List of films based on crime books explained

This is a list of films that are based on books about crime. Films are listed according to the decade in which the depicted crime occurred, rather than by the film's date of release.

This page includes "crimes" where the "criminal" was later exonerated. This page includes suicides or other deaths which have been deemed to be suspicious by some and have therefore become the subject of conspiracy theories.

12th century

England

Frequently filmed: A Morbid Taste for Bones and sequels

* TV movie

Japan

14th century

Italy

16th century

England

Anne Boleyn adultery and treason

1536

Thomas More case

Scotland

Sawney Bean legend

17th century

United States

Salem witch trials

1692–1693

Frequently filmed: The Crucible

	Film	Director	Country	Source work	Date	Type
1	Les Sorcières de Salem ♠	Raymond Rouleau		The Crucible ^[1] ^[2]	1953	Play
2	The Crucible	Nicholas Hytner	USA	The Crucible	1953	Play

♠ The Witches of Salem has an adapted screenplay by Jean-Paul Sartre.^[3]

18th century

France

Affair of the Diamond Necklace

1785

Great Britain

Frequently filmed: Doctor Syn and sequels

	Film	Director	Country	Date	Type
1	Doctor Syn	Roy William Neill	UK	1915	Novel
2	Captain Clegg	Peter Graham Scott	UK	1915	Novel
3	The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh	James Neilson	USA	1915	Novel

Frequently filmed: Moll Flanders

Württemberg

Joseph Süß Oppenheimer case

1737

Bulletin ... upcoming film: by Oskar Roehler

	Film	Director	Country	Source work	Date	Type
1	Jew Suss	Michael Balcon	UK	Jud Süß	1925	Novel
2	Jud Süß	Veit Harlan		Jud Süß	1925	Novel
2				Jud Süß	1827	Novella

19th century

Australia

For bushrangers, see List of films based on westerns.

Brazil

For cangaceiros, see List of films based on westerns.

Canada

For Mounties, see List of films based on westerns.

France

Dreyfus Affair

See List of films based on war books — peace.

Joseph Vacher case

1894–1897

	Film	Director	Country	Source work	Date	Type	TV	Date	Country
1	The Judge and the Assassin Le juge et l'assassin	Bertrand Tavernier	France	Le juge et l'assassin	1976	Non-fiction	-	-	-
1				Vacher l'éventreur et les crimes sadiques	1899	Non-fiction	-	-	-

India

Suppression of the Thugs

Russia

	Film	Director	Source work	Date	Type
1	Siberian Lady Macbeth Сибирская леди Макбет	Andrzej Wajda	Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District Леди Макбет Мценского уезда	1865	Novel
2	Katerina Izmailova Катерина Измайлова	Mikhail Shapiro	Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District Леди Макбет Мценского уезда	1932	Libretto
2			Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District Леди Макбет Мценского уезда	1865	Novel

Frequently filmed: The Winter Queen and sequels

* TV miniseries

United Kingdom

Cato Street Conspiracy

February 1820

Burke and Hare case

1827–1828

Twice filmed: "The Body Snatcher"

Great Gold Robbery of 1855

15 May 1855

Whitechapel murders

1888–1891 (Jack the Ripper)

	Film	Director	Country	Source work	Date	Type
1	Pandora's Box Die Büchse der Pandora	Georg Wilhelm Pabst		Pandora's Box	1904	Play
1				Earth Spirit	1895	Play
n	From Hell	Hughes brothers	USA	From Hell	1991–1996	Graphic novel
n	Murder by Decree	Bob Clark	Canada & UK	The Ripper File	197?	Non-fiction

Frequently filmed: The Lodger

United States

For outlaws and lawmen, see List of films based on westerns.

Frequently filmed: "The Tell-Tale Heart"

α Animated film

Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

14 April 1865
See List of films based on war books — 1775–1898.
See also Assassinations in fiction.

Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

24 February 1868

Lizzie Borden case

4 August 1892

1900s

United States

Chester Gillette case

11 July 1906

Twice filmed: An American Tragedy

The novel was the subject of an unproduced 1930 screenplay by Sergei Eisenstein.

