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Movies that feel like Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

If you loved Shadow of a Doubt, the closest films we have are The 39 Steps (1935), The Big Sleep (1946) and The Naked City (1948). All three share Shadow of a Doubt's tense and twisty feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 6 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video and Criterion Channel and others, checked against today's data.

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.

🍅 100% Rotten Tomatoes7.8 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Alfred Hitchcocktensetwistygrittyatmospheric
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If Shadow of a Doubt hit the spot, these will too

The 39 Steps poster
The 39 Steps
1935 · dir. Alfred Hitchcock
🍅 96%7.6mystery · thriller

Both are Alfred Hitchcock's work, and they rhyme

The difference: None of the grit Shadow of a Doubt is built on

Richard Hanney has a rude awakening when a glamorous female spy falls into his bed - with a knife in her back. Having a bit of trouble explaining it all to Scotland Yard, he heads for the hills of Scotland to try to clear his name by locating the spy ring known as The 39 Steps.

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

The same two preoccupations: detective, and 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.

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

Both keep coming back to the same thing: murder

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

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

Common ground: small town life

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.

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

Both are built on the same subject: detective

The difference: Sits closer to drama than Shadow of a Doubt 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.

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The Narrow Margin poster
The Narrow Margin
1952 · dir. Richard Fleischer
🍅 100%7.6thriller · crime

Two things both keep coming back to: widow and telegram

The difference: Not nearly as twisty as Shadow of a Doubt

A tough cop meets his match when he has to guard a gangster's widow on a train journey from Chicago to Los Angeles.

Feels alike?
Double Indemnity poster
Double Indemnity
1944 · dir. Billy Wilder
🍅 97%8.3crime · thriller

Both are working the same pair: california, housewife

An insurance representative is seduced by a dissatisfied housewife into a scheme of insurance fraud and murder that arouses the suspicion of his colleague, a claims investigator.

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Out of the Past poster
Out of the Past
1947 · dir. Jacques Tourneur
🍅 87%8crime · thriller

The same preoccupation in both: small town life

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.

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

One thread runs through both: film noir

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

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The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog poster
The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog
1927 · dir. Alfred Hitchcock
🍅 96%7.3crime · thriller · mystery

Alfred Hitchcock directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

London. A mysterious serial killer brutally murders young blond women by stalking them in the night fog. One foggy, sinister night, a young man who claims his name is Jonathan Drew arrives at the guest house run by the Bunting family and rents a room.

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Strangers on a Train poster
Strangers on a Train
1951 · dir. Alfred Hitchcock
🍅 98%7.9crime · thriller · drama

The same mix in both: tension, then grit

A charming psychopath tries to coerce a tennis star into his theory that two strangers can commit the perfect crime by exchanging murders—each killing the other’s most-hated person.

Feels alike?
Key Largo poster
Key Largo
1948 · dir. John Huston
🍅 97%7.7crime · thriller

Both keep coming back to the same thing: widow

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.

Feels alike?

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The best-reviewed films that share Shadow of a Doubt’s defining feeling.