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The Maltese Falcon poster

Movies that feel likeThe Maltese Falcon (1941)

A private detective takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a beautiful liar, and their quest for a priceless statuette.

If you loved The Maltese Falcon, the closest films we have are The Big Sleep (1946), Key Largo (1948) and Shadow of a Doubt (1943). All three share The Maltese Falcon's 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 Naked City (1948).

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If The Maltese Falcon hit the spot, these will too

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

The same two preoccupations: detective, and film noir

The difference: Trades the melancholy of The Maltese Falcon for an angle of its own

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.

Key Largo poster
Key Largo
1948 · dir. John Huston
🍅 97%★ 7.7crime · thriller

The same hand behind both of them: John Huston

A hurricane swells outside, but it's nothing compared to the storm within the hotel at Key Largo. There, sadistic mobster Johnny Rocco holes up - and holds at gunpoint hotel owner James Temple, his widowed daughter-in-law Nora, and ex-GI Frank McCloud.

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

The same preoccupation in both: murder

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.

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 Maltese Falcon 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.

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

Common ground: film noir

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

The Killers poster
The Killers
1946 · dir. Robert Siodmak
🍅 97%★ 7.7crime · mystery · thriller

Both are built on the same subject: murder

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.

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

Twisty and gritty in the same breath

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

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

John Huston directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

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.

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.

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

One thread runs through both: detective

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.

High and Low poster
High and Low
1963 · dir. Akira Kurosawa
🍅 97%★ 8.4drama · crime · thrillerMax

The same preoccupation in both: black and white

The difference: Made in the 1960s, in a different era of the craft

A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but demand the ransom anyway.

The Third Man poster
The Third Man
1949 · dir. Carol Reed
🍅 99%★ 8.1thriller · mystery

Twisty mystery in both cases

In postwar Vienna, Austria, Holly Martins, a writer of pulp Westerns, arrives penniless as a guest of his childhood chum Harry Lime, only to learn he has died. Martins develops a conspiracy theory after learning of a "third man" present at the time of Harry's death, running into interference from British officer Major Calloway, and falling head-over-heels for Harry's grief-stricken lover, Anna.

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The best-reviewed films that share The Maltese Falcon’s defining feeling.