1910s

France

Henri Désiré Landru case

1914–1918

United Kingdom

Doctor Crippen case

after 31 January 1910

1920s

France

Frequently filmed: L'Affaire Crainquebille

	Film	Director	Source work	Author	Date	Type
1	Crainquebille Crainquebille	Jacques Feyder	Crainquebille	Anatole France^[6]	1903	Play
1			L'Affaire Crainquebille		1901	Story

Germany

	Film	Director	Source work	Date	Type
1	Pandora's Box Die Büchse der Pandora	Georg Wilhelm Pabst	Pandora's Box	1904	Play
1			Earth Spirit	1895	Play

Peter Kürten case

1929

United States

Bobby Franks murder

21 May 1924 (Leopold and Loeb)

	Film	Director	Country	Source work	Date	Type
1	Rope	Alfred Hitchcock	USA	Rope	1929	Play
2	Compulsion	Richard Fleischer	USA	Compulsion	1957	Novel

Death of Thomas Ince

19 November 1924

Scopes Monkey Trial

1925

Frequently filmed: Inherit the Wind

Al Capone era

1925–1931

	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Date	Type
n	Scarface ^[7]		Howard Hawks	USA	Scarface	1930 ^[8] ^¤	Novel
n	Road to Perdition		Sam Mendes	USA	Road to Perdition	1998	Graphic novel
n	Legends of the Fall	1994		USA	Legends of the Fall	1979	Novella

St. Valentine's Day Massacre

14 February 1929

Ruth Snyder case

20 March 1927

1930s

Algeria

Frequently filmed: Pépé le Moko

France

Papin Sisters case

2 February 1933

	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Date	Type
1	Les Abysses Les Abysses	1963	Nikos Papatakis		The Maids Les Bonnes	1947	Play
2	The Maids	1974	Christopher Miles	UK	The Maids Les Bonnes	1947	Play
3	Sister My Sister	1994	Nancy Meckler	UK	My Sister in This House ^[9]	1981	Play
4	Murderous Maids Les Blessures assassines	2000	Jean-Pierre Denis		L'affaire Papin, Le diable dans la peau	1988	Non-fiction

Twice filmed: A Judgement in Stone

	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Date	Type
1	A Judgement in Stone	1986	Ousama Rawi	Canada & UK	A Judgement in Stone	1977	Novel
2	La Cérémonie La Cérémonie	1995	Claude Chabrol		A Judgement in Stone	1977	Novel

Japan

Sada Abe case

18 May 1936

United States

	Film	Director	Country	Source work	Date	Type
1	The Petrified Forest	Archie Mayo	USA	The Petrified Forest	1935	Play
n	Paper Moon	Peter Bogdanovich	USA	Addie Pray	1971	Novel
n	Brother Orchid	Lloyd Bacon	USA	"Brother Orchid" (?)	1938	Story

Scottsboro Boys case

23 April 1931

Lindbergh kidnapping

1 March 1932

Frequently filmed: Murder on the Orient Express

William D. Lundy murder

[informative page deleted over copyright violations] ^[10]
9 December 1932

1940s

Bahamas

Sir Harry Oakes murder

7 July 1943

Canada

Edwin Alonzo Boyd era

1949–1952 (Boyd Gang)

* TV movie

France

Doctor Petiot case

before 31 October 1944

Italy

Salvatore Giuliano era

Portella della Ginestra massacre

1 May 1947

Pleasure Island

Frequently filmed: The Adventures of Pinocchio

♠ A young innocent is deceived by swindlers and sold into slavery.
α Animated film

Kenya

Happy Valley murder

1941

United States

	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type
1	Dishonored Lady		Robert Stevenson	USA	Dishonored Lady		1930	Play
n	Intruder in the Dust		Clarence Brown	USA	Intruder in the Dust	William Faulkner^[11]	1948	Novel
n	Undercurrent	1946	Vincente Minnelli	USA	You Were There		194?	Novel

