Mystery – Movie Valhalla

THE THIRD MAN (1949)

A movie of black and white paranoia that to me is one of the all-time classics, perfectly capturing a very specific time and place.

Perhaps the most campy and nonsensical of all 1940s murder mysteries, I love it so much.

An, um, unique take on the dark underbelly of a small town from David Lynch, sort of the proto-Twin Peaks.

A very well-done neo-noir that deals with issues the original film noirs mostly ignored. Denzel Washington plays the detective in over his head.

The definitive neo-noir, a movie I love, now inextricably linked with the crimes of its director.

Sidney Poitier has to solve a murder in a small southern town that hates him. A great social movie but kind of a blah procedural.

Perhaps Hitchcock’s weirdest, most dream-like film, it makes no sense, but it also might be perfect.

A movie that launched legendary careers and an entire classic genre of film, and is also pretty fun in its own right.