Best Mystery Movies of 1989

Seen-it-all New York detective Frank Keller is unsettled - he has done twenty years on the force and could retire, and he hasn't come to terms with his wife leaving him for a colleague. Joining up with an officer from another part of town to investigate a series of murders linked by the lonely hearts columns he finds he is getting seriously and possibly dangerously involved with Helen, one of the main suspects.

A Beverly Hills teen discovers his parents are part of a gruesome orgy cult for the social elite.

Fletch is a fish out of water in small-town Louisiana, where he's checking out a tumbledown mansion he's inherited. When a woman he flirts with turns up dead, he becomes a suspect and must find the killer and clear his name.

When a friendless old widow dies in the seaside town of Crythin, a young solicitor is sent by his firm to settle the estate. The lawyer finds the townspeople reluctant to talk about or go near the woman's dreary home and no one will explain or even acknowledge the menacing woman in black he keeps seeing.

Harry Crumb is a bumbling and inept private investigator who is hired to solve the kidnapping of a young heiress which he's not expected to solve because his employer is the mastermind behind the kidnapping.

Jessie is an aging career criminal who has been in more jails, fights, schemes, and lineups than just about anyone else. His son Vito, while currently on the straight and narrow, has had a fairly shady past and is indeed no stranger to illegal activity. They both have great hope for Adam, Vito's son and Jessie's grandson, who is bright, good-looking, and without a criminal past.

On Vacation, Miss Marple discovers that death of a British Officer is actully a murder and must solve the the case before the murderer strikes again

While on vacation at a resort hotel in the West Indies, Miss Marple correctly suspects that the apparently natural death of a retired British major is actually the work of a murderer planning yet another killing.

During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.

The special is hosted by Tony Danza and Annie Potts celebrating 50 years of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera's partnership in animation. This is the first animated project to be broadcast in Dolby Surround sound system.

A writer of BAD detective novels is in full writers' block. He pretends to be the alibi of a beautiful woman who was arrested for murder at first thinking her innocent, but as she shows more and more interesting abilities (such as knife throwing) he begins to doubt his first assessment.

A movie director and his wanna-be actor/eccentric inventor nephew are filming a low-budget sci-fi movie. Things get interesting when the nephews' bizarro invention starts bringing visitors from other times, including Napoleon, Archimedes, and people from the future and cavemen from the past. Just when they are filming what they are convinced will be one of the greatest movies ever, the same machine sends an alien visitor to their set. Also includes a last-minute cameo from James Coburn, as the infuriated head of the studio.

Nick and Frank Starkey were both policemen. A scandal forced Nick to leave the force, now a serial killer has driven the police to take him back. A web that includes Frank's wife, bribery, and corruption all are in the background as Nick tries to uncover the secret of where the killer will strike next, and finally must lay a trap without the police.

Martha Travis is a medium who makes contact with spirits "on the other side" and connects them with their loved ones still alive, in public performances. Trouble begins when she gives a message to Mary Kuron from her husband, Tom. But Tom isn't dead... yet. And Martha not only knows he will die, she also knows who killed him. And the murderer knows she knows...

Two Los Angeles police detectives, cynical veteran Malloy and cocky rookie Dietz, hunt for a serial killer, an ex-cop named Taylor, whom randomly chooses his victims from a phone directory.

Ken Malansky, a law student of Perry Mason's, is accused of murdering a fellow student. Perry is reluctant to take on his case as the victim was the son of a close friend.

An investigator seeking the cause of an airline disaster discovers the involvement of an organisation of time travellers from a future Earth irreparably polluted who seek to rejuvenate the human race from those about to die in the past. Based on a novel by John Varley.

A young theatre director is accused of killing a more famous Broadway director. Perry takes his case.

A hockey player of friend of Ken Malansky's is accused of murdering a team owner. Perry takes the case.

A police officer suspended and now accused of murder is forced to join forces with his court-appointed attorney to assemble the pieces of a deadly puzzle to find the missing link before time runs out.

The story (based on a novel by James Hadley Chase) concerns the efforts of the genial and deceptively tentative Lepski (Michael Brandon), an insurance company detective, to track down a valuable medieval Russian icon, which was stolen by Bradley (David Carradine), a master thief.

Woman is trapped in her home with her husband's killers.

Phaedra, a beautiful Egyptian Princess, lays dead in her pyramid tomb mourned by her lover; the handsome Aramata, a captain of the guard. With help from the gods, some ancient scrolls, and the Mystery of the Golden Lotus, he is able to bring her back to life. Our story takes us from the ancient era of the Pharaohs in the 1940's where we find Dr. Roberts, an archeologist, searching for the secret, and a separate group of foreign spies also after the magic formula, all for their individual purposes. Join this group of good and bad on a journey of intrigue and sexual adventure culminating in the discovery of the mystique of the Golden Lotus !

A Falklands War soldier missing, believed dead, turns up claiming amnesia.

After having a near death experience Joanna finds her life in constant danger. She begins to believe that certain forces are trying to bring her back into the world of the dead. Her boyfriend Glen thinks she's crazy so Joanna turns to her ex-boyfriend, Peter. It just so happens that Peter is a strong believer in the supernatural and even teaches a course on it at a local college. Together they must confront the "walkers" so that Joanna can live to see another day.

An unknown judge invites a guilty governess and others to a 1930s safari, for justice one by one.