Sleepy Lagoon murder

2 August 1942

Black Dahlia murder

c. 15 January 1947

West Germany

1950s

United Kingdom

Stone of Scone theft

25 December 1950 (Christmas Day robbery of a church)

Ruth Ellis case

1955

United States

Great Brink's Robbery

17 January 1950

Coleman Peterson case

31 July 1952

Ed Gein case

1957

Frequently filmed: Psycho

Suicide of George Reeves

16 June 1959

Clutter Family murders

15 November 1959

	Film	Director	Country	Source work	Date	Type
1	In Cold Blood	Richard Brooks	USA	In Cold Blood	1966	Nonfiction
2	In Cold Blood	Jonathan Kaplan	USA	In Cold Blood	1966	Nonfiction
3	Capote	Bennett Miller	USA	Capote	199?	Biography
4	Infamous	Douglas McGrath	USA		1997	Biography

1960s

Argentina

San Fernando bank robbery

1965 ^[12]

♣ The robbery took place in Argentina; the pursuit ended in Uruguay.

France

♠ The film was remade for television in 2005 as Joseph.^[13]

Sweden

Frequently filmed: Roseanna and sequels

	Film	Director	Country	Source work	Date	Type
n	Stockholm Marathon Stockholm Marathon	Peter Keglevic		The Terrorists	1975	Novel
n	The Laughing Policeman Δ	Stuart Rosenberg	USA	The Laughing Policeman ^[14]	1968	Novel

Δ The film adaptation changes the setting from Stockholm to San Francisco.

Turkey

Topkapı Museum

United Kingdom

Profumo affair

1963

Uruguay

San Fernando bank robbery getaway

1965

♣ The robbery took place in Argentina; the pursuit ended in Uruguay.

United States

Clarence Earl Gideon case

3 June 1961

Ian James Campbell murder

9 March 1963

Boston Strangler case

1962–1964

Assassination of John F. Kennedy

22 November 1963

Bulletin ... film currently in development: Reclaiming History

	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type
1	Four Days in November δ †		Mel Stuart	USA	Warren Report	Earl Warren for Warren Commission^[16]	1964	Report
2	Lee Oswald — Assassin *	1966	Rudolph Cartier	UK	Dallas, 22. November		1965	Play
3	Rush to Judgment δ		Emile de Antonio	USA	Rush to Judgment		1966	Non-fiction
4	Executive Action	1973	David Miller	USA	Rush to Judgment (uncredited)	Mark Lane ♣	1966	Non-fiction
5	δ *	1986	LWT (producer)	UK	Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy ♦		2007	Non-fiction
6	JFK		Oliver Stone	USA	On the Trail of the Assassins	Jim Garrison ♠	1990	Non-fiction
6						Jim Marrs ♠	1989	Non-fiction
6					♥ (uncredited)	L. Fletcher Prouty ♠ (uncredited)	1992	Non-fiction
6					^[17] (uncredited)	John M. Newman ♠ (uncredited)	1992	Non-fiction
7	Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy **	2013	In Development	USA	Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy ^[18]		2007	Non-fiction

♣ Lane is credited as screenwriter, rather than as author.
♦ Bugliosi's preparation for the televised "trial" of deceased defendant Oswald became the book Reclaiming History.
♠ The authors are credited as technical advisors on JFK.
♥ Prouty's book has an introduction by Oliver Stone.
* TV special
** TV miniseries
δ Documentary
† Dramatized documentary^[19]

Kitty Genovese murder

13 March 1964

Sylvia Likens murder

26 October 1965

Richard Speck case

13 July 1966

Tate–LaBianca murders

1969 (Manson Family)

Zodiac case

1970s

Canada

Helen Betty Osborne murder

13 November 1971

* TV movie

Guyana

Jonestown Massacre

18 November 1978

Sweden

Norrmalmstorg bank robbery

23–28 August 1973 (Stockholm syndrome)

United Kingdom

Bulletin ... film now in production: Straw Dogs by Rod Lurie

	Film	Director	Country	Source work	Date	Type
1	Straw Dogs	Sam Peckinpah	USA	The Siege of Trencher's Farm	197?	Novel
n	The Wicker Man	Robin Hardy	UK	The Ritual	1967	Novel

Baker Street bank robbery

11 September 1971

What if ...

♠ The earliest editions of the novel did not contain a glossary, or any indication that the slang was based on Russian.

