I hope everybody likes a good mystery. It just seems that nowadays, most mysteries are either horror flicks or only seem to be a mystery after a surprise ending, not during the bulk of the film. There have been several great mysteries adapted from Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allan Poe, and many newer writers, which I'll leave for you guys to add.
I read all the Dashiell Hammett mysteries, and my favorite was "The Maltese Falcon". When John Huston adapted it for his first film as a director, he had the common sense to leave 95% of the plot and dialogue intact. You can't really fiddle with perfection. Huston did do an incredible job of casting the film and shooting and editing it so that there's basically not a wasted second.
On the other hand, there have been some original mysteries produced for the screen, including (if I'm not mistaken), "se7en" and "The Usual Suspects." But for my money, the best original film mystery is "Chinatown." It's not a coincidence that the main character is a private detective in California, and that John Huston plays a significant role in the proceedings. Great job by director Roman Polanski and screenwriter Robert Towne.
Well, I hope I left enough for people to share, or just tell me I'm a bag of hot air. C'mon, sharin' is carin'!
"Naked Woman, Naked Man
Where did you get that nice sun tan?"