Can You Score 20/20? Ultimate Detective Movie Trivia Quiz: Solve the Case!

Answers Below – No Peeking!

Sharpen your sleuthing skills with this 20-question trivia quiz on iconic detective movies! From classic film noir gumshoes to twisty modern cases, questions range from easy starters to fiendish challenges. Think you can crack them all?

20 Trivia Questions on Detective Movies

Question 1: In which 1941 film did Humphrey Bogart first play the hardboiled private eye Sam Spade?

A. The Big Sleep
B. The Maltese Falcon
C. Dark Passage
D. Key Largo

Question 2: What object is at the heart of the plot in The Maltese Falcon?

A. A priceless black bird statue
B. A diamond-encrusted falcon
C. A golden idol from Malta
D. A cursed ancient relic

Question 3: Who wrote the novel on which the 1946 film The Big Sleep is based?

A. Dashiell Hammett
B. James M. Cain
C. Raymond Chandler
D. Horace McCoy

Question 4: In The Big Sleep, what is the surname of the wealthy family that hires Philip Marlowe?

A. Sternwood
B. Mallory
C. Archer
D. Cavendish

Question 5: Who directed the 1974 neo-noir masterpiece Chinatown?

A. Francis Ford Coppola
B. Martin Scorsese
C. Roman Polanski
D. Robert Altman

Question 6: Who plays private investigator J.J. “Jake” Gittes in Chinatown?

A. Robert De Niro
B. Al Pacino
C. Jack Nicholson
D. Gene Hackman

Question 7: Which 1997 film features three LAPD detectives uncovering corruption in 1950s Los Angeles?

A. Devil in a Blue Dress
B. Mulholland Falls
C. L.A. Confidential
D. The Black Dahlia

Question 8: In L.A. Confidential, which actor portrays the brutal cop Bud White?

A. Guy Pearce
B. Kevin Spacey
C. Russell Crowe
D. David Strathairn

Question 9: Who directed the 1974 film adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express?

A. John Guillermin
B. Guy Hamilton
C. Sidney Lumet
D. Lewis Gilbert

Question 10: Which actor played Hercule Poirot in the 1974 Murder on the Orient Express?

A. Peter Ustinov
B. Kenneth Branagh
C. Albert Finney
D. David Suchet

Question 11: In which 1975 film does Robert Mitchum portray Philip Marlowe?

A. The Big Sleep
B. Poodle Springs
C. Farewell, My Lovely
D. The Brasher Doubloon

Question 12: Who directed 1973’s The Long Goodbye, with Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe?

A. Howard Hawks
B. John Huston
C. Robert Altman
D. Roman Polanski

Question 13: What is the name of the tough private detective played by Ralph Meeker in 1955’s Kiss Me Deadly?

A. Philip Marlowe
B. Mike Hammer
C. Sam Spade
D. Lew Archer

Question 14: Orson Welles directed and starred as police captain Hank Quinlan in which 1958 film noir?

A. The Lady from Shanghai
B. Touch of Evil
C. Mr. Arkadin
D. The Trial

Question 15: Who played Sherlock Holmes opposite Nigel Bruce’s Watson in 1939’s The Hound of the Baskervilles?

A. Jeremy Brett
B. Basil Rathbone
C. Peter Cushing
D. Robert Downey Jr.

Question 16: Which acting duo stars as married detectives Nick and Nora Charles in 1934’s The Thin Man?

A. William Powell and Myrna Loy
B. Powell and Carole Lombard
C. Cary Grant and Irene Dunne
D. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers

Question 17: In Se7en (1995), which two actors play the detectives hunting a serial killer?

A. Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman
B. Denzel Washington and Freeman
C. Pitt and Kevin Spacey
D. George Clooney and Pitt

Question 18: Who directed the 2007 film Zodiac about the hunt for the Zodiac Killer?

A. Christopher Nolan
B. Ridley Scott
C. David Fincher
D. Denis Villeneuve

Question 19: In 2016’s The Nice Guys, who plays the clumsy private eye Holland March?

A. Russell Crowe
B. Ryan Gosling
C. Chris Pine
D. Matt Damon

Question 20: Which actor made his dramatic breakthrough as Philip Marlowe in 1944’s Murder, My Sweet?

A. Robert Mitchum
B. Dana Andrews
C. Dick Powell
D. George Montgomery

Answers

  1. B. The Maltese Falcon – Humphrey Bogart debuted as detective Sam Spade in John Huston’s 1941 adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s novel; The Big Sleep was 1946.
  2. A. A priceless black bird statue – The statuette, supposedly filled with jewels, drives the intrigue in the 1941 film; other options are fabricated distractors.
  3. C. Raymond Chandler – Chandler’s 1939 novel was adapted into the 1946 Howard Hawks film starring Bogart; Hammett wrote The Maltese Falcon.
  4. A. Sternwood – Marlowe is hired by General Sternwood to handle his wild daughter; other names appear in different noir stories.
  5. C. Roman Polanski – Polanski helmed the 1974 script by Robert Towne, starring Jack Nicholson; others directed different neo-noir classics.
  6. C. Jack Nicholson – Nicholson earned an Oscar nomination for his role as the flawed PI in Chinatown; others starred in rival 1970s films.
  7. C. L.A. Confidential – Curtis Hanson’s Oscar-winning adaptation of James Ellroy’s novel centres on 1950s LAPD corruption; others are set in similar eras but different plots.
  8. C. Russell Crowe – Crowe plays the physically imposing Bud White alongside Pearce’s Ed Exley; Spacey is Jack Vincennes.
  9. C. Sidney Lumet – Lumet directed the all-star 1974 Christie adaptation; others helmed different Agatha Christie films like Death on the Nile.
  10. C. Albert Finney – Finney’s Poirot leads the investigation in Lumet’s 1974 film; Ustinov took the role in later adaptations.
  11. C. Farewell, My Lovely – Mitchum starred in Dick Richards’ 1975 adaptation of Chandler’s novel; The Big Sleep remake was 1978.
  12. C. Robert Altman – Altman’s 1973 take subverts Chandler’s Marlowe in a 1970s LA setting; Hawks directed the 1946 Big Sleep.
  13. B. Mike Hammer – Meeker portrays Mickey Spillane’s brutal PI in Robert Aldrich’s 1955 film noir; others are different detectives.
  14. B. Touch of Evil – Welles’ 1958 border-town corruption tale features Charlton Heston as a narcotics officer; other Welles films lack the detective focus.
  15. B. Basil Rathbone – Rathbone began his iconic Holmes run in the 1939 20th Century Fox film; others played Holmes in later eras.
  16. A. William Powell and Myrna Loy – The chemistry of Powell and Loy as the sophisticated sleuths launched a six-film series from W.S. Van Dyke’s 1934 adaptation.
  17. A. Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman – Pitt and Freeman are the odd-couple detectives in David Fincher’s 1995 thriller; Spacey is the killer.
  18. C. David Fincher – Fincher’s meticulous 2007 film chronicles real-life investigators; Nolan directed Insomnia, a different cop drama.
  19. B. Ryan Gosling – Gosling’s comic turn as the hapless Holland pairs with Crowe’s enforcer in Shane Black’s 2016 buddy comedy-noir.
  20. C. Dick Powell – Powell shifted from musicals to noir as Marlowe in Edward Dmytryk’s 1944 RKO film, based on Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely.

How many did you solve? Drop your score in the comments and challenge friends to beat the case – true detectives only!