United States

New England

♠ The film, shot in Bennington, Vermont, involves a "bank in a remote town in New England".^[22]
"Catamount" is an infrequently used term for a cougar, but here refers to the fictitious town.

Jeffrey MacDonald case

17 February 1970

** TV miniseries

Knapp Commission on NYPD corruption

1970–1972

Watergate burglary

17 June 1972

	Film	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type
1	All the President's Men	Alan J. Pakula	USA	All the President's Men		1974	Memoir
2	Blind Ambition *		USA	Blind Ambition: The White House Years		1976	Memoir
3	Nixon	Oliver Stone	USA	The Final Days		1976	Non-fiction
3				^[23] (uncredited)	Fawn Brodie (uncredited)	1981	Non-fiction
3				(uncredited)	Stephen Ambrose (uncredited)	1991	Non-fiction
3				(uncredited)	Stephen Ambrose (uncredited)	1991	Non-fiction
3				(uncredited)	Stephen Ambrose (uncredited)	1991	Non-fiction
3				(uncredited)	Jonathan Aitken (uncredited)	1996	Non-fiction
3				"The Second Coming" ^[24] (uncredited)	W.B. Yeats^[25] (uncredited)	1920	Poem

* TV movie

Gay Brooklyn bank robbery

22 August 1972 ^[26]

Ted Bundy case

1974–1978

* TV movie

Frank Lucas case

before 1975

Martha Moxley murder

31 October 1975

* TV movie

Hillside Strangler case

1977–1978

* TV movie

Bob Crane murder

29 June 1978

What if ...

* TV movie

1980s

Australia

Azaria Chamberlain disappearance

17 August 1980 (dingo baby abduction)

Canada

* TV movie

Colin Thatcher case

21 January 1983

Montreal Massacre

6 December 1989

France

Roberto Succo case

1980s

India

Phoolan Devi case

Iran

Soraya M. case

1986

Mexico

Enrique Camarena murder

9 February 1985

** TV miniseries

Soviet Union

Andrei Chikatilo case

1978–1990

* TV movie

What if ...

♠ In this version, the murderer, renamed Evilenko, has psychic powers.

United States

	Film	Date	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type
n	Scarface		Brian De Palma	USA	Scarface (uncredited)	Armitage Trail (uncredited)	1930	Novel
n	The Local Stigmatic	1990/ 2007		USA	The Local Stigmatic		196?	Play
n	Die Hard		John McTiernan	USA	Nothing Lasts Forever		1979	Novel

Doctor Tarnower murder

10 March 1980 (Scarsdale Diet author death)

* TV movie

John Lennon murder

8 December 1980

	Film	Director	Country	Source work	Author	Date	Type
1	Chapter 27	J. P. Schaefer	USA	Let Me Take You Down		200?	Non-fiction
1				(uncredited)	Robert Rosen (uncredited)	2000	Non-fiction

Lawrencia "Bambi" Bembenek case

28 May 1981

* TV movie

Henry Lee Lucas case

before 11 June 1983

Alan Berg murder

18 June 1984

	Film	Director	Country	Source work	Date	Type
1	Talk Radio	Oliver Stone	USA	Talk Radio	1987	Play
1				Talked to Death: The Life and Murder of Alan Berg	198?	Non-fiction

Exxon Valdez disaster

23 March 1989

West Germany

1990s

Canada

Paul Bernardo case

up to 1992

France

	Film	Director	Source work	Date	Type
1	The Crimson Rivers Les Rivières pourpres	Mathieu Kassovitz	Blood Red Rivers	1998	Novel
n	Fuck Me aka Rape Me Baise-moi	Virginie Despentes & Coralie Trinh Thi	Baise-moi	1993	Novel

India

Bombay bombings of 1993

12 March 1993

Singapore

Barings Bank collapse

1995

Spain

♠ A crossword puzzle writer becomes involved in a bizarre mystery in Seville.

United Kingdom

James Bulger murder

12 February 1993

♠ The principal connection to the Bulger case appears to be the youthfulness of the convicted boys.

