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Movies that feel like The Lady from Shanghai (1947)

If you loved The Lady from Shanghai, the closest films we have are The Stranger (1946), The Naked City (1948) and Touch of Evil (1958). All three share The Lady from Shanghai's gritty and tense feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 7 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on HBO Max, Criterion Channel and MUBI and others, checked against today's data.

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

🍅 86% Rotten Tomatoes7.5 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Orson Wellestwistygrittytensecontemplativeatmospheric

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If The Lady from Shanghai hit the spot, these will too

The Stranger poster
The Stranger
1946 · dir. Orson Welles
🍅 97%7.3thriller · crime

Orson Welles directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

The difference: Missing the twists of The Lady from Shanghai

An investigator from the War Crimes Commission travels to Connecticut to find an infamous Nazi, who may be hiding out in a small town in the guise of a distinguished professor engaged to the Supreme Court Justice’s daughter.

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

New York City shapes both of them

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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Touch of Evil poster
Touch of Evil
1958 · dir. Orson Welles
🍅 96%8crime · thriller · drama

Orson Welles working the same nerve twice

A border-town bombing draws Mexican investigator Miguel Vargas into a corruption-ridden police investigation led by crooked captain Hank Quinlan, setting off a deadly struggle over power, justice, and truth.

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

Common ground: film noir

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

The same city underneath both: San Francisco

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

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Blast of Silence poster
Blast of Silence
1961 · dir. Allen Baron
🍅 83%7.4crime · drama · thriller

Both are built on the same subject: film noir

A hired killer from Cleveland has a job to do on a second-string mob boss in New York. But a special girl from his past and a fat gun dealer with pet rats get in his way.

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Killer's Kiss poster
Killer's Kiss
1955 · dir. Stanley Kubrick
🍅 83%6.5thriller · crime · drama

Gritty and tense in the same breath

Davey Gordon, a New York City boxer at the end of his career, falls for dancer Gloria Price. However, their budding relationship is interrupted by Gloria's violent boss, Vincent Rapallo, who has eyes for Gloria. The two decide to skip town, but before they can, Vincent and his thugs abduct Gloria, and Davey is forced to search for her among the most squalid corners of the city, with his enemy hiding in the shadows.

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

Both land stillness and atmosphere at once

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

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

Twisty mystery, and it commits to that

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

One thread runs through both: blonde

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

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

Both lean on twists more than on crime

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.

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

Thriller with a pulse of grit, in both cases

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.

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The best-reviewed films that share The Lady from Shanghai’s defining feeling.