gritty and tense feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is The Big Clock (1948).

🍅 97% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.7 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Robert Siodmakgrittytwistytenseplayfulatmospheric
6 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Criterion Channel · Artiflix

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If The Killers hit the spot, these will too

Criss Cross poster
Criss Cross
1949 · dir. Robert Siodmak
🍅 86%★ 7.4crime · thriller

Robert Siodmak directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

The difference: Easier on the twists than The Killers

An armored-car guard must join a robbery after being caught with his ex-wife by her gangster husband.

The Naked City poster
The Naked City
1948 · dir. Jules Dassin
🍅 85%★ 7.5crime · mystery · thrillerMax

Two things both keep coming back to: film noir and murder

After a former model is drowned in her bathtub, Detective James Halloran and Lieutenant Dan Muldoon attempt to piece together her murder.

Stray Dog poster
Stray Dog
1949 · dir. Akira Kurosawa
🍅 100%★ 7.8crime · drama · thriller

Both keep coming back to the same thing: black and white

The difference: Sits closer to drama than The Killers does

A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose desperation has led him to a life of crime. With each step, cop and criminal’s lives become more intertwined and the investigation becomes an examination of Murakami’s own dark side.

Shadow of a Doubt poster
Shadow of a Doubt
1943 · dir. Alfred Hitchcock
🍅 100%★ 7.8thriller · mystery · crime

Common ground: small town life

In sleepy Santa Rosa, restless young Charlie’s world brightens when her sophisticated Uncle Charlie arrives for a long visit. But as his behavior grows increasingly strange, she begins to suspect that her beloved uncle may be hiding a terrible secret—and that danger has quietly entered her home.

The Big Sleep poster
The Big Sleep
1946 · dir. Howard Hawks
🍅 96%★ 7.9mystery · crime · thriller

One thread runs through both: film noir

Private Investigator Philip Marlowe is hired by wealthy General Sternwood regarding a matter involving his youngest daughter Carmen. Before the complex case is over, Marlowe sees murder, blackmail, deception, and what might be love.

Out of the Past poster
Out of the Past
1947 · dir. Jacques Tourneur
🍅 87%★ 7.9crime · thriller

The same two preoccupations: gas station, and femme fatale

The peaceful life of a gas station owner is disrupted when a man from his past arrives in town and forces him to return to the dark world he had tried to escape.

The Lady from Shanghai poster
The Lady from Shanghai
1947 · dir. Orson Welles
🍅 86%★ 7.5mystery · crime · thriller

Gritty and twisty in the same breath

A romantic drifter gets caught between a corrupt tycoon and his voluptuous wife.

Dark Passage poster
Dark Passage
1947 · dir. Delmer Daves
🍅 90%★ 7.5thriller · mystery

Both land tension and atmosphere at once

A man convicted of murdering his wife escapes from prison and works with a woman to try and prove his innocence.

White Heat poster
White Heat
1949 · dir. Raoul Walsh
🍅 94%★ 8.1crime · drama · thriller

Both are built on the same subject: heist

A psychopathic criminal with a mother complex makes a daring break from prison and then leads his old gang in a chemical plant payroll heist. After the heist, events take a crazy turn.

The Big Clock poster
The Big Clock
1948 · dir. John Farrow
🍅 100%★ 7.6crime · thriller

The same preoccupation in both: murder

George Stroud, a crime magazine's crusading editor, has to postpone a vacation with his wife - again - when a glamorous blonde is murdered and he is assigned by his publishing boss to find the killer. As the investigation proceeds to its conclusion, Stroud must try to disrupt his ordinarily brilliant investigative team as they increasingly build evidence that he is the killer.

The Asphalt Jungle poster
The Asphalt Jungle
1950 · dir. John Huston
🍅 98%★ 7.8crime · drama

Common ground: heist

Recently paroled from prison, legendary burglar "Doc" Riedenschneider, with funding from Alonzo Emmerich, a crooked lawyer, gathers a small group of veteran criminals together in the Midwest for a big jewel heist.

Odd Man Out poster
Odd Man Out
1947 · dir. Carol Reed
🍅 100%★ 7.6crime · drama · thrillerMax

Different title, same corner of the shelf

Belfast police conduct a door-to-door manhunt for an IRA gunman wounded in a daring robbery.

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The best-reviewed films that share The Killers’ defining feeling.