United States

Suicide of Vince Foster

20 July 1993

Vietnam

2000s

Aruba

Natalee Holloway disappearance

30 May 2005

* TV movie

South Korea

Hwaseong serial murders

United States

	Film	Director	Country	Source work	Date	Type
1	Sin City д	Frank Miller & Robert Rodriguez	USA	The Hard Goodbye	1991–1992	Graphic novel
n	Reversible Errors **	Mike Robe	USA	Reversible Errors	2002	Novel

д Decade when story occurs is presumed.
** TV miniseries

Valerie Plame exposure

14 July 2003

Bulletin ... upcoming film: Fair Game by Doug Liman

Political crimes

For political prisoners, see List of films based on civics books.

Drug trade

For traffickers, see above.
For addicts, see List of films based on civics books.

Prisons

For punishment and prisons, see List of films based on civics books.

References

Bibliography

Kamp, David with Lawrence Levi. The Film Snob's Dictionary. Broadway Books, New York, 2006.
Lavington, Stephen. Virgin Film: Oliver Stone, Virgin Books, London, 2004.

Notes and References

Recipient of the Tony Award in 1953.
Nominated for the Tony Award for Best Revival in 2002.
Sartre was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1964, but declined to accept.
Recipient of the World Fantasy Award in 1987.
Inducted into the US National Film Registry in 2001.
France was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1921.
Inducted into the US National Film Registry in 1994.
Publication details for this title have been confirmed by the catalogue of the US Library of Congress.
Source: Library of Congress Online Catalog.
Recipient of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize in 1981.
Sources to employ if attempting to rewrite deleted article:
News: The Reward . https://web.archive.org/web/20110604134205/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,792330-2,00.html. dead. June 4, 2011. . August 27, 1945 . 2009-12-13 .
News: $35,000 Going to Man Wrongfully Imprisoned . . July 23, 1965 . 2009-12-13 .
Center on Wrongful Convictions
Faulkner was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949.
Details about the 1965 robbery are difficult to find, but the event occurred in the Buenos Aires suburb called San Fernando.
Source: Plata Quemada, en el umbral de la novela policiaca posmoderna, Carlos Luis Torres Gutiérrez, profesor de literatura, Pontificia Universidad Javierana, 1999.
Source: French Wikipédia.
Recipient of the Edgar Award for Best Novel in 1971.
The film was later spoofed as The Man Who Knew Too Little, with Joanne Whalley-Kilmer playing a similar role in both films.
The film's opening credits include "Film and Research Sources". The first such source listed is the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy.
Source: Lavington (q.v.), p. 169.
Recipient of the Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime book in 2008.
The opening credits state that "[c]ertain scenes have been recreated in the original locations by the actual participants."
Although the film is essentially a compilation film of high quality, certain minor situations have been recreated, typically a person (a priest, a judge) travelling to his destination (the hospital, the airport). These scenes are seamlessly integrated.
Publication details for this title have been confirmed by the catalogue of Library and Archives Canada.
Source: Library Search.
The IMDb describes the film as a Polish–West German production, which seems unlikely, especially for a film in angielski (English), according to Polish Wikipedia. The IMDb lists countries alphabetically by default, so this could be West German–Polish. A reasonable scenario is West German, with a noted Polish director hired for the production. Polish Wikipedia says the film is an amerykańsko–niemiecki film which fits the facts well and has therefore been used in the table.
Source: IMDb review by "John Seal", 2008.
Source: Lavington (q.v.), p. 226.
The poem is recited by Richard Helms (Sam Waterston) in the extended version.
Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923.
Source: Dog day aftertaste, Eric Holm, Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media, no. 10-11, 1976, pp. 3–4.
It is unclear what the common name for the robbery was prior to the release of the film.
Inducted into the US National Film Registry in 2009.
Rice is currently an Assistant Professor of English at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.
Web site: A Cry in the Dark (1988) – Release dates . IMDb.com. 2012-06-15.
Recipient of the Allen Lane Award in 1985.
Source: Kamp and Levi (q.v.), p. 89.
Pacino is described as the director in the Wikipedia article on the playwright Heathcote Williams.
Recipient of the Edgar Award for Best fact crime book in 1984.