High school student Paula Carson's affections are being sought after by two of her classmates: Dwight, the "bad boy", and Brian, a disturbed young man who has just been released from a mental hospital where he was committed following the suspicious death of his father. Soon after being released, more murders start happening. Is Brian back to his old tricks, or is Dwight just trying to eliminate the competition?

A man moves into a house that is supposedly haunted. Although he is attracted to his pretty next-door neighbor, he finds himself being seduced by the spirit of a woman who had been killed in his house 100 years previously.

In Los Angeles, photographer Peter Mitchell learns that he has inherited a palatial estate in Sweden from his unknown relative, Annie Holst. He, his girlfriend Sarah, and her deaf son Dennis, head overseas to decide whether to live in the property or to sell it. But when they arrive, they find the locals offer a chilly reception whenever Annie's name is mentioned. It turns out that Annie had lost her son some 50 years ago in a tragedy at the nearby orphanage where she had placed him temporarily, due to circumstances beyond her control. But she had continued to see her son even after his death. Now, young Dennis is drawn to the derelict orphanage, and to a new friend who only he can see. And Peter must solve a decades-old mystery of how the orphans died before his family faces a similar fate.

A man inadvertently gets caught near a car explosion, and after he recovers from his injuries realizes that he has amnesia. Soon evidence begins to mount that he could be "The Claw Hammer Killer, " a serial murderer who targets for death the former patrons of a particular restaurant called Puzzles.

A crazy serial killer kills himself by sealing his soul in to his camera. Years later a woman buys the camera, and everyone she photographs begins being tracked down and killed by the killers spirit.

A woman is mugged and bumps her head. To her surprise, when she returns home she finds out that she's been gone for two years and her husband has gotten a divorce in her absence.

A jigsaw puzzle is the key in a detective's investigation of a gruesome murder.

An American woman gets involved in a diamond theft in South Africa.

A blind employee at a New England lodge is in danger when a gang of killers arrives to stay at the lodge.

With a deadly plague ravaging his Renaissance kingdom, Prince Prospero invites his friends to retire to the protection of his castle for ongoing revels, leaving the peasantry to die. But fate is not so easily escaped by the debauched nobility.

Burt Lancaster stars as the titular merchant in this classic adaptation of Pope John Paul II's best-selling play "The Jeweller's Shop," an inspiring drama about three married couples and their ups and downs in holy matrimony. With a faithful jeweler acting as their spiritual adviser, three sets of husbands and wives struggle to live their lives with love, steering clear of avarice and infidelity. Olivia Hussey and Ben Cross also star.

Sir Harry Oakes is a wealthy magnate, living amongst the British aristocrats who have made their home in the Bahamas just prior to World War II. Their small community is one of privilege and status and when Sir Harry's beloved daughter marries a handsome but penniless gigolo, Alfred De Marigny, Sir Harry is outraged by the union. But before Sir Harry can break up the marriage he is brutally and viciously murdered and his son-in-law is the prime suspect. Nothing is as it appears and Sir Harry's death soon points towards intrigue and deception on an international scale.

A family of tourists vacationing in the woods and a group of camp counselors training in the same forest both find themselves being terrorized by a vicious unhinged psycho.

Unearthly terror stalks the creatures of The Dark Planet. An anthology, including tentacled horror from the Tower of Blood, a primitive challenges a beast to avenge a murdered mate and a space jockey confronts a master computer. Mostly wordless sci-fi anthology directed by fantasy and comic book artist Richard Corben (Heavy Metal).

After a nuclear war on Earth, the Soviet Union and the U.S. both establish outposts on the moon. When a murder occurs on the outpost, both U.S. and Soviet investigators are forced to work on the case together.

Shana's parents and sister are murdered after her father learns how to return to life after death. Shana is knowledgeable about said procedure, which is desired by foreign interests, who have even Shana's boyfriend helping them. Accounting for additional characters and footage is the fact that actress Shana is in the entertainment industry. So, Shana becomes both the pursuer - intent on avenging her family's deaths - and the pursued.

A young girl has been left an orphan but in the custody of her step parents. From the afterlife, her parents look out for her and don't like the treatment she is getting.

Dramatisation of the story of notorious Indian serial killer Charles Sobhraj (b. 1944), who preyed on Western tourists throughout South East Asia during the 1970s.

A British agent comes back from retirement after several of his former colleagues, including his former lover, are murdered. He must examine events from his own past to determine who killed them and why.

A young woman investigates the death of her mother, who drowned when her daughter was still a baby. The question is: was it murder, suicide or merely an accident?

Peter Finley is a cable-TV newsman who is led into a network of sin and conspiracy when he has interest in a missing anchorwoman's story.

A down-on-his-luck sea captain goes treasure hunting for a wrecked Spanish galleon that is rumored to be cursed by God and protected by supernatural forces.

With D-Day less than 72 hours off, top US intelligence officer Jefferson Pike (Corbin Bernsen), is captured by the enemy. Pike, one of handful of officers who know where the allies will strike, is a professional who the Nazis know will never succumb to torture. They hatch a diabolical plan to deceive him into thinking that the war is over and he's recuperating from memory loss in a US hospital in Germany. His doctor (John Glover) and nurse (Joanna Pacula) head an elite Nazi psychological team that attempt to convince Pike into revealing the top secret. But as time slips away, Pike's captors decide he must reach his BREAKING POINT